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Webcams to Enforce Singapore Quarantine
magarity writes "Singapore has hired a private security firm to install internet connected webcams in homes of persons quarantined for SARS in order to watch them to see if they go out. They are considering adding electronic wristbands as well. 9 of the 490 persons have broken the quarantine despite a fine of 10,000 singapore dollars ($5,621US). Just over 100 people worldwide have died from SARS so far."
The people will be called randomly during the day and asked to turn on the camera to confirm that they are really there. The camera will not always be on. Just an extra precaution to make sure people don't just have someone else answer their phone.
For those, like me, who didn't know a whole lot about SARS, someone typed up a real nice Wikipedia entry on SARS, including a nice table of diagnosed cases per country.
fifth sigma, inc.
A 60 minutes segment yesterday reminded views that SARS is far less dangerous than Malaria.
Malaria kills almost 1 million world wide per year.
It is also important to mention that SARS could just be a wake up call, one which prods the public to pursue these deadly diseases. If anything, SARS will establish guidelines to prevent future disease outbreaks.
http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/1998/08/01/48hours/main22761.shtml
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
Come on, this isn't a Big Brother issue. These people could be isolated in a high security quaratine wing of a hospital or they could be self-quarantined at home, which is a much better option for the patients concerned, emotionally and psychologically. As someone who's had to have life-saving surgery, I can tell you that recovering at home in familiar surroundings and with all the comforts of your own home (your own bed, TV, PlayStation, PC, internet access, books, etc) is far more preferable than recovering in hospital.
These people are carrying a highly contageous, deadly, virus. They have a responsibility, to other members of society as well as themselves, to behave responsibly until they have fully recovered and pose no further threat to the people around them. All it takes is for the situation in Singapore to deteriorate to one of near anarchy is for one of these individuals to act irresponsibly and go for a walk to the local supermarket.
Containment is the only thing that is stopping that society from breaking down right now. As it is, their hospitals are struggling to cope with the existing SARS cases that they already have.
Remember what happened in the US when everyone was paranoid about anthrax? Remember how people greeted people at their doors with surgical masks? Now do you see why they've taken these basic measures to protect the general public?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
You're pretty silly to be calling someone else names when you don't understand the statistics of disease.
What the parent poster hinted at, and you completely missed, is that measles, among a number of other diseases, have higher mortality rates than just 4%.
Google for it (something the parent poster also mentioned).
...in Toronto, causing Ontario public health officials to order 197 people into isolation.
And, by the way, it's now been discovered to be a relative of one of the many viruses that cause the common cold. But that kind of got overshadowed by all the war news.
As did the anti-war protest database being kept by the NYPD. But ignore this, it's off topic.
And the 4% mortality rate is probably inflated from the true mortality rate given modern medicine: the majority of the deaths occurred in the rural Chinese province from which the bug first emerged. For the life of me I can't figure out why everyone worldwide is so concerned about SARS.
That said, the CDC is doing a tremendous job of keeping the public informed about the state of the art where SARS is concerned.
-j
Perhaps because Measles has a mortality rate of only about 0.2%? CDC Reference. There is also a vaccine for measles (which I'm sure contributes to the mortality rate listed on that page)
With SARS we're also dealing with something we don't entirely understand yet. I'm personally impressed with how serious it's being treated. If anything, it helps us practice in case of a more significant situation.
Better safe than sorry, you know?
look it up
I read the full article about how the Chinese government in Singapore is violating people's right to privacy by placing a webcam in people's homes.
China != Singapore. Singapore is an independant state with its own (authoritarian) government. A majority of Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese, but there are also large Malay and Indian ethnic groups.
Singapore does not have a Chinese government. SIngapore is a seperate country.
Your opinions are severly prejudice.
Singapore is a western country, with a high GDP, a less corrupt government than the US (read corporate influence). The racial mix of SG is Malay, Chinese and others, christian, muslim and buddhist in strong numbers. There is no clear majority [do all people with 'slitty eyes' look the same to you?].
Take Hawaii for example, a mix of Pacific Islanders, Japanese, Chinese White and African Americans - would you like to call that an East Asian country full of people "_NOT_ like us"???
Your numbered points are laughable - take point 2 for some crass idiocy "most Taiwanese want Tibet to be in one China" - Taiwanese believe China is an occupied country and Taiwan should take control of it!!! Totally opposite!
I hope you are as unsuccessful as you are stupid, you surely deserve it.
2 deaths per thousand cases does not make 4%. It makes 0.2%. That's a very different number. You're pretty silly to be correcting someone when you're willing to take one person's blind assertion over another's without any validation.
This isn't off topic.. mods on crack. (:
Captain Tripps is what they called the killer disease in The Stand... and the Dark Man, aka Randall Flagg, is the bad guy in the book.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Evidently this is not your quote, but I wonder if the author has ever been to Singapore. It's one of the cleanest countries in the world. I know, I've been there, and many other SE Asian countries.
Put it this way, they're so concerned about keeping the city clean, that even chewing gum is banned.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Google here I come ...
#4 on the hit chart -
I forget...are we at war with Eurasia or East Asia?
Where is this 4% mortality rate coming from anyway?
Based on the numbers on the wikipedia link (I'll assume they are recently valid).
1448 RESOLVED cases. 111 Deaths. (1337 live)
Thats 7.67% mortality rate.
I wouldn't discount it just because it's related to a more benign virus.
In the world of cats, there is a disease called FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis). It's caused by a corona virus. Some cats survive it fine (like a cold), but most (I think around 90% at least) die because their immune system starts to break down the lining of their abdomen and their nervous system. Their bellies swell up terribly (with pus) and they start to have seizures.
It sucks. If your cat gets it, I hihgly recommend giving them a merciful end. I wish I had for my two cats who got it.
So, just because it's a corona virus, and many corona virii are mostly harmless, don't assume that all corona virii are.
Only 4% dies of the disease, BUT almost everyone ill has to spend about two weeks hacking his lungs up and generally being very ill. Only 4%, but just take a look at your family. Count 25 people or more ? Siblings, parents, grand parents, nephews, nieces etc... Well one of those will probably die of it if it becomes a pandemic and hits your country too. The fact that only 4% die is a major contributing factor to the spread of the disease. Really lethal virusses like Ebola literally kill themselves off by rapidly killing most hosts BEFORE they can spread further. On top of everything, just the necessary measures like quarantines and diminished international travel really hurt the already poor world economy. This may not be the apocalypse, but it's certainly more worrying than you'd think.
Nope. Figures for infection (death) from the latest BBC story on SARS:
Hong Kong 970 (27) 2.8%
Singapore 118 (9) 7.6%
Canada 91 (10) 11.0%
These three countries have medical facilities on par with those in the United States. The numbers are too small to arrive at a precise mortality rate, but your hypothesis is clearly wrong.
That's right - Influenza killed 63,730 people in the US in 1999, according to the CDC. Flu has a mortality rate of around 1.5%.
If you want to make a *very* rough extrapolation of the data, assuming that SARS is about as virulent and becomes as prevelent as influenza, you might expect it to kill *at least* 130,000 people in the US per year. Bear in mind that the widespread use of an influenza vaccine reduces 'flu deaths considerably... we don't yet have a vaccine for SARS.
That would conservatively put SARS as the third or fourth leading cause of death in the country (yes, above accidents and car crashes, too).
So yes, SARS is a point of concern, should it become endemic in the population.
The cockroaches thing has no basis in scientific fact. (I am living in Toronto, a SARS hotspot, so the news keeps us VERY up to date on such things.)
Tackling anything in the third world can be extremely difficult. Between warlords extorting money for drugs, high-levels of mysticism discouraging western medicine, and overall lack of education I am not sure how anybody expected them to suceed. Something like SARS however can be contained and extinquished quickly and relatively cheaply.
I would also point out that HIV does not have a 100% mortality rate.
And of those numbers what percentage were immunocompromised in some way (elderly, etc.)? What percentage were impoverished? The BBC's summary counts tell us little about the true mortality rate given medical care and a healthy immune system.
Frankly I'm not running for my surgical mask just yet.
-j
SARS is a big deal. It has a mortality rate of about 4% and this is with suspected patients rushed to hospital, pumped full of advanced antiviral drugs and kept in the best intensive care money can buy. Its mortality rate is much higher in untreated cases. It seems to be at least as virulent as the flu.
Do the math. The flu, which has a mortality rate of only 1-2%, kills hundreds of thousands around the world each year. If SARS is not successfully contained, millions will die, mostly in the third world which does not have the kind of medical care available in Singapore.
SARS is still spreading. The outbreak is not over yet. If it reaches densely populated poor urban centres like Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, or the projects in LA, Chicago or New York, all hell will break loose. This is bigger than some minor conflict in Iraq. This is serious shit.
You should be thankful that cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Toronto are trying so hard to keep SARS under control. Singapore and Hong Kong are the world's two busiest seaports and both are major air transport hubs. They are now the world's bulwark against contagion and if they fail millions will die.
Singapore is the best equipped city in the world to weather the storm. She is a first world country, with per capita GDP equal to the UK. She has the best health care system in the world.
The country is highly controlled and regulated. I am all for civil rights and freedom, but this is one of those times that strong authority is needed to enforce quarantines and stop people acting stupidly. The government is on the ball, among other things shutting down schools, imposing mandatory screening at the airport, and even deploying the army to stop SARS. Honestly, if Singapore cannot contain SARS, the world is fucked.
As an aside, most of the SARS deaths in Singapore are health care workers working with those infected with SARS at the hospital where they are all being concentrated in. I salute the duty, bravery and valor of these men and women.