Anti-SARS nurses fight social stigma

SINGAPORE (AFP) — They are shunned in trains, some have been asked by their landlords to pack up, taxi drivers speed past them and others are told by apartment neighbors to avoid taking the elevators.

Singapore’s nurses, a multinational force of frontline troops in the battle to contain the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, are fighting their own war against the social stigma associated with the killer disease.

News of the health workers being avoided like the plague prompted a call by the Singapore Nurses Association (SNA) for their members to be allowed to shower and change out of their white uniforms before boarding public transport.

Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang disagreed, saying this would bring further humiliation to the 18,000 nurses working in the affluent city-state.

"I appreciate the good intentions of the SNA. I am concerned, however, that asking nurses to change before taking public transport may stigmatize them," Lim said in a statement.

"The dedication and professionalism of our nurses, particularly at the frontline is exemplary. It would be unfair if Singaporeans treat them differently.

"I am proud of our nurses and I urge Singaporeans to treat them without bias," he said.

But in an atmosphere of paranoia and uncertainty sparked by the mystery surrounding the SARS-causing virus, people remain wary.

After all, SARS has killed more than 80 people worldwide, six of them in Singapore, and the toll is rising. Medical workers treating patients were among the first to be infected.

A 39-year-old nurse from Myanmar, M.Y. Khin, was told by her landlord to vacate her rented room even though she works at a hospital that does not treat SARS patients.

"I understand their worries, but I feel hurt," she told the Straits Times newspaper.

A Filipino nurse told AFP she and her colleagues are shunned at the elevators of their highrise apartment.

An anonymous letter was dropped in their mailbox asking them to avoid using the elevators and to change clothes when they finish from work.

"It’s humiliating," said the 29-year-old nurse who asked not to be named, pointing out she does not even work at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which has been roped in as the center for warding all SARS patients in the city state.

Nurses at Tan Tock Seng have sadder tales to tell: buses and taxis refuse to stop for them while friends have suddenly begun distancing themselves.

"I feel betrayed. We are doing a job that other people do not want to do and yet we are treated like this," a nurse who works at the hospital said.

Health authorities say much of the paranoia comes from the fact that a lot remains unknown about the virus, which is still unidentified.

There is also scant information on how exactly it is transmitted, with initial evidence pointing to "direct close contact" such as being next to an infected person who sneezes or coughs. There is little proof it is airborne.

"Singaporeans must accept SARS will not disappear soon," Minister Lim said. "We must be psychologically prepared to deal with this for the long haul."

A doctor and 20 nurses at a Singapore hospital treating non-SARS patients have been confined as suspected cases, officials said over the weekend, highlighting the dangers of the outbreak to medical workers.

While the 21 staff of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) were not declared part of the 103 confirmed cases of SARS, they were admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital handling the outbreak after they developed fever.

A ministry of health statement said it suspects that a Chinese man who was admitted to SGH for a kidney abscess could have spread the disease among SGH staff.