By Rosli Abidin Yahya
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A cat wearing a protective mask to ward
off SARS.
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Schools nationwide have almost
returned to normal after a week of fear from parents that their
children would catch Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in
the classroom.
Parents are now confident that
their children will be in safe hands following last week's
issuance of guidelines by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to
schools across the country.
MoE stated that schools would
be closed for 10 days if SARS were found in three different
schools at the same time.
The ministry also issued an
advice to parents and teachers to look out for symptoms of SARS
in their children and students respectively.
While some parents still
believe extreme measures are needed to ward off the devastating
threat of atypical pneumonia, most of the students have returned
to school.
A father who stopped his
children from attending classes for one week since the
commencement of second term said he now has full confidence in
the Ministry of Health and the MoE in handling SARS cases,
should the virus spread to this part of the region.
"I cannot forever deprive
my children from proper education. Besides, SARS looks like it's
going to be active for a long time, much like AIDS. I am
confident in the ministries, that they would do anything to keep
the disease at bay," he said.
Schools reportedly carry on
with their normal activities, except for some schools that have
cancelled swimming lessons. Secondary school students who will
be taking public examinations this year are now facing
preparatory tests.
Meanwhile, SARS has created a
social stigma among the population. A person caught sneezing or
coughing often receives sinister looks from passers-by.
"I have normal coughs but
every time I cough, people give me this frightened look as
though I am a SARS carrier," said a member of the public.
"An outbreak has yet to
occur, but people here are already hard-hit by fear of it,"
said another.
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