By Jane Han
DALLAS ― The deadly Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is continuing to spread in Korea and so too is public concern, as the government remains silent on naming hospitals providing treatment for infected patients.
Amid escalating fears, should the authorities disclose more information?
If public confusion is getting out of hand, definitely, say experts in the U.S.
''Panic and anxiety are often scarier than the viral outbreak itself,'' says John Shanley, an infectious disease specialist who runs a practice in Dallas. ''If mistrust starts to build among people, then health officials have another major problem to tackle besides a virus.''
No citizen deserves to sit at home panicking, worrying and wondering whether his government is hiding important facts that could affect his health,'' he added.
Priscilla Wald, professor of English and Women's studies at Duke University, who wrote, ''Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative,'' advised the Korean government to provide detailed information.
''The best response is a very detailed one that acknowledges the fears that people have,'' she said, adding that these fears are fed by years of dramatic depictions of implausible worst-case scenarios circulating in the mainstream media, online, and in popular fiction and film.
''There is also always tension between the right of the infected to have privacy and the right of those who are not infected to be informed,'' she explained. ''Concealing information from the public will likely inflame the very paranoia the state might hope to minimize.''
Communication is key, stressed Wald.
''A detailed, informed explanation from experts regarding the exact nature of the threat and clear advice on what cautionary measures to take, including places where the disease has surfaced, is crucial to managing the outbreak both responsibly and compassionately,'' she added.
The U.S. is generally thorough in disclosing facts related to an outbreak.
For example, when the deadly Ebola surfaced in the U.S. last year, names of select hospitals where infected patients were being treated were disclosed to the public.
But that's only because these institutions were well-known, says Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Security Center.
''It is difficult to exactly compare the U.S. situation with Ebola to the South Korean situation with MERS because in the case of Ebola the majority of U.S. patients were treated at designated biocontainment units at specific hospitals that were well-known,'' he said.
If a hospital can be unjustifiably stigmatized and financially disadvantaged for caring for MERS patients, explained Adalja, it may make public identification of those hospitals a difficult decision.
Even in the U.S., people and places were unduly stigmatized during the Ebola outbreak, according to Wald.
''An elementary school in New Jersey, where parental overreaction (and geographical and medical ignorance) forced two new students from Rwanda, who had been nowhere near the sites of the outbreak, to remain home from school and a West African restaurant in Minnesota changed its name because of the fear that was allegedly causing patrons to avoid it,'' she said.
''It is hard for state officials to know how to present information in a way that will inform but not unduly alarm a population.''
Adalja emphasizes that the key is for public health authorities to know their identities and the areas in which they may have exposed others in order to conduct an appropriate contact-trace.
Meanwhile, he says, the ideal way to ease public fear is one that recognizes that the public may be fearful but tries to dispel myths by presenting the facts about the disease, the facts about the risk to the public, and the gaps in knowledge that exist in the context of a comprehensive plan to deal with the outbreak.
DALLAS ― The deadly Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is continuing to spread in Korea and so too is public concern, as the government remains silent on naming hospitals providing treatment for infected patients.
Amid escalating fears, should the authorities disclose more information?
If public confusion is getting out of hand, definitely, say experts in the U.S.
''Panic and anxiety are often scarier than the viral outbreak itself,'' says John Shanley, an infectious disease specialist who runs a practice in Dallas. ''If mistrust starts to build among people, then health officials have another major problem to tackle besides a virus.''
No citizen deserves to sit at home panicking, worrying and wondering whether his government is hiding important facts that could affect his health,'' he added.
Priscilla Wald, professor of English and Women's studies at Duke University, who wrote, ''Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative,'' advised the Korean government to provide detailed information.
''The best response is a very detailed one that acknowledges the fears that people have,'' she said, adding that these fears are fed by years of dramatic depictions of implausible worst-case scenarios circulating in the mainstream media, online, and in popular fiction and film.
''There is also always tension between the right of the infected to have privacy and the right of those who are not infected to be informed,'' she explained. ''Concealing information from the public will likely inflame the very paranoia the state might hope to minimize.''
Communication is key, stressed Wald.
''A detailed, informed explanation from experts regarding the exact nature of the threat and clear advice on what cautionary measures to take, including places where the disease has surfaced, is crucial to managing the outbreak both responsibly and compassionately,'' she added.
The U.S. is generally thorough in disclosing facts related to an outbreak.
For example, when the deadly Ebola surfaced in the U.S. last year, names of select hospitals where infected patients were being treated were disclosed to the public.
But that's only because these institutions were well-known, says Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Security Center.
''It is difficult to exactly compare the U.S. situation with Ebola to the South Korean situation with MERS because in the case of Ebola the majority of U.S. patients were treated at designated biocontainment units at specific hospitals that were well-known,'' he said.
If a hospital can be unjustifiably stigmatized and financially disadvantaged for caring for MERS patients, explained Adalja, it may make public identification of those hospitals a difficult decision.
Even in the U.S., people and places were unduly stigmatized during the Ebola outbreak, according to Wald.
''An elementary school in New Jersey, where parental overreaction (and geographical and medical ignorance) forced two new students from Rwanda, who had been nowhere near the sites of the outbreak, to remain home from school and a West African restaurant in Minnesota changed its name because of the fear that was allegedly causing patrons to avoid it,'' she said.
''It is hard for state officials to know how to present information in a way that will inform but not unduly alarm a population.''
Adalja emphasizes that the key is for public health authorities to know their identities and the areas in which they may have exposed others in order to conduct an appropriate contact-trace.
Meanwhile, he says, the ideal way to ease public fear is one that recognizes that the public may be fearful but tries to dispel myths by presenting the facts about the disease, the facts about the risk to the public, and the gaps in knowledge that exist in the context of a comprehensive plan to deal with the outbreak.
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