Ooi Giok Ling, Phua Kai Hong
1National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore, 637616 Singapore.
2Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, 469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore, 259772 Singapore.
Nat Hazards (Dordr). 2009;48(3):317. doi: 10.1007/s11069-007-9194-2. Epub 2008 Jan 9.
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) has been declared by WHO (World Health Organisation) as a global health threat. Within a period of four to five months in 2003, the disease infected some 8,000 people in more than 25 countries and left 774 dead. The many studies that have been done on the spread of SARS in Asia as well as countries as far flung as Germany and Canada have focused on the global dimension of the infectious disease as well as the speed of its spread upon emergence in southern China and then Hong Kong. Less attention has been paid to its spatial distribution at the national and local scales. This discussion focuses on the spread of SARS at the national and local spatial scales. In the process, the study presents the management of a hazard, in this case, an emerging infectious disease by national health care institutions such as the hospitals that ultimately proved to have been wholly unprepared for coping with at least the health aspects of the outcome of a globalised national agenda for growth and economic progress.
世界卫生组织（WHO）已宣布严重急性呼吸系统综合征（SARS）为全球健康威胁。在2003年的四到五个月时间里，该疾病在25多个国家感染了约8000人，导致774人死亡。针对SARS在亚洲以及远至德国和加拿大等国家传播情况所开展的众多研究，聚焦于这种传染病的全球层面以及它在中国南方继而在香港出现后传播的速度。而对于其在国家和地方层面的空间分布则较少关注。本讨论聚焦于SARS在国家和地方空间尺度上的传播。在此过程中，该研究展示了对一种危害的管理，在这种情况下，即由国家医疗保健机构（如医院）对一种新兴传染病的管理，而这些机构最终被证明完全没有准备好应对至少是全球化的国家增长与经济发展议程所带来后果的健康方面问题。
