Two recent travellers to Hong Kong have criticised officials manning the health ministry's Disease Control Division (DCD) operations centre in Kuala Lumpur for their indifference to vital information.

The duo had attempted to inform the centre that they had stayed at the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong during the sensitive two-week period following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) there.

The ministry, which had requested the information, today advised all 52 guests who had stayed at the hotel from Feb 18 to March 3 to report to the nearest hospital or clinic.

'No need lah'

Quintin Tan said he had stayed at the hotel in Mongkok between Feb 21 and Feb 24. However, when he called the ministry hotline to inform health officials about this, they showed no interest.

"Yesterday, I was told that the ministry was looking for the 52 people who stayed at the hotel. I called up my doctor who passed me the hotline number. But when I called the hotline, they did not seem to know anything about this at all," he said when contacted today.

He said the person who answered the call merely said, "So?"

Tan then asked if he had to report to a hospital for a check-up, but was told that - since he had not fallen ill upon his return from Hong Kong - here was "no need" to take further action.

"They just told me 'never mind, no need-lah'," he said.

Yesterday, Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said the ministry was tracing the 52 Malaysians (and three Singaporeans) so that they could be referred to the nearest hospital immediately for observation.

The alert was put out after it was found that o­ne of the earliest people to die of SARS - a doctor from China's Guangdong Province - had stayed o­n the ninth floor of the hotel between Feb 21 and Feb 22.

Seven other guests at the time have since been confirmed to have contracted the disease, and three have died.

Absolute indifference

Tan said staff at the operations centre should not have treated this as a small matter, and that they should know what to do when the members of the public phone in with information. No o­ne even took down his name or telephone number.

"This is an unknown disease. Earlier, we were told that the incubation period was between two to seven days, but now it has been revised to two weeks," he said.

Today, when Tan called the centre again, he received a similarly indifferent response.

"I insisted o­n speaking with the doctor o­n duty, who then referred me to the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) health department. But the doctor there referred me to another doctor, whose telephone number appeared similar to that of the health ministry's operations centre. No o­ne picked up the phone when I called," he complained.

Tan said the hotline should be handled by persons with proper knowledge of the SARS symptoms.

"Regardless of whether the person has fallen ill or not, he or she should be kept in a controlled environment until it can be verified for certain that they (are healthy). I would feel better if they had taken a blood sample from me," he said.

"Now, I am in limbo because I do not know if I should return home. I have been visiting nieces and nephews and I do not want to pass the disease to them. My parents are elderly and they will be visiting Australia soon. I also do not want anything to happen to them."

Asked what course of action he plans to take, Tan said he would continue to call the number given by the DBKL health department until he receives a definitive response.

Second case

Meanwhile, another Malaysian holiday-maker who was o­n the same tour package as Tan also said the response had been cool when he called the centre.

"The hotline number has not even been widely publicised. O­nly some newspapers have published it and I had to obtain it from a contact," said the traveller, who declined to be identified.

"I called the operations centre yesterday to report myself (as o­ne of the 52 Metropole guests) but they left me hanging. I told them I had high viral fever at above 39.2 degrees Celsius after I returned from Hong Kong.

"The staff told me that, since it was 21 days after the dates (specified by the ministry), it was past the incubation period and that I was all right."

Although newspapers had reported that the Metropole guests were o­nly from Malacca, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Johor, he said he knew of two individuals from Sabah who were o­n the same trip as him.

"When I told the staff about this, they seemed stunned. Still they did not even ask to take down my phone number," he said, adding that he had to insist o­n leaving his contact details.

"I don't know if I may have caught the disease or if it is merely in a dormant stage right now."

Ministry official surprised

Asked to comment o­n this during a press conference to update the SARS situation this afternoon, Health Ministry director-general Dr Mohamad Taha Arif appeared surprised, but advised all 52 travellers to report to the nearest hospital or clinic.

"It could be difficult because (the communication between the duo and the centre) was by phone, so the officials may o­nly have been able to give advice," he said.

When this was conveyed to Tan, he said he had managed to contact a doctor at the DCD health department this afternoon. Apart from taking down some details, they did not suggest any action that he could take.

Tan said he had also checked with his own doctor if he should undergo a blood test, but was informed that health officials would not know what to test for, since so little is known about the virus that causes the disease.