Public anxiety over severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) is better assuaged by immediate pro-active and co-ordinated action o­n the part of various authorities to contain the outbreak.

The time is past for Health Minister Chua Jui Meng to try to defend the indefensible by seeking to distinguish between "probable" and "suspected" Sars cases as stated by his ministry's director-general, Dr Mohamad Taha Arif (Chua details Sars surveillance measures).

I am sure no o­ne, including doctors or healthcare workers, understands this ultra legal distinction from the lawyer-turned-health minister.

Whether "probable" or "suspected", caution should be exercised in respect of every case, and it is incumbent upon the ministry to give the requisite warning in the first instance rather than to downplay it.

We are talking about lives here. Most people would agree that lives should be prioritised over economic cost and saving the face of the Health Ministry.

To be sure, the collaboration between health, aviation and immigration authorities to tighten surveillance at entry points, particularly for air travellers from countries having many suspected Sars cases, is a good start. But this, together with precautions taken in the planes and the setting up of "dedicated hospitals" may not be sufficient.

May I suggest the following:

The Education Ministry should direct all schools, kindergartens and daycare centres to send children showing flu symptoms home to minimise spread of virus between children and teachers (if any pupil is diagnosed of suspected Sars, the entire class should be suspended for a period of time).

The same applies to offices and work places, to be enforced by health emergency procedures.

Suspected Sars cases should be treated in isolated and quarantined sections of dedicated hospitals with appropriate measures (protective clothing and decontamination) to prevent transmission to doctors, nurses, patients and visitors.

The Health Ministry should institute home quarantine measures for those who have come into contact with people diagnosed with or suspected of Sars.

A special task force should be immediately set up to co-opt the help of epidemiologists, virologists, public health experts and physicians to monitor the incidence of Sars nationwide and recommend public health measures.

Authorities should work closely with WHO and other international health organisations in monitoring this disease, collecting epidemiologic data, and issuing regular updates through media.

The public should be alerted to avoid crowded or closed-in places such as cinemas, discotheques, pubs, concerts, casinos, rallies or visiting hospitals unless absolutely necessary.

It was reported that according to microbiologists, the evidence so far o­n Sars points to a previously unknown coronavirus, a pathogen that might well have jumped to humans from cattle. (It will be recalled that in the case of HIV, it could have been jumped from monkeys to humans.)

We should accord utmost respect to and take maximum precaution against viruses that may be contracted from animals to which we humans have no or little immunity, especially of the infectious kind that spread by geometrical progression. We may be witnessing what may well be an early stage of a worldwide epidemic.

In Malaysia, we just do not know how many persons have unprotected contact with Sars prior to its recent recognition. We do not know how many people can "carry" this disease without symptoms and infect others.

When a new strain of virus such as Sars, which is yet to be understood, emerges, and could spread by geometrical progression, it is always sound public health policy to institute maximum control measures needed to prevent further spread, and if need be, err o­n the side of precaution and prudence, economic costs notwithstanding.