DAY SARS SNEEZED ON US
The Gold Coast is in unchartered territory as the coronavirus spreads. The closest we came to something similar was SARS in 2003
THE Gold Coast is in the grips of a crisis unlike any it has ever faced.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit hard, bringing the city’s tourism industry to its knees and stripping supermarket shelves bare.
But the Gold Coast has been front and centre during other outbreaks in the past 20 years.
The city was hit hard in late 2002 and early 2003 by the SARS virus, which originated in southern China.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) appeared to be similar to the flu, causing those carrying to experience fever, a cough, sore throat and a high fever.
It would lead in severe cases to pneumonia.
The outbreak began on November 16, 2002 in China’s Guangdong province near Hong Kong and began rapidly spreading through the early months of 2003.
Much of the news at the time was dominated by the growing tensions in the Middle East which exploded into the Iraq War in March 2003.
The same week, Tourism Minister Joe Hockey visited the Gold Coast and said the “mysterious
deadly respiratory disease” was “almost as big a threat to tourism as the war in Iraq”.
At the time the World Health Organisation urged the screening of international passengers at airports for the virus. The United States planned to warn travellers and cut back government visits to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan because of the flulike illness.
Mr Hockey said the outbreak, which at the time had already claimed 53 lives and made 1408 people ill, was being closely monitored by Australia.
“The potential threat of pneumonia throughout Asia is a very significant threat to the tourism industry, almost as much as a potential war with Iraq,” he told the Bulletin. “We continue to very closely watch the spread of that pneumonia. Australia remains a very safe, very secure and very healthy international destination.”
But it was just days later that the SARS crisis hit home.
A leading Gold Coast private school was forced to keep 23 students and two teachers out of class for 10 days as a precaution against SARS.
The Southport School’s (TSS) under-14 rugby team returned from Hong Kong after winning a week-long international tournament.
Headmaster Bruce Cook said isolating the team was a precaution based on advice from the school medical officer and the director of infectious diseases at the Gold Coast Hospital.
“(With) the close-knit community of the school and a boarding school at that they felt it was prudent to exclude them,” he said.
Tour manager Ian Browne spoke to the Bulletin from Hong Kong and said the quarantine period was “merely a precaution”.
“But understandably so,” he said. “There are 850 students at the school and we don’t want any infection or spread of this bug. I think the headmaster has done the right thing (by issuing a quarantine period).”
Among the concerned parents at the time was future Gold Coast councillor Susie Douglas who said she had spent many sleepless nights worrying about her son, John, who was on the tour.
“In retrospect, I would have preferred if he had stayed at home, but I’m happy he is home and he enjoyed himself,” Ms Douglas said.
Ultimately only six Australias caught the virus with no fatalities. There have been no worldwide cases of SARS since 2004.