Kang Ming-chu (
Yesterday, Kang, former chief of the hospital's human resources department, held her two-year-old daughter as she remembered "the busiest 14 days" of her life.
"I was too busy with the work to worry about myself at that time ... Not until the hospital reopened did I realize how much effort hospital staff and society as a whole put into the fight against SARS," she said during the third anniversary of the hospital's SARS battle.
Sealed off
The hospital was sealed off for two weeks to contain the SARS epidemic in April 2003. The head of the SARS Emergency Response Task Force at the time, former Taipei deputy mayor Ou Chin-der (
The drastic move met with uproar from numerous SARS patients and hospital staff who felt they were being treated like criminals.
SARS claimed 72 lives in Taiwan, with 30 deaths in Taipei City and seven in the hospital, according to the Taipei City Government.
During the "Phoenix Rebirth" ceremony to mark the third anniversary of the hospital's reopening after the SARS outbreak, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"Because of the SARS experience, the city adopted its new nursing system, integrated 12 municipal hospitals into one united hospital and carefully re-examined the medical system," Ma said.
Since the SARS outbreak, the hospital has been on heightened alert to combat infectious diseases, including bird flu, Ma said.
"SARS woke us up, and we need to stay awake," Ma said.
No one to blame
Ou remembered the period as a "naive and confusing time." Saying that officials had faced "an unknown enemy," he called on the public not to blame anyone over SARS, but to take advantage of the experience to fight against infectious disease in the future.
Yeh, who voluntarily entered the hospital to help with the SARS outbreak and is running for Taipei mayor, pledged to use his experience to make more contributions to the city if given the chance.
"Hopefully the SARS experience will give us knowledge and courage to fight against avian flu," he said.
Although Ma lauded Yeh's contribution during the SARS period, he reiterated his neutral stance on mayoral hopefuls as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman.
Yeh said he understood the mayor's position, and expressed confidence about his chances in the upcoming KMT primary "because Ma's mother and sister and all hospital staff members support me."
Hoping Hospital officials said that the facility had continuously maintained or upgraded its equipment and continued to conduct research into lesser-known infectious diseases. Hospital staff had also received special training to help them deal with infectious diseases, officials said.
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