Fear and Stigma: The Epidemic within the SARS Outbreak

By B. Person, F. Sy, Kelly Holton, Barbara Govert, A. Liang, Brenda W Garza, Deborah W. Gould, M. Hickson, M. McDonald, C. Meijer and 4 more. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2004

751 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Because of their evolving nature and inherent scientific uncertainties, outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases can be associated with considerable fear in the general public or in specific communities, especially when illness and deaths are substantial. Mitigating fear and discrimination directed toward persons infected with, and affected by, infectious disease can be important in controlling transmission. Persons who are feared and stigmatized may delay seeking care and remain in the community undetected. This article outlines efforts to rapidly assess, monitor, and address fears associated with the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in the United States. Although fear, stigmatization, and discrimination were not widespread in the general public, Asian-American communities were particularly affected.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Health, Modeling and Simulation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/283f5a2334bd309f0e74b2ac29aeca2da38a1c44

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Citations in the corpus

Psychometric Validation of the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Analysis (2020, background): “Social marginalization and stigmatization deriving from fear in a disease outbreak may cause people to refute early symptoms that are clinically relevant, and may contribute to the disease remaining undetected in the society (Person et al.”
Risk communication for public health emergencies. (2007, background): “Although the response of the CDC and other health agencies was much more organized for the SARS outbreak in the late spring of 2003 (87) than for 9/11 or the anthax scare in 2001, researchers have argued that the SARS epidemic also bred a secondary epidemic that the news did not actively counter: fe”
Public knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Malaysia (2020, background): “Among the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak is that knowledge and attitudes are associated with levels of panic and emotion which could further complicate measures to contain the spread of the disease [7,8].”
Depression and Anxiety in Hong Kong during COVID-19 (2020, background): “Furthermore, discrimination and stigma related to infectious diseases might make people fearful of infection, which can also affect their mental health status [35].”
Public Mental Health Crisis during COVID-19 Pandemic, China (2020, background): “As during the 2003 SARS and 2014 Ebola virus disease outbreaks, generalized fear and fear-induced overreactive behavior were common among the public; both can impede infection control (5,6).”
Responding to global infectious disease outbreaks: Lessons from SARS on the role of risk perception, communication and management (2006, background): “In this sense, the media can contribute to stigmatisation and discrimination, which in the case of SARS was evident against those with an Asian appearance (Chang, 2003; Person et al., 2004).”
Fear and Practice Modifications among Dentists to Combat Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak (2020, background): “The response is similar to the perception of rest of the population where people are terrified of getting infected from other individuals in the community in the presence of a rapidly developing epidemic [23].”