Fear and rumour: Fears about the spread of SARS is causing anxiety within the Chinese community, with Chinese shops and restaurants in Dublin reporting a decline in trade.
The Irish Chinese Information Centre says there is a strong demand for information on SARS from members of the estimated 40,000-strong Chinese community in their native language.
Staff at the drop-in centre on Dublin's Fitzwilliam Square have taken the precaution of wearing surgical masks and carefully disinfecting tables, telephones and tea bowls after use.
"We have translated information from the World Health Organisation and Department of Health as well as information from the newspapers, telling people how many have died, how many countries are involved, as well as information about the symptoms and where to go," said Dr Katherine Chan Mullen from the centre, who is also a GP.
"Quite a lot of people are asking could you give us information because we don't know what the newspapers talk about."
Dr Mullen said the Chinese community was "full of anxiety. Everybody is so scared. Very few people are going to the supermarkets. Ourselves already we have started to do something, but why has the Government not been doing anything at the airport?"
Mr Howard Pau who owns the busy Asia Market in Drury Street said fears and false rumours have led to a 20 per cent decline in business in the past fortnight.
"There are rumours going round that we have staff with SARS but that's unfounded. It's not based on fact. Customers have been ringing up saying are you open or are you still closed but we didn't close. This has been like a commercial mud throwing," he said.
Mr Pau says he has resorted to putting up a notice in the shop to try to scotch such rumours. He himself returned from Hong Kong about a fortnight ago and followed best practice by isolating himself for eight days before returning to work. He is critical of the authority's handling of yesterday's suspected case involving a Chinese woman, which turned out to be a false alarm.
"That person should have been isolated instead of sending her home and giving her a mask," he said.
At the nearby Imperial restaurant on Wicklow Street, the manager Mr Stephen Tsang reports a similar one-fifth drop in customers in the past fortnight. "Among the Chinese community there's rumours saying this place has two people who've had it and at that place three people have had it. It's totally untrue, but people don't know that.
"They should listen to the news, not the rumours."
Mr Tsang said he logs on to the World Health Organisation's website daily to update himself and his staff. "There's nothing to worry about but we have to be vigilant and keep our eye on the situation," he added.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the public section of the Irish visa office in the Chinese capital Beijing was forced to close recently for several days. This followed the detection of a SARS case in an office in an apartment block shared by the visa office, according to a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman.