Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Confucius Says: Pinkeye is YOUR fault

You might notice that this post alone among the avalanche of posts on this blog, has no picture. Why? Because I FORGOT MY CAMERA this week when I went off to school. I LEFT IT AT HOME. It's been a living hell these three days, walking around without a camera, missing all those shots, and feeling the terrible pangs of withdrawal. Fortunately alcohol is widely available in Tainan.

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The director of Taiwan's CDC said yesterday that the pinkeye outbreak in northern Taiwan was the result of poor local hygiene:

The outbreak of pinkeye syndrome reveals that the personal hygiene habits of Taiwanese people are not up to the standards of advanced countries like America and Japan, Steve Kuo, director-general of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) under the Department of Health said Monday.

One thing I've noticed about Taiwanese is that they are apt to be more critical of Taiwan than is necessary, and here's a splendid example: epidemic disease as a moral failure, very Confucian. If you're diseased, it's because you don't wash your hands enough. All failings are individual moral failings.... Reality? Consider the point of view given here about the pinkeye outbreak at 2 Ivy league universities a while back:

Perlotto said this type of outbreak of pink eye is very unusual.

"Pink eye usually is a random infection that just strikes people relatively randomly," Perlotto said. "It doesn't occur in a cluster outbreak of hundreds of people at a time. We see it [at Yale] throughout the year, but more commonly in winter. -- We think that's because people are inside more in the winter, around each other more in an enclosed space."

Pink eye can be spread through hand contact, sharing utensils and towels, Perlotto said. It can be prevented through frequent hand-washing.

"What's unusual about the outbreak at Dartmouth and Princeton is that it was shown to be caused by a bacteria," Perlotto said. "Most commonly, conjunctivitis is caused by a virus."

He said that bacterial conjunctivitis can be treated with antibiotic eye drops.

Though the outbreak is unusual, Stavis said pink eye is not a serious illness.

"I think the important thing to remember is that this is a really mild illness, and even without treatment it tends to resolve itself within a few days," Stavis said.

Think those students at Princeton and Dartmouth have poor personal hygiene? "Pinkeye is a random infection that strikes people randomly." What's happening in northern Taiwan is not a moral breakdown but a statistical fluctuation. Outbreaks happen from time to time, and they happen for no reason. As this article notes of the outbreak:

"First of all, in the past, big conjunctivitis outbreaks were assumed mostly likely viral," says Turco, "this was bacterial. Second, the CDC determined that the bacterial strain we had was identical to one that caused outbreaks in 1980 and 1981, more than 20 years ago. Third, it's a wonderful example of private doctors, the state health officials and a federal agency working together so productively." Turco also notes that Dartmouth's e-mail system, called Blitzmail, was an extremely effective communications tool.

"Big conjunctivitis outbreaks...." Clearly infections occur in large numbers in the US from time to time. Too, if the lack of good personal hygeine is the cause, why was the last big outbreak here in the 1970s?

Taiwanese tend to frame the behavior of themselves and others in terms of the Confucian moral script -- just yesterday I was informed by a local OEM firm owner that the reason a friend of hers, the CEO of a major sporting goods firm, was getting a PHD is because she was afraid of falling behind others, and because she wanted to challenge herself to find her limits -- not like Americans, whose culture teaches them not to push themselves. And this from a woman who got her BA and MA in the US!

In other science news, a local observatory has named an asteroid after Chiayi.


12 comments:

MJ Klein said...

"You might notice that this post alone among the avalanche of posts on this blog, has no picture. Why? Because I FORGOT MY CAMERA this week when I went off to school. I LEFT IT AT HOME. It's been a living hell these three days, walking around without a camera, missing all those shots, and feeling the terrible pangs of withdrawal. Fortunately alcohol is widely available in Tainan."

Confucius says it's your fault.

10 demerits!

you can make up for the withdrawal this weekend.

FarAway said...

Although I would agree that the article is a bit harsh in placing blame while pretending that American college students have good hygiene, I'd still say that the author has a good point without really knowing it. Despite the habit many people have here of washing their hands before sitting down to a meal in a restaurant (something I've never noticed in the US), a visit to any public restroom seems to tell a different story. At least for many women (since I don't spend any time in men's rooms), the task of handwashing after using the facilities is poorly done, if done at all. Even when soap is available, I will often see women merely run their hands under the tap for literally 1 second before running along. I think Taiwanese folks have strong stomachs (at least it seems so when 10 of us eat the same meal and I'm the only one who gets sick from it), but a strong stomach won't save one from everything.

By the way, regrets on the camera. I, too, had a similar experience last week, suffering for 20 minutes as I watched the gay pride parade go past my office and I stood there with nothing but my camera phone. For shame.

Anonymous said...

It's also that KMT legacy of "catching up" to the "advanced, imperial foreign powers" who have humiliated us.

Jason said...

I'll bet the asteroid has a better night life.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Jason to some extent.

Actually I'm not sure if this is really related to Confucianism. It seems to me that it has more to do with the bureaucrats being poorly informed in modern science.

As to the CEO pursuing a PhD, I think it merely reflects the fact that Taiwan is such a credentialist society. Credentialism may indeed be a by-product of Confucianism, but from what I learned in school, Confucius wants us to "use moderation" rather than to push oneself to the limit.

As well, Western observers frequently invoke Confucianism when trying to explain the social patterns in East Asian countries. Sometimes it makes sense to me, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe the term "Confucianism" as used by so many Western observers is something different from what I learned in school.

Anyway I've enjoyed this blog. It's always interesting and at times illuminating to look at one's own country from an informed foreigner's perspective.

Eli said...

But there are plenty of people in the states getting Ph.Ds, or studying Chinese or Arabic or some other "difficult" language, or doing something else like driving motorcycles off cliffs, because they want to push themselves to the limits. I'm not sure I agree that Americans by nature do not overpush themselves. I guess it depends who and where. But I understand what you are saying about the use of moral reasons to explain disease or some other unfortunate happenings.

Michael Turton said...

As well, Western observers frequently invoke Confucianism when trying to explain the social patterns in East Asian countries. Sometimes it makes sense to me, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe the term "Confucianism" as used by so many Western observers is something different from what I learned in school.

I'm not invoking Confucianism to explain the behavior. I'm invoking it to explain how the behavior of A was represented by B to outsider C. Of course Confucianism isn't a good explanation of behavior -- but the scripts it supplies are often borrowed by locals to understand their own behavior and to represent it to outsiders.

Michael

Anonymous said...

Conjunctivitis, like every other disease in Taiwan will be cured by drinking lots of hot water polluted with some stinking herbs. Of course it is due to poor morality, overweight or halitosis. To get to the root cause of the problem you must ask your mother in law.

John Naruwan said...

I caught the "red eye" lurgy a couple of days ago which is quite annoying because I'm probably the biggest handwasher there is. Not fair!

Anonymous said...
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Michael Turton said...

Leelo, the link got cut off.

Michael

Anonymous said...
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