Business Trip Encounter with SARS :: Personal Narrative China Travel Essays

Encounter of the Worse Kind My scheduled flight to Hong Kong was delayed because of a conference meeting that ran over in New York. I rescheduled for the following week on Tuesday, February 21, 2003. I arrived in Hong Kong and met my business contact and headed off to the conference at the Metropole Hotel. Something seems odd here, unlike my trips before. There are people with masks on everywhere. I asked my business contact what was going on. He said there was some kind of flu going around. I have never seen so many people with masks on before. In the U.S. people rarely put on masks even if they have the flu. He also said that a lot of people are sick and some have died from it. It seems odd that people would die from catching the flu; I mean nowadays who dies from getting the flu. We finally arrived at the conference and I met my clients. Most of the clients seemed sick but were determined to finalize the deal. Some of them were coughing and some had sore throats. I was afraid I would get sick from being too close to them and I tried to take precautions by taking cough drops and Tylenol when I felt I was coming down with the flu. I was glad when the meeting was over. The contract took two days to iron out all the details. Since the meeting went well I decided to stay in Hong Kong for a little longer. I needed a break from work and wanted to go sight seeing. I have been to Hong Kong a couple of times but never had the chance to see the countryside. The following morning when I woke up I started to cough and was running a fever. I was probably infected from the close contact of the sick clients. So I decided to stay in and rest for a while. I was sleepy and couldn't get up from my bed. The next day it got worse. I had a sore throat and had muscle pain. I've never been this sick before and I thought to myself that it was due to getting older and my immune system not being up to par. I have been very busy lately and my stress level has been up more than usual.