Fear of contracting SARS has not stopped some people in Hong Kong from considering the fashion implications of wearing a surgical mask in public. View Slideshow 
As residents throughout Asia adjust to daily life in the midst of the SARS outbreak, a small Hong Kong telecom carrier has introduced a new SMS tool to help locals avoid infection sites.
The text-messaging service pinpoints the locations of confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome. It's one of many ways people in the region are using mobile technology to cope with the disease.
Launched by Sunday Communications, the service allows subscribers with SMS-enabled phones to identify the "contaminated" buildings within a kilometer of their calling location. Subscribers can also learn which buildings visited recently by patients suspected of having SARS, or "atypical pneumonia," as the disease is known throughout much of Asia.
The service uses infection-site data the Hong Kong Department of Health began publishing daily on April 12, 2003. To access the SARS updates, callers dial a three-digit number to receive a text message in English or Chinese.
Throughout Asia, mobile technology is playing a prominent role in the spread of both official and unofficial SARS information.
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong government sent millions of mobile text messages to residents to debunk a hoax that led many to believe that the city was soon to be formally declared "an infected place," causing mass panic and buying binges throughout the region.
"Chaos, fear and disorder spread faster than good news," says Hong Kong-based entertainment consultant Brett Elliot. "Because SMS notes are terse anyway, disinformation seems to spread even faster because you don't get the whole story."
The slow pace and incompleteness of the Department of Health's previous disclosures about the spread of SARS had become the subject of controversy, inspiring the launch of unofficial websites like sosick.org.
Organizers of that alternative site voluntarily shut it down this week after the health department began publishing daily Web updates. The site shutdown included the online statement that they'd achieved their goal of "successfully pressuring the government to release information on infected locations."
Recent Chinese government efforts to distribute regular digital updates may be inspired to some degree by criticism of its unwillingness to release facts about SARS cases early on -- which may be partly responsible for its rapid spread.
To date, Hong Kong Department of Health statistics show that 1,268 people in Hong Kong have become sick with the disease, and 61 have died. Worldwide, over 170 fatalities have been attributed to SARS, according to the World Health Organization.
Sunday Communications also announced it will donate 1,000 rechargeable SIM cards to the Hong Kong Hospital Authority to help hospitalized SARS patients stay in touch with family and friends. Hospital officials could not be reached for comment on whether the ban on cellular phones within hospital perimeters would be lifted for this purpose.
Singaporean advertising executive Kim Lai says mobile messaging has quickly become a key element of the SARS chatter that now permeates daily life.
"With SARS, you feel like the SMS sender cares about the recipient and wants to keep in touch," Lai says. "But because of the text-message rumors, people are wary of crowded places, and anyone who sneezes or coughs in a crowd gets a lot of attention."
Less widespread than in Hong Kong, SARS' growth in Singapore has been confined largely to health professionals and a comparatively small number of civilian cases. But fear runs high and the government recently launched a SARS website to allay growing concerns and distribute local infection data.
Elliot agrees that SMS messages may have fanned the panic.
"Early on, there were messages telling you to treat anyone without a mask as a potential carrier, even if they looked healthy," Elliot said. "There were notes about cleaning the soles of your shoes before entering your house, washing your clothes every day after going out, putting them straight into the wash without setting them down. Maintaining those measures over time creates a kind of insanity."
Others, such as public relations executive T.C. Lai of Singapore, believe the spread of mobile messaging may amplify a sense of isolation within SARS-panicked populations where people already avoid personal contact.
"SMS might be cheap and easy to use, but I sometimes wish people would call instead of initiating a long SMS exchange," T.C. Lai says.
In Thailand, the number of SARS cases remains far lower than in Hong Kong, but fear of SARS is still leading to unusual -- and sometimes awkward -- uses for telecommunications tools.
"Our company cancelled an invitation to colleagues from Hong Kong for a business meeting, and opted for phone instead ... they said they were speaking to us from their office with masks on," says Takamasa Tokumo, a Japanese technology executive in Bangkok.
According to several Hong Kong and Singapore residents, a "screw SARS" counterculture attitude is emerging among younger mobile-technology users, as evidenced in forwarded SMS jokes. In cities where most people on the street are wearing surgical masks, the simple act of not wearing a mask becomes an act of rebellion, according to Elliot.
"'I will breathe freely' has become like smoking Death cigarettes," he says.
As SARS gallows humor is forwarded from cell phone to cell phone throughout the region, are "cough" ring tones next?
"I don't know ... but it's part of local culture to be playful with acronyms," says Kim Lai. "In SMS jokes, SARS could stand for 'Singapore Airlines Really Screwed' or 'Saddam's Awesome Retaliation Strategy.'"
