SARS has Yi-Tak Lai worried, but it could be worse.
Lai is a freshman public health major from Shatin, a Hong Kong suburb. Her parents fall into a high-risk group: They both work at elementary schools, high-volume public venues the government has shut down in recent weeks to help curb the deadly disease's spread.
But while her parents' schools were some of the last to be closed, neither has contracted the disease.
"So far, I'm blessed," Lai said. "I think they'll be fine ... they've already taken every single preventative measure possible. So it's fine."
Her parents ascribe to a local adage.
"If you're not scared about it, you will be less susceptible to the disease, so they're actually using that philosophy," said Lai, who thinks positive thinking may raise your immune system. "It's just like a theory from the locals, but I think it might make sense."
Like many Johns Hopkins University students from East Asia, Lai has seen her family -- and her summer travel plans -- affected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. With World Health Organization travel warnings and government crackdowns in effect, students from China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam are concerned not only about contracting SARS while on break but about not being permitted to return to Hopkins.
"A lot of our students, especially those from Singapore, they've been advised to stay in the U.S. by their parents," said Dr. Nicholas Arrindell, director of the Office of International Student and Scholar Services.
There are some 1,100 international students at the Homewood campus. The largest group -- approximately 250 people -- comes from mainland China.
As governments use increasingly strict measures to control the disease's spread, students worry that changing regulations might deny them a travel permit or place them in quarantine -- either in their home country or in the United States.
""Will I be allowed to reenter?'" Arrindell said students ask him. "That's something that we can't answer," he said.
Cathy Carroll, a junior philosophy major from Hong Kong, recently discussed the issue with her mother. She says her mother isn't concerned Carroll will catch SARS, but rather that she won't be able to get back for fall classes.
Carroll changed her travel plans last week. Instead of going home, she'll be working as an intern in London.
"Even if I do get back in [to the United States], I don't want to be in quarantine for like 10 days or something," she said.
Since she's come to JHU, Carroll has returned to Hong Kong every Christmas and summer break. This summer will be Carroll's first vacation away from home.
"I was kind of disappointed," she said.
Daniel Chang, an American citizen whose family lives in Beijing, is a freshman economics and international studies major. His parents told him around April 15 that he would not be returning home for the summer. He'll be spending the summer with a friend in Zambia instead.
Lai, from Shatin, will be attending summer classes, but she and her parents decided she'll return home for August if the situation doesn't worsen. She went home during Christmas break, but this will be the longest stretch she's been away from home.
Her parents have told her about the policy of self-imposed quarantine: Everyone leaving Hong Kong must stay at home for 10 days, avoiding highly populated places where the risk of infection is highest. Lai is willing to comply.
But life at home is hardly normal.
"I heard that they're disinfecting shopping malls every day. The only business that has gone up is Blockbuster," said Carroll.
Everyone wears masks when he or she goes out, Lai said.
"It's not mandatory, but it's for everybody's sake. If they see people without masks, they will actually get worried," she said.
"There's an air of calm," Chang said his parents tell him.
"It's kind of strange in a sense because you don't see people panicking," he said his parents tell him. "People are just afraid of being together in large groups."
Chang believes his parents may be understating the gravity of the situation to keep him from becoming too concerned. His dad had a coworker who was quarantined last week, and his dad's office was shut down for three days.
"I really do want to go home, regardless of how the situation is. I really do want to go back and spend time with my family. It's not so much fear of the disease but fear of not knowing the whole story, because I'm not there," said Chang. "In a sense, it is rather traumatizing."
Even Lai doesn't follow the village preventative advice sometimes.
"It's something that actually touches you, and you get scared," said Lai.
