A street poll conducted by malaysiakini this week o­n the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) scare discovered that foreigners here took it in their stride while locals were more edgy.

Foreigners interviewed generally felt that Malaysia was still "safer" than other countries, in particular Singapore. There was certainly no cause for panic here at the moment, they said.

Locals whom malaysiakini spoke to were more concerned. They said the increasing number of cases was worrying and called for more stringent efforts by the government to contain the disease.

However, both groups agreed that there was just not enough information o­n the disease and that the people have to be better informed of Sars in order to help fight it.

Nano bin Hadi 30, an Indonesian contract worker in KL Sentral, said even though the situation here was not bad as Singapore, we must still take precaution.

"However, I am not that worried and I see no necessity in wearing the mask for now".

But he expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of information o­n Sars given to people in rural areas.

"There are still many rural people who do not know anything about Sars. More information should be made available to them," he added.

Malaysia is okay

Tou Yu Sheng, 21, a college student from China said that "Malaysia was okay and I am not scared of Sars in this country especially in my area. We have enough information here".

"There is no need to wear masks because it's not dangerous here. I always get updates o­n the Sars situation in China from my parents," added Tou who studies at HELP Institute, Damansara.

Vesa ten Hacken, 21, a Dutch student doing her project in Unilever, says she is not scared at all because the situation in Malaysia is not as bad as Singapore or the United States.

"I don't read the papers or watch TV news here. I o­nly check the Internet about Sars and I think I am able to obtain enough information about Sars from the various websites."

As for wearing a respiratory mask, Vesa does not feel a need to do so "as there was no danger".

Hyedrabath S Raja , 27, a software programer from India says he feels fine in Malaysia as "there were o­nly few Sars cases".

But he admitted that he had no idea how Sars spreads and ways to prevent it.

Manjit Singh , 36, a law student in University Malaya said that "talking of Sars awareness in the country was like talking to a wall. People here seem to have their own descriptions about it".

For example, he said, a friend had told him that a certain Chinese tea could cure Sars and that the disease o­nly attacked Chinese people.

According to Manjit, all this confusion could be attributed to the lack of information about the outbreak.

The law student was also concerned with the rapidness in which this virus spreads and wondered how much protection could a mask offer.

We can certainly do with more accurate information about Sars, he added.

P Bala , 42, a security guard in Petaling Jaya said he did not know anything about Sars except that "it was not curable."

He too blamed the lack of information to be reason behind his ignorance about the disease whioch has claimed more than 150 lives worldwide.

Enough awareness

Meanwhile, a fundraiser for Majlis Kanser Nasional from Kuala Lumpur who declined to be identified felt that "there was enough awareness among Malaysians o­n the disease".

"But the problem is that we are mentally not prepared. We panic easily whenever such a situation arises," she said.

She also encouraged those who were dissatisfied with the information from the official channels to source for more o­n their own.

Siti Nurul Ain, 13, from Pantai Dalam said she was worried by the fact that her school had never given any information o­n Sars nor shown any seriousness about it.

The Form o­ne student added that all she knew was that the disease could kill.

Several others interviewed also aired their concern about the extent of information available and the state of the disease in Malaysia.

However, there were also those who felt that the situation here was still safe and there was no reason for panic.

To date, there have been seven probable Sars cases in Malaysia. o­ne of them - a 64-year-old man from Pahang - had died o­n March 30.