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More Aids talks for hotel staff likely

THOUSANDS of guests check into hotel rooms in Singapore each day. So it is likely that some may be carrying more than luggage.

Some may walk through the doors with Aids.

That was the reason the Singapore Hotel Association, SHA, held a seminar for hotel staff last week.

“Hoteliers are not sure how to deal with a situation of a guest with Aids,” said Ms Teo Poh Kheam, assistant director of the association yesterday.

“We hope to educate hotel staff on Aids. I think the seminar helped to allay hoteliers’ fears,’’ she added.

She said SHA is well aware that there is a problem because of a lack of knowledge about Aids within the industry.

That became obvious last May when an Australian guest collapsed at a hotel here in May. He died about a week later in hospital.

Doctors later confirmed that the guest had Aids. So the hotel took extraordinary action.

It burned all the bed linen and towels from the dead guest’s room. It even drained the hotel swimming pool.

At the time, the hotel’s action was criticised by medical circles as an over-reaction. But Ms Teo said the hotel simply adopted a “better be safe than sorry” attitude.

Ms Teo said that the Innkeepers Act does not list sickness as a reason for barring a guest from a hotel. Thus the seminar was aimed at educating staff on how to deal with guests known to have Aids.

It was held at Carlton Hotel, with expert help from the Training and Health Education Department of the Ministry of Health. With the government’s current Aids awareness campaign, SHA felt it was time for the industry to confront the issue head on.

“Not knowing for sure what Aids is about makes you not want to take risks. People think that maybe the information on Aids is not complete,” said Ms Teo.

Besides it’s not easy to tell if someone has Aids, she said. Ms Teo added that the lack of solid information about Aids contributed to a feeling of uncertainty - not just among hotel workers but the public as a whole. Ms Teo said the seminar covered the subject of Aids in broad terms this time.

“But the transfer of knowledge about Aids within the hotel industry must be a continuous effort,” she added.

Ms Teo said that there might be more seminars in the future. They could be directed at specialised departments within hotels.

For example, people in housekeeping must be made aware that they need not be too wary if they find blood in the bathroom from a guest who had cut himself shaving. It should be made clear to them that the Aids virus would not survive for long in blood exposed to the air.

Also, food and beverage people should know that if a chef is found to have Aids, it is not likely that the food he has touched is contaminated.

Ms Teo said that as yet there were no guidelines to follow should hotels discover that they have a guest who has Aids.

What they should do for now is report the case to the Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and seek guidance, she said.

References[]

"More Aids talks for hotel staff likely", The New Paper, 30 November 1988[].

Acknowledgements[]

This article was archived by Roy Tan.

Archive of "More Aids talks for hotel staff likely", The New Paper, 30 November 1988

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