SARS Text Alerts reactivated

Hong Kong mobile operator Sunday Communications is offering it's subscribers SMS text alerts enabling them to locate infected SARS areas; buildings or neighbourhoods where people are known to be infected with SARS. A service launched initially in April 2003.

Wired reports that "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".

Sounds like 2003 all over again. For more on SMS alerts, rumors and hoaxes that were part of the SARS outbreak last year, check out this category in Textually.org.

emily | 9:32 PM | SMS and SARS |
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