Now, after all that has been said and done about SARS, we will have to deal with the real problem of meeting a recovered SARS patient at one's work place or on the bus - face to face.

It seems to be the case that when one is ill, he or she receives sympathy and good care but when cured, the sympathy and care suddenly evaporate, giving way to fear and discrimination. For SARS patients who have struggled to pull through the disease, their pain is far from over. It is neither "the end of the beginning" nor "the beginning of the end" for them.

A recovered SARS patient in Guangzhou is reported to be on the verge of being fired from his job because of the disease. Another former SARS victim, interviewed on CCTV, confessed to feeling frightened about being released from the hospital because of the expected discrimination. Many children of recovered SARS patients, although confirmed safe, are estranged.

There are two emotional elements here that we must distinguish: fear and discrimination. Not all is discrimination as alleged by some commentators. A large part of the estrangement is due to fear of the unknown disease itself. People are unsure whether the ex-patients have really recovered and are no longer different from us.

In response to fear, the government's public health authorities should intervene by issuing special health cards so as to confirm, officially and authoritatively, the safe status of recovered SARS patients and let the public know that they are no longer risks as sources of a possible epidemic.

But of all the fears, there is one form of discrimination that we cannot afford to overlook - depriving recovered SARS patients of their right to work cannot be justified by fear.

Labour laws and regulations must be invoked to protect the right of employment or right to education of all recovered SARS patients.

But is law or government confirmation enough? Maybe not. Working in an office where even a fly on the wall will not talk to you makes for a terrible working day.

It is unfortunate that many modern people have a healthier body than a healthy mind.

Discrimination is an unfortunate marriage of excessive fear and other human irrationalities. It causes damage to individuals and society as a whole.

To improve the situation, we need a rational and scientific mentality towards the disease. Up till now, scientific reports have confirmed that there is no possibility of recovered SARS patients spreading the disease.

Then someone asks how could you know that he or she is fully recovered and would not spread the disease? And how can one be sure that the government will not make mistakes by wrongly releasing the not-yet-recovered patient? If we insist on such suspicions, we might as well stop using the government-authorized sterilizer but make it ourselves.

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