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June 16, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Canadian Health Officials Solve Part of Mystery of SARS Return”

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (06/16/03) P. B3; Cherney, Elena

Health officials in Toronto say that a missed case of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in an elderly patient, who was exposed in mid-March, spread to North York General Hospital and restarted a wave of the disease after it had tapered off.  The cluster existed for nearly two months before doctors recognized it, and officials say that the discovery of the link is a step towards proving to the World Health Organization

(WHO) that SARS is under control in Toronto.  WHO spokesman Dick Thompson noted that the illness of a man who went home to North Carolina after being exposed to SARS in a geriatric hospital in Toronto brought concerns about the effectiveness of the effort to trace contacts.  “One [missed] case says a lot about contact tracing,” Thompson said.  “Potential cases should be aware they have been exposed.”