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

Return to Vaccination News Home Page

Subscribe to the Vaccination NewsLetter

View past & current Scandals (columns by Sandy Mintz)

Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

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.”

Return to Vaccination News Home Page

DISCLAIMER: All information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in consultation with your health care provider.