Canada battles latest SARS setback
Canadian officials have conceded that precautions at Toronto hospitals were not enough to prevent new SARS infections, while Japanese doctors in Taiwan today examined whether the outbreak on the developed island might mean that Japan is also at risk.
Hong Kong researchers said a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome developed with their mainland Chinese counterparts was ready for testing on animals, with results expected in six months.
Since emerging in November in southern China, the virus has infected more than 8,200 people worldwide. Taiwan today reported 11 new cases and four deaths, bringing the global death toll to at least 729.
The vast majority of cases have been in Asia where fears of the illness have led to a severe downturn in tourism. The largest outbreaks have been on China’s mainland and in its territory Hong Kong, followed by Taiwan.
Two Japanese doctors were in Taiwan to study why SARS spread so quickly in what is economically developed society similar to Japan’s. Japan has no confirmed SARS cases but is concerned the virus could hit there next.
“We are standing in the same boat,” one of the visiting physicians, Hiroshi Noguchi of Narita Red Cross Hospital, said after arriving yesterday.
China has been reporting falling numbers of new cases, especially in its hard-hit capital, though the World Health Organisation says it is too early to declare China’s outbreak under control.
Beijing officials have warned repeatedly against relaxing preventive measures.
WHO put Canada’s largest city back on its list of SARS-affected places, after health officials there reported eight new cases and 26 suspected cases in clusters linked to four hospitals.
The WHO did not recommend any travel restrictions for the city, but the US Centres for Disease Control has issued a travel alert for Canada, a step short of advising against unnecessary travel there.
Toronto health authorities were scrambling to limit any further possible spread while investigating how the new cases slipped through upgraded monitoring.
They re-imposed strict controls on hospitals – closing those where the new cases were found to new patients and limiting access to emergency rooms in all others, with staff required to wear protective masks and gowns and take the temperature of anyone entering.
“What it tells us at the moment is that there is a failure in our system of management,” said Dr Allison McGeer, head of infection control of Mount Sinai Hospital who has recovered from SARS she contracted in the early days of Toronto’s initial outbreak in March.
Yuen Kwok-yung, head of the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Microbiology, said that an activated strain of SARS coronavirus was now ready to be tested in animals as a tentative vaccine.
The preliminary results will be known in six months, but there were no plans at present for human testing, he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, scientists at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute said they had developed a test that detects the presence of SARS antibodies, or a sign that people have been infected with the virus.
The blood test would enable doctors to determine whether a patient showing the typical, flu-like symptoms of a high fever, cough and sore throat was actually suffering from SARS, the institute said.
In Singapore, officials said visitor arrivals fell 73% in the first three weeks of May, but the city-state’s tourism chief predicted that business would recover in June if there are no new SARS cases.
