Marc Flemming
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Concern about SARS shut down a Toronto-area high school on Wednesday, sending staff and students into quarantine and raising fears the virus may have spread from hospitals to the broader community.
More than 6,400 people, including 2,000 from the school, are now in quarantine in greater Toronto after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome resurfaced six days ago.
Before then, Toronto had thought it had beaten the disease -- no new cases were reported from mid-April to mid-May.
Health officials said a student at the school, located just north of Toronto, appeared to have symptoms of SARS, and that prompted the quarantine call. One of the student's parents worked at Toronto's North York General Hospital, epicenter of the latest outbreak.
"The risk of getting SARS in this kind of setting (a school) is very low," said Dr. Murray McQuigge, a physician in the region where the high school is located.
"We are not aware of any other student in this school who is symptomatic right now."
The Toronto area is the only place outside Asia where people have died of SARS. There have been 27 deaths around Toronto and there are 12 probable cases now.
Doctors say six patients are in critical condition and they are monitoring about 30 more people for infection.
"In retrospect, we think we let our guard down too early," said Dr. Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the leaders in Toronto's fight against SARS.
Doctors think the virus lingered in hospital wards for weeks and infected nurses, patients and visitors after the authorities eased rules on wearing masks and gloves.
Nurses this week said they had noticed patients with SARS-like symptoms after the rules were relaxed, but doctors and hospital administrators did not listen.
"Unfortunately, they were not taken seriously," Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told Reuters, describing it as "ridiculous" that no one paid attention.
"This is not the first time in the history of this profession in this country or another when nurses speak with expertise and are not listened to. This has to stop."
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Toronto's problem was under control.
"This is not a problem that is serious ... It is not dangerous to travel to Toronto at all," Chretien told a news conference in Athens, Greece, after a summit between Canada and the European Union.
His aides said Chretien had not been aware of the possible outbreak in the school when he made his comments.
The World Health Organization this week put Toronto back on its list of SARS-affected areas after 12 days off that hook. But the U.N. agency stopped short of recommending that travelers avoid Toronto.
Worldwide, SARS has killed nearly 750 people and infected more than 8,200. The virus, which originated in China's Guangdong province, produces symptoms that include a high fever, dry cough and difficulty in breathing.
Source: Reuters
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05-28-2003 09:18 PM
