A new coronavirus, which emerged in December from China, has drawn comparison to the 2003 outbreak of SARS.
Here, Global News looks at how SARS affected Torontonians nearly 20 years ago:
What is SARS?
The SARS coronavirus, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is thought to be a virus from an animal reservoir that spread to other animals and first infected humans in Guangdong, China in 2002, according to the World Health Organization.
The epidemic resulted in more than 8,000 cases in 2003 and affected 26 countries, one of which was Canada.
In Canada, there were 438 probable and suspect SARS cases reported, which included 44 deaths.
Start of the virus and its transmission to Toronto
SARS first infected humans in the Guangdong province in southern China in 2002.
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A 65-year-old doctor, who had treated atypical pneumonia patients in Guangdong, travelled to Hong Kong to attend his nephew’s wedding. When he checked into the hotel he was staying at, he didn’t feel well. The doctor ended up infecting at least 12 others from several different countries, including a 78-year-old Canadian woman.
The woman returned to Toronto from Hong Kong on Feb. 23, 2003. Two days after she got back home, she developed a high fever. She visited her family doctor five days later, and by that time, she was also complaining of muscle aches and a dry cough.
The woman’s condition continued to deteriorate, and she died at home on March 5, 2003. Two days later, her 44-year-old son went to the Scarborough Hospital, Grace Division’s emergency department to complain of a high fever, a severe cough and difficulty breathing.
The man was kept in the open observation ward of the emergency department for 18 to 20 hours, but by the next day, his condition had deteriorated significantly, and he was admitted to intensive care.
The woman’s son died on March 13, 2003, and by this time, several other family members were also sick.
“It was then clear that there was a cluster of illness in that family, and at about the same time, the outbreak was recognized in Hong Kong,” said Allison McGeer, an infectious disease consultant at Sinai Health System, who was at the forefront of the Toronto outbreak.
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On March 12, 2003, the World Health Organization issued a global alert about “cases of atypical pneumonia.”
In Toronto, the virus continued to spread to others, including hospital staff
Public health response
On March 13, 2003, Health Canada was notified of the Toronto cluster.
SARS continued to spread throughout the Scarborough Hospital, which led to it closing its emergency and intensive care services on March 23 and to refusing new patients and transfers from other hospitals. Anyone who entered the hospital after March 16 was asked to adhere to a 10-day home quarantine.
On March 25, 2003, the Ontario government designated SARS as a reportable, communicable and virulent disease under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, which allowed public health officials to track infected people and issue orders to prevent them from engaging in activities that might transmit the illness.
2:25 What the coronavirus is, and is Canada ready for it?
What the coronavirus is, and is Canada ready for it?
One day later, Ontario’s then-premier Ernie Eves declared SARS a provincial emergency. Overnight, the province’s ministry of health and long-term care required all hospitals to create units to care for SARS patients. The province also activated its multi-ministry provincial operations centre for emergency response.
All hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area and Simcoe County were instructed to activate “Code Orange” emergency plans, which meant that the involved hospitals suspend non-essential services.
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They were also required to limit visitors, create isolation units for possible SARS patients and to implement protective clothing for exposed staff. Four days later, officials implemented the access restrictions on all hospitals in Ontario.
Looking back and forward
Looking at Toronto’s 2003 SARS outbreak, McGeer said officials got a lot of things right in the sense that they were able to control it.
“They clearly did enough right things to control the outbreak,” McGeer said. “Some of the things that were done were not necessary, but there was no way of knowing at the time that they were not necessary.”
According to the doctor, one thing that wasn’t necessary was quarantine.
“When we learned more about the disease, it turns out that SARS is among the unusual infections that was not infectious before people got sick,” McGeer said.
“Retrospectively, we needn’t have quarantined all of those people who were exposed.”
McGeer said officials could have just told people who exhibited SARS symptoms to separate themselves from others.
Another thing that was unnecessary, according to the doctor, was the extent of hospital closures. If officials had data on likely patterns of spread between hospitals, they probably could have managed a different system that would’ve resulted in less hospitals being closed, causing less of a disruption to general care, McGeer said.
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“These are not things where I would say the government should not have done them, but with the wisdom of hindsight, now that we’ve had the chance to look at it afterwards, you can say we didn’t need to do them,” McGeer added.
0:40 A background on the coronavirus and its symptoms
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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