All that rain we get out this way must just wash the little SARS critters away?
West coast may have lucky hand in Canada's SARS draw
VANCOUVER (AFP) - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS (news - web sites)) is a puzzle in this west coast city, nicknamed Canada's "lotus land."
Like its eastern sister Toronto, Vancouver has a huge Asian population, and its residents constantly travel to and from China, where SARS originated in November.
Yet, while SARS hit hard in Toronto, Canada's largest city, Vancouver so far has few cases and no deaths.
Two of the four people with probable cases here have recovered and been sent home, and the two patients still in hospital are improving.
Since March, there have been 60 suspect cases, from which at least 40 people have recovered, according to British Columbia's provincial health office.
By contrast, Toronto, the provincial capital of Ontario, this week had a travel advisory imposed on it by the World Health Organization (news - web sites) and is the epicenter for the 20 SARS-linked deaths in Canada.
With the death of a 77-year-old man, the number of probale SARS cases rose in Ontario to 269, including three reported Friday.
Health authorities here downplay all suggestions that they handled SARS better than Toronto, and they are quick to suggest that Vancouver has been blessed by good fortune.
"It's a matter of luck," said John Blatherwick, chief medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
Blatherwick noted that the elderly woman in Toronto to whom all city cases can be traced back died March 5 at home before being diagnosed.
Her family members, who were subsequently infected, caused a chain reaction of infections when they visited a local Scarborough hospital, infecting health care workers and other patients.
Since none of them had visited Asia, they were not considered to be at risk of an avian flu in Hong Kong and China for which the World Health Organization issued an alert on March 12.
Toronto's chief medical officer, Sheela Basrur, said the higher incidence in Toronto was a mixture of "bad luck and worse timing."
On the other hand, the so-called "index" case in Vancouver, a 55-year-old man who returned from Asia, was admitted to Vancouver General Hospital on March 6 before infecting others, as officials were already looking for such flu-like symptoms after issuing two alerts of their own in February.
Emergency room doctor Tom Lee was aware of the health advisories, and because the man's symptoms were similar to the flu, he was quickly put into isolation.
"Vancouver's emergency room was very sharp with the first case here," said Blatherwick, adding that it was fortunate health authorities were also able to isolate everyone the man had previously come into contact with.
"It's partly luck and partly preparation," said Robert Brunham, medical director of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, which issued the alerts.
"We have a very functional public health system for controlling diseases."
Vancouver's situation could change on a dime, of course.
On Friday, authorities were still trying to locate 250 people who arrived April 19 on a China Airlines flight from New Delhi and Taipei.
Since landing in Vancouver, 10 people on the flight fell ill with some of the symptoms of SARS, such as cough, high fever and gastrointestinal problems.
Two are in hospital, and people who came in contact with them, including 42 health care workers in local suburbs, are being monitored under voluntary quarantine at home.
Another mystery remains how a nurse became infected while caring for a SARS patient at Royal Columbian Hospital in the nearby suburb of New Westminster.
Although the woman wore the recommended mask, gloves and gown, she became so ill with probable SARS that she remains in Vancouver's Saint Paul's Hospital.
Still, local health authorities are so confident they have SARS under control that British Columbia's health minister offered to help out Toronto's health care system. |
