Just FYI, I have no idea who is right:
WHO says Vancouver not hit by new SARS outbreak
Fri Aug 15,10:39 AM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - The World Health Organisation stressed that a spate of respiratory infections in Canada was not an outbreak of the SARS (news - web sites) virus but acknowledged it had raised many unanswered questions.
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Reuters
Slideshow: SARS
"As the Canadian health authorities made very clear yesterday, and as we would underline, this is not an outbreak of SARS," WHO spokesman Iain Simpson told reporters.
"The disease SARS is defined by case definition, and a case definition involves a high fever, breathing difficulties, supported by X-ray findings of the lungs," he added.
"None of the people in this home who have had respiratory illness meet that clinical definition," he said.
Canadian health officials said Thursday that three senior citizens had died from respiratory problems in British Columbia.
The infections struck an old people's home in a suburb of Vancouver, Simpson said, adding that about 97 out of 140 residents and 46 staff had shown respiratory symptoms.
Laboratory tests initially came back negative but eventually a test result showed the presence of the virus that causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), he said.
There had been 10 positive results for the SARS virus, he added.
"We don't believe this is an outbreak of SARS but the local authorities in Vancouver are taking a very conservative approach, they are being careful to isolate this facility," Simpson said.
The Geneva-based WHO is working closely with authorities in Vancouver.
"There are many questions that we don't have answers to at the moment about what exactly this is, whether it is possible, for example, that this is a milder form of SARS than we have seen before, we just don't know," Simpson added.
An outbreak of SARS that began last November struck down more than 8,000 people and left more than 800 dead in 32 countries. |
