- TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto
doctors said on Wednesday they were mystified by how the SARS virus spreads
after a U.S. man caught it while visiting a ward in a Toronto geriatric
hospital thought to be free of the deadly illness.
-
- Infection-control specialists said the baffling transmission
could be the first of its kind in Toronto. And after teams here battled
SARS for three months, the outbreak also heightens fear and confusion as
they probe 12 new possible SARS cases just east of the city.
-
- A North Carolina man developed SARS more than a week
after he left Toronto in mid-May. A patient in the same room the American
had visited was later diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The patient had been transferred to the geriatric hospital on May 15 from
a Toronto facility where the SARS virus had lingered unnoticed for two
weeks.
-
- What is puzzling, doctors say, is why the transferred
patient who had been exposed to the virus didn't show even mild SARS symptoms
-- high fever, difficulty in breathing, dry cough -- and how he could have
spread the virus to the U.S. visitor but not other patients and nurses.
-
- "It defies imagination as to what happened,"
said Dr. Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto,
who is one of the leaders in the battle against SARS.
-
- "I think we have to accept the fact that (the U.S.
visitor) got SARS in Toronto and that most likely he got it in a health-care
facility because that is where he visited, and there happened to be SARS
cases that eventually showed up in the same room," Low said in an
interview.
-
- "But we don't feel comfortable putting the whole
story together with what we know about this disease to date," Low
said, adding that the SARS outbreak is the "most unusual and difficult
challenge" he has faced in his 25 years of combating infectious diseases.
-
- Dr. Alan Bernstein, president of the Canadian Institutes
of Health Research (CIHR), said it is difficult to build a "scientific
story" around one such case.
-
- But he said a transmission such as this raises questions
about whether the quarantine should be raised from 10 days for those who
may have been exposed to the virus and the need for more sensitive testing.
-
- There is no diagnostic test for SARS yet and no vaccine.
-
- The disease has killed 33 people in the Toronto area,
the only place outside of Asia hit hard by the virus, which originated
in southern China and has spread to about 30 countries through travelers.
-
- Health officials on Wednesday were planning to send up
to a 1,000 people in Whitby, east of Toronto, into quarantine after 12
patients at dialysis clinic developed SARS-like symptoms. Officials are
investigating this new possible cluster, which, if confirmed, would be
the Toronto area's third outbreak of SARS. The first one lasted from mid-March
to mid-April.
-
- The disease resurfaced in late May, more than a month
after no new case had been reported, crushing hopes the city had the virus
under control.
-
- Doctors are still learning more about the virus but say
more research is needed.
-
- Dr. Bhagirath Singh, scientific director of the CIHR's
Institute of Infection and Immunity, said: "We are learning the virus
can survive three hours, and now people believe it can survive up to three
days. Do we have answers? The answer is, no."
-
- Worldwide, SARS has killed about 780 people and infected
more than 8,400. In the Toronto area, where more than 4 million people
live, there are 64 probable SARS cases. Twenty three people were in critical
condition on Tuesday and another 260 were being monitored for infection.
-
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Frances
- 6-11-3
-
- Welll duh.... Lessee now.... This geriatric ward, is
INside the hospital right? And we are assuming it's NOT right beside the
front door (as most aren't). So we have to go down corridors and maybe
open a few doors along the way and perhaps go upstairs or take an elevator
(both of which have things we normally touch to use - ie: handrails or
buttons) and then there's more corridors and doors to open etc... Til finally
we arrive at the room in question. None of these surfaces would have SARS
on them though cuz we know the virus dies the moment it leaves the body
right? Yeah BS. How many weeks or days is it that it survives on surfaces
outside the body? Forgot.... But duh.... I swear to God I don't know how
any of these people got degrees in anything let alone medicine!
|
