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No I will stand corrected on the basis that SARS cases appeared in both nations at the same time. I was of the impression the first US cases appeared about a month after the Toronto case but I have not followed it in detail.

Apparently.

Initial cases appeared in both countries around March 15.

University of Waterloo SARS update

If you have a fever, cough or chest cold AND: one of the following visited Scarborough Grace Hospital OR York Central Hospital after March 16; (the initial Canadian case was at SGH)Update: Outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome --- Worldwide, 2003

United States. As of March 26, CDC has received 51 reports of suspected SARS cases from 21 states (Table), identified using the CDC updated interim case definition (Box (Figure 2). The first suspected case was identified on March 15, in a man aged 53 years who traveled to Singapore and became ill on March 10.

Sorry, I meant to ping you to post 57 that disputes the assertion the SARS in Canada is "merely in an advanced stage". As you can see, the disease appeared in both countries at about the same time. (MMWR is a good resource for SARS info).

February 28th: Kwan Sui-Chu, having recently returned from Hong Kong, goes to her doctor in Scarborough complaining of fever, coughing, muscle tenderness, all the symptoms of the by now several ProMed alerts. As is traditional in Canada, the patient is prescribed an antibiotic and sent home.

Not to be picky about the dates but I believe this was probably the index case for Toronto. Now I have no idea if this strain of SARS has mutated into something more virulent or more contagious than the strains reported in the USA. I really have not been actively following this subject but please correct me when I am wrong. There is no definitive estimation of how contagious this virus is. It has a mortality rate somewhere between 1% and 16%. It seems Canada has turned the corner in many ways regarding new occurences of SARS. It seems the USA has implemented enough good measures so that we are not suffering any deaths from it yet All I have been trying to state is that perhaps our medical system might occaisionally miss diagnose a patient in the emergency room or leave someone to wait for traetment/diagnosis. Human nature being what it is sometimes the lazy diagnosis is what is used.