Possible SARS case in Ottawa hospital

CBC ^

[I'll be your Huckleberry]

OTTAWA - A health-care worker is under observation at the Ottawa Hospital for possibe exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This staff member works in the emergency department at the hospital's General campus.

INDEPTH: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome The hospital's chief of staff, Dr. Chris Carruthers, is concerned the worker might have been exposed to an undiagnosed case, a suspected SARS patient who had been at the emergency department 15 days ago. That same patient was later identified as a possible SARS case in Toronto.

When the Ottawa Hospital found that out yesterday, Dr. Carruthers says inquiries were made among emergency staff at the General campus.

Doctor Carruthers says anyone who visited the emergency department of the hospital, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, or from 7 p.m. last Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday, should contact health authorities. If feeling sick, she or he should not go to work or school, but call the health department immediately at 724-4222.

[GirlShortstop]

 
I don't understand... Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Toronto's problem was under control.  Could he be wrong!?  
Have another Mad Cow burger Jean!

[TBall]

I hope Canada gets this under control!

[jacquej]

Boy, TBall, I do too, because if they do, then we here in the US stand a chance to learn from their experience when it hits hard here in the US!

My prayers go out to our neighbors to the north, may you all be successful in this battle against a poorly understood emerging and dangerous virus!

[Dog Gone]

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[GirlShortstop]

 

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[twigs]

So do I. Half of my small office heads to Toronto in several weeks for a conference. I'm going to take almost all of my vacation time to avoid being here during the incubation period when they return. I have an asthmatic child at home and don't want to take any chances.

[jacquej]

Twigs! You might want to print out the article on the New England Journal of Medicine's site linked here...

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/348/20/e6

and take it to your co-workers, expressing concern. Please note the sentence in the second paragraph indicating that people can be "infective" even though they are not showing any symptoms yet, but are still incubating the illness.

[twigs]

Thank you SO much for this article. I have already printed it out and will give it to my boss. He's to go too and has expressed some concern. Maybe I can get him to reconsider.

[aristeides]

Maybe cretin knew what he was doing when he left for his two-week jaunt in Europe. If he continues making those wacky statements, he may never have to come back.

[Domestic Church]

So for fifteen days this HCW has been incubating and spreading SARS in the ER and in the city at large...much like the laundry man in the Taiwan hospital did.

Looks like we're not going to have to wait until the fall after all!

[aristeides]

Ottawa named Toronto's backup garbage dump.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Nurse friend of mine here says the disease is VERY serious. I don't think the U.S. public has a realization yet. I've posted here: Click here. about how to perhaps salvage once financial situation if it does hit and got flamed. I quit.

[Domestic Church]

Why the heck were they bringing their trash into the US in the first place?!

Now that Ottawa has SARS (just a matter of time for an explosion of cases) who's going to be their back up?

[aristeides]

Later report: Ottawa investigates nurse for possible SARS. The Toronto woman came to the Ottawa ER on May 14, when SARS was supposedly nonexistent in Toronto. The woman is only a "suspected" case, but, if she really has SARS, I wonder how she caught it in Toronto. If she's a Toronto health-care worker (or a member of the family of a Toronto health-care worker,) would she be going to an ER in Ottawa?

[per loin]

If the Canadians had paid closer attention to the course of the epidemic in Hong Kong, they might have been much slower to post their "all clear" notices. Almost a month ago (May 4) HK got down to single digits in daily cases. Since then, on every day except one they have recorded a few new cases. Unfortunately, I've not seen any detailed reporting on the transmission paths of these new cases, but the implications for how difficult it is to get to "all clear" are obvious.

[InShanghai]

There is tons of speculation that this is a bioweapon. How sure are you on this and what caused you to conclude that it actually is a bioweapon?

From all of the data that I've seen, it's very likely a virus that has mutated and passed on from animals to people. Has the possibility of this just passed over everyone's heads?

[Centurion2000]

Boom .... there it blooms into Ottawa. 15 days in an ER room ? Secondary and tertiary infections are probably incubating already.

[blam]

"From all of the data that I've seen, it's very likely a virus that has mutated and passed on from animals to people. Has the possibility of this just passed over everyone's heads?"

No. I believe it is occuring naturally.