Canadian bureaucrats argue it's too soon to suggest SARS has spread

London Free Press ^ | June 17, 2003 | HELEN BRANSWELL, CP

[CobaltBlue]

TORONTO -- Test results on a man who died at an Oshawa hospital early this month show evidence he may have been infected with SARS. But officials said yesterday it was too soon to suggest SARS had spread to another hospital in the region because testing of specimens produced conflicting findings.

If it turns out this is a case of severe acute respiratory syndrome, it will raise many questions about how the man contracted the disease. He was known to have been in close proximity to two SARS patients at the hospital, but died too soon after contact for them to have been the source of his infection -- if indeed he was infected, said Dr. Don Atkinson, chief of staff for Lakeridge Health, which runs the Oshawa hospital.

"Neither we nor public health have been able to identify a patient that would have been involved in transmission (to the man)."

If this case turns out to be SARS, it will be a disappointing turn of events in the otherwise good news story of the cluster of suspicious respiratory illness in Whitby and Oshawa.

Last week, a group of patients in a dialysis clinic and residents of two seniors' homes were placed under investigation when word of a cluster of respiratory ailments surfaced. Local SARS experts feared the worst, suggesting Toronto was about to embark on a punishing third round of SARS. But by yesterday, those fears had been all but put to rest.

"Tests of ill residents have determined that the cause of respiratory illness . . . was not SARS," said Dr. Donna Reynolds, associate medical officer of health for Durham Region.

In addition, while one dialysis patient from Whitby and one health-care worker from Oshawa are still under investigation, all the others have been cleared.

That news comes when public health authorities in Toronto are growing confident the city's second SARS outbreak is tailing off.

There have been no new probable cases reported since June 8 when two were reported, household contacts of health-care workers exposed at North York General Hospital, the epicentre of SARS 2. A suspect case of the disease -- again a household contact of a health-care worker -- was reported on June 11.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

- Health officials suspect a Bulgarian man who lives permanently in Toronto could be infected with SARS, Bulgaria's state news agency BTA said. The 40- year-old man was taken yesterday to the infectious diseases department of a hospital in the Black Sea city of Burgas, his doctor, Kosta Bakardzhiev, told the news agency. The patient, who wasn't identified, lives in Toronto. He arrived in Bulgaria in early June after a visit to Pakistan.

- Almost 40 people on the fringes of North Carolina's SARS scare remained quarantined as a precaution yesterday, although health officials said the danger of the disease is steadily dropping. One man who was confirmed to have contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome while on a visit to Toronto was released from isolation over the weekend. A man who worked in the same building as the SARS victim died on Friday.

[CobaltBlue]

Dr. Henry Niman is now posting on my SARS blog. He calls the recent Toronto outbreak "CARS":

>>After SARS comes CARS. It seems that Toronto has been struck with another epidemic. This time its CARS (Confusing Acute Respiratory Syndrome aka Conflicting Acute Respiratory Syndrome). It is a fatal disease very similar to SARS but requires a "confused" or "conflicted" statement by a physician, researcher, or elected official.

The "confused" part requires multiple PCR tests. If a patient tests positive repeatedly for SARS CoV, additional tests are run until "conflicting" results are obtained, followed by a confused or conflicted statement. See below for an example.

The treatment for CARS is a SARS epidemic (SARS clusters are no longer effective), which forces physicians, researchers, or government officials to reclassify CARS patients to SARS patients.<<
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=19037659

[trebb]

So, the enlightened neighbor to the North would rather risk another outbreak and numerous deaths than aggressively pursue the possibility. Since the guy "died too soon" it seems that they just might consider that it's possible that there are more dangerous undertones to SARS.

[CobaltBlue]

More evidence that Canadian health officials are downplaying the significance of clinical SARS cases. Now they're ordering repeated tests when positive tests come back, hoping for negatives so they can say the results are "conflicting."

[CobaltBlue]

ping

[CobaltBlue]

Another by Dr. Niman:

>>The fatal Oshawa case is added to three fatal Rogue Valley cases in which the patient died and tests for the virus were positive "at least once". The Oshawa patient tested positive in 2 or 4 samples. Earlier

http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2003/06/...

"The deaths have not been added to Canada's official SARS death toll, which remained at 30, but three of the four tested positive at least once for the coronavirus that's believed to cause SARS. "

Usually if 3/4 tested positive "at least once" then one or more has tested positive 2 or more times, yet they are still "under investigation" and have not been classified as SARS or SARS deaths.<<
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/msg.gsp?msgid=19037026

[Prince Charles]

Doc Niman is spot on -- the only thing that's conflicted in this case are the Canuck bureaucrats who are trying to sweep this under the rug.

I wonder what Dr. Donald Low has to say? He's been the only honest broker up there in Sarsville.

[Prince Charles]

More evidence that Canadian health officials are downplaying the significance of clinical SARS cases. Now they're ordering repeated tests when positive tests come back, hoping for negatives so they can say the results are "conflicting."

Kinda like the way politicians and leftist media use polls -- they commission pollsters to keep polling until they come up with one with the results that suit their needs.

[EternalHope]

Good info, good thread.

The Canadian government is lying.

[aristeides]

Ping for the truth.

[vetvetdoug]

I predict, on this day, June 17,2003, that we are seeing the calm before the storm. This is going to break loose with a vengence. My opinion from reading the data that has been put forth by the Canadians.

[Betty Jo]

Canada and the whole world is misdiagnosing SARS as mycoplasma P.

It will be too late when they do all the re-testing.

Whenever the patient has pneumonia, SARS may be the cause,but other baddies are taking the rap in many cases.

We are still being denied the truth.

Has anyone read of the final autopsy results of the sailor who was thought to have anthrax in Brazil?

How about the Filipino sailors of the Nordic Explorer who were sickened by Mycoplasma P.?

What about the third man in North Carolina?

What about the man in this article?

If there is a way to say its not SARS it will be done.

[Betty Jo]

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/

click on "Local Man Had SARS"

The man was first diagnosed as having Influenza B.

He did.

He also had SARS.

Now, 3,000 people will be re-tested for SARS.

[TaxRelief]

Great find. Clearly, there is considerable risk when SARS is ruled out because the patient tests positive for another condition.

People the man came in contact with were quarantined “and they stayed faithfully. As long as he was sick, they were very, very careful, which is probably why we didn’t get any spread (of the disease locally). But we didn’t do lab work on them because they weren’t sick.”

Thank God, they followed SARS protocol even after they found out he had influenza B. Do you suppose they'll go back and test his quarantined aquaintances?

[Betty Jo]

Hopefully the 3,000 will include everyone.

It sure seems like mass confusion is running the show.

If it cant be diagnosed correctly, and other diseases are actually found,and no one knows who has SARS, and no one knows how severe the SARS will be, I say we dont know very much.

Thousands of people going off quarantine is not a good idea.

[EternalHope]

Since SARS has such a major effect on the immune system, it is reasonable to expect many secondary infections. Misdiagnosis is easy. Unfortunately, SARS is so difficult to confirm with testing that the "retesting" proposed in the article you linked may miss it even if it is there.

Personally, I do not think we will see anything definitive on SARS until this fall when the traditional cold/flu season arrives. Right now we just don't know.

It could be minor, but any informed person knows it has the potential to be major. We don't know the odds, but prudence dictates we should prepare on a "just in case" basis. There is not a lot individuals can do, but the government should be stockpiling things like N95 masks. They are not very expensive, but running out would be bad.

[fatima]

bump

[jacquej]

I like Niman's wry sense of humor. He is pretty observant about SARS, and has stated that he thinks it has spread beyond the hospitals populations into the general public, and worries about next fall, if I read him right.

[blam]

Tagging along bump.