120 new SARS cases does not mean a new outbreak, say health officials
HELEN BRANSWELL
Canadian Press
Thursday, June 19, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - Public health officials were quick to ease fears Thursday that there could be a simmering new SARS cluster after revelations that 120 people are under review to determine if they had the disease in the early days of its arrival in Canada.
"They do not represent a new outbreak or a new cluster of SARS cases," Dr. James Young, Ontario's public safety commissioner, told a news conference. "These people are not a new group and there is good evidence that they did not spread the disease in any way."
The 120 aren't on the list of Canada's probable or suspect SARS cases, but may actually have had the disease back in March, testing done by Health Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory has shown.
Experts said earlier this week that it's crucial to find the individuals and figure out whether they actually had SARS in March and whether they have spread it to others.
The Winnipeg lab, in conjunction with Ontario officials and public health authorities in the locations where the individuals live, has begun a study to track down the people, their doctors and their contacts to ensure that other SARS cases aren't percolating, undetected, in Toronto and other southern Ontario communities.
Young said the people in question had a variety of symptoms in the very early days of the province's first SARS outbreak, when public health officials still weren't certain exactly what they were dealing with.
"This disease is very difficult because it starts just like everything else," Young said.
"What their symptoms were at the time, what their symtoms are now - we're trying to learn as much as we can because it might contribute to the overall understanding of SARS."
Public health officials are now being extremely vigilant, he said, after three months of the "new normal" of dealing with SARS.
"We continue to treat anyone with SARS-like symptoms as SARS unless proven otherwise," Young said.
One of the puzzling positive test results that the Winnipeg lab has turned up was for a woman from Belleville, about two-hours drive east of Toronto. Another was for a man from the Grey Bruce area, north of Toronto, who had been listed as a suspect SARS case in March.
The man, who had been believed to have contracted SARS in Singapore, was eventually struck from the list when it was found he had influenza B, which could have caused his symptoms.
But the Winnipeg lab recently informed his local medical officer of health that the man probably had SARS as well.
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press