SARS SHUTS TORONTO SCHOOL, 6,400 IN QUARANTINE (Nurses' Calls Not Heeded!!!!!)

WashingtonPost ^ | May 28, 2003 | Rajiv Sekhri

[travelnurse]

SARS Shuts Toronto School, 6,400 in Quarantine Reuters Wednesday, May 28, 2003; 5:24 PM By Rajiv Sekhri TORONTO (Reuters) - Concern about SARS shut down a Toronto-area high school on Wednesday, sending staff and students into quarantine and raising fears the virus may have spread from hospitals to the broader community.

[dc-zoo]

The CDC doctor they flew back last weekend from Taiwan used protective gear which no doubt was the very best available and still became infected. Other doctors and nurses in china have used protective gear with sad results.

[travelnurse]

It wasn't until of late, when CanadianHealth/Govt./media got caught with their hands in the "cookie jar", so to speak, that the truth is starting to trickle out while at the same time reporting "come to Toronto, it's safe here, the disease is contained"... bla!, bla!, bla! all the time, still attempting to deceive the masses.

It's no secret that your PM, Canadian diplomats, and medical authorities pressured the WHO in Geneva personally ( of which your PM is a personal friend of the WHO doctor) to remove the travel ban against Canada, because of the economic impact it would have concerning Toronto,at the risk of your citizens health, your health-care workers, and further exporting SARS into the US, and only God knows where else.

[travelnurse]

The CDC doctor they flew back last weekend from Taiwan used protective gear which no doubt was the very best available and still became infected. Other doctors and nurses in china have used protective gear with sad results.

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Haven't seen a report about the CDC doctor, but Taiwan is in total epidemic and we (I) don't know all the circumstances of the visit. Also, I have seen pictures of the respirator masks the medical personnel were orginally using in Taiwan, and the were not adequate.

[travelnurse]

NYTimes Article excerpt - April 29, 2003

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had personally lobbied Dr. Brundtland, with whom he has had a warm relationship since her days as prime minister of Norway in the 1990's. Other Canadian cabinet ministers, diplomats and health officials have called Geneva and sent a barrage of medical papers and fact sheets to W.H.O. officials and technicians over the last week. W.H.O. officials privately said during the week that they had not previously felt so much political pressure.

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I'm hardly ignorant of the state sponsored media in Canada, and I would say from all the cover-ups that have been exposed in the American media, you are the one "bending, and skewing the truth". Stick to the facts, please.

[travelnurse]

Canada's Probable SARS Cases Rise, Could Reach 70
43 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
May 29, 2003

By Rajiv Sekhri

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's probable SARS (news - web sites) cases more than doubled on Thursday as the city changed how it counts cases of the deadly disease in line with World Health Organization (news - web sites) recommendations, and doctors warned the number could go as high as 70 in coming days.

Provincial medical officials reported 29 probable cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The number, revised to conform with WHO guidelines, is up from 12 on Wednesday, when there also were 20 suspect cases. Doctors are monitoring 107 patients for infection, up from 50 people.


Under the WHO definition, Toronto will now include patients with pneumonia whose cause cannot be adequately explained. The previous Health Canada recommendation on how to define probable SARS cases included only patients with a worsening respiratory illness.


Dr. Jim Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety, said it would have been better to classify cases as severe, moderate and mild.


"I think most of us would say that would be a whole lot easier than probable and suspect, which are probably about the two worst ways of describing this illness," he said.


Dr. Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, said the city could see probable case "numbers up in the 60s, 70s."


The flu-like illness, whose symptoms include high fever, dry cough and difficulty breathing, has killed 29 people in the Toronto area, the only place outside Asia to report deaths from SARS.


Low said he thinks the current outbreak of the deadly disease seems to have peaked. However, more than 7,000 people are in quarantine and 13 patients are in critical condition.


Canadian and U.S. health authorities are investigating reports that visitors from Toronto may have spread the disease to the United States, said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health. He did not give details.


D'Cunha said there was no evidence of transmission of the disease in the Toronto community and said he hoped the WHO would not recommend that travelers stay away from Toronto.


The number of SARS cases is one element examined by both the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control when they decide whether to issue travel advisories.


Among the factors that can trigger a WHO advisory are a large and rising number of cases -- 60 infectious cases plus five new cases a day -- coupled with a spread of SARS outside a hospital setting and the risk it is being exported to other countries.


"Hopefully, the WHO will not change our status. We have a problem that is identifiable. We can account for all the cases that we find, and I hope the WHO will look at that and give us credit for that," Low said.


The WHO put Toronto back on its list of SARS-affected areas earlier this week, after taking it off for 12 days, but stopped short of issuing a travel advisory.


Worldwide, there are about 8,300 SARS cases. The virus, which originated in southern China and has spread to 30 countries by travelers, has killed nearly 750 people.


In the Toronto area, a high school was shut on Wednesday sending 2,000 staff and students into quarantine after a student there showed SARS symptoms. A liquor store has also been shut down and its employees are in quarantine.


In Vancouver, British Columbia, health officials said on Thursday they had put two people into quarantine who had recently traveled to Asia and were displaying SARS-like symptoms.

[b4its2late]

Nurses are usually out of control anyway... ask any doctor.

 

 

 

 

 

Just kidding.....:-)

[b4its2late]

Incoming!!!!!!!!

 

 

I'm ducking.....:-)

[Lessismore]

A friend returning from another country received a leaflet at the airport warning him about traveling to the United States. That and other stories in the foreign media lead him to believe that other countries think that SARS is more prevalent in the United States than what is being admitted.

[travelnurse]

Just kidding.....:-)

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Ha!Ha!............LOL

[b4its2late]

Glad you have a sense of humor. Nurses are some of my best friends!

[Beenliedto]

The problem as I see it, is that the authorities don't know squat about SARS.

The problem, as I see it, is that the authorities are always, ever, in all instances, no matter how it affects us, forever and ever are trying...

to cover their asses.

[travelnurse]

Better your friend than enemy!!

You don't want to get on the wrong side of a nurse! We call the "shots."!! Ha!

[b4its2late]

You don't want to get on the wrong side of a nurse!

She (God I pray for a she...) has the last word in the end....

[travelnurse]

"Under the WHO definition, Toronto will now include patients with pneumonia whose cause cannot be adequately explained. The previous Health Canada recommendation on how to define probable SARS cases included only patients with a worsening respiratory illness."

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Any patient with pneumonia symptoms should automatically be suspect for SARS in an epidemic area. It took the W.H.O. to inform Health Canada of this???? No wonder they have an epidemic!!!

[Snowyman]

Your opinion is as close to mine as anyone else on this board. Hundreds of thousands commute in and out of Toronto every day. They do everyday things and go home at night .They'll do it all again tomorrow and never be in any danger from SARS.

I don't every day but I average maybe once a week. The traffic in TO will kill you 1000 times before SARS ever will.

I heard an interesting comment on TVO early on in the SARS fight. I can't remember who said it other than they were being interviewed. He said that OHIP couldn't win. If they beat SARS they would be accused of spending too much money and time to do it. If they didn't beat it, they'd be accused of not spending enough.

It's interesting that many think Ottawa is in control here , that Ottawa somehow rules what health care and what OHIP officials do. Or that people like Dr.Low report in before spilling the beans. Both of us know that's not true.

The health officials in Ontario have been talking since day one. When or where there is a silence , that's what scares the 'ell out of me!

[TaxRelief]

The Hong Kong evidence showed that of all the children infected including the 4 who attended with active symptoms, there was no spread.

[per loin]

Interesting. Do you have a source for that?

[TaxRelief]

Sars Reference Download the pdf file and go to the chapter on transmission (Actually it was 8 kids who went to school with active SARS). This is the book from Drs. Preiser and Drosten (who post to promedmail and who worked with the Hong Kong Specialist who had active SARS at the disease conference in NY). The book will be updated at the beginning of June and once a month after that.

[TaxRelief]

Copyright laws require you to post links with articles. Also good to address all full articles to Admin Moderator say they can monitor for copyright violations.

[patriciaruth]

the M.D. refused because he did not want to "subject" his patient to it. Hello???? He won, the nurses lost

I probably wasn't very popular among the nursing staff because I was very demanding about the care of my patients; but I told the nurses on more than one occasion that their safety always came first, to call me if they needed any special orders, or even to write orders with my name and tell me about it later if the threat was urgent, like a dangerous, unruly patient.