SARS outbreak traced to sealed ward

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> http://www.canada.com/national/features/sars/story.html?id=D3B9B038-DCF6-457E-

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>

> SARS outbreak traced to sealed ward

> 30 new cases verified; U.S. experts to help unravel mystery

>

> Tom Blackwell

> CanWest News Service

>

>

> Monday, May 26, 2003

> TORONTO -- Hundreds more Toronto-area residents were directed into

> quarantine yesterday as Ontario health officials confirmed officially

> that more than 30 people have likely contracted SARS in a new and

> mysterious outbreak.

>

> Authorities warned that a fourth hospital may have been contaminated and

> said U.S. experts were once again heading to Toronto, this time to help

> determine how the latest cluster of cases started.

>

> The outbreak, which festered undetected for a month, has been traced

> back to an elderly surgical patient at Toronto's North York General

> Hospital. But how he got the disease is still a nagging question.

>

> North York's eighth-floor SARS ward has treated numerous cases, but was

> supposed to be well sealed from other areas.

>

> " One of the things I've always said is that hospitals are safe for

> people outside of SARS units, and I really mean that, " Dr. Don Low,

> chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, said.

>

> " Here, I am wrong. Here, we had a case occur, we don't know what the

> link is, and we have to find that link ... This is an exceptional event.

> We haven't seen it happen previously, " Dr. Low told a news conference.

>

> Meanwhile, one of the last patients from the first outbreak, a

> 62-year-old man, died Saturday night. That brings the death toll to 27

> since SARS first hit the city in March.

>

> With additional SARS cases confirmed, it would not be surprising now if

> the World Health Organization put Toronto back on its list of

> SARS-affected regions, said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's commissioner of

> public health.

>

> A WHO official could not be reached for comment, but the UN agency has

> said previously it was watching the new Canadian activity closely.

>

> Until late last week, Toronto had considered itself virtually free of

> SARS and on the road to recovering from the illness's devastating

> economic fallout. Then officials revealed that they had found more than

> 20 possible cases at North York General Hospital and St. John's

> Rehabilitation Hospital.

>

> At the time, they were not calling them suspect or probable SARS

> patients, because the sufferers could not be traced back to a known

> source of the disease.

>

> But yesterday morning experts decided to label them SARS anyway, partly

> because one patient had tested positive for the coronavirus that causes

> the ailment.

>

> Officials have identified eight probable and 26 suspect cases, said Dr.

> D'Cunha.

>

> Another eight people are under investigation, and experts say even more

> cases are possible.

>

> " We're still getting phone calls (from people with SARS-like symptoms), "

> said Dr. Low. " It's disconcerting. "

>

> Because one of the 34 suspect and probable cases was transferred to

> Scarborough General Hospital, officials are now asking that anyone who

> visited that facility between May 12 and May 23 to go into quarantine.

>

> Similar directives have already been issued for North York General, St.

> John's and the neurosurgery unit of St. Michael's Hospital, where one of

> the new cases was treated.

>

> Meanwhile, all North York General's employees are now on work

> quarantine, meaning they must isolate themselves when they go home, but

> can come in to work, said hospital spokeswoman Kara Miel.

>

> " SARS is something we've got to learn to live with. We have to do what

> we've got to do to get to the new normal. This might be part of it. "

>

> Two of the 34 new SARS patients -- one 96, the other 90 --have already

> died.

>