Subway commuters in Hong Kong (Photo: Tavis du Preez)
Posted on 03/28/2003 10:23:11 PM PST by Timesink
Health officials in Toronto say they have a plan in place to enforce a quarantine – if necessary – to contain an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
But so far, the voluntary one is working, they say.
Public health officials have advised people who may have come in contact with someone who has SARS to place themselves in quarantine.
This means staying at home and wearing a surgical mask when around family and friends.
Supplies of the surgical masks have been depleted in Toronto, creating a demand reaching all the way out to Nova Scotia, where some companies say they are taking orders.
Scott Weatherston of MicMac Fire and Safety in Halifax says his company is sending boxes of 20 masks to buyers in Toronto.
Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety, said the next steps depend on whether the outbreak continues to grow.
Mandatory quarantines have not been used in Canada since before the Second World War.
Subway commuters in Hong Kong (Photo: Tavis du Preez) |
People were rounded up then to help fight the spread of diseases such as smallpox and polio.
But the head of the Canadian Infectious Disease Society says the size of the SARS outbreak does not warrant forcing people into quarantine.
And Dr. Coleman Rotstein says even if it did, health officials lack the resources to enforce it.
"We can't go around policing them," Rotstein said. "We have to educate them about what self-quarantine involves and rely on them to carry it out. If people adhere to it, it can be very very effective."
Some people are defying the voluntary quarantine. And if more follow suit it could be the trigger for health authorities to try an involuntary one.
In British Columbia, the provincial medical health officer is investigating 12 new suspected cases of SARS. Eight of those people, who recently travelled to Asian countries affected by the outbreak, have agreed to voluntary isolation.
Written by CBC News Online staff
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On The Current David Butler-Jones, past president of the Canadian Public Health Assn. tells Jim Brown that resources may be stretched too thin to deal with the SARS crisis.
(Runs 10:31)
On The Current Jim Brown talks to Dr. Paul Gully, Director General at Health Canada about what Canada is doing about SARS.
(Runs 5:05)
On The Current Jim Brown talks to Firdaus Bhathena, a Canadian teacher in Hong Kong, about SARS in the region.
(Runs 6:01)
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