Posted on 03/30/2003 4:39:41 PM PST by Lessismore
TORONTO -- Health officials in Canada's largest province confirmed on Sunday that a fourth victim of the deadly disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which has killed more than 55 people worldwide.
'There has been a fourth death. I express my condolences to the family of the individual who passed away last night,' said Ontario's Commissioner of Public Health Colin D'Cunha.
The victim has 'a definite link to Scarborough Grace Hospital in an epidemiological sense with known exposure to one of the index cases of Sars,' he added.
That hospital was the first of two hospitals to close after one male died from the mysterious respiratory disease. He and his mother, who had travelled to Hongkong, are considered the two original -- or index -- cases in Canada.
The fourth Sars death occurred at the second hospital, which was closed by the province late Friday.
The Canadian province of Ontario has 100 possible cases of the illness -- the highest caseload outside Asia.
Of those 100, 42 are probable cases and 39 are suspect, meaning that they have displayed some of the Sars symptoms -- fatigue, dry cough, fever, or shortness and difficulty breathing -- but have not been extensively tested, Dr D'Cunha said.
Thousands of people in Ontario have been asked to go into voluntary quarantine for 10 days if they had worked or visited either of the two hospitals or had come into contact with any of the Sars cases without a facial mask.
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control has recorded 62 cases of Sars in the United States.
CDC director Julie Gerberding cautioned on Saturday: 'We may be at the very early stages of what could be a larger problem.'
Sars, which has affected some 1,600 people worldwide, appears to spread more easily than was first thought, according to the CDC. -- AFP
Maybe a higher death rate. The sanitary conditions in Africa and the Middle East are worse, and many people there are already in marginal health. I bet people infected with HIV will be especially vulnerable; there are lots of those in Africa.
"Zen's remarks contrasted with those of former mainland vice-trade minister Long Yongtu during his stay in Hong Kong last week. Long said the Hong Kong media should be more ``impartial'' in its coverage of the disease.
He said: ``If Hong Kong newspapers are splashing with front-page stories about pneumonia for 10 days, 20 days or 30 days, who will dare come to Hong Kong? ... It would only be a panic situation if 500,000 people out of six million caught the virus. There are only several hundred at the moment.''
This sheds light on the PRC bureaucratic mentality that minimized the problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.