Posted on 05/28/2003 11:54:46 AM PDT by EternalHope
WHO raises concerns about how Toronto's SARS cases are counted
HELEN BRANSWELL Canadian Press
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - The World Health Organization has raised concerns about a method of determining probable SARS cases adopted by the Ontario government earlier this week, a method which is having the impact of downplaying the size of the current outbreak in Toronto.
The concerns were raised in a teleconference with Health Canada officials Wednesday. During the call, officials in Ottawa told their WHO counterparts that Health Canada planned to devise a new definition that would be more sensitive and would better reflect the scope of the outbreak.
"We have given advice to Health Canada - because they asked for it - that they should have a sensitive case definition," Dr. Denise Werker, a medical officer on the global response team of the WHO's communicable diseases section, said from Geneva.
Does that mean Health Canada's existing definition, which was only adopted by Ontario on Monday, is not sensitive enough, Werker was asked.
"Correct," she replied.
"In the discussion that has just happened with Health Canada, we have advised them that . . . it would be prudent for them to have a case definition that is more sensitive than the one that they have currently."
Health Canada informed the WHO that a change is in the works, Werker added.
"What we have been told by Health Canada is that they are thinking about changing their case definition . . . to something that is more sensitive. To be more inclusive. They're talking about that now."
Concerns over the criteria being used to determine who is a probable SARS case came to light Wednesday when one of the leading doctors on Ontario's SARS containment team said using the new system was painting a false picture of the extent of the problem in Toronto.
The size of the caseload of new probable patients would be in "the 30s," not nine as currently stated, if officials were using the same yardstick today as they used in March and April, said Dr. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital.
The switch was made only after public health officials recognized that a new large outbreak had been allowed to fester, undetected, for weeks in two city hospitals and they were faced with again announcing double digit SARS caseloads.
MORE LATER
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press
They just changed the definitions in order to make themselves look better.
We're days ahead of them.
Who trusts WHO?
Toronto is now a big egg on their faces.
I don't see any way to spin this as a minor problem.
Try changing the rules like that in a poker game and you'll be lucky to just get yelled at.
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