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Canadian officials vow SARS outbreak probe
TORONTO, Canada (CNN) -- Canadian health officials battling a second SARS outbreak of 62 probable cases vowed to determine what happened and work to ensure outbreaks do not recur. "I know that there is some frustration that we're in this again," Tony Clement, minister of health, told reporters Monday after meeting with Ontario health care workers. "There is, quite frankly, a little bit of anger at the situation," Clement said. "Why are we going through it again? What happened? What precipitated this second outbreak and what are we going to do about it? "Certainly, there should be investigations to find the answers." The World Health Organization May 14 lifted a travel advisory after deciding that Toronto's initial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome was under control and that the illness was no longer spreading locally. Several nurses voiced alarm when, soon after the first SARS outbreak had eased, officials dismantled the restrictions on patient care they had put into place to halt the spread of the sometimes fatal disease, which has no known treatment. As those precautions were lifted, a second outbreak had already begun to spread, unnoticed. Authorities said it is linked to the first cluster of cases via a 96-year-old man hospitalized with two bouts of pneumonia that were not connected to SARS until after he had already spread the disease. He died May 1. About the outbreak investigation, Clement said, "Everyone agreed that whatever we do in terms of a public process of inquiry that it not be a finger-pointing exercise, that it has to be about lessons learned as we go forward." He added: "I remain confident we can beat this outbreak and we can emerge from this so that Toronto is no more at risk of another outbreak than many other places in the world, be it Tokyo or Turin or Tallahassee." High school to reopenAs of Monday, Ontario had 62 active, probable cases of SARS and 10 active suspect cases, said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, the province's commissioner of public health. There have been 32 SARS deaths, the government's Web site said. That figure may rise. Three possible SARS deaths at Rouge Valley Centenary Health Center first described Sunday remained under investigation, said Dr. James Young, commissioner of public safety. In the York region north of Toronto, a teacher at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy who fell ill with SARS symptoms Saturday was still under investigation as a possible SARS case, said Dr. Hanif Kassam, acting medical officer of health for the York region. The high school had closed several days before, and its 1,700 students, faculty and staff were placed on home quarantine after a student came down with SARS symptoms. It is unlikely the teacher could have infected anyone else, since people with SARS must have the symptoms of the disease to spread it, Kassam said. The school planned to reopen Tuesday. In all, about 6,800 people in Ontario are in quarantine, and another 5,200 health care workers are in working quarantine, said D'Cunha. Those in the latter group are allowed to work but must do so while gowned and masked. At home, they must sleep, eat and live apart from family members.
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