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HEALTH-CANADA: SARS – Officials Counsel Calm, People Prefer Masks

Marty Logan

MONTREAL, Apr 4 2003 (IPS) - The mayor of the capital city of Canada’s British Columbia (B.C.) province returned from a two-week holiday and immediately enclosed himself, his wife and their two high- school-age children in their Victoria home.

The mayor of the capital city of Canada’s British Columbia (B.C.) province returned from a two-week holiday and immediately enclosed himself, his wife and their two high- school-age children in their Victoria home.

Alan Lowe and his family had visited China and Hong Kong during the vacation, and although they showed no signs of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) when they returned this week, the mayor thought the self-quarantine would put co-workers and fellow students at ease.

Many other Canadians have taken similar steps, especially in the Toronto area, home to all seven victims of the disease that started making headlines worldwide last month.

Yet public health officials country-wide are constantly urging Canadians that precautions are only necessary when direct contact with the virus is possible, and reminding the public that to date people have contracted SARS only overseas, and in their homes or in a medical setting, not in public areas.

On Friday, Ontario’s commission of public safety told Reuters that wearing surgical masks in public is not necessary. “We unfortunately do not have unlimited supplies of masks and it’s necessary for us to use this supply in a wise and prudent way,” said James Young, even as many people wore the masks in Toronto’s subways and other crowded public spaces.

Earlier, Toronto’s medical officer of health lamented that groups, including the American Association for Cancer Research, had cancelled planned conferences in Canada’s largest city. “It’s a great regret to hear large conferences that have been planned for years in advance have unfortunately had to cancel,” said Sheela Basrur.

“And it’s not because of a public health risk but because of a perception on the part of the delegates, or their home institutions, that Toronto was an unsafe place to come to. Nothing can be further from the truth.”

In cities like Montreal, where no cases have been confirmed, there are no signs that, with 178 probable or suspected cases, Canada is one of the world’s countries most affected by the disease.

But in B.C.’s largest city of Vancouver, suppliers of surgical masks warned customers early this week to order stock quickly because they were shipping masks to Asia faster than they could produce them. Sellers of Asian herbal medicines also said they were running out of stock as people bought ingredients for recipes sent from China that are said to prevent the pneumonia-like SARS.

While Toronto has Canada’s largest Chinese community, Vancouver is known as Canada’s gateway to the Orient because of its location on the Pacific Ocean.

Nearby Victoria has reported two possible cases, Lowe told IPS from his quarantined home, which now includes an exercise treadmill so the family can work off some of the stress of being housebound.

He and his wife plan to return to work Monday, when his children will go back to school. Many other schoolchildren who spent their spring-break vacation in East Asia have also been asked by their schools to stay home as a precaution, although public health authorities have not issued such a call.

Despite the absence of confirmed cases in Victoria, a city of 200,000 people, Lowe says unfortunately the disease is being branded as an “Asian” malady, which could have a dangerous outcome.

“If you let your guard down you could easily be in contact with people who are not of Asian descent and have been in contact with the disease. There is stereotyping going on out there.”

Such branding was also condemned by Perry Kendall, B.C.’s provincial health officer.

“I would be concerned we don’t develop any sort of xenophobic attitudes towards people from the Far East,” Kendall told the media.

Visitors from that region who arrive here by air now face extra scrutiny from federal government quarantine officers, who are screening every flight arriving from Asian destinations, including Japan and Taiwan, in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

Fifteen new quarantine officers have been trained to help with the job, says Health Canada.

Travellers flying from Canadian airports are being asked to read notices warning them of the chief symptoms of SARS, which include high fever and respiratory problems like cough and difficulty breathing.

That apparently has not stopped the spread of the virus. Earlier this week Australia issued a health alert and recommended that people not travel to Canada after a three-year-old Canadian girl visiting the country showed symptoms of the disease. She and her two brothers are being isolated in a Melbourne hospital, according to Canadian Press.

On Friday, Thailand put Canada on its ”watch list,” meaning visitors from here must wear masks for the first 14 days of their visits to that country, and returning residents must go into home quarantine for two weeks.

Britain and the United States have also warned against travel to Canada.

Asked whether the country should expect more frequent outbreaks, a spokesman for the health department said, “We have been saying for a number of years that emerging infectious diseases (including Lassa fever, Ebola fever and HIV) across the world are a concern.”

“We may get other such challenges in the future. That has always been on the cards,” Paul Gully told IPS from Ottawa.

Since the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) first issued a global warning about the new disease, there have been 2,223 SARS cases and 78 SARS-related deaths recorded in a number of countries, including China, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Canada, Germany and Britain .