" SARS Just a reherasal ? "

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April 2, 2006 

SARS just a rehearsal?

 TORONTO SUN (excerpt)

Three years ago last month, Ontario's then-health minister Tony Clement, looked down the barrel of a possible pandemic and wondered if the avian flu had landed in Toronto.

A woman who recently returned from Hong Kong had died of a mysterious respiratory illness, a Scarborough hospital was about to be quarantined, and the early buzz among medical experts around Clement included the possibility of a bird flu pandemic.

Ultimately, the illness was a new, relatively unknown virus originating from China known as SARS -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. But the weeks to come were a firestorm of emergency measures, pleas for 25,000 Ontario residents to quarantine themselves, hundreds falling sick and, ultimately, 44 deaths.

GHOST TOWN

Toronto's Chinatown became a ghost town and the world watched, from a distance, as the World Health Organization slapped the city with a devastating travel advisory that the city's tourism industry is still wincing from. By the summer, a gaunt Clement could have almost passed as a survivor of the virus rather than the man who oversaw the province's frenzied response that managed to contain the outbreak.

Now the federal Minister of Health, Clement is bracing for a do-over and hoping his on-the-job training will help prepare an entire nation for the big one.

"To have gone through that and seen the dynamics at play in the middle of an outbreak means I have that experience under my belt, if you will," Clement told the Sun during a recent interview.

He considers it a reprieve that he faced SARS his first go around and not avian flu. In 2003, the province's hospitals and public health system were ill-prepared to face such a major crisis. Doctors and nurses were pressed to the limit, some falling ill themselves. They worked around the clock, faced quarantines and the risk of catching a virus that epidemiologists were still wrapping their minds around.

Medical officials, often with Clement at the table, faced the media each afternoon to provide updates on new cases and the mounting death toll.

Months later, a commission into the SARS crisis identified what commissioner Justice Archie Campbell described as a "constellation of problems" in Ontario's public health system. The crisis grew from bad to worse as the WHO warned against travel to Toronto and the rest of the world watched television images portraying T.O. as a city under siege.

But as the crisis grew, so did Clement's role front and centre, at one point flying to Geneva with an entourage of medical experts to argue, successfully, that the WHO cancel its travel advisory.

The federal government, meantime, faced increasing criticism for failing to actively fend off the WHO advisory in the first place.

It's a mistake that won't happen again, Clement said.

Clement's current public campaign to brace the nation began two weeks ago with a speech in Toronto to Ontario chicken farmers, who are essentially the first line of defence in detecting avian flu on Canadian soil.

But the concerns run far broader than public health, said Clement.

Other federal ministers and departments are preparing for issues, such as how to ensure a secure food system, how to deal with a 40% absenteeism rate among workers, along with other disruptions.

The government is also looking beyond Canada's borders and helping the countries where the new virus might come from with diagnostic capabilities and other health supports.

And, like SARS, there's always the possibility the next outbreak will be something other than avian flu.

"That's what's on everybody's mind, but pandemic planning has to have the flexibility to deal with whatever comes around the corner," said Clement.

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Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest Group	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: " SARS Just a reherasal ? " Posted: April 02 2006 at 4:07pm
	April 2, 2006 SARS just a rehearsal? TORONTO SUN (excerpt) Three years ago last month, Ontario's then-health minister Tony Clement, looked down the barrel of a possible pandemic and wondered if the avian flu had landed in Toronto. A woman who recently returned from Hong Kong had died of a mysterious respiratory illness, a Scarborough hospital was about to be quarantined, and the early buzz among medical experts around Clement included the possibility of a bird flu pandemic. Ultimately, the illness was a new, relatively unknown virus originating from China known as SARS -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. But the weeks to come were a firestorm of emergency measures, pleas for 25,000 Ontario residents to quarantine themselves, hundreds falling sick and, ultimately, 44 deaths. GHOST TOWN Toronto's Chinatown became a ghost town and the world watched, from a distance, as the World Health Organization slapped the city with a devastating travel advisory that the city's tourism industry is still wincing from. By the summer, a gaunt Clement could have almost passed as a survivor of the virus rather than the man who oversaw the province's frenzied response that managed to contain the outbreak. Now the federal Minister of Health, Clement is bracing for a do-over and hoping his on-the-job training will help prepare an entire nation for the big one. "To have gone through that and seen the dynamics at play in the middle of an outbreak means I have that experience under my belt, if you will," Clement told the Sun during a recent interview. He considers it a reprieve that he faced SARS his first go around and not avian flu. In 2003, the province's hospitals and public health system were ill-prepared to face such a major crisis. Doctors and nurses were pressed to the limit, some falling ill themselves. They worked around the clock, faced quarantines and the risk of catching a virus that epidemiologists were still wrapping their minds around. Medical officials, often with Clement at the table, faced the media each afternoon to provide updates on new cases and the mounting death toll. Months later, a commission into the SARS crisis identified what commissioner Justice Archie Campbell described as a "constellation of problems" in Ontario's public health system. The crisis grew from bad to worse as the WHO warned against travel to Toronto and the rest of the world watched television images portraying T.O. as a city under siege. But as the crisis grew, so did Clement's role front and centre, at one point flying to Geneva with an entourage of medical experts to argue, successfully, that the WHO cancel its travel advisory. The federal government, meantime, faced increasing criticism for failing to actively fend off the WHO advisory in the first place. It's a mistake that won't happen again, Clement said. Clement's current public campaign to brace the nation began two weeks ago with a speech in Toronto to Ontario chicken farmers, who are essentially the first line of defence in detecting avian flu on Canadian soil. But the concerns run far broader than public health, said Clement. Other federal ministers and departments are preparing for issues, such as how to ensure a secure food system, how to deal with a 40% absenteeism rate among workers, along with other disruptions. The government is also looking beyond Canada's borders and helping the countries where the new virus might come from with diagnostic capabilities and other health supports. And, like SARS, there's always the possibility the next outbreak will be something other than avian flu. "That's what's on everybody's mind, but pandemic planning has to have the flexibility to deal with whatever comes around the corner," said Clement.

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest Group	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: April 02 2006 at 4:10pm
	Published: Monday, March 27, 2006 OTTAWA (CP) - Forget about vaccines and wonder drugs: The main weapon available to Canadians for the first six months of a flu pandemic will be soap and water. After have studied all possible precautions for a pandemic which it figures could kill 58,000 people, Health Canada concedes that citizens can't do much to fend off infection except wash their hands. The information is available on a website devoted exclusively to the risk of a flu pandemic, launched by Health Minister Tony Clement at a rare news conference Monday. Some experts have advocated a stockpile of surgical masks to prevent the spread of bacteria, but the website says masks are of no use once the disease has entered a community. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=a191d928-d62e-4528-87a5-bbe172ea7a77&k=24614

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest Group	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: April 02 2006 at 4:14pm
	"Ontario nurses are already raising the issue, complaining that the federal government is stockpiling inexpensive surgical masks rather than the more costly N-95 respiratory masks." http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060321/ca_pr_on_he/pandemic_medical_masks