SARS threat persists, screening wanes
Canada removes airport scanners
Suspected new
case found in Taiwan
ELAINE
CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
The
possibility of a new SARS outbreak has reared its ugly head in
Taiwan — on the same day the federal government announced it
is cutting back SARS screening operations at Canada's
airports.
Health Minister Anne McLellan said yesterday that
thermal scanners will no longer be used at Toronto and
Vancouver airports, and the health alert notices given
passengers will be replaced by an infectious-disease brochure.
Hours earlier, doctors at a hospital in the southern
Taiwan port city of Kaohsiung reported the winter's first
suspected SARS case — a resident who had recently returned
from China.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization in
Geneva said the case was "only suspected, not probable," and
it was seeking further confirmation. Public security
commissioner Dr. James Young said from Germany he wasn't
surprised there was a suspected SARS case — "We expected it" —
but emphasized there is no reason to panic.
"At this time, we are monitoring the situation, and if
SARS reappears in the world, we will enforce strict procedures
at hospitals," he said through a spokesperson.
"If SARS were to re-emerge anywhere in the world,
clearly I think, as a matter of public confidence, we would
put scanners back in those airports," McLellan said at the
opening of the Health Canada Emergency Operations Centre in
Ottawa.
She said the fact there is not a single confirmed case
anywhere in the world led to the decision that the scanners
and cards are no longer necessary.
"We often get information about suspect SARS cases,"
said Dr. Paul Gully, senior director general at Health
Canada's population and public health branch.
Dr. Dick Zoutman, chair of the province's scientific
SARS committee, said officials "need to allow the experts in
Taiwan, who have a lot of experience with this, to examine
this case, do the necessary lab testing and let us know what
they're finding. Clearly we're on the edge of our seats and
will be wanting to know more," Zoutman said.
"We don't know if SARS will return; we hope it's a
one-time event, but we really don't know."
Federal officials will continue to monitor the risk of
infectious diseases like SARS, McLellan said, and scanners and
cards could be put back in place within 24 to 48 hours.
Brochures on infectious diseases will be available at
Canada's international airports, and quarantine officers will
continue to work there, ready to respond if flight crews raise
concerns about ill passengers, McLellan said.
She repeated her skepticism about the value of the
scanners, noting that a federal advisory group concluded they
were not effective because a newly infected person may not yet
have a fever and therefore wouldn't be detected.
The scanners cost taxpayers $2 million a year but had
little more than psychological value, the report said.
Not a single SARS case was identified out of more than
450,000 people who passed by the machines during their first
month at the two airports.
Dr. Andrew Simor, a microbiologist at Sunnybrook
hospital, said the airport screening measures were largely put
in place to satisfy WHO officials.
"The reality is, I don't think it was really warranted
and I think the costs used for airport screening could well
have been spent on other sorts of control measures," he said.
"I think it was more to mollify the concerns of the WHO
at a time when we were experiencing an outbreak," he said.
"Certainly there is no evidence whatsoever that that kind of
screening is at all effective."
The good news, he said, is that a blood test is now
available that will identify an illness as SARS, although it
is not reliable very early in the disease.
with files from Karen Palmer and Valerie Lawton
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