SARS Recedes, Toronto Travel Advisory Lifted

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http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-30-01.asp SARS Recedes, Toronto Travel

Advisory Lifted

GENEVA, Switzerland, April 30, 2003 (ENS) - Effective today, the World Health

Organization is lifting the travel advisory for Toronto, Canada. The advisory

recommended considering postponing non-essential travel to Toronto, and was

issued as a precautionary measure one week ago in order to minimize the

international spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The UN health

agency is lifting this advisory as the situation in Toronto has now improved.

Travel advisories are issued following consideration of several factors,

including the magnitude of probable SARS cases, the last dates of cases of

community transmission, and the last dates of export of cases.

Travellers can now visit Toronto safely, says the World Health Organization.

(Photo courtesy Canada Customs)Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of

the World Health Organization (WHO), said that although the travel advisory has

been lifted, Toronto is still affected by SARS. “Due to continued recent

transmission in the hospital setting, Toronto still has an outbreak of SARS, and

the lifting of this travel advice does not change Toronto’s status as an

affected area, Brundtland said.

In Toronto, the magnitude of probable SARS cases has decreased, and 20 days have

now passed since the last cases of community transmission, and no new confirmed

exportation of cases has occurred.

Across Canada, 346 probable or suspect cases of SARS have been reported, and 21

people have died from the respiratory disease.

“To minimize the risk of the export of SARS, we ask that all affected areas

implement the recommended pro-active screening measures – by interviewing

passengers at the airport check-in,” said Brundtland.

The travel advisories for areas of China, including Beijing, Guangdong province,

Shanxi province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remain in place,

after a review by WHO officials.

On Monday, WHO removed Vietnam from the list of countries with local

transmission of SARS, making Vietnam the first country to be removed from the

list of countries with local transmission of SARS. The status change for Vietnam

is especially significant because it was one of four countries the list of

countries initially identified by the WHO on March 15 as having local

transmission of SARS.

“Vietnam has stopped the outbreak within its borders,” says Dr. Pascale Brudon,

WHO representative to Vietnam.

Director-general of the World Health Organization physician Gro Harlem

Brundtland (Photo courtesy WHO)Vietnam reported a total of 63 SARS cases and

five deaths prior to April 8, but there have been no new reported cases of SARS

since that date and no cases of the disease spreading from Vietnam to other

countries.

On Tuesday, the heads of government of the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand,

Myanmar, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam – plus the Peoples

Republic of China, including Hong Kong, met in Bangkok, Thailand, and endorsed a

set of procedures to jointly combat SARS.

The procedures were drawn out by the ASEAN countries’ health ministers, who had

met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 26. Countries agreed to standardize

screening of all travellers, isolate and treat identified SARS cases, and share

accurate information in a timely manner.

“Meetings of this level and magnitude, to form a common strategy against a

specific disease, show how serious countries are to become free of SARS,” said

Dr. David Heymann, executive director of the WHO’s Communicable Diseases

Cluster.

At the Bangkok meeting, Dr. Heymann a gave an address in which he reminded the

ASEAN heads of states that there are two simple strategies that can contain and

eventually stop SARS – detecting all cases and protecting those at risk of

infection from these cases. He said that countries need to detect and treat SARS

cases early while taking effective measures to protect the rest of the

population.

In the United States the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,

Georgia reports that as of Monday there were 274 cases of SARS in 38 states.

Worldwide, 5663 cases of SARS have been reported, and 372 people have died of

the new disease.

 

 

 

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