Canada NewsWire

TORONTO, March 30 /CNW/ - In response to new information from the Commissioner of Public Security and the Commissioner of Public Health, St. Michael's Hospital is taking additional measures to ensure maximum protection for patients, staff and physicians. There is one suspected or probable SARS case identified within St. Michael's Hospital.
The reason behind the precautions is to ensure that we will be able to continue to provide essential patient care, by limiting movement in and out of the hospital as much as possible. The following measures are in effect until Friday April 4:
-   Emergency, Medical Day Care, Dialysis, TB Clinic, Prenatal clinic (with limited daily access) will remain open.
-   All elective inpatient and day surgery will be cancelled.
-   Only urgent and emergent services will be provided in the following areas: Cardiac Catherization and Pacemakers, Medical Imaging, Cystoscopy/Lithotripsy, Nuclear Medicine.
-   All outpatient clinics in the main hospital building (30 Bond), 61 Queen, 55 Queen or 38 Shuter and Family Practice Outreach to hostels and shelters are closed. There will be no physician office appointments in any of these locations.
-   Visitors to the hospital will continue to be restricted to parents of pediatric patients and those visiting critically ill or palliative patients.
-   Everyone moving through the hospital, including patients, authorized visitors, staff and physicians, will be required to wear masks at all times.
-   All staff and physicians in patient care areas must wear full protective clothing at all times (mask, gown, gloves and goggles).
-   As directed by the provincial government, St. Michael's cannot accept transfers from hospitals outside the GTA or in Simcoe County, or non-urgent transfers between health care facilities within the GTA.
-   No volunteers or students should come to the hospital until further notice.
-   All patients and visitors will enter and exit the hospital via the Queen Street entrance. Staff and physicians will enter via the Victoria Street entrance and exit via the Queen Street entrance.
-   All patients, visitors, staff and physicians will be screened every time they enter the hospital and are therefore encouraged to minimize movement in and out of the hospital as much as possible.
-   All receiving will be restricted to the receiving area on Shuter and Victoria Streets and will be limited to essential goods and servicesnecessary to run the hospital.
-   A St. Michael's Hospital hotline has been set up for public inquires at 416-864-5005.

St. Michael's Hospital is committed to taking precautionary measures in order to protect our patients, staff and physicians, while ensuring that we provide the best possible care. We would like to thank the media and the public for their cooperation in helping us to meet this commitment.

For further information: Darlene Frampton, Director of Corporate Communications, St. Michael's Hospital, Telephone: (416) 864-5488, Pager via Locating: (416) 864-5431

For more information visit: www.health.gov.on.ca

Sunday, March 30, 2003 By DANIEL YEE <a href=www.cantonrep.com>Associated Press writer

Putting on surgical masks, domestic workers from the Philippines read their hometown newspapers during their weekly day off on Sunday in Hong Kong where the new flu-like disease shows no signs of letting up. The disease has killed at least 55 worldwide.

ATLANTA — U.S. health officials said Saturday that none of the antiviral drugs and other treatment they have tested are effective against a flu-like disease that has killed at least 54 people and sickened nearly 1,500 others around the world.

They also expanded their travel advisory, suggesting that anyone planning nonessential travel to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore or Hanoi, Vietnam, “may wish to postpone their trips until further notice.”

“The global epidemic continues to expand,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We recognize this as an epidemic that is evolving.”

The CDC has reported 62 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in the United States, and at least 35 cases have been reported in Canada, where three people have died.

But the majority of the cases have been in Asia, where the illness is believed to have originated.

On Saturday, the first doctor to realize the world was dealing with an unfamiliar disease died of the illness in Thailand. Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, of Italy, a World Health Organization expert on communicable diseases, became infected while working in Vietnam, where he diagnosed a U.S. businessman hospitalized in Hanoi, the U.N. agency said. The businessman later died.

U.S. health officials believe illness comes from a new form of coronavirus, the virus that causes about a fifth of all colds.

Gerberding said Saturday that no successful drugs or treatments had yet been found.

“We have no evidence that any specific antiviral, steroid treatment or other agents that are targeting this virus have any benefit to patients,” she said.

Two possible diagnostic tests that detect antibodies, indicating a person’s immune system has reacted to the virus, are under development, and CDC officials hope to soon be able to supply those tests to state health departments, CDC officials said.

In Hong Kong, the number of people suffering from flu-like disease increased sharply Saturday to 12 people killed and 470 sickened. Hong Kong health secretary Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong said more residents likely will become sick. More than 1,000 have been quarantined.

Thousands of Hong Kong residents donned surgical masks but many others refused to venture out, and activity in the usually bustling city stopped. Schools were closed and some companies shut down after workers became sick.

Singapore, which has had two deaths, nearly doubled the number of people quarantined to more than 1,500 on Friday.

The illness appears to have originated in China, which has been criticized for being slow in reporting cases. WHO officials who went to China to investigate the disease said Beijing has promised to improve monitoring of the illness, with daily updates from every province.

“We are desperate to know more about the scope and the magnitude of” SARS in China, Gerberding said. “It’s the biggest predictor of where this will be headed in coming weeks.”

On the Net: CDC: www.cdc.gov World Health Organization: www.who.int

<a href=www.abs-cbnnews.com>abs-cbnNEWS.com monitor

TORONTO - Health officials closed a second Toronto-area hospital to new patients and asked hundreds of its employees to quarantine themselves as a deadly flu-like illness continued to spread worldwide.

Anyone who has worked at York Central Hospital since March 16 has been asked to stay in their homes for 10 days to try to contain the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, hospital president Frank Lussing said Saturday. The hospital has 1,800 employees.

The disease has killed three people in Canada and caused authorities to advise thousands of people in Toronto, the largest city, to quarantine themselves at home. Worldwide, the disease has killed at least 54 people and sickened nearly 1,500.

U.S. health officials said Saturday that none of the antiviral drugs and other treatment they have tested are effective against SARS.

On Saturday, the disease killed Dr. Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor who was the first to identify the latest outbreak when it appeared in Vietnam.

Canada Newswire

TORONTO, March 30 /CNW/ - Ontario's lack of preparedness for the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has nurses extremely worried about the health of their patients, the community at large and their own safety, says Barb Wahl, RN, President of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA).
"We're seeing a shortage of supplies, especially the N-95 masks that nurses need to wear to protect themselves and the public. This is putting the public in danger," says Wahl. "These masks are essential gear in an event like this to stop the further spread of infection, and yet our nurses say some facilities are rationing them."
"Nurses also have reported they are being excluded at some facilities from meetings where plans are being formulated to deal with the outbreak. This is unacceptable to our members and should be unacceptable to the public," said Wahl.
Currently the majority of SARS cases in Ontario are front-line nurses and doctors, while many more are in quarantine in their homes awaiting to see if they will develop the disease. More nurses have been reporting symptoms, which means their families and colleagues are also at risk.
"With a nursing shortage already hampering our ability to provide safe patient care in Ontario, we can't afford to see even one of our nurses sidelined with SARS, especially during an outbreak like this. It is essential that they are fully protected when caring for these patients," said Wahl.
Asked to notify ONA if any of their employers are not complying with the provincial 12-point directive to Toronto and GTA facilities for containment of SARS, nurses have been reporting some alarming scenarios, including:
- some facilities haven't got N-95 masks to provide to staff.
- nurses are being made to wear masks beyond their effectiveness because of rationing or limited supplies.
- nurses are being told to decided for themselves whether or not they need to wear a mask.
- nurses are being asked to care for both SARS patients in isolation wards and non-SARS patients in regular wards, which increases the chances of contamination.
"If we are to control this outbreak and ensure that more health care workers aren't infected, they must be provided with full protective gear for treating SARS patients," said Wahl. "That includes gowns, gloves, eye protection and masks. And as the front-line care providers, nurses must be involved in planning and implementing strategies for dealing with the outbreak."
ONA is urging the provincial government to broaden its 12-point directive to facilities across Ontario, which includes visitor restrictions, encompassing hospitals, homes for the aged, nursing homes, retirement homes, and home care in the community.
"We strongly recommended facilities be closed to visitors early last week and yet many facilities are continuing to allow the public to come and go at will. This has to stop. We can't emphasize this enough," said Wahl.
ONA is the union representing 46,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals working in hospitals, long-term care facilities, community agencies, industry and other settings across Ontario.

For further information: Laura Ziemba, (416) 803-8028

The American Prospect By Jeremy Mayer Web Exclusive: 4.1.03

George W. Bush is under an international quarantine. It is not security concerns that prevent him from going overseas, nor is it the unseemly appearance of leaving the White House while our troops fight along the Euphrates. Rather, Bush can't leave America because his policies are intensely unpopular in almost every country on earth.

What country could this president visit that wouldn't immediately erupt into massive civil unrest? A Bush visit to Western Europe would make 2001's violent anti-globalization demonstrations in Genoa look like a tea party.

This explains why British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's only real ally in this war, came to Washington instead of hosting Bush in London. It also explains why a few weeks ago Bush met with Blair and the leaders of Spain and Portugal in the Azores. By meeting at a U.S. airbase on an isolated archipelago with a population roughly equal to that of Akron, Ohio, Bush avoided the anger in the European streets. Although the Portuguese prime minister welcomed our president to "Europe," the sad truth is that Bush will not be welcome in the real Western Europe for months, if not years.

Some might say that the effective quarantine of an American president does not matter. After all, it has happened before, and with little apparent long-term effect. In the summer of 1960, as Japan debated a new treaty with the United States, leftist and pacifist forces launched demonstrations so vast that then-President Dwight Eisenhower canceled plans to visit. Similarly, in 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon's trip to South America met with such violent outrage that a warship was sent in case extraction by force became necessary. The extreme hostility to America's foreign policy in Japan and South America eventually subsided.

But this is different. The center of the rage is Western Europe, historically the home of America's closest allies. American presidents have often been greeted by cheering throngs of Europeans, as when Woodrow Wilson went to Paris in 1919. Trips to Europe produced some of the modern presidency's greatest moments, from John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech to Ronald Reagan's eloquent elegy to the boys of D-Day. Even when the visit of an American president sparked demonstrations, it was clear to all concerned that the vast majority of the populace supported America's role in the world.

Today, as an ominous boycott of American products spreads, it is obvious that the anger at America is deep and extends far beyond Western Europe.

Bush's quarantine involves almost all of the Middle East, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, and even some Asian countries. Polls in some Eastern European nations suggest less intense opposition to America, but those countries are geographically close to Western Europe -- a presidential visit to Bucharest would likely attract hundreds of thousands of demonstrators from Germany and France. A trip to a less stable nation, such as Egypt or Pakistan, could severely weaken or even bring down the host government.

The world's citizens are so helpless in the face of America's military supremacy and unilateral foreign policy that the only way they can express their anger is through civil unrest and boycotts. Even a visit to America's neighbors, Mexico or Canada, would produce scenes of unprecedented anti-American demonstrations.

And those images would matter here at home. In 1960, Kennedy used the anti-Nixon demonstrations abroad to argue that the nation was losing stature in the world. A foreign trip by Bush now would reveal to the average American in pictures -- so vivid that even FOX News couldn't spin them away -- just how bitterly our policies are opposed around the globe.

Once the war is over and the occupation begins, reporters will start to ask why our president isn't traveling anymore. Karl Rove will have to think of a place to send him. Outside of Israel or Afghanistan, the choices will be slim. Of course, Bush could safely go to a country where the government uses brutality to stop demonstrations. Which means that it has come to this: The American president, who once symbolized the value of freedom to many people around the world, can now only visit countries where dissent is crushed.

So what's it going to be, Mr. President: Havana or Beijing?

Jeremy Mayer is a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University and the author of 9-11: The Giant Awakens.