Hand-washing best defence. Suspected SARS infection in N.B. Officials close school after principal gets ill - nSARS is now a coast-to-coast concern in Canada.

Monday, March 31, 2003 Back The Halifax Herald Limited Vincent Yu / The Associated Press By Chris Morris / <a href=www.herald.ns.ca Canadian Press SARS OUTBREAK

Rugby fans wear masks in an attempt to protect themselves from SARS during a tournament in Hong Kong, where officials said Sunday that 60 more people had fallen ill with the disease.

The principal of a middle school in Miramichi, N.B., has become the first suspect case of the potentially-deadly syndrome in Atlantic Canada.

Dr. Wayne MacDonald, New Brunswick's chief medical health officer, told a hastily called news conference Sunday that the individual has voluntarily quarantined herself in her home where she will stay until she's free of symptoms of the respiratory syndrome which, so far, has killed more than 50 people worldwide.

At least 60 people who have been in contact with the principal since her return last week from a trip to China are also being monitored for signs of SARS.

MacDonald said there are no other suspected cases and no one else is being quarantined. He said the Losier Middle School where the woman works will be cleaned.

"We feel the risk is low," MacDonald said.

Steve Benteau, a spokesman for the New Brunswick Education Department, said the school will be closed until April 8 since officials are having problems contacting about 380 families and staff members from the school.

MacDonald said the woman returned from a week-long trip to China last Monday.

She had been ill during the trip and by the time she came home to the Miramichi, she was starting to feel better.

However, like all people arriving in Canada from places considered high-risk for the mystery illness, including China, she was given a card when she landed and told to watch for symptoms.

She went to the Miramichi hospital Friday, concerned that the symptoms she had experienced during her trip and was still feeling to a lesser extent, might becaused by SARS, notably fever and respiratory difficulties.

"The individual is at home where she's recovering," MacDonald said.

He said he was pleased with the measures taken by the hospital when she arrived to be examined.

He said he is confident proper containment procedures were followed and there should be little or no risk to staff or patients.

As well, MacDonald said Health Canada has been advised of the case. He said it's up to Health Canada to follow up with investigations of the flights she was on and warn her fellow passengers.

More than 100 people across Canada are being watched as suspected or probable cases of SARS, a pneumonia-like illness that causes high fever, coughing and breathing troubles.

Most are in the Toronto area, however suspected cases have been reported in British Columbia, Ottawa, Alberta, Saskatchewan and now New Brunswick.

MacDonald said the incubation period for the illness, believed to be caused by a virus, ranges from two to 10 days with most cases showing up four or five days after exposure.

A fourth Toronto-area resident died of SARS on the weekend, and a 21-month-old child joined the growing list of probable and suspected Canadian cases of the rapidly spreading disease.

Swamped public health officials estimated Ontario has roughly 100 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but admitted they had only been able to analyse data for 81 - 42 probable and 39 suspect cases.

"There are very many more individuals provincewide who are cases that are under investigation," said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health.

Dr. Jim Young, the province's commissioner of public safety, urged hospitals and health-care workers around the province to be vigilant for potential SARS cases, saying they fear that as time goes on the ripples from the Toronto cases will move further afield.

Vancouver has two probable SARS cases and a number of people under surveillance for the disease. But health officials in Manitoba said Sunday a patient who had been listed as a probable SARS case in Winnipeg does not have the disease.

Health Canada also lists five suspect cases in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. However, an Alberta health official said Sunday evening the five suspected cases in that province have since been diagnosed as something else.

"There's nothing new in Alberta to report," said Howard May, Alberta Health spokesman.

The Ontario officials confirmed the latest person to die had become infected while receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Scarborough Grace Hospital - the nexus of Toronto's growing cluster of SARS cases.

One of the original Canadian SARS patients was treated at Scarborough Grace in early March before health-care workers realized they were facing a highly contagious and potentially deadly new disease that required high level infection containment measures: gowns, gloves, goggles and masks at all times. Waves of cases have emanated from that first patient.

The latest person to succumb to SARS was transferred to York Central Hospital on March 16 - long before he began showing signs of SARS. As a result, staff there did not impose the stringent infection control measures needed to contain the disease. The patient died Saturday night.

At least two nurses from York Central have come down with SARS. Both York Central and Scarborough Grace are now closed to new patients. Staff from the two facilities are barred from working elsewhere for the time being.

Anyone who worked at, visited or was a patient of either hospital from March 16 onwards has been asked to go into quarantine for a period of 10 days from the last exposure to the hospitals.

While no one has a good handle on how many people are holed up in their homes, officials have estimated the numbers would reach into the thousands.