Canada reports 10th SARS death, another suspected

Reuters Health Last Updated: 2003-04-07 17:00:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)

TORONTO (Reuters) - The mysterious pneumonia-like SARS virus has claimed its 10th Canadian victim, health officials said on Monday, adding that another case is being investigated as a possible SARS death.

Health officials in Ontario said the number of people with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had risen to 188, with 88 probable and 100 suspect cases.

As of Sunday, there were reports of 217 probable or suspect SARS cases across Canada.

The illness has killed about 100 people worldwide and infected more than 2,600 since it emerged in southern China in November. Canada has the third-highest number of cases in the world after China and Hong Kong, and the bulk of them are around Toronto, which has a large Chinese immigrant population.

Thousands of people have been quarantined in Ontario to prevent the spread of the virus.

Outside Ontario, cases have been reported in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island.

SARS symptoms include high fever, chills and breathing difficulties, and the disease has a mortality rate of about 4 percent, roughly the same as measles. By comparison, hundreds of thousands can die in a year from various strains of influenza, and malaria kills about 1 million a year, mostly children.