Being Prepared for More SARS

York Region's Acting Medical Officer Dr. Hanif Kassam believes recurrence unlikely

The Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome was a bad dream. Now we've awakened and it will never recur. This is not a 'get well soon' card, but the belief expressed with certitude by Hanif Kassam, Acting Medical Officer of York Region, a man who spends his days amidst lab equipment, chasing elusive diseases.
There is only a potential thorn in this rosy belief of the unlikelihood of a third bout of Canadian SARS, and this thorn has a Federal tip.

Doctor Kassam, autumn is upon us. Winter, with its court of colds and flu, is just round the corner. Do we need to be worried?
"Of course you are referring to SARS... I'd say no, we needn't. Our Province has no intention of getting caught unprepared, and a series of preventive measures has already been put in place."
Such as?
"There is screening system that makes it difficult for anything to slip by undetected. Medical institutions are on alert. The healthcare system is enacting co-ordinated strategies targeted to monitoring any case even remotely suspect."
Can you give us more details?
"First of all, at the slightest suspicion of SARS (when someone gets hospitalized and is sent to a division for pulmonary affections) we administer a very thorough set of questions, ranging from one's residence, to whether one's been abroad on vacation, to a complete screening of one's symptoms."
So, there is no test yet.
"No, at present we still have no specific test, although specialists in every laboratory and at Atlanta's CDC have been working for months to develop targeted tests."
Isn't a questionnaire a tad weak as a diagnostic tool?
"That's all we have. Actually, several cases were identified and treated on time, during the two epidemics, thanks to screening questionnaires like these. We also have another strong point."
What is it?
"The two bouts of SARS taught us a lot, that's obvious. The healthcare system of Ontario, especially Toronto's hospitals, created such a network of contacts, synergies and information exchanges that it will be hard for any virus to pass through it, at least up to a certain level."
What do you mean by that?
"I mean that this is true at the Provincial level. There's no denying that, once again, the real problem lies in the Federal 'machine'."
Is this an accusation?
"A statement of fact."
Really?
"You see, as a matter of fact, while healthcare systems talk to one another, there is no strong co-ordination at the Federal level. In the same vein, there is no strong leadership that can assemble all the potentialities that make Ontario's healthcare system an enviable model."
...that might soon be privatized...
"Forget it... Our public healthcare system is a model that the United States themselves look at with envy and admiration. Privatizing it would mean dismantling it."
Back to SARS. Can there really be no risk?
"I'll repeat: the hole in the net is at the Federal level. For instance, the Federals have the task of checking arrivals from countries potentially at risk. They have the duty to create a co-ordination, possibly following Provincial models that withstood the impacts of SARS and West Nile Virus, that could strengthen our healthcare all over Canada."

Publication Date: 2003-10-05
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3225