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DJOS2
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
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Have the crowds at Viva been effected by this?
OS
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Apr-06-2003 16:48
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Tudo Beleza
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Shimokawa, Hokkaido, Japan
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SARS in Canada
China syndrome
Apr 10th 2003
From The Economist print edition
Canada's largest city hopes that quarantine will work
IN THE past month, more than 230 people in Canada may have contracted Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and ten have died from the pneumonia-like disease. That makes Canada's the worst outbreak of the disease anywhere outside Asia—and it has thrown the health services in Toronto, where most of the cases have occurred, into turmoil.
The outbreak began when a Toronto resident returned home from Hong Kong carrying the infection. It quickly spread to her family, to the hospital where they were treated, and then to another. Health workers were themselves infected. Michael Silverman, an infectious-disease specialist in the city, says that many of his colleagues have been in quarantine, unable to work, after attending a meeting where a doctor who later developed the disease was present.
The two affected hospitals were temporarily closed, and the rest placed on high alert. All non-essential medical services, such as hip-replacement surgery and even HIV clinics, have been suspended. Toll-free helplines, websites and special SARS screening centres have been set up to deal with public anxiety about coughs and sneezes.
Face masks are much in demand in Toronto. Quarantine has become a city ritual. Thousands of people who visited the two affected hospitals, or had contact with a SARS victim when not wearing a mask, have been staying at home, in “voluntary isolation”, for ten days.
Health officials hope that all of this has brought the outbreak under control. So far, all those infected had either visited other affected countries, or had contact with a known SARS patient or one of the hospitals involved. Wider transmission of the disease may have been avoided. Even so, some health experts fear a further wave of victims, if it turns out that the disease can be spread by other means than close contact.
SARS has already damaged Toronto's economy. Fewer tourists are visible in the city's hotels and restaurants. Spain and Australia have issued warnings against travel to Toronto. A big American medical conference was to be held there last week; it was cancelled, depriving the city of tens of thousands of visitors. Chinese-owned shops and restaurants are empty, and Chinese-Canadians complain that they are facing discrimination. It is true that the city's Chinese residents retain close links with China and Hong Kong. But many of those infected are not of Chinese origin, having picked up the bug in hospitals.
In the United States, only 149 cases and no deaths have been recorded. So why has Toronto been hit so hard? Perhaps because it was unlucky enough to receive the first SARS case in North America. The disease spread fast before being detected, in a city caught unawares. Canadians must hope that quarantine does its job.
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Apr-11-2003 04:01
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Waxen
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Apr-15-2003 16:21
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