SARS preparedness said low 5 years later

TORONTO, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Medical experts in Toronto say Ontario hasn't done enough to prevent another major disease outbreak in the five years since SARS killed 44 people.

Noting last weekend was the fifth anniversary of severe acute respiratory syndrome first appearing in the city, Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, told the Toronto Sun there have been improvements in the medical infrastructure but not all lessons learned have been addressed.

"I don't think it's any use pretending we're ready for a flu pandemic," McGeer told the newspaper.

For example, she said the provincial government was dragging its feet on establishing a province-wide surveillance system that could help with ongoing outbreaks such as the C-difficile bacterial infection among hospital patients.

"We don't even know how many people are infected with C-difficile," she said. "There are 178 hospitals in Ontario and no one knows."

From Feb. 23, 2003, to June 7, 2003, 387 people were infected with SARS and 44 of them died. The outbreak was traced to a woman who brought back the virus from Hong Kong, officials said.