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SARS Relapse

Aired May 30, 2003 - 13:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A different story in Ontario, Canada, which has gone from outbreak to recovery to, apparently a relapse. Some 7,000 people are under home quarantine because of possible exposure. The number of suspected and probable cases in the latest outbreak stands now at 41. Here with me to talk a little about this is Dr. Donald Low. He is the director of microbiology department at Toronto's Mt. Sinai Hospital, and a leading Canadian expert on infectious diseases. He's really been in the vanguard in the fight against the SARS epidemic there.
Good to have you with us, Dr. Lowe.

DR. DONALD LOW, TORONTO SARS SPECIALIST: Thanks very much, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Give us, as best you can, the unvarnished truth as to what's going on in Toronto right now. How serious is it, and is there a full-fledged relapse of what we saw earlier?

LOW: There's no question it's serious. We've got one major hospital involved with about 40 cases, and there's been spread by patient transfer to another hospital. We're back if full mode again. It's not as big as the last time. We hope we can keep it contains. But it's tough times for us.

O'BRIEN: What caused it to reappear?

LOW: Well, what happened was -- then it's a lesson we've learned, and everyone should learn from this lesson, is there was cases in the hospital setting that was not recognized as having SARS. And SARS is not an easy diagnosis to make, because we've got no easy test. So it wasn't recognized. And when we reduced our infection control precautions, because we thought it was over, outbreak occurred.

O'BRIEN: So Canadian health officials were using too narrow a definition for the SARS diagnosis, and thus, people who perhaps had it, were not being properly treated or quarantined?

LOW: No, that wasn't the issue. It was a more subtle issue.. That is, somebody was in the hospital who thought they had pneumonia in the hospital, a 96-year-old man who had been in the hospital bed for two weeks with pneumonia. We didn't recognize he had SARS, because there was no link to other cases. That's when it wasn't all over, let the guard down, but it wasn't all over, and that's the message, and it's going to be tough the next time to make sure we've really gotten rid of the virus out of our hospitals. O'BRIEN: I think the lesson from China perhaps everyone can agree with is that early and aggressive candor is important. Has that been the case in Canada primarily, or have there been cases where officials are reluctant, when you consider the stakes, to really come clean?

LOW: I honestly don't think that. I think what we've gone through over the last few days is confusion over the definition. Bottom line is we've treated anybody we think has SARS, the same way. Doesn't matter whether it's suspect or probable, we treat them the same way. But this case was an unusual case in that we just didn't recognize it, and we're paying the price for it.

O'BRIEN: How big a price is Toronto paying right now? And is it -- what can be done to try and stem this?

LOW: What we have to do is get the information out there and share this information so people know it's going on. But bring it under control, which we will do. No question we'll bring it under control, and then make sure the next time that it is gone forever.

O'BRIEN: Have Canadian health officials been slow to respond to this in any way?

LOW: No, I don't think so at all. In fact, we've been -- full alert ever since the beginning. But I think what we did is just let our guard down. And again, remember, we've only had this disease for 10 weeks. This is a new disease, and we've learned some lessons. This is a tough lesson to learn, but we're still going to beat it.

O'BRIEN: So where are we in the trajectory of this relapse? Are we going to see more before it gets better?

LOW: We're it's in the midst of -- it's getting better. I think we'll see it getting better over the next couple of days. It's confined to the hospital. It's not in the community, and that's an essential point to make. So that it is containable. And I don't have any question that we'll be able to do that over the next few days.

O'BRIEN: A bit of sad irony is the place you're most at risk is the place where you go to seek a cure.

LOW: Yes, that is real irony, and it's unfortunate, but we're going to fix it.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Donald Low, who one of the leading authorities on infectious diseases from Canada. Thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.

LOW: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 30, 2003 - 13:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A different story in Ontario, Canada, which has gone from outbreak to recovery to, apparently a relapse. Some 7,000 people are under home quarantine because of possible exposure. The number of suspected and probable cases in the latest outbreak stands now at 41. Here with me to talk a little about this is Dr. Donald Low. He is the director of microbiology department at Toronto's Mt. Sinai Hospital, and a leading Canadian expert on infectious diseases. He's really been in the vanguard in the fight against the SARS epidemic there.
Good to have you with us, Dr. Lowe.

DR. DONALD LOW, TORONTO SARS SPECIALIST: Thanks very much, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Give us, as best you can, the unvarnished truth as to what's going on in Toronto right now. How serious is it, and is there a full-fledged relapse of what we saw earlier?

LOW: There's no question it's serious. We've got one major hospital involved with about 40 cases, and there's been spread by patient transfer to another hospital. We're back if full mode again. It's not as big as the last time. We hope we can keep it contains. But it's tough times for us.

O'BRIEN: What caused it to reappear?

LOW: Well, what happened was -- then it's a lesson we've learned, and everyone should learn from this lesson, is there was cases in the hospital setting that was not recognized as having SARS. And SARS is not an easy diagnosis to make, because we've got no easy test. So it wasn't recognized. And when we reduced our infection control precautions, because we thought it was over, outbreak occurred.

O'BRIEN: So Canadian health officials were using too narrow a definition for the SARS diagnosis, and thus, people who perhaps had it, were not being properly treated or quarantined?

LOW: No, that wasn't the issue. It was a more subtle issue.. That is, somebody was in the hospital who thought they had pneumonia in the hospital, a 96-year-old man who had been in the hospital bed for two weeks with pneumonia. We didn't recognize he had SARS, because there was no link to other cases. That's when it wasn't all over, let the guard down, but it wasn't all over, and that's the message, and it's going to be tough the next time to make sure we've really gotten rid of the virus out of our hospitals. O'BRIEN: I think the lesson from China perhaps everyone can agree with is that early and aggressive candor is important. Has that been the case in Canada primarily, or have there been cases where officials are reluctant, when you consider the stakes, to really come clean?

LOW: I honestly don't think that. I think what we've gone through over the last few days is confusion over the definition. Bottom line is we've treated anybody we think has SARS, the same way. Doesn't matter whether it's suspect or probable, we treat them the same way. But this case was an unusual case in that we just didn't recognize it, and we're paying the price for it.

O'BRIEN: How big a price is Toronto paying right now? And is it -- what can be done to try and stem this?

LOW: What we have to do is get the information out there and share this information so people know it's going on. But bring it under control, which we will do. No question we'll bring it under control, and then make sure the next time that it is gone forever.

O'BRIEN: Have Canadian health officials been slow to respond to this in any way?

LOW: No, I don't think so at all. In fact, we've been -- full alert ever since the beginning. But I think what we did is just let our guard down. And again, remember, we've only had this disease for 10 weeks. This is a new disease, and we've learned some lessons. This is a tough lesson to learn, but we're still going to beat it.

O'BRIEN: So where are we in the trajectory of this relapse? Are we going to see more before it gets better?

LOW: We're it's in the midst of -- it's getting better. I think we'll see it getting better over the next couple of days. It's confined to the hospital. It's not in the community, and that's an essential point to make. So that it is containable. And I don't have any question that we'll be able to do that over the next few days.

O'BRIEN: A bit of sad irony is the place you're most at risk is the place where you go to seek a cure.

LOW: Yes, that is real irony, and it's unfortunate, but we're going to fix it.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Donald Low, who one of the leading authorities on infectious diseases from Canada. Thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.

LOW: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com