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American Morning

SARS in Canada

Aired May 29, 2003 - 09:07   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: SARS is proving to be more deadly than previously thought in Canada. That disease killed two more people this week in Toronto, 29 deaths so far in that country. The World Health Organization had cleared Toronto a few weeks ago, but one undetected case has caused a whole new wave of infections and landed that city back on the list of SARS-affected areas.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking into it, back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

What happened? They thought it was taken care of and out of the way, and now, it is back.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Goes to show you how important one case can be. You remember the first time there was an outbreak of SARS in Toronto, it was one case, a traveler returning back from Hong Kong, and that was the first outbreak. They believe the second outbreak, again, a 96-year-old man this time with unrecognized SARS. They thought it was just pneumonia, and it just goes to show that this is a contagious disease, it can be spread by one person.

This what someone in Ontario had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY CLEMENT, ONTARIO MINISTER OF HEALTH: There is no doubt that the new index case, that is to say the first case of the second outbreak, was under the radar screen for a while, because he was not exhibiting the typical SARS symptoms that health professionals had been used to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Of course that's Tony Clement, Ontario minister of health. Take a look at the numbers, 29 deaths now, 11 probable cases, 23 suspect cases, over 5,100 people. I think the numbers have even grown of people quarantined. They are being told to stay home and not go out, and possibly get this disease spread to other people.

HEMMER: From a medical standpoint and as a doctor, what does it say about how difficult this is to define, to detect, to root out and warn others before it's too late?

GUPTA: It's very difficult. The SARS closely approximates lots of other disease out there, the flu. You can tell someone has a fever, a cough, things like that. Those are the kinds of symptoms you see in all sorts of different diseases. So it's very hard to figure out exactly who has SARS and who doesn't. That's why all these terms are being thrown around -- probable, suspect, confirmed. There is a test now that can actually confirm someone has SARS but you have to suspect they actually have it first.

Now also to add to the confusion, Bill, as we were talking about earlier, what is a suspect case has also been changing.

Before it was very strict, a fever of 100.4 or more, dry cough, or some sort of exposure to someone who may have either had SARS or traveled to an affected area. Canada tried to make that a little bit stricter definition. They said not only do you have to have those things, but you have progressive pulmonary signs, meaning progressive problems with your breathing, things like that, and an X-ray confirming pneumonia, and unless you have those things, we're not going to call it SARS.

Of course, if you add those strict definitions, then it narrows down the number of cases. If you broaden the definition, all of a sudden, you've got more cases than you thought you had before.

HEMMER: Quickly, significance of 10 days is what then in a quarantine?

GUPTA: That's the time period that people should exhibit symptoms if they actually have SARS. The people who are quarantined are people who have no symptoms, but are believed to have been exposed to someone with SARS. They wait 10 days, if you develop any symptoms or during that time, it's more likely that you actually have it. Most of them won't end up having it.

HEMMER: Thanks, doc. Good to see you.

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 29, 2003 - 09:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: SARS is proving to be more deadly than previously thought in Canada. That disease killed two more people this week in Toronto, 29 deaths so far in that country. The World Health Organization had cleared Toronto a few weeks ago, but one undetected case has caused a whole new wave of infections and landed that city back on the list of SARS-affected areas.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking into it, back with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.

What happened? They thought it was taken care of and out of the way, and now, it is back.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Goes to show you how important one case can be. You remember the first time there was an outbreak of SARS in Toronto, it was one case, a traveler returning back from Hong Kong, and that was the first outbreak. They believe the second outbreak, again, a 96-year-old man this time with unrecognized SARS. They thought it was just pneumonia, and it just goes to show that this is a contagious disease, it can be spread by one person.

This what someone in Ontario had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY CLEMENT, ONTARIO MINISTER OF HEALTH: There is no doubt that the new index case, that is to say the first case of the second outbreak, was under the radar screen for a while, because he was not exhibiting the typical SARS symptoms that health professionals had been used to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Of course that's Tony Clement, Ontario minister of health. Take a look at the numbers, 29 deaths now, 11 probable cases, 23 suspect cases, over 5,100 people. I think the numbers have even grown of people quarantined. They are being told to stay home and not go out, and possibly get this disease spread to other people.

HEMMER: From a medical standpoint and as a doctor, what does it say about how difficult this is to define, to detect, to root out and warn others before it's too late?

GUPTA: It's very difficult. The SARS closely approximates lots of other disease out there, the flu. You can tell someone has a fever, a cough, things like that. Those are the kinds of symptoms you see in all sorts of different diseases. So it's very hard to figure out exactly who has SARS and who doesn't. That's why all these terms are being thrown around -- probable, suspect, confirmed. There is a test now that can actually confirm someone has SARS but you have to suspect they actually have it first.

Now also to add to the confusion, Bill, as we were talking about earlier, what is a suspect case has also been changing.

Before it was very strict, a fever of 100.4 or more, dry cough, or some sort of exposure to someone who may have either had SARS or traveled to an affected area. Canada tried to make that a little bit stricter definition. They said not only do you have to have those things, but you have progressive pulmonary signs, meaning progressive problems with your breathing, things like that, and an X-ray confirming pneumonia, and unless you have those things, we're not going to call it SARS.

Of course, if you add those strict definitions, then it narrows down the number of cases. If you broaden the definition, all of a sudden, you've got more cases than you thought you had before.

HEMMER: Quickly, significance of 10 days is what then in a quarantine?

GUPTA: That's the time period that people should exhibit symptoms if they actually have SARS. The people who are quarantined are people who have no symptoms, but are believed to have been exposed to someone with SARS. They wait 10 days, if you develop any symptoms or during that time, it's more likely that you actually have it. Most of them won't end up having it.

HEMMER: Thanks, doc. Good to see you.

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