POSTED AT 12:19 AM EDT Sunday, March 16
Deadly atypical pneumonia strikes two Canadian cities
Canadian Press and Associated Press
Toronto — Health officials have confirmed a ninth Canadian case of atypical pneumonia and are preparing to test hundreds of potential patients as worries grow around the world about the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
Doctors don't know what causes the illness, which is believed to spread through close contact with an infected person.
On Saturday, Toronto officials confirmed a seventh local case, a day after announcing that six family members had been infected, including a mother and son who died.
The seventh patient had come in close contact with the family, but officials wouldn't say what the connection was.
There have also been two cases in British Columbia — unrelated to the Ontario infections — where one person remained in hospital Saturday and the other has recovered.
The World Health Organization made the rare decision Saturday of declaring a worldwide travel advisory, based on reports of the disease's spread around the globe.
The organization said that in the past week it has received more than 150 reports of atypical pneumonia, which it is calling severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
"SARS is now a worldwide health threat," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO director general. "The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread."
The growing list of countries reporting cases of the illness include China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Most cases involve medical workers.
On Saturday, a Vietnamese nurse died after having earlier treated an American businessman who also died of the disease, the French Embassy in Hanoi said.
The latest death brought the toll to nine, including the two people who recently died in Ontario.
The disease first struck in China's southern Guangdong province in late January, killing five people.
No cases have been identified in the United States, health officials said. But a doctor believed to be infected was taken off a New York-to-Singapore flight in Germany on Saturday and quarantined.
Two people travelling with him — his wife and another doctor — also were being held in hospital for observation.
In New York, health authorities put hospitals on alert.
In Toronto, a hotline has been set up for concerned citizens to find out if their symptoms — which include high fever, headache, confusion, diarrhea, shortness of breath and muscular stiffness — suggest they could be infected.
"It can come on quite suddenly and get bad within days," said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto's associate Medical Officer of Health and director of communicable disease control. "It is not a mild illness."
But she said the outbreak is not a significant risk to the general public, and is limited to those who have been in close contact with one of the infected.
Ontario's coroner was investigating one of the deaths and testing was being conducted at a provincial laboratory with additional specimens being sent to a federal laboratory in Winnipeg.
Health Canada is now helping to contact individuals who could have been infected, such as family, friends and co-workers.
Officials are also trying to determine who would have been in Toronto's Scarborough Grace Hospital at particular times, and compiling a list of those who shared a flight with an infected person, or attended the funeral of one of the victims last week.
If people were not exposed in one of those scenarios, they are not at risk, Dr. Yaffe said.
Avoiding the spread of infection requires an increased level of caution and awareness, she said, including good hygiene and frequent hand washing.
The patients have been quarantined and family of the infected have been told to stay at home until it can be certain they are healthy.
One of the dead and two other family members had recently returned from Hong Kong, where atypical pneumonia has been spreading.
While health officials stopped short of directly linking travel to the affected regions of Asia with the disease, they did caution that it was one factor to consider.
Most of the outbreaks have been reported in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and unconfirmed new cases were reported in Vietnam and Taiwan on Saturday.
Deadly atypical pneumonia strikes two Canadian cities
Canadian Press and Associated Press
Toronto — Health officials have confirmed a ninth Canadian case of atypical pneumonia and are preparing to test hundreds of potential patients as worries grow around the world about the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
Doctors don't know what causes the illness, which is believed to spread through close contact with an infected person.
On Saturday, Toronto officials confirmed a seventh local case, a day after announcing that six family members had been infected, including a mother and son who died.
The seventh patient had come in close contact with the family, but officials wouldn't say what the connection was.
There have also been two cases in British Columbia — unrelated to the Ontario infections — where one person remained in hospital Saturday and the other has recovered.
The World Health Organization made the rare decision Saturday of declaring a worldwide travel advisory, based on reports of the disease's spread around the globe.
The organization said that in the past week it has received more than 150 reports of atypical pneumonia, which it is calling severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
"SARS is now a worldwide health threat," said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO director general. "The world needs to work together to find its cause, cure the sick and stop its spread."
The growing list of countries reporting cases of the illness include China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Most cases involve medical workers.
On Saturday, a Vietnamese nurse died after having earlier treated an American businessman who also died of the disease, the French Embassy in Hanoi said.
The latest death brought the toll to nine, including the two people who recently died in Ontario.
The disease first struck in China's southern Guangdong province in late January, killing five people.
No cases have been identified in the United States, health officials said. But a doctor believed to be infected was taken off a New York-to-Singapore flight in Germany on Saturday and quarantined.
Two people travelling with him — his wife and another doctor — also were being held in hospital for observation.
In New York, health authorities put hospitals on alert.
In Toronto, a hotline has been set up for concerned citizens to find out if their symptoms — which include high fever, headache, confusion, diarrhea, shortness of breath and muscular stiffness — suggest they could be infected.
"It can come on quite suddenly and get bad within days," said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto's associate Medical Officer of Health and director of communicable disease control. "It is not a mild illness."
But she said the outbreak is not a significant risk to the general public, and is limited to those who have been in close contact with one of the infected.
Ontario's coroner was investigating one of the deaths and testing was being conducted at a provincial laboratory with additional specimens being sent to a federal laboratory in Winnipeg.
Health Canada is now helping to contact individuals who could have been infected, such as family, friends and co-workers.
Officials are also trying to determine who would have been in Toronto's Scarborough Grace Hospital at particular times, and compiling a list of those who shared a flight with an infected person, or attended the funeral of one of the victims last week.
If people were not exposed in one of those scenarios, they are not at risk, Dr. Yaffe said.
Avoiding the spread of infection requires an increased level of caution and awareness, she said, including good hygiene and frequent hand washing.
The patients have been quarantined and family of the infected have been told to stay at home until it can be certain they are healthy.
One of the dead and two other family members had recently returned from Hong Kong, where atypical pneumonia has been spreading.
While health officials stopped short of directly linking travel to the affected regions of Asia with the disease, they did caution that it was one factor to consider.
Most of the outbreaks have been reported in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and unconfirmed new cases were reported in Vietnam and Taiwan on Saturday.
& sarcastic 
??
I stopped my truck and ask him why he was doing it?
...Bottom line to punish him I put a lot of salt on the snow that he just shoveled there..And this summer I'll find artificial snow and I will buried his driveway with it!