Prevent Disease.com - WHO Not Reinstating Toronto SARS Advisory



		WHO Not Reinstating Toronto SARS Advisory OTTAWA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided not to reinstate a recommendation that travelers avoid Toronto, despite a cluster of new SARS cases dating from mid-May, Canadian Health Minister Anne McLellan said on Tuesday. "The WHO decided today ... not to impose an additional travel advisory on the city of Toronto because, in fact, they believe that the procedures in place, the methods of public health being followed by local officials in Toronto, are controlling and containing this latest outbreak," McLellan told Parliament. A WHO travel advisory on Toronto in late April contributed to a disastrous reduction in tourism and business travel to the city, and set back the Canadian dollar, even though the advisory lasted less than a week. Ontario health officials expressed relief at the WHO's decision not to reinstate its travel warning but said they also expected more SARS cases in the near term. "We believe that we have put the correct measures in place although we continue to see some cases and we expect we'll (see) some more cases in the next few days," said Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public security. "We're not seeing surprises at this point in time, and that's very positive." The Toronto area is the only place outside Asia where people have died of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a flu-like disease that started in China and was spread by air travelers around the world. But the Canadian death toll of 32, with two more deaths under investigation to see if they might have been SARS, is a small fraction of the 772 deaths worldwide. Most of the SARS deaths, and a large majority of SARS cases, have been in China and Hong Kong. The WHO watches a number of factors in its decision on whether to recommend staying away from a country or a region because of SARS. These include the number of cases, whether SARS is spreading outside the medical community and whether it is being exported to other countries. There were 77 probable or suspect SARS cases in the Toronto areas as of Tuesday and some 5,200 people in quarantine. Reference Source 89 For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".