- TORONTO (Reuters) - Exhausted
health workers on the front line of Toronto's battle against SARS must
also cope with the frightening knowledge that they are most at risk, and
there is no fail-proof way to protect them.
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- Hospital workers are now required to wear double layers
of gloves, full-face shields, masks and goggles and repeatedly wash their
hands.
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- Despite the safeguards, some health workers have still
contracted the disease, spurring Canada to invite a team of U.S. experts
to audit infection control measures at Toronto hospitals this week.
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- "It's under control in the community but not in
the institutions," said Dr. Paul Gully of Health Canada, the federal
health agency.
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- There has been some speculation that Toronto is facing
a more virulent strain of the SARS virus, which has killed 16 people in
the Toronto area. Canada is the only country outside Asia where people
have died from the highly contagious disease.
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- Canadian and U.S. scientists who sequenced the genome
of the virus said so far all the strains they looked at were almost identical,
but they noted slight differences.
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- A top U.S. infectious diseases expert, who has studied
the mutation of influenza viruses, said that differences could be enough
to account for Canada's struggle to control the virus despite its top-notch
health facilities.
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- Health officials admit mistakes were made in judging
how the outbreak is affecting hospital workers but say such errors are
part of the learning curve when dealing with a new virus.
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- As experts from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention examine the procedures in hospitals, Toronto says
it may use full biohazard suits in certain circumstances.
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- "But ... what they gain in isolation, they lose
in manual dexterity and visual field and that needs to be taken into account,"
Sheela Basrur, Toronto's medical officer of health told an emergency session
of city council on Thursday.
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- Health officials say the SARS outbreak is under control
and Canada challenged a World Health Organization travel warning to stay
away from Toronto to help curb the spread of the disease.
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- WORST NIGHTMARE
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- Beyond exhaustion, the fear of getting the disease, and
degree of social ostracism from nervous neighbors, friends and even family,
health workers face other daily irritations.
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- "You get rashes from the mask, it's very hot under
there and to be wearing it for eight hours is really hard. Sometimes it's
hard to breathe," said Roda Thompson, a health worker at Women's College
Hospital, which is closed to visitors and new patients except in dire emergencies.
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- Unlike many health workers, Thompson was not quarantined
during the outbreak but after feeling unwell she opted to go home.
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- "Another lady had flu symptoms and I work close
to her so I don't know if I picked it up from there," she said on
Friday.
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- Typical severe acute respiratory syndrome symptoms include
high fever, a dry cough, muscle aches and breathing difficulties. The virus
has killed 276 people worldwide and infected 4,800 people in more than
20 countries.
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- In Canada, there were 327 probable and suspect SARS cases
as of Thursday, 257 of them in the Toronto area. About 10,000 people have
been quarantined since March.
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- The condition of Canada's cherished universal health-care
program has long been the subject of controversy as governments cut funding
in the 1990s to wrestle down ballooning deficits.
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- Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has appealed
for help from the military and other provinces to give health staff a much-needed
break as the SARS crisis takes a heavy toll on an already creaking health
care system.
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- "Nurses are very, very tired," said Doris Grinspun,
executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. "There
were a couple of things before SARS that were already of concern. One was
the shortage of nurses. Second was the level of nurses working casual and
part-time."
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- "That combined with the SARS outbreak has become
really the worst nightmare."
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