Jennifer Morrison and Paula McCooey
The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, April 20, 2003
A SARS scare at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport yesterday afternoon turned out to be a false alarm after a suspect case ended up being a head cold.
Airport and customs officials were not taking any chances. Canadian customs was shut down for about 30 minutes after an officer noticed a child exhibiting symptoms consistent with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The child was travelling with his mother and another sibling. Their journey began in Tokyo with a connection in Chicago before arriving in Ottawa.
Customs officials briefly quarantined the family while on-site health officials checked the youngster out.
"It was literally a kid with a cold, but we have to be careful," said airport spokeswoman Krista Kealey.
Meanwhile, a flight arriving from London's Heathrow Airport was delayed for about 30 minutes, waiting on the tarmac for customs to reopen while the suspect case was investigated. Passengers on this flight were told about what was happening while they waited to disembark.
They looked relieved as they were finally able to pass through customs. Still, some wore masks as a precaution. A woman and young girl who said they were coming from Dublin, Ireland, both donned masks as they exited through customs.
The woman said it was a precaution she was taking just to be safe while travelling.
At the same time, Air Canada flight attendants and cabin crew were also spotted wearing white surgical masks, as was a woman working at a nearby foreign currency exchange counter.
Ms. Kealey said while some passengers do get upset and frustrated with delays, most are relieved to know that the airlines and customs officials are doing their best to ensure everyone's safety.
So far the SARS outbreak that continues to wreak havoc through Asia and in Toronto has yet to surface in Ottawa.
As of last night, there were still no suspect or probable cases in Ottawa, confirmed city spokesman Marc Baril.
Meanwhile, medical specialists from Ottawa are answering the call from Ontario's Health Ministry to send support to help deal with Toronto's SARS outbreak.
Last week, the province's containment team, headed by Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, admitted they are looking for extra help from around and outside the province to help bring the outbreak under control. Toronto's public health service can't continue to handle the problem on its own, she said.
Ottawa has obliged and will be sending two of its specialists on Tuesday to offer support.
Dr. Geoff Dunkley, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health and epidemiologist Jennifer Pennock, also with the public health department, will assist the team in tracking the respiratory virus, a pneumonia-like disease that has killed 14 Canadians and infected hundreds more, centred in the Toronto area. Both will be avoiding frontline work.
Dr. Dunkley and Ms. Pennock "will be going next week to help out wherever the priorities are," said Mark Baril, a communications officer with the City of Ottawa. "I know Ms. Pennock will be working more on tracking the disease. But once they get there, it will depend on what they are needed for."
Last week Dr. Virginia Roth, the Ottawa Hospital's director of infectious disease control, travelled to Toronto to help ease the strain and provide direction to the containment team, but also avoided frontline work. She will be returning to Toronto this week.
"Dr. Roth has been in the scientific group at the provincial operation center (POC) in Toronto," said Ron Vézina, spokesperson with the Ottawa Hospital. "She is part of the specialist group that is providing direction on how to manage this situation. But as such, they've removed themselves from any direct patient contact so they don't knock themselves out of the strategy."
Dr. Roth said affected hospitals in the Toronto area are keeping out all visitors except the parents of hospitalized children and visitors to critically ill patients. Unaffected hospitals are not transferring patients to affected hospitals.
But in Ottawa, she said limiting visitors would only be necessary if there are new cases in the hospital, despite infection controls.
Dr. Patricia Huston, associate medical officer of health for the City of Ottawa, said she is not sure how long they will be working at the Ontario SARS emergency centre in Toronto, adding it will depend on the outcome this coming week.
"I think this is a critical weekend for SARS as to whether it will be contained," she said. "And so how long (the Ottawa team) will be in Toronto very much depends on the course of the disease."
The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, April 20, 2003
A SARS scare at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport yesterday afternoon turned out to be a false alarm after a suspect case ended up being a head cold.
Airport and customs officials were not taking any chances. Canadian customs was shut down for about 30 minutes after an officer noticed a child exhibiting symptoms consistent with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The child was travelling with his mother and another sibling. Their journey began in Tokyo with a connection in Chicago before arriving in Ottawa.
Customs officials briefly quarantined the family while on-site health officials checked the youngster out.
"It was literally a kid with a cold, but we have to be careful," said airport spokeswoman Krista Kealey.
Meanwhile, a flight arriving from London's Heathrow Airport was delayed for about 30 minutes, waiting on the tarmac for customs to reopen while the suspect case was investigated. Passengers on this flight were told about what was happening while they waited to disembark.
They looked relieved as they were finally able to pass through customs. Still, some wore masks as a precaution. A woman and young girl who said they were coming from Dublin, Ireland, both donned masks as they exited through customs.
The woman said it was a precaution she was taking just to be safe while travelling.
At the same time, Air Canada flight attendants and cabin crew were also spotted wearing white surgical masks, as was a woman working at a nearby foreign currency exchange counter.
Ms. Kealey said while some passengers do get upset and frustrated with delays, most are relieved to know that the airlines and customs officials are doing their best to ensure everyone's safety.
So far the SARS outbreak that continues to wreak havoc through Asia and in Toronto has yet to surface in Ottawa.
As of last night, there were still no suspect or probable cases in Ottawa, confirmed city spokesman Marc Baril.
Meanwhile, medical specialists from Ottawa are answering the call from Ontario's Health Ministry to send support to help deal with Toronto's SARS outbreak.
Last week, the province's containment team, headed by Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, admitted they are looking for extra help from around and outside the province to help bring the outbreak under control. Toronto's public health service can't continue to handle the problem on its own, she said.
Ottawa has obliged and will be sending two of its specialists on Tuesday to offer support.
Dr. Geoff Dunkley, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health and epidemiologist Jennifer Pennock, also with the public health department, will assist the team in tracking the respiratory virus, a pneumonia-like disease that has killed 14 Canadians and infected hundreds more, centred in the Toronto area. Both will be avoiding frontline work.
Dr. Dunkley and Ms. Pennock "will be going next week to help out wherever the priorities are," said Mark Baril, a communications officer with the City of Ottawa. "I know Ms. Pennock will be working more on tracking the disease. But once they get there, it will depend on what they are needed for."
Last week Dr. Virginia Roth, the Ottawa Hospital's director of infectious disease control, travelled to Toronto to help ease the strain and provide direction to the containment team, but also avoided frontline work. She will be returning to Toronto this week.
"Dr. Roth has been in the scientific group at the provincial operation center (POC) in Toronto," said Ron Vézina, spokesperson with the Ottawa Hospital. "She is part of the specialist group that is providing direction on how to manage this situation. But as such, they've removed themselves from any direct patient contact so they don't knock themselves out of the strategy."
Dr. Roth said affected hospitals in the Toronto area are keeping out all visitors except the parents of hospitalized children and visitors to critically ill patients. Unaffected hospitals are not transferring patients to affected hospitals.
But in Ottawa, she said limiting visitors would only be necessary if there are new cases in the hospital, despite infection controls.
Dr. Patricia Huston, associate medical officer of health for the City of Ottawa, said she is not sure how long they will be working at the Ontario SARS emergency centre in Toronto, adding it will depend on the outcome this coming week.
"I think this is a critical weekend for SARS as to whether it will be contained," she said. "And so how long (the Ottawa team) will be in Toronto very much depends on the course of the disease."
