Officials ignored Sars warnings
2003-06-02 08:47
Hong Kong - Canadian nurses are accusing hospital officials of ignoring warnings of Toronto's latest Sars outbreak, while officials in Taiwan urge residents to stay vigilant against the virus with free thermometers in an island-wide "take your temperature" campaign.
About 360 tourists from southern China have come to neighbouring Hong Kong after officials here lifted a ban on such tour groups, following declining infections in both places. The visitors will be briefed about anti-Sars guidelines, health officials said.
"The epidemic is ebbing," said Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, who handed out thermometers on Sunday to workers at fish and meat markets in the Taiwanese capital. "This is also the moment when people will be tempted to let down their guard and risk wiping out all our past efforts to contain the disease."
Taiwan reported four new Sars cases on Monday, a single-digit increase for the fourth day in a row, following earlier double-digit increases in recent weeks. The figures seem to support health officials' views that Sars is stabilising in Taiwan, which has had 81 deaths.
The global death toll from severe acute respiratory syndrome was at least 767 on Monday.
More than 8 300 people have been sickened since the Sars virus first appeared in southern China in November. The vast majority of infections and deaths have been in China's mainland and Hong Kong.
The deadliest outbreak outside Asia has been in Canada's largest city, Toronto, where authorities believed they had beaten the disease until a new cluster of infections was found in recent weeks in two city hospitals.
Nurses have accused officials at the city's North York General Hospital of dismissing warnings of a new wave of Sars infections, the Toronto Star reported. The 16 000-member Registered Nurses Association of Ontario called for a "full review" of why hospital officials ignored the warnings.
The concerns came after two emergency room nurses tried to warn doctors at the hospital in mid-May that five family members had Sars-like symptoms, according to the newspaper. But nurses said they were told they were overreacting.
Public health officials later announced dozens of new cases.
Marcia Taylor, the Ontario Nurses Association vice-president, said that nurses knew Sars never disappeared.
"Our members were telling us of people with classic Sars symptoms coming into hospital. It appeared government was more focused on the protection of the Toronto tourist industry than the health of our health care workers and members of the public," she told the Toronto Star.
The nurses could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Dr Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's commissioner of public health, and Dr James Young, commissioner of public safety, told reporters they did not have the authority to set up a public inquiry into the nurses' claims, but they insisted health officials were ready to listen.
More than 5 700 people remained in quarantine on Sunday in Toronto, where 31 people have died from the disease.
Trade ministers from the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum were set to meet in Thailand this week to approve an emergency plan to revive the region's tourism industry and other businesses that have been hard hit by Sars.
Economic growth rates across Asia have dropped because of the disease - Hong Kong by 1.8 percentage points, Singapore by 1.1, Taiwan by 0.9 and China by 0.2, according to the Asian Development Bank.
At a two-day meeting of health, immigration and other officials, China and the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said they will screen every international traveller for Sars symptoms and notify each other of those suspected of carrying the virus. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA