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medpundit |
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Tuesday, April 08, 2003Another SARS victim, known only as Miss Tse, doesn't have to look beyond her own family to see the devastating effects of SARS. Her mother, Sui-Chu Kwan, 78, was Toronto's first SARS victim and died in her Scarborough apartment March 5. Her older brother Chi Kwai Tse, 44, was the second to die here of SARS, passing away of respiratory failure March 13. ...Placed in isolation, too sick to make arrangements for her brother's funeral, Miss Tse became so weak she couldn't turn over in bed. The article also details the way the disease was transmitted among healthcare workers, and necessitated the shut-down of the ICU and eventually the hospital. The Boston Globe has more: At least three of the eight people killed by the disease in Toronto are believed to have contracted it while being treated for other illnesses at the hospital. And disease detectives believe a significant share of the people suspected of having SARS in Ontario are doctors, nurses, and other health care workers directly or peripherally associated with Scarborough Grace. And the WHO says that the epidemic is straining hospitals in Southeast Asia: Hong Kong SAR continues to report the largest number of new cases, placing some hospitals under considerable strain. ..The Singapore Ministry of Health has reported an unusual cluster of 29 suspected SARS cases in hospital staff from two wards of a single hospital. ...Though the case could be linked back to the French hospital, the absence of isolation and rigorous infection control at the provincial hospital suggests that many hospital staff, patients, and visitors could have been exposed, thus possibly seeding further waves of cases. Healthcare workers should take note. Getting a smallpox vaccine now could prevent a much worse scenario than this if there should ever be a smallpox bioterrorist attack. posted by Sydney on 4/08/2003 08:25:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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