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tit-vow acute respiratory syn- drome, a vital disease in humans; broke out in Hong Kong and mm:- encd to become a pandemic. 'lhc Wmld Health Organiza- tion mmned 8.273 cases and 77. deaths globally. York Region was (he seumdâ€" largest centre for SARS in North America. [allowing Tommo. with lhefirslczwe (imam-d hewMamh 15. Eightyâ€"six York mskienls wen. diagnosed with nineof whom were among the 44 (H‘A fatalities BY CHRIS TRADE. ‘ nabnél‘wmg. «am A decade ago. a new won]. an acronym actually â€" SAKS ~~ crept mm the global lexicon and our ml- k-ctivg psyche. ‘ As with any main! event. SARS muffin us lawns. mostly impor- mm and some frixmbm. medical pn‘nfessimals “Them were many unknmvm and no treatment." he said. “Mk didn't have a given information mm. W;- wemn'! getting informa- tion fmm the field." ant~|ine medical staff. many pmsscd into 24]? action. some- times in quarantine. were at risk of burnout. he recalled. I York Region medical officer of hvahh D1 Karim Knrji M‘alk‘d the SARS outbmak as a time 0f major Dr. Kurii's team adopted an (m-r-an‘hing hospital cnmaixmwm strategy. In 2GB. he was Ontario's assmi- ate Chief medical ofiicer of health. As pan of the team co-(mhnat- ing a provincial msptmse. he was linked to York Region. He lauded lhe media for dis- seminating timer news and advice and keeping the populous calm. Before Easter weekend. the province declared a state of emer- The hennlt’an efforts of public health and hospital staff brought the two waves of me’tfisease under comm! by early luly. It wan} a pvrfom appmach. he admitted. hm i! was During the (nurse of the SARS nutbrt'aks. York Region serviced 7.01 1 people in quarantine. d‘mrib- SARS lessons lead to improved disease control “ uted 81.463 masks and 5.009 (her momm'n and deiiwmd quaran- tine packages to 4.795 addresses. r Public health. hospital. police. EMS and Health Connection stafl rallied to stem the tide. The SAKS episode spawned a range of new health cam and infec- tion control pmwwLx There's now a pandemic plan. co- mdinated with the federal govern- Frondine staff has the tools and training to deliver beta practices. patient safety indicators are pub- lidy mponed and strategic mm- moms in critical care enmity and infection control have been made. Equally important. Public Health ()ntan‘o was created. The organization supports infection prevention and control. disease «millance, epidemiology and emetgemy preparedness. SARSalwensuredmechiefmed- ital officer of health has enhanced puwers to issue directives during public health incidents. was Dr. Kurji's WW. said SAKS changed how we respond to a health-care crisis. Oak Ridges Markham MP? Helena bezel. who It mampcd how York Region and Ontario work with infectious (heckomwmqionxomfovmon DAHomundmgmwhose coushdicddontductomcmnm.. bAnAumramnwhofrequentty mkdtotheUnitedStatesdtMttr bAgalevyofphotognphsfrunme ON THE WEB disease and emergency control and how various health care pmvidcm work together. In ems. when our system Was testedagainbylllNl. wewereable to handb the situation with greater precision and care due. to the les- sons [tamed though the SARS and the important changes made to our health care system. Dr. lawsk said in a recent media release. Ten years ago and until 2005. wistmgs and Prince Edward coun- ' * ties health unit medical omcer of health Dr. Richard Schabas wasYork (‘rntral Hospital's chief of stall. His takeonSARS is mom benign than those of his coflcagtm Health leaders in Ontario and the (ETA took some eflective mea- sures during the SARS outbreaks. hesaid.butwascriticalofmanyof the ptocedures implemented. He identified several areas of mncem. including reponing the dairy tally of suspectui and cumu- lative cases. which gave the impres- sion the disease was out of control. Instead. limiting the count to probable cases would have given a more accurate picture. he said. “There was a huge amount of uncenaimy and anxiety.” he “The key lesson to mmcmbcr is how important it is to keep perspex}. ive. The problem was in only a handful of hospitals around the world. SARS never calmed significant pmblema outside hospitals and became very any to trump.“ Measures lhat needlessly placed thousands of tesidems in quaran- tine and closed York Central Hosâ€" pital. now Mackenzie Health Hjch~ mond Hill. for 20 days were "draco- man". assessment of the situation and speculatiomhcsaid. Quarantines. in his opinion wereawasle chime. The province was obsessed with infectious disease containment and not the source. he add- ing. while practical lessons were “There wen! clues about a pan- demic in the beginning and they were ignored.” he said. “It wasn't learned. the medical community missed initial indicamrs about (he real issue was the slow what wv thought it wuuld be." The physician is unayxmgetk'. “SARS was an unusual mm." he Was. it affirm-d thnusands of people and I don't want to triviâ€" alize it. but when you look at the numbers of people who div of tuberculosis each yeax. it was no real big Others beg to differ. Mackech Health patient can: vice-president lo-Annc Man and chief practkr offiovt ‘l‘iljana Riwm were from-line administrators in Mackenzie Health Ridtmond Hill chief practice officer Titiana [them (left) and patient can: vice-president loAnne Mart use one of the hand washing stations immlled since the SARS outbreak. "’l‘hv SAKS vxpt-rit-nu' is 41 xi}; mfimm reminder oxtvrnal cwnts can cause a: major inlcmlption in your husinosx operation." Ms Mart sand. "In our (use. that apt-ration was health cam." 2003. Ms Man with lhv Uniwrxily Health Network at Toronto Westvm Hospital and Ms Riwra at liayrresl. Thv outbn‘ak underscnrt'd mv transit-m nalun- of diseases. Ms Rivera ' “With glnba] trawl. an vpidvnm "Ls only a plane ride away." she 51A" W¢OYOaW E IAIRE TY