SARS Recedes, Toronto Travel Advisory Lifted

GENEVA, Switzerland, April 30, 2003 (ENS) - Effective today, the World Health Organization is lifting the travel advisory for Toronto, Canada. The advisory recommended considering postponing non-essential travel to Toronto, and was issued as a precautionary measure one week ago in order to minimize the international spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The UN health agency is lifting this advisory as the situation in Toronto has now improved.

Travel advisories are issued following consideration of several factors, including the magnitude of probable SARS cases, the last dates of cases of community transmission, and the last dates of export of cases.

Travellers can now visit Toronto safely, says the World Health Organization. (Photo courtesy Canada Customs)

In Toronto, the magnitude of probable SARS cases has decreased, and 20 days have now passed since the last cases of community transmission, and no new confirmed exportation of cases has occurred.

Across Canada, 346 probable or suspect cases of SARS have been reported, and 21 people have died from the respiratory disease.

“To minimize the risk of the export of SARS, we ask that all affected areas implement the recommended pro-active screening measures – by interviewing passengers at the airport check-in,” said Brundtland.

The travel advisories for areas of China, including Beijing, Guangdong province, Shanxi province and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region remain in place, after a review by WHO officials.

On Monday, WHO removed Vietnam from the list of countries with local transmission of SARS, making Vietnam the first country to be removed from the list of countries with local transmission of SARS. The status change for Vietnam is especially significant because it was one of four countries the list of countries initially identified by the WHO on March 15 as having local transmission of SARS.

“Vietnam has stopped the outbreak within its borders,” says Dr. Pascale Brudon, WHO representative to Vietnam.

Director-general of the World Health Organization physician Gro Harlem Brundtland (Photo courtesy WHO)

On Tuesday, the heads of government of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam – plus the Peoples Republic of China, including Hong Kong, met in Bangkok, Thailand, and endorsed a set of procedures to jointly combat SARS.

The procedures were drawn out by the ASEAN countries’ health ministers, who had met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 26. Countries agreed to standardize screening of all travellers, isolate and treat identified SARS cases, and share accurate information in a timely manner.

“Meetings of this level and magnitude, to form a common strategy against a specific disease, show how serious countries are to become free of SARS,” said Dr. David Heymann, executive director of the WHO’s Communicable Diseases Cluster.

At the Bangkok meeting, Dr. Heymann a gave an address in which he reminded the ASEAN heads of states that there are two simple strategies that can contain and eventually stop SARS – detecting all cases and protecting those at risk of infection from these cases. He said that countries need to detect and treat SARS cases early while taking effective measures to protect the rest of the population.

In the United States the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia reports that as of Monday there were 274 cases of SARS in 38 states.

Worldwide, 5663 cases of SARS have been reported, and 372 people have died of the new disease.