WHO reconsiders Toronto travel warning

A World Health organisation spokesman today confirmed that the agency is reconsidering the travel warning it issued last week for Toronto, Canada’s largest city, due to Sars.

The disease today claimed its 20th Canadian victim – a 77-year-old man - health authorities said.

The victim was the husband of a health care worker who previously contracted the illness.

The WHO issued a warning against non-essential travel to Toronto on Wednesday, provoking angry protests from Canadian officials who called it unwarranted and damaging to the economy.

Evidence of the impact was immediate, with conferences and other events cancelled, including a Monday concert by Elton John and Billy Joel, and tourist numbers down in the city of three million people.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the Canadian Government has provided his Geneva-based agency with more information about the outbreak in Toronto, where all the country’s Sars deaths have occurred.

“We’re re-examining that decision,” Thompson said in an interview broadcast on the CTV cable news network. Acknowledging the expertise of the Canadian health officials, Thompson said the WHO was responding to Canadian complaints that it acted too hastily in issuing the travel warning.

“We have to look at that, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t know what the outcome will be.”

He defended the WHO decision as a necessary step in a fluid situation.

“Responding to an outbreak is a fast-moving business. You have to go with the information you have,” he said. “The goal, the outcome will be to determine what’s best to protect public health.”

Canadian officials said on Friday that the WHO advice could be rescinded as soon as Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien, in his first public comments since the warning was issued, said he spoke to WHO head Gro Harlem Brundtland and she agreed to review the situation.

Ontario Premier Ernie Eves said the review would take place Tuesday and he expected an immediate decision.

Toronto is the epicentre of the biggest Sars outbreak outside of Asia, where the illness originated.

More than 250 probable or suspected cases have been reported in the Toronto area, with over half making a full recovery.

The WHO warning included Toronto on a list of Sars hot spots in Asia, including Hong Kong, Beijing and other areas of China.

Despite the travel warning, a crowd of 16,417, the largest since opening day, turned out at SkyDome on Friday night for the Toronto Blue Jays game against the Kansas City Royals.

The only mention of the illness was on a sign carried by two fans that read: “What Sars?”

Chretien said the federal government would contribute to a marketing campaign to reassure the world that Toronto and all of Canada remained a safe and enjoyable tourist destination.

To prove that point, Chretien said his Cabinet would meet in the city next week instead of Ottawa, the capital.

But business owners said the warning already has hurt them.

Placer Dome Inc, Canada’s second-biggest gold producer, said its Vancouver-based senior executives would participate in next week’s annual shareholder meeting in Toronto by video-conference instead of travelling to the city.

A bus tour operator with daily trips from Toronto to Niagara Falls and airport charters for local hotels said business is “going down the tubes.”

Lorenzo Durso of Swiftrans Services said: “There’s nothing going to Niagara - it’s finished. That business is down 100%.”

Canadian officials complained the WHO warning, which came more than a month after the illness first appeared in the city, was based on outdated information, and that recent figures showed few new cases.

Dr Paul Gully, a federal health official, indicated Canada would tighten airport screening of passengers to detect possible Sars sufferers, possibly with fever-detecting equipment.

The WHO had cited the possible spread of Sars from Toronto to developing nations as a reason for its travel warning.