Nurses accuse officials of ignoring SARS warning

Nurses today accused Canadian hospital officials of ignoring warnings of Toronto’s latest SARS outbreak.

Officials in Canada’s largest city believed they had beaten the disease until a new cluster of infections was found in recent weeks in two hospitals.

Nurses said officials at the city’s North York General Hospital dismissed warnings of a new wave of infections. The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario called for a ”full review” of why hospital officials ignored the warnings.

“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,” said Marcia Taylor, the Ontario Nurses Association vice president.

Health officials said they did not have the authority to set up a public inquiry into the nurses’ claims, but insisted they were ready to listen.

More than 5,700 people remained in quarantine in Toronto, where 31 people have died from the disease.

China today reported no new cases for the first time since April.

“It’s heartening. But it’s not time to think that SARS has been beaten,” said Bob Dietz, the World Health Organisation spokesman in Beijing, after the Chinese Health Ministry report “No one should drop their guard yet.”

Illustrating the toll severe acute respiratory syndrome has had on the medical community, Hong Kong said three health care workers have died in the past two days, the most recent a 30-year-old doctor.

The global death toll from severe acute respiratory syndrome rose to at least 771 today. More than 8,300 people have been sickened by the flu-like illness, most of them in Asia.