SARS shockwaves felt
around the world
by Tyler Hopson
the Carillon

It is perhaps true that fear spreads more quickly than disease. Soon after it became apparent that SARS was becoming a crisis in Toronto and elsewhere in the world, people far removed from the frontlines, including students at the University of Regina and their parents, began to panic.
Only a short time ago, the acronym for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome meant nothing to the average Canadian.
Within weeks, SARS became such a hot topic for Canadian media that stories on the recent war in Iraq, until that point the hottest news hands-down, were being pre-empted.
Now less than two months later, it appears that the risk of contracting SARS, in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada, is next to zero.
On May 14, the World Health Organization officially removed Toronto from a list of SARS-affected areas. This means that no new cases of SARS had been reported in that city for 20 days—or two incubation periods for the virus that causes SARS.

SARS not an issue on U of R campus

At the beginning of the SARS outbreak in Canada, a number of students and parents from the University of Regina voiced concern over the possibility of SARS making its way to the campus. Of particular concern to them was a group of Chinese students who were scheduled to arrive at the U of R on April 21.
One student, who has since moved out of the College West Residence for other reasons, sent an anonymous e-mail to this newspaper on April 15 expressing her fear about SARS.
She wrote, “I feel, as [do] many others, that the University and College West are putting the students at risk. SARS can remain on inanimate objects for up to four hours. What are the residents of College West to do? Not use doorknobs, elevators...etc?
“This is a new illness; whatever preventative measures that are taken are, in fact, not 100 per cent safe. There are too many unknowns with this illness that I feel College West has ignored.
“It is a possibility that this illness can be spread quite easily across Saskatchewan and [to] other places because of the diversity of the students already residing in College West.”
Because of such concerns, the University administration made the decision to detain the group of Chinese students in Vancouver for five days. The students then took a bus to Regina over a five-day period. Symptoms of SARS are said to show up within 10 days if one has contracted the virus.
The students have now arrived safely in Regina and, to date, it does not appear that any of them have or have had the SARS illness.
Carter Zeng, one of the Chinese students detained in Vancouver, was not offended by the detainment. “I think it was necessary. SARS is not only China’s problem, but the whole world’s problem.”
He says he is still very concerned about the SARS outbreak in China and Taiwan.
When contacted for further comment on May 16, the unidentified concerned student wrote, “I feel that the University got lucky. It seems that SARS has been avoided. Neverless, the threat was real.
“I still feel more precautions should have been taken to ensure student safety. SARS is much more than a minor detail that needed to be ironed out. The university handled the issue very badly, if you can say they handled it at all.”
However, from May 2 to May 15, the University Health Clinic offered daily drop-in times for people seeking information and self-monitoring tips about SARS. Sharron McStay, a nurse at the health clinic, says response to the drop-in times was non-existent.
“Zero. We’ve had no students come by,” said McStay on May 15. As a result, the drop-in hours have been cancelled.
However, McStay encourages people who feel they may have symptoms of SARS to use the Clinic’s SARS phoneline. “That will remain open indefinitely,” she added.
McStay feels personally that the quarantine of the Chinese students was not warranted and that some parents and students may have overreacted to the SARS threat.
Future of SARS unknown

Dr. Ross Findlater, Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer, says “there are always new bugs coming along. Right now, we’re dealing with SARS finishing its winter run...in past years, there have been antibiotic-resistant organisms in hospitals that have made the news in Saskatchewan. In the early 80s, HIV was a new disease and before that, drug-resistant tuberculosis.”
Findlater says it is important to keep these diseases in perspective and not to panic or react too quickly to them. A disease looks “scarier if it is new and if exposure to it is involuntary,” he says.
When asked about the possibility of SARS becoming widespread across Canada in the future, Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Donna Holton said, “We don’t know. It’s quite possible that SARS has been around for a very long time and we’ve only now found it.
“SARS may go away and not come back. But, some viruses tend to come and go.”
The number for the University of Regina’s Health Clinic SARS phone line is (306) 337-2362.