Newly defined, Canada SARS cases number 41

(CNN) — Using a new, broader definition of a SARS case, Canadian officials Thursday said the number of suspected and probable cases in Ontario’s latest outbreak has grown from 31 to 41.

(CNN) — Using a new, broader definition of a SARS case, Canadian officials Thursday said the number of suspected and probable cases in Ontario’s latest outbreak has grown from 31 to 41. The number includes 33 probable cases and eight suspected cases, said Dr. Colin D’Cunha, Ontario’s public health commissioner. The increase is partly due to the adoption by Ontario officials and Health Canada of the broader case definition recommended by the World Health Organization and used by virtually every other country. Of the 33 probable cases, four people have died, leaving Canada with 29 active cases of SARS, Health Canada, the national health agency, said Thursday. Canada has seen a total of 29 SARS deaths since the start of the year. Initially, D’Cunha said the number of suspected and probable cases had grown to 62, but shortly afterward, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, he revised the figure to 41. Thousands remain in quarantineIn Markham, a Toronto suburb, a Catholic High School was closed Thursday in response to a student’s suspected case of SARS, a spokesman with Ontario’s Education Ministry told CNN. Health officials late Wednesday told roughly 2,000 students and teachers at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy to isolate themselves in home quarantine, because the student attended classes last week while showing symptoms of SARS. Overall, more than 7,000 people are now supposed to be under home quarantine, D’Cunha said Thursday. Unlike isolation, which applies to those with SARS symptoms, quarantine is for asymptomatic people who may have come into contact with SARS sufferers. D’Cunha said 396 of those under home quarantine are health care workers and that roughly 500 other health care workers are in “working quarantine,” which means they may continue to work around patients under strict guidelines, such as taking private transportation to their jobs and donning protective wear that must be changed with each new patient. Dr. James Young, Ontario’s commissioner of public security, said he hoped the control measures would be enough to satisfy the WHO that a new warning against travel to Toronto isn’t necessary. “We’re not seeing large numbers of cases coming into the system,” Young said Thursday, adding that while he couldn’t speak for the WHO, “I would hope right now that there would be careful analysis before a travel advisory is put on.” The WHO lifted a previous travel ban May 14, after deciding that Toronto’s initial SARS outbreak was under control and that the illness was no longer being spread locally. Canadian authorities say the link between the current cluster of cases and the initial cluster is a 96-year-old man who died May 1 after what doctors thought were two bouts with pneumonia. They did not link his illness to SARS until the new cases emerged. Abating in Asia?Taiwan reported 50 new probable cases of SARS Thursday, including 40 patients who were reclassified from suspected to probable infections, Reuters reported. No deaths were reported in Thursday in Taiwan, the third-hardest hit area in the world. Taiwan lags only behind mainland China and Hong Kong in total SARS cases, but is currently the most active region for the outbreak. In China, where the number of new cases is dwindling in urban centers, the government Thursday made prevention and treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the country’s vast rural areas a top priority. China’s Health Ministry announced the smallest rise in the number of SARS cases in mainland China since the government began tracking the illness. The ministry confirmed three new cases — bringing the total to 5,325 — and two new SARS-related deaths, raising the death toll to 327. The ministry said all of the new cases and one of the deaths occurred in the hard-hit capital of Beijing. The other death was in neighboring Hebei province. The government acknowledged the SARS situation “remains grave,” saying that to put SARS under complete control “the key is in the countryside,” where the majority of China’s 1.3 billion people live. Russia confirmed its first SARS case on Wednesday, a 25-year-old man who lives in a town bordering China. (Source: CNN, Thursday, May 29, 2003 Posted: 7:45 PM EDT (2345 GMT))