TORONTO SARS REPORT

Hi, I would like to report on the SARS situation in Toronto, if you as cryonet, and CSC readers are interested in hearing about it on this forum. I enjoy sharing SARS stories, because I don't think that there is any other cryonicist in the position to provide such information to the cryonics community. (That is uncensored, direct information, not skewed by the media or our public relations department). I think that the new reality of SARS is such that we as life extensionists can learn from it, and perhaps apply the lessons here to future biological threats.

I was told last night by one of the physicians I work with that my hospital has become THE authority on SARS in North America, as no one on this continent has had so much experience as us in battling it. We have more than 30 staff members infected, we have been treating the Toronto community at large with SARS since its onset in March, and our attempts at treating such a disease is groundbreaking and important.

The plastic barriers and hepafilters installed in our department were put in place because the nursing staff I work with (me included) filled out "unsafe work conditions" forms submitted to the Ministry of Labour in Ontario. We called the Ministry of Labour to come and inspect our workplace, as we knew that the existing barriers were completely inappropriate for containing this virus, and keeping us safe. Our management, physicians, or the CDC did not initiate this. I say this because I am very proud of how proactive and vocal our nursing staff has been in dealing with this disaster, and how instrumental they (we) have been in keeping SARS from spreading further.

The nursing profession has traditionally been suppressed and left out of the decision making process. In fact, as I stated before, "SARS Part Two", as it is affectionately being called, could have been completely avoided if the SARS taskforce had listened to our dire warnings that there were disturbing patterns emerging in the population we were serving, and flat out told us we were over-reacting, as they were issuing directives to all staff that it was ok to discontinue wearing N95 masks and other protective gear. I continue to present this information, because I strongly feel that we will have another outbreak if we do not remain absolutely vigilant. Every outbreak has started by one patient, which "got away".

The single biggest mistake that authorities made was insisting that SARS could not be diagnosed if an epidemiological link could not be established. A person could have a fever, shortness of breath, myalgia, etc, but if they could not recognize a contact with another SARS infected person, they refused to accept the possibility that that diagnosis could be made.

It has become evident that the SARS virus can survive on surfaces outside of the body for days, easily infecting people with no obvious relationship.

It has also been suggested that a building's ventilation system may possibly spread the virus between floors. We had an incident where two psychiatric patients became infected on our inpatient psych floor (7 west). There were also pockets of infection on 4 west (orthopedics), and 8 west, one of our SARS floors. Note the geographic location of these floors...all in the same wing of the hospital, perhaps sharing ventilation ducts. Also, I learned today that scientists in Alberta were able to isolate the virus in the air, suggesting the possibility that it may indeed be airborne, or be becoming an airborne virus. Two of our ICU nurses became infected, wearing protective gear, during the incubation of a patient...hence the introduction of the very expensive stryker suits ( the blue space suits in my photos).

The two individuals I reported on from the beginning...the 31 year old physician, and the 34 year old personal support worker...who have had SARS since March, remain on ventilators in our ICU...but they are finally showing real signs of improvement. Also, SARS virus is still being shed into our patients stool...weeks after the onset of symptoms...making it very difficult to establish how long the virus remains in the human body, and how long a patient remains infectious.

Initially, patients were being treated with a cocktail of broad-spectrum antibiotics, steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, and ribavarin. The ribavarin turned out to be useless, and in fact causing serious complications for the patient such as anemia. That was discontinued. We are currently using interferon, which is showing promise.

Also, I just learned last night that there will be a new study, starting shortly, which will assess the blood of health care workers such as myself who have been working with SARS, but have not become ill. The purpose of the study is to look for antibodies in our blood, to see if we have been exposed to the virus and developed immunity, as well as to explore the possibility that we can serve as potential carriers of SARS, by being "sub clinical", perhaps we were infected, developed very minor symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, etc and never knew that we were potentially infectious.

That's my SARS update for today

Christine….

Hi there. I am writing this to answer an email that Rick (Potvin) sent me. He asked for my opinion on the claim that licorice might be able to cure SARS. I also want to voice some of my thoughts about SARS, and give all of you an update about how its going in my little corner of the world. I have not heard of any SARS treatments involving licorice. We have 10 critically ill patients in our ICU, all on ventilators, all with SARS. Some of them are our own staff. Two patients died this week, one of which was a 45-year-old man, whose brother and mother also have SARS. (I think the mother died too).

I think that if our physicians believed that it was even possible to treat SARS with licorice, that they would try it. To date, 42 staff members of my hospital have come down with SARS. I think that that fact alone begrudgingly makes us the experts on how to deal with this disease. I can tell you, that even those who are expert in dealing with infectious disease are the first to state that there is far more we don't know about SARS than what we do know.

There will always be those who believe that there will be one natural substance out there that will cure all of the diseases that scare us the most. Always be wary of "cure all" solutions, as there really is no such thing.

I also want to comment on one of Rick's statements about SARS, where he ponders why the media is making such a big deal about it when the flu kills far more people. First of all, we can be immunized against influenza. SARS is a completely new disease, which has no cure, or immunization to date.

Secondly, if you are young and relatively healthy, you can feel quite confident in the knowledge that the flu probably won't kill you. With SARS, there really is no way of predicting who of us will recover, and who will die. SARS is a bigger threat than the flu for those reasons, and because there are a lot of aspects to studying SARS, which are worrisome.

There may be "super shedders", which are people who have a large viral load, and are better at spreading SARS than others. It has also been considered that there may be people with sub-clinical presentations of SARS, in which they show relatively few, if no symptoms, but are able to spread the disease easily. If these people are walking around, unknowingly spreading SARS in the community, there is no telling how many people will potentially become infected.

Then, there is a growing concern about how long the virus remains in the body. Consider this: A person becomes ill with SARS, and is hospitalized. 3 or 4 weeks go by, they get better and are discharged home. They are then placed on a 10 day home quarantine, and make follow up visits to the hospital 7 days, then 30 days post discharge for a follow up chest x ray and blood work. Is it possible that when they are discharged home, feeling somewhat better that they are still contagious? We have patients in our ICU who have been ill with SARS since late March. True, the virus may have passed and now they are suffering the organ damage brought on by the virus and the drugs used to treat it. But...they are still finding corona virus in these patients' stool.

Most of the patients who have managed to survive the SARS infection, have ongoing medical problems. Most of them have not completely recovered, and it is questionable whether or not they will end up with chronic breathing difficulties, etc. SARS, and the powerful immuno-suppressants, and anti- inflammatories used to treat it, are devastating to the entire body. Those in our ICU are on experimental treatments I have never heard of. In fact, I will try to find out what the current treatment protocol is, and report it to all of you as soon as I can. It might make for fascinating reading.

SARS is very frightening, especially to me, and my colleagues. My hospital has been gravely injured by the implications of SARS 2. We will lose a lot of staff. Some because they have become very ill, other because they feel betrayed by the SARS decision makers, who put politics ahead of the lives and safety of our staff.

Our hospital has been labelled "The SARS Hospital" in Toronto, by the press, and the community.

Our hospital has been closed to the public since May 23rd, and it will probably take another month to gradually re-open services. The emergency department where I work will be the last to open, when we are prepared to accept patients again.

Our reputation has been gravely injured. There will likely be a public inquiry, partially stemming from the two emergency nurses who went to the press to tell them that officials didn't heed the warnings of the nurses. There will likely be class action lawsuits, considering how many people have died or lost family members to this.

Anyhow, that's about it for now. I have created my own website. It's still under construction, but if you would like to see it, here's the address:

http://www.webspawner.com/users/christinegaspar/index.html

Christine