Ottawa airport gets SARS scare.......Customs shut down for 'kid with a cold' Jennifer Morrison and Paula McCooey The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, April 20,= =20 2003 A SARS scare at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport yesterday= =20 afternoon turned out to be a false alarm after a suspect case ended up=20 being a head cold. Airport and customs officials were not taking any=20 chances. Canadian customs was shut down for about 30 minutes after an=20 officer noticed a child exhibiting symptoms consistent with Severe Acute=20 Respiratory Syndrome. The child was travelling with his mother and another= =20 sibling. Their journey began in Tokyo with a connection in Chicago before=20 arriving in Ottawa. Customs officials briefly quarantined the family while= =20 on-site health officials checked the youngster out. "It was literally a kid= =20 with a cold, but we have to be careful," said airport spokeswoman Krista=20 Kealey. Meanwhile, a flight arriving from London's Heathrow Airport was=20 delayed for about 30 minutes, waiting on the tarmac for customs to reopen=20 while the suspect case was investigated. Passengers on this flight were=20 told about what was happening while they waited to disembark. They looked relieved as they were finally able to pass through customs.=20 Still, some wore masks as a precaution. A woman and young girl who said=20 they were coming from Dublin, Ireland, both donned masks as they exited=20 through customs. The woman said it was a precaution she was taking just to= =20 be safe while travelling. At the same time, Air Canada flight attendants=20 and cabin crew were also spotted wearing white surgical masks, as was a=20 woman working at a nearby foreign currency exchange counter. Ms. Kealey=20 said while some passengers do get upset and frustrated with delays, most=20 are relieved to know that the airlines and customs officials are doing=20 their best to ensure everyone's safety. So far the SARS outbreak that=20 continues to wreak havoc through Asia and in Toronto has yet to surface in= =20 Ottawa. As of last night, there were still no suspect or probable cases in= =20 Ottawa, confirmed city spokesman Marc Baril. Meanwhile, medical specialists= =20 from Ottawa are answering the call from Ontario's Health Ministry to send=20 support to help deal with Toronto's SARS outbreak. Last week, the province's containment team, headed by Toronto's Medical=20 Officer of Health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, admitted they are looking for extra=20 help from around and outside the province to help bring the outbreak under= =20 control. Toronto's public health service can't continue to handle the=20 problem on its own, she said. Ottawa has obliged and will be sending two of= =20 its specialists on Tuesday to offer support. Dr. Geoff Dunkley, Ottawa's=20 associate medical officer of health and epidemiologist Jennifer Pennock,=20 also with the public health department, will assist the team in tracking=20 the respiratory virus, a pneumonia-like disease that has killed 14=20 Canadians and infected hundreds more, centred in the Toronto area. Both=20 will be avoiding frontline work. Dr. Dunkley and Ms. Pennock "will be going= =20 next week to help out wherever the priorities are," said Mark Baril, a=20 communications officer with the City of Ottawa. "I know Ms. Pennock will be= =20 working more on tracking the disease. But once they get there, it will=20 depend on what they are needed for." Last week Dr. Virginia Roth, the Ottawa Hospital's director of infectious=20 disease control, travelled to Toronto to help ease the strain and provide=20 direction to the containment team, but also avoided frontline work. She=20 will be returning to Toronto this week. "Dr. Roth has been in the=20 scientific group at the provincial operation center (POC) in Toronto," said= =20 Ron V=E9zina, spokesperson with the Ottawa Hospital. "She is part of the=20 specialist group that is providing direction on how to manage this=20 situation. But as such, they've removed themselves from any direct patient= =20 contact so they don't knock themselves out of the strategy." Dr. Roth said= =20 affected hospitals in the Toronto area are keeping out all visitors except= =20 the parents of hospitalized children and visitors to critically ill=20 patients. Unaffected hospitals are not transferring patients to affected=20 hospitals. But in Ottawa, she said limiting visitors would only be=20 necessary if there are new cases in the hospital, despite infection=20 controls. Dr. Patricia Huston, associate medical officer of health for the= =20 City of Ottawa, said she is not sure how long they will be working at the=20 Ontario SARS emergency centre in Toronto, adding it will depend on the=20 outcome this coming week. "I think this is a critical weekend for SARS as=20 to whether it will be contained," she said. "And so how long (the Ottawa=20 team) will be in Toronto very much depends on the course of the disease." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.pscutt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************