SARS Outbreak in Toronto - Research Paper Example

SARS Outbreak in Toronto affiliation Who must be blame for letting the virus get out of control and why? Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) plagued the whole world in January 23, 2003. Everyone was aware of this condition but not more than Ontario Premier Ernie Eves understood it. Moreover, after four months he released a press statement urging people to go back to work and continue with their lives normally. He believed that the epidemic that had affected 24 Ontarians and 318 Canadians was over.

However, few minutes before releasing the press statement he had received news from Toronto’s North York General Hospital on four new cases and he kept asking himself if the cases may possibly be a new wave of SARS. But he was not sure how to communicate the crisis to the community at large.Moreover, a timeline of events occurred that led to misinformation to the public thus proving a difficult task to find ways to curb the epidemic. Many of those mistakes were preventable, for instance the World Health Organization produced numerous reports contradicting to the previous ones.

In their reports the disease which had been stated as having an incubation period of two days was later said to have a ten days incubation period. For another thing, the disease was at one time thought as been bacterial, besides it being viral so this made it harder to cure the disease. Additionally, the mode of transmission was said to be through immediate contact with an infected individual but later on the virus was found that it might live on surfaces for days.Communication errors also made it difficult to manage the situation; whenever a report was released by the WHO it was not marked as important but was placed in other categories as normal flues.

Moreover, there was a detachment amongst organizations. The physicians could have prioritized the urgency of the reports so as to make it easier for disease prevention. In addition to the information gap, the structure of health care systems and public health in Ontario and Toronto was another root cause of this endemic. Most hospitals in Toronto operated devoid of any local health authority leading them. Also, there were no pandemic control centers that could be delegated authority in cases of an outbreak.

Lastly, spokespersons conveyed inconsistent information’s and this ensued confusion. Therefore, the core problem that led to SARS getting out of hand is misinformation by the WHO. If the reports could convey genuine information then even if there was poor communication between companies, those measures could have been put in place and would have helped to curb the endemic (Berry, 2015). Why should we care about SARS now, twelve years after the outbreak?Twelve years later, we are not fully prepared to handle the SARS if it reemerges again.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome still haunts health care personnel and the survivors of the syndrome. The disease caused an enormous damage to individuals, some lost families while others were destroyed completely due to the long term effects of the syndrome. In present time we should care about the disease because ways on how to completely stop the disease have not yet been found. How the disease is spread is still also not confirmed. Thus health care personnel should be trained on how to apply firm infection control measures in order to prevent been infected by sick patients.

The Centre for Disease control is still researching on suitable measures to be taken on the infected patients so as to prevent spread of the syndrome. It suggests the sick should be isolated and restriction on travelling should be subjected to the affected. Thus we are still at risk from worldwide health threats and correct measures should be taken against the syndrome.ReferencesBerry, D. S. (2015). ADVANCED BUSINESS STRATEGY. Camosun college.