Protecting Health Care Providers from Infectious Bioaerosols

摘要

During the Spring of 2003, five SARS cases were imported into Canada. Two of the cases came to Toronto, Canada's major city located in central Canada. Two of the cases came to the area of Vancouver, British Columbia, a west-coast port city. From these five cases a total of 438 cases of SARS developed. However, the spread of SARS in Canada was extremely uneven and there were unexpected results from this atypical pneumonia. The two Toronto cases spread the disease to a total of 434 cases. Among the Toronto cases, 221 ( > 50% ) cases were among health care providers (HCP) who developed the disease in the hospital setting. Among the HCPs who developed SARS, three died. In contrast, the three Vancouver index cases led to only one secondary case, a HCP who acquired the disease in hospital. All Vancouver cases recovered.