How to prioritize urological surgeries during epidemics: Lessons learned from the Toronto SARS outbreak in 2003

摘要

The current outbreak of COVID-19 was first described as a pneumonia of unknown origin, which rapidly spread from the city of Wuhan to mainland China and ultimately, throughout the world. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 a pandemic and urged countries to refine their planning, monitoring, and readiness to act on their confirmed and suspected cases of the virus. While Canada is still considered a low-risk country, with currently 39 805 patients confirmed with the disease (at press time), protocols are being rapidly established due to the fluidity of the situation in order to flatten the curve and contain the virus spread rate, which has already succeeded that of the SARS outbreak in 2003.