A rchive Date
[ 30-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/burnett.html
Earlier case?
By THANE BURNETT - Toronto Sun
April 30, 2003
In the free time, before the SARS clock started ticking, Canada may have already been infected with the virus.
That theory means the initial index case may not have been the first. There are other scenarios - of a possible time a bullet was dodged, or victims never properly identified.
Scott Farrell believes the first case may have been sitting next to him, months ago, in seat 8C. On a trip to Toronto, he believes he was infected with SARS before anyone learned to put the four letters together.
Anxious health officials in North America have concerned themselves with patients who've shown signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome from February on. That was the month 78-year-old Sui-chu Kwan travelled to Hong Kong and contracted SARS. She died in Toronto on March 5 - six days before the World Health Organization issued a global SARS alert.
But Chinese officials first began tracking the deadly virus back in mid-November. That leaves time for SARS to reach these shores, even before the initial index case, which caused the current outbreak here.
Canadian-born Scott Farrell heads a medical testing lab in Phoenix. On December 28, aboard United Airlines flight 1018, he flew back to Toronto for the funeral of his dad. On that flight, via Chicago, Farrell sat next to a Canadian teacher, who had spent only three months of a year-long contract working in China.
She was very sick - coughing, with a fever. The symptoms, he recalls, were those we've all learned to memorize in the fight against SARS. They are also, however, clues to a lot of other ailments.
While on board, she told the 60-year-old businessman she had come down with a mysterious illness, and had been tested at Chinese hospitals without success. Frustrated, she walked out of the last hospital and boarded a flight home to North America, to get help.
"She was in bad shape - coughing her head off, and had to be taken off the plane (in Toronto) in a wheelchair," Farrell recalls from his office in Phoenix.
Soon after, Farrell became sick. The sickest he's ever been, with the same symptoms as the woman. His wife and two of his employees also became ill, but their symptoms weren't as serious.
Farrell's doctor couldn't tell what virus he had as he battled his illness with antibiotics for seven weeks. The businessman says he's still suffering the effects.
But he's pained more by the fact health officials - overwhelmed with keeping track of the current outbreak - haven't been able to answer his concerns.
"Did no one have SARS before February 14 at 10 a.m.?" he asks. "I want to know if I did."
He hasn't gotten any answers. His doctor in Phoenix, Howard Reuben, says only that Farrell could have had SARS, explaining: "Looking back, it's possible. But we didn't know SARS then."
There are no official channels Farrell can use to find what happened to the teacher in 8C. A United Airlines official says they can't say who was in the seat.
Canadian health officials are aware of Flight 1018. But it's almost ancient history in the current war, and the true timeline of this plague may never be known.
Phoenix officials say they haven't classified Farrell as a possible SARS victim. Not that that's been ruled out.
Doug Hauth, spokesman for the Maricopa County health department in Arizona, said they have contacted the Centre for Disease Control about Farrell's case. But he added, they have no real medical data from his health troubles.
Still in the middle of fighting the main front, health officials on both sides of the border say there's no time to truly consider an earlier skirmish. That's no help to Farrell, who wants to know what happened inside him.
"The work we do here, every day, we help people get better ... learn what's wrong with them," he says from his medical lab.
"That's all I want."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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