THE TRAVEL advice for Toronto is expected to be lifted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) today. The announcement was made last evening by WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Travel advisories for Beijing, Hong Kong SAR, and Guangdong and Shanxi provinces, China, remain in effect.
In explaining the reason for lifting the Toronto advisory, Dr. Brundtland cited three changes in that city over the last week the magnitude of probable SARS cases has decreased, 20 days have passed since the last cases of community transmission occurred and no new confirmed exportation of cases has occurred.
Travel advisories are issued following consideration of several factors, including the magnitude of probable SARS cases, the last dates of cases of community transmission and the last dates of export of cases.
The Canadian authorities assured the WHO that pro-active screening measures at airports will be implemented.
There is no change in Toronto's status as an "affected area". Viet Nam, which is the first country to have contained its SARS outbreak, was removed from the list of affected areas on Monday.
SARS is the first major new infectious disease of the 21st century and is being spread by a closely interconnected and highly mobile society. The WHO says that the purpose of travel advisories is to reduce opportunities for further international spread of what is a new, severe, and poorly understood infectious disease.
