Canada, the epicenter of the SARS outbreak outside Asia, will host an international conference on the disease in Toronto this week and tighten airport screening to stop the virus from spreading, health officials said today.
The two-day conference starts on Wednesday in Canada's largest city, the target of a World Health Organization travel advisory warning people to stay away.
Canada has invited health officials from the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pan American Health Organization and the Association of South East Asian Nations, and from China, Britain and Mexico to discuss what to do about the illness, which has killed at least 331 people around the world, including 21 in Canada.
"It'll be the first one (conference) in North America to discuss the spread of SARS," Health Canada spokesman Mr Emmanuel Chabot told Reuters in Ottawa.
Health ministers from around Asia, the region hit hardest by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, met in Malaysia this weekend and called for checks on departing air passengers to see if they had symptoms of the disease.
Officials in Canada, the only country outside Asia where people have died of SARS, are livid about the WHO warning, and are sending an envoy to Geneva to persuade the WHO to rescind it. They say the outlook for SARS is improving in Toronto and the number of new SARS cases is on the decline.
"We're not completely out of the woods but I would have to say that the outlook is looking very positive," Mr Tony Clement, Ontario's health minister, told reporters.
"Thus far we have been able to protect the community from the casual spread of SARS, that's another bit of good news."
There have been no new cases in Toronto outside the medical community for almost two weeks, although several medical workers were confirmed last week to have SARS despite measures including face shields and two layers of gloves.
Mr Clement, who flies to Geneva today, said he hoped the WHO may lift its advisory once Canada presents new data.