BRITAIN: Health officials in Britain yesterday tried to ward off charges of complacency in the face of the mounting SARS death toll as passengers returning to London's Heathrow airport from Hong Kong wearing face masks questioned whether they had faced sufficient safety checks.
The health protection agency (HPA) admitted it was concerned that the problem in Toronto had only just dawned on National Health Service staff in Britain. In dramatic proof of the international threat of SARS, airline passengers travelling to Britain will soon be shown official health videos and handed leaflets before they land. The agency's US equivalent, the centres for disease control, in Atlanta, Georgia, is soon to complete an in-flight video for use by all big airlines.
It is two weeks since news that Britain's sixth and most recent probable SARS case was admitted to hospital and five days since he was allowed home. But the addition of Toronto in Canada to the danger list for would-be travellers and the post-Easter start of new terms at schools and universities has finally brought the threat home.
Doctors' leaders in Britain warned the public not to panic but the Conservative party called on the government to introduce powers to detain travellers entering Britain with symptoms. The chief medical officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, and HPA officials were left to handle the flak. They deny there is any need to screen passengers on arrival from the worst-hit parts of the world, and are relying on checks before boarding and watchfulness of aircrew while people are in transit.
However, Mr Angus Nicholl, director of communicable disease control at the HPA, revealed concerns that people who had been to Toronto had not been appearing "on the NHS radar screen". Official guidance only added the city to the travel history for which doctors should look out on Saturday, yet on Tuesday non-essential travel to the city was effectively ruled out by the World Health Organisation.
This was in contrast to recent returnees from Asia, or people who have been in close contact with them, whose condition has sparked extra vigilance for more than a month. Many suspect cases that turned out not to be SARS had been investigated.