Article ID: CBB000671330

Toronto's Health Department in Action: Influenza in 1918 and SARS in 2003 (2007)

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This article compares the Toronto Health Department's role in controlling the 1918 influenza epidemic with its activities during the SARS outbreak in 2003 and concludes that local health departments are the foundation for successful disease containment, provided that there is effective coordination, communication, and capacity. In 1918, Toronto's MOH Charles Hastings was the acknowledged leader of efforts to contain the disease, care for the sick, and develop an effective vaccine, because neither a federal health department nor an international body like WHO existed. During the SARS outbreak, Hastings's successor, Sheela Basrur, discovered that nearly a decade of underfunding and new policy foci such as health promotion had left the department vulnerable when faced with a potential epidemic. Lack of cooperation by provincial and federal authorities added further difficulties to the challenge of organizing contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation for suspected and probable cases and providing information and reassurance to the multi-ethnic population. With growing concern about a flu pandemic, the lessons of the past provide a foundation for future communicable disease control activities.

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Authors & Contributors
Seyed Amir Hossein Golshani
Alibrandi, Rosamaria
Babak Daneshfard
Fabio Montella
Man-Kong, Wong
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad
Concepts
Public health
Epidemics
Disease and diseases
Influenza
Medicine
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Prehistory
Places
Canada
Brazil
Hong Kong
Bogotá (Colombia)
Sicily
East Asia
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
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