Article ID: CBB000671330

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

unapi

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.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000671330/

Similar Citations

Book Humphries, Mark Osborne; (2013)
The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada (/isis/citation/CBB001420164/)

Book Leung, Angela Ki Che; Furth, Charlotte; (2010)
Health and Hygiene in Chinese East Asia: Policies and Publics in the Long Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB001252082/)

Article David S. Jones; (2020)
COVID-19, History, and Humility (/isis/citation/CBB009243530/)

Article Seyyed Alireza Golshani; Babak Daneshfard; Seyed Amir Hossein Golshani; Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad; (2023)
Spanish Flu in Shiraz from 1918 to 1920 (/isis/citation/CBB468425569/)

Book Fabio Montella; (2022)
La spagnola. Storie e cronaca della pandemia influenzale del 1918 (/isis/citation/CBB745179403/)

Book Tyshenko, Michael G; Paterson, Cathy; (2010)
SARS Unmasked: Risk Communication of Pandemics and Influenza in Canada (/isis/citation/CBB001250944/)

Book Frank M. Snowden; (2019)
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present (/isis/citation/CBB694307322/)

Book Phillips, Howard; (2012)
Epidemics: The Story of South Africa's Five Most Lethal Human Diseases (/isis/citation/CBB001421023/)

Book Hackett, Frederick John Paul; (2002)
“A Very Remarkable Sickness”: Epidemics in the Petit Nord, 1670-1846 (/isis/citation/CBB000471053/)

Article Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Sattenspiel, Lisa; Dimka, Jessica; (2013)
Influenza-Associated Mortality during the 1918--1919 Influenza Pandemic in Alaska and Labrador: A Comparison (/isis/citation/CBB001200585/)

Book Snodgrass, Mary Ellen; (2003)
World Epidemics: A Cultural Chronology of Disease from Prehistory to the Era of SARS (/isis/citation/CBB000471046/)

Book Gaudillière, Jean-Paul; Löwy, Ilana; (2001)
Heredity and Infection: The History of Disease Transmission (/isis/citation/CBB000101679/)

Book Dehner, George; (2012)
Influenza: A Century of Science and Public Health Response (/isis/citation/CBB001252198/)

Article Abeysinghe, Sudeepa; (2013)
When the Spread of Disease Becomes a Global Event: The Classification of Pandemics (/isis/citation/CBB001421163/)

Article Almeida, Maria Antónia Pires de; (2013)
Epidemics in the News: Health and Hygiene in the Press in Periods of Crisis (/isis/citation/CBB001320417/)

Article Serrón, Víctor; (2011)
Epidemia y perplejidades médicas: Uruguay, 1918--1919 (/isis/citation/CBB001420534/)

Book Fanning, Patricia J.; (2010)
Influenza and Inequality: One Town's Tragic Response to the Great Epidemic of 1918 (/isis/citation/CBB001212737/)

Chapter Milne, Ida; (2013)
Through the Eyes of a Child: “Spanish” Influenza Remembered by Survivors (/isis/citation/CBB001552397/)

Book Katherine Mason; (2016)
Infectious Change: Reinventing Chinese Public Health After an Epidemic (/isis/citation/CBB907982802/)

Authors & Contributors
Abeysinghe, Sudeepa
Almeida, Maria Antónia Pires de
Dehner, George
Dimka, Jessica
Fanning, Patricia J.
Furth, Charlotte
Journals
Medicina Historica
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Public Understanding of Science
Social Science History
Social Studies of Science
Publishers
Duke University Press
McFarland
McGill-Queen's University Press
Ohio University Press
Routledge
Stanford University Press
Concepts
Epidemics
Public health
Disease and diseases
Influenza
Infectious diseases
Medicine
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
20th century
18th century
16th century
Places
Canada
Iran
Alaska (U.S.)
Massachusetts (U.S.)
China
Italy
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment