Health Canada publishes Learning from SARS report and recommends
expansion of communicable disease surveillance in Canada
Health Canada published the report of the National Advisory
Committee on SARS and Public Health,
Learning
from SARS: Renewal of public health in Canada, earlier this week
(1). The committee was chaired by David Naylor from the University of Toronto,
included public health officials from across Canada, and was assisted by both
the World Health Organization and the United States Centres for Disease Control
and Prevention. It was set up in May 2003 by the Canadian government and has
assessed the lessons learnt from the outbreak of severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS), and made recommendations for the future management of communicable
disease outbreaks and other challenges.
In common with Hong Kong’s SARS Expert Committee report, published last
week (2), the Canadian report takes the SARS epidemic and the problems arising
during the national response to this crisis as a starting point to identify
many areas for urgent improvement in the healthcare system. Some of the
systemic deficiencies which the SARS epidemic laid bare include a lack of
protocols for data and information sharing, inadequate capacity for epidemiological
outbreak investigation, and inadequacies in outbreak management protocols,
infection control, and communicable disease surveillance.
One of the committee’s key recommendations is the establishment of a Canadian
Agency for Public Health, to be led by a Chief Public Health Officer of
Canada, and which would initiate a national public health strategy. Greater
investments should be made in disease surveillance systems, health emergency
preparedness and epidemic response capacity, and data sharing protocols
between laboratories.
The report also comments on the international aspects of SARS, and emphasises
the benefits of helping to strengthen the emergency response capacities
of other countries. It is recommended that Canada build health research
and development activities into its international outreach programmes, and
involve itself more internationally in emerging infectious diseases. The
committee notes that Canada may have missed opportunities to learn from
Hong Kong, China and Singapore during the epidemic.
An executive
summary is available, and the Canadian
outbreak is described chronologically.