Two more Sars deaths in Toronto

The disease resurfaced after a month of no cases

Two more people have died from Sars in Toronto, hours after the Canadian prime minister said the virus was under control.

The latest victims, both women over 60, bring the total number of deaths from the flu-like disease to 29.

A school near Toronto shut on Wednesday, and 1,700 staff and pupils were quarantined, after youth went down with Sars symptoms. More than 6,000 people around Toronto are in quarantine after Sars resurfaced six days ago.

The Toronto area is the area worst-hit by Sars outside Asia.

Earlier on Wednesday Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Canadian health officials had the virus "under control".

"This is a problem that is serious, but it is not dangerous at all to travel to Toronto," he said.

His comments - made at the end of a EU-Canada meeting in Athens - came days after the World Health Organization put Toronto back on its list of Sars-affected areas in response to the latest cluster of suspected cases.

Risk of infection

Health officials said a student at the school appeared to have symptoms of Sars, and that prompted the quarantine call.

The risk of getting Sars in this kind of setting [a school] is very low

Dr Murray McQuigge

One of the student's parents worked at Toronto's North York General Hospital, epicentre of the latest outbreak, Reuters reported.

"The risk of getting Sars in this kind of setting [a school] is very low," said Dr Murray McQuigge, a doctor in the region where the high school is located.

"We are not aware of any other student in this school who is symptomatic right now."

Officials described the closing of the school until 3 June as a precaution, but acknowledged they still were learning about the illness from Asia.

Defining Sars

Also on Wednesday, the WHO was reported to have told Canada to broaden its definition of Sars cases following a health official's concern that a new definition adopted on Monday provided an incomplete picture.

More than 6,000 people are now quarantined

Toronto microbiologist Dr Donald Low said the number of new probable cases would be well over 20 - rather than the current figure - if officials used the same definition as applied in the initial outbreak in March and April.

Under new guidelines only patients showing a severe progressive respiratory ailment are considered probable cases.

Previously, a respiratory ailment visible on x-ray would have been enough to designate a patient as a probable case.

'Not taken seriously'

Some doctors think the virus lingered in hospital wards for weeks and infected nurses, patients and visitors after the Canadian authorities eased rules on wearing masks and gloves.

Earlier this week nurses said they had noticed patients with Sars-like symptoms after the rules were relaxed, but doctors and hospital administrators did not listen.

"Unfortunately, they were not taken seriously," Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told Reuters, describing it as "ridiculous" that no one paid attention.