death of canadian icu nurses?

[sister s]

One of the nurses on our unit (in Australia) is from Canada. She claims that "about 14 Canadian ICU nurses died during the SARS epidemic". Can anyone clarify this for me?

[talaxandra]

Although around fifteen Canadian nurses were infected during the 2003 outbreak I can only find reports about one nursing death, Toronto nurse Nelia Laorza. I suspect that if more health care workers had died the information would be easier to find. If you post the same question in the Canadian forum you may get more accurate information.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

There were 3 health-care provider deaths in Canada in 2003 secondary to SARS.

From Report of the Healthy Workplace Initiative 2007 (http://www.nlhba.nl.ca/HWI%20Final%20Report.pdf):

"In 2003, a new disease emerged that made headlines in Canada and around the world as the healthcare system struggled to contain Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as SARS. In Canada, 251 people became gravely ill with 43 people dying as a result of the disease. Three of these individuals were healthcare workers, killed by their work, making SARS not only a public health issue, but a workplace health and safety issue as well."

Does that help?

[sister s]

Thank you. It's interesting to see how the truth gets stretched.