"Canada has now interrupted transmission of the SARS virus within the country, but there are still active cases of SARS hospitalized and isolated," Dr. David Heymann, WHO's executive director of communicable diseases, said during a teleconference from Geneva, Switzerland. Canada joins Vietnam as the only two countries that have managed to contain the outbreak of the disease, he said.
Meanwhile, "progress is being made in Singapore and Hong Kong and also in (the Chinese province of) Guangdong," Heymann said, "where for the past three days there have been five cases or less of new onset disease."
He said he thought Hong Kong has done "a superb job" pulling together a health system and health workers who were alarmed and decimated by the disease. "From the point of view of public health," he added, "Hong Kong is a very important lesson to us." He said Hong Kong, "by giving the right messages, by getting the right equipment and the right hospital infection control measures," has achieved "a positive impact" on the epidemic.
Heymann said so far there is no evidence SARS can be transmitted by dogs, cats or other pets.
"The only evidence on dogs and cats that I'm aware of comes from studies ... in Hong Kong, where they noticed that some cats did become infected transiently," he said, adding that the animals were not able either to harbor the virus or transmit it.
Heymann also said there is some speculation in the research community that live game animals might be associated with some of the earlier SARS cases, "but this is only hypothesis."
In other developments, Russia announced Thursday it is closing 31 of 52 border crossing points with China and Outer Mongolia. Most of the border crossing points are small, however, officials said. Major crossing points remain open for now.
Russia has 25 suspected cases of SARS, but officials said only one case looks serious while others are thought to be false alarms reported by vigilant medics in the nation's far eastern areas. Flights between regional Russian airports and Chinese destinations also have been halted, as have all flights between Ukraine and China.
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