Yellowknife (Apr 04/03) - Worrying about SARS might take up some of Andre Corriveau's time this weekend, but Yellowknife's medical minds don't think it should take up yours.

SARS is an infection that causes fever, muscle aches and breathing difficulty believed to have come from the Guangdong province of China. It is believed that you can only have SARS if you travelled in East Asia in the last 10 days or had close contact with somebody who has. If you think you have SARS call a doctor or health professional, do not go straight to the emergency ward. There is currently no preventative medication or cure for SARS but most patients have improved a week after the onset of symptoms. There have been no cases of SARS in the NWT, Nunavut and the Yukon but many international travellers come in and out of the territories so health officials remain vigilant.

Two Sir John Franklin students who recently travelled in Hong Kong -- one of two hotbeds of the mysterious SARS disease -- were asked to stay home this week when they developed flu-like symptoms.

But chief medical officer Andre Corriveau said he's confident the students don't have the contagious illness that has killed seven Canadians so far.

Corriveau said the students have been in regular phone contact with their doctor, were feeling better by Wednesday and will be back at school on Thursday.

"One of the students was just feeling tired and jet lagged but we didn't want to take any chances. The other one had minor cold-like symptoms and we asked that they both stay home."

Meike Cameron, Sir John Franklin principal, said her staff monitored where students travelled over spring break and her staff have received information from the health department.

"We're keeping up with the latest updates about this disease and making that information available to all staff," she said.

She said four students spent time in a Hong Kong airports and they've all been in close contact with their doctors.

"They're doing the very responsible things," she said. "And the other two seem to be fine in terms of being cleared (for the disease)."

She said, at this point, the school would continue an awareness campaign about the disease.

"Many kids get many flu's for many reasons," she said. "Often after a two-week March break students come back tired after having too good a time, so at this point we just want to keep everybody aware."

An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in Toronto has made headlines over the past two weeks. Two hospitals have closed, thousands of people have been quarantined and the disease has baffled health experts around the world who are scrambling to learn how to deal with its effects.

The disease is believed to only affect people who been in East Asia or been in contact with somebody who has within the last 10 days and is characterized by a fever of at least 38 C.

A science class at Sir John school will create a bulletin board about the disease that will include regular updates as scientists learn more.

"Everyone hears a lot about this," said Cameron. "This isn't about creating a fear it's about getting some responsible information out there."

"We need to just hang onto our sensibilities but be very cautious."

Yellowknife Education District Supt. Judith Knapp said the district was watching the situation in the South very closely. She hadn't heard of any SARS scares in Yellowknife.

"We have to find out the facts, first," she said. "The facts are most important here. We do have a policy for dealing with communicable diseases, and we're prepared to put a plan in place if this disease becomes a serious problem."

Knapp said the district is equipped to send work home with students showing the symptoms and work with parents to watch for signs of sickness.

Adrian Amirault, principal of Mildred Hall elementary school, said staff is always aware where their students travel. He said he thinks Yellowknife schools are well prepared for communicable diseases.

"We do have plans in place, and we'd follow the same process," he said. "There are already a few illnesses we watch for--impetigo, pink eye, even head lice, we often send people home right away and ask parents to monitor them."

Carol Amirault, manager of the emergency unit at Stanton Hospital, said the hospital is well equipped to handle a SARS outbreak because they're used to being vigilant over tuberculosis (TB) cases.

"As a reality of living in the North we deal with TB a lot, which is a contagious respiratory illness, like SARS is a contagious respiratory illness."

"We have negative pressure rooms that we use for TB and we're prepared to use one of those for this if we need to," she said.

Amirault said many hospitals in major centres don't have the special isolation rooms. The hospital has also briefed all of its nurses about the disease and is in constant contact with the territorial health department and Health Canada for the latest updates.

Corriveau said he's monitoring a handful of other people in Yellowknife who have recently returned from East Asia, who have contacted their doctors with concerns, but nobody has shown SARS. symptoms.

"We're very aggressive in terms of our actions to be sure we don't expose anybody," he said.