Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 28/04) - Hospitals and clinics across the territory are on alert for the SARS virus, but the disease doesn't pose an immediate risk to Northern residents, says the regional medical health officer.

"It's better to be prepared than sorry," Dr. Andre Corriveau said, Monday.

Doctors and nurses have been asked to keep a close eye on anyone suffering from the symptoms of SARS following an outbreak of the respiratory illness last week in China.

News reports say close to a dozen people may have become infected by SARS after a Beijing laboratory technician mishandled a sample of the virus.

Health officials in the NWT were concerned that travellers returning from the Chinese capital could be carrying the virus, which killed 774 people last year, including 44 Canadians.

"There is a remote chance that could be the case," Corriveau said. "There's certainly no reason for people (to panic)... but as health professionals we have to be prepared for the possibility."

Corriveau said hospitals in the NWT are well equipped to deal an outbreak of the SARS virus because the quarantine procedure is similar to that for tuberculosis.

A big part of the territory's strategy to control an outbreak of the disease is to identify it quickly, said Corriveau.

Hospitals are currently on what he described as the first level of alert.

Patients suffering from the symptoms of SARS -- high fever, headaches, body aches, dry cough and occasionally diarrhea -- will be

isolated from other hospital patients while doctors assess the chances that they may be carrying the virus.