Literature DB >> 17626386

Was WHO SARS-related travel advisory for Toronto ethical?

Leo J Paquin1.   

Abstract

Freedom of movement is undoubtedly a fundamental international right. However, circumstances may arise where that right must be curtailed. Was the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto one such circumstance? Guénaël R.M. Rodier thinks WHO's decision to impose a SARS-related travel advisory was justifiable, even reasonable, though it caused a loss of over $1.1 billion in the Greater Toronto Area. That travel to an infected area was the most common epidemiological link with SARS infections supports Rodier's position. However, as suggested in the Naylor report, issuing a travel advisory does not keep infected individuals from leaving Toronto and such individuals account for 5 of 6 cases where SARS was spread from Canada. That alone would discount Rodier's argument and the WHO decision on purely logistical grounds. But there is an ethical question as well. Was the travel advisory implemented fairly? This question is best judged using Nancy E. Kass's framework for public health. From that framework, two points are placed in immediate relief. First, the Toronto authorities were not given an opportunity to state their case to WHO before the travel advisory was implemented. Second, the framework requires that burdens be distributed fairly and the travel advisory did not do that, or even attempt to do so.

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Mesh:

Year:  2007        PMID: 17626386      PMCID: PMC6975986     

Source DB:  PubMed          Journal:  Can J Public Health        ISSN: 0008-4263


  8 in total

1.  An ethics framework for public health.

Authors:  N E Kass
Journal:  Am J Public Health       Date:  2001-11       Impact factor: 9.308

2.  Ethical and legal challenges posed by severe acute respiratory syndrome: implications for the control of severe infectious disease threats.

Authors:  Lawrence O Gostin; Ronald Bayer; Amy L Fairchild
Journal:  JAMA       Date:  2003-12-24       Impact factor: 56.272

Review 3.  Ethics and SARS: lessons from Toronto.

Authors:  Peter A Singer; Solomon R Benatar; Mark Bernstein; Abdallah S Daar; Bernard M Dickens; Susan K MacRae; Ross E G Upshur; Linda Wright; Randi Zlotnik Shaul
Journal:  BMJ       Date:  2003-12-06

4.  Why was Toronto included in the World Health Organization's SARS-related travel advisory?

Authors:  Guénaël R M Rodier
Journal:  CMAJ       Date:  2003-05-27       Impact factor: 8.262

Review 5.  Severe acute respiratory syndrome: overview with an emphasis on the Toronto experience.

Authors:  Tony Mazzulli; Kevin Kain; Jagdish Butany
Journal:  Arch Pathol Lab Med       Date:  2004-12       Impact factor: 5.534

6.  Public health measures to control the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome during the outbreak in Toronto.

Authors:  Tomislav Svoboda; Bonnie Henry; Leslie Shulman; Erin Kennedy; Elizabeth Rea; Wil Ng; Tamara Wallington; Barbara Yaffe; Effie Gournis; Elisa Vicencio; Sheela Basrur; Richard H Glazier
Journal:  N Engl J Med       Date:  2004-06-03       Impact factor: 91.245

7.  SARS surveillance during emergency public health response, United States, March-July 2003.

Authors:  Stephanie J Schrag; John T Brooks; Chris Van Beneden; Umesh D Parashar; Patricia M Griffin; Larry J Anderson; William J Bellini; Robert F Benson; Dean D Erdman; Alexander Klimov; Thomas G Ksiazek; Teresa C T Peret; Deborah F Talkington; W Lanier Thacker; Maria L Tondella; Jacquelyn S Sampson; Allen W Hightower; Dale F Nordenberg; Brian D Plikaytis; Ali S Khan; Nancy E Rosenstein; Tracee A Treadwell; Cynthia G Whitney; Anthony E Fiore; Tonji M Durant; Joseph F Perz; Annemarie Wasley; Daniel Feikin; Joy L Herndon; William A Bower; Barbara W Klibourn; Deborah A Levy; Victor G Coronado; Joanna Buffington; Clare A Dykewicz; Rima F Khabbaz; Mary E Chamberland
Journal:  Emerg Infect Dis       Date:  2004-02       Impact factor: 6.883

8.  Responding to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak: lessons learned in a Toronto emergency department.

Authors:  Carolyn Farquharson; Karen Baguley
Journal:  J Emerg Nurs       Date:  2003-06       Impact factor: 1.836

  8 in total
  2 in total

1.  Collision of Fundamental Human Rights and the Right to Health Access During the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic.

Authors:  José Luiz Gondim Dos Santos; Paulo André Stein Messetti; Fernando Adami; Italla Maria Pinheiro Bezerra; Paula Christianne G G Souto Maia; Elisa Tristan-Cheever; Luiz Carlos de Abreu
Journal:  Front Public Health       Date:  2021-01-08

2.  The Politics of Disease Epidemics: a Comparative Analysis of the SARS, Zika, and Ebola Outbreaks.

Authors:  Lydia Kapiriri; Alison Ross
Journal:  Glob Soc Welf       Date:  2018-09-03
  2 in total

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