When Harvard University announced a moratorium on travel to SARS-affected Toronto early last week, Canadian newspapers grumbled that it was overkill. But with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) continuing to spread in Toronto, Harvard's move seems increasingly justified, say university health officials. And other Ivy League institutions may follow suit.
"On Monday we were taking heat for our decision, but by Thursday we looked pretty good," said Barry Bloom, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, speaking of the university's decision to request that its nearly 30,000 students, faculty, and staff refrain from traveling to Toronto.
Reports last week of possible transmission within a church group and at a condominium complex in Toronto seemed to indicate that the so-called "community spread" of the virus had begun. According to Bloom, most epidemiologists define "community spread" as transmission among people who do not know from whom they acquired the virus. ...
