Emergency Response System Under Duress: The Public Health Fight to Contain SARS in Toronto (A)
2005
This two-part case explores how the Toronto and Ontario public health and hospital systems responded to the outbreak of SARS in 2003. SARS was introduced to Toronto when an airplane passenger from Hong Kong—who had been in contact with an infected individual at a Hong Kong hotel—arrived in Toronto.
As described in the abstract, "It describes both the public health system in place at the time SARS came to Toronto and the stress and adaptations which resulted This crisis management case makes it clear that Toronto had great difficulty in coping with the respiratory virus. The case raises the questions of whether Toronto's problems were the result of long-term under-funding of the public health system and highlights systemic communications problems which came to play a dramatic role in the SARS story. It focuses, as well, on the question of whether quarantine is a useful weapon in the modern struggle against disease and, if so, what form such action should take."
The teaching case on the public health fight to contain SARS in Toronto is divided into two parts. The second part of the case is accessible on a separate web page.
The case is part of a series produced by the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Case Program. The funding source was the Centers for Disease Control, US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This case may be purchased for a nominal fee; registered educators may obtain a free review copy.
Emergency Response System Under Duress: The Public Health Fight to Contain SARS in Toronto (A)
Source:
Varley P, Howitt A. Emergency Response System Under Duress: The Public Health Fight to Contain SARS in Toronto (A). HKS Case No. 1792. Harvard Kennedy School Case Program 2005. https://case.hks.harvard.edu/emergency-response-system-under-duress-the-public-health-fight-to-contain-sars-in-toronto-a.