Ontario is rolling out its own centre for disease control to better handle another outbreak of SARS or a flu pandemic.

Health Minister George Smitherman introduced legislation on Tuesday to create the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, similar to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

George Smitherman introduced the new bill to protect patients on Tuesday.
(CBC)

"I think what is really powerful is that it brings together under one roof government experts, clinicians and those who are in academia," Smitherman said.

"This public health agency will create that. It will strengthen public health to keep us well in the first place as well, and to work to maximize our protection against new threats."

The arm's-length public health agency will be a centre of excellence specializing in infectious diseases, infection control and prevention, Smitherman said.

Such agencies already exist at the University of British Columbia and in Quebec.

The SARS commission chaired by Justice Archie Campbell recommended that Ontario create such a public health agency after it investigated the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed 44 people in the Toronto area and 800 worldwide.

At the time, Ontario declared a public health emergency and ordered certain people to quarantine themselves at home. Visitors were barred from hospitals.

The centre should be a leader in the infectious disease field, with the support of the government and considerable resources, Campbell said.

Dr. David Patrick was with the BCCDC at the times of SARS in 2003.
(CBC)

Dr. David Patrick, director of epidemiology at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, agreed, saying Ontario needs a robust ability to respond quickly to infectious diseases at a provincial level.

To be successful, Patrick said, the agency should:

• Gather top epidemiologists together in the same location so they can work together effectively.
• Be free of government control to allow researchers to focus on science instead of politics.
• Be linked to the resources of a university.

Officials said the centre would have an operating budget of about $30 million when it is up and running, but questions remain about its size and location.

Infectious disease experts in Ontario did a good job during SARS, but having a provincial public health agency would have maximized the chance of getting the outbreak under control faster, Patrick said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is also important, but given the large size of Ontario's population, a mid-level centre is also needed to co-ordinate efforts in an outbreak, and to act as a resource for localized outbreaks.