Most Canadians who survived SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) recovered well physically but one year later reported a decline in mental health, according to a study.

Catherine M. Tansey of the University Health Network in Toronto, and colleagues, evaluated 117 patients who got sick from SARS and published the finding in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. In Toronto in 2003, 44 people died from SARS, 387 people got sick and thousands spent weeks in quarantine

A 1,204-page Canadian report of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2003 was released on Tuesday.

The report indicates that safety problems persisted in Ontario that were not necessarily preventable. However, more could have been done to protect the health-care workers who were involved.

The SARS outbreak caused 275 people to catch the virus. Of these, 44 people died from SARS during the crisis in the Toronto area (including one doctor and two nurses). In fact, forty-five percent of the people who caught the virus in the hospitals in Ontario were health-care workers

Researchers claim that there has been little evidence that proves treatments against the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus were effective.

Doctors are still doubtful on treating the disease, four years after its outbreak

China's top health officials confirmed on Tuesday that the first lab-verified death from bird flu on the mainland of China took place in late 2003.

The November 2003 case was two years before the October 2005 case in the Hunan Province, where a 9-year-old boy was incorrectly identified as the China's first confirmed case

A new report, discredits the effectiveness of Chinese herbs against SARS.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, before it was brought under control infected 8,098 people worldwide and killed 774, according to the World Health Organization