When SARS first came to Canada last month it was identified as a mysterious and severe type of pneumonia. Dr. Allison McGeer says that no one could imagine what the next six weeks would be like.

CTV.ca News Staff

When SARS first came to Canada last month it was identified as a mysterious and severe type of pneumonia. Dr. Allison McGeer says that no one could imagine what the next six weeks would be like.

"I knew it was going to be bad. None of us could have predicted how it would have played out ...we knew it would be a problem with transmission in hospitals," McGeer told CTV.

As one of Canada's leading infectious disease specialists, she became a familiar face during the early days of the SARS outbreak. Then the unexpected happened: she, a perfectly healthy woman, became one of several doctors in the Toronto area to contract the illness.

Even though her case was relatively mild, McGeer spent more than two weeks recovering in the hospital. She told CTV's Avis Favaro that she spent another two weeks in quarantine before returning to work.

"One of the difficulties for me is separating the experience of having SARS with the outbreak... they happened at the same time and they carry a lot of baggage with them," she said.

McGeer became infected after she went to Scarborough Grace Hospital and had close contact with workers who had been exposed but had yet to develop SARS symptoms. All SARS cases in Toronto have been traced back to the hospital, which was closed days within days.

McGeer was away from work for a month. "The joke around here today is that I'm the best rested person in the whole hospital now," McGeer told CTV News.

McGeer's experience has taught her -- and other disease experts -- a lot about how SARS affects its victims. Here's what researchers have figured out:

• the death rate is somewhere between five and 10 per cent
• only about 60 per cent of patients actually develop pneumonia
• about 15 per cent will require care in an ICU, and help breathing with a respirator
• up to 30 per cent of those over 60 will die.
• one per cent of healthy adults will die of complications
• the healthiest, such as Dr.McGeer, rebound in three to four weeks.

Those who recover will find it a slow process. It's really not until the 14th day of the illness that patients start to turn the corner and feel a little better, with their temperature returning to normal.

Dr. John Charles is another specialist to be stricken by the illnes. The cardiologist developed a fever in late March. He believes he was infected by an elderly heart patient who became one of the first Canadians to die from SARS.

"By the time I developed the illness, we really didn't know what I had. We knew we had SARS in the hospital because a patient had been admitted, but I didn't think I had any contact with them. So when it was diagnosed in me, I was quite surprised," Charles said.

He said that he now feels about "99 per cent" back to normal. But the experience has changed his approach and he said he is screening patients more carefully now.

"The most difficult part with my episode of SARS was the fact that I was isolated for two weeks I wasn't able to contact my family and colleagues and I couldn't have any patient contact," Charles told CTV.

The latest data shows that 15 per cent of SARS patients will require help breathing with a respirator. One per cent of healthy adults will die from complications, and up to 30 per cent of those over 60 will lose their lives.