Canada became the SARS epicentre in 2003

As the world jerks its attention from the global financial crisis to the global medical crisis, we have to think back to the SARS scare in 2003.

Have we learned anything from that crisis? We hope so. The fact that a disease can be isolated in a developing country and then suddenly piggy-back (pardon the expression) onto tourists and begin spreading in Spain, Russia, Canada and New Zealand seems like something out of a sci-fi novel.

But it is happening now just as it happened with SARS.

Hopefully, health officials will be able to isolate those infected and stop the spread before the scare factor begins to hurt the economies of countries that are already in bad shape.

Indeed, it would be ironic if Canada, relatively unscathed by the financial crisis in comparison to the U.S., should have its economy shattered by a pandemic scare.

In Toronto in 2003 we saw tourists empty the city quicker than a Canadian summer after the World Health Organization banned travel to our fair city. We also saw the ridiculous spectacle of U.S. network reporters wearing surgical masks while they reported from the plague-ridden streets of Toronto.

Further, the treatment of nurses came under scrutiny. One nurse died after she came into contact with a patient and nurses protested that they were muzzled by hospitals during the panic and that their warnings were ignored. Toronto nurses also said they were not given proper equipment to protect themselves and others from the spread of the disease.

Let's not repeat this nasty episode.

Please, let's have some common sense when dealing with swine flu. Go about your normal lives while the medicoes figure this out. Wash your hands a lot. Cover your mouth when you cough.

And don't panic. We dealt with this once - we can do it again.