Canada reports second SARS death in three days

TORONTO -- A health-care worker died of SARS on Wednesday, becoming the 44th person killed by the pneumonia-like illness in Canada's largest city, and the second to die this week.

The latest deaths come nearly six weeks after the World Health Organization removed Toronto from its list of SARS-infected areas, saying the city had contained the outbreak.

Eight people remain hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome in Toronto, where almost 250 cases were recorded in two outbreaks earlier this year.

The latest SARS victim was identified by Ontario health officials as a 54-year-old male health-care worker. The illness previously killed two Canadian nurses.

On Monday, a 44-year-old patient died of SARS in Toronto.

SARS emerged in November in Guangdong province in southern China. It killed more than 800 people worldwide, most of them in Asia, before subsiding last month, according to WHO.

Toronto had the biggest outbreak outside of Asia.

The outbreak caused major economic damage to the tourism industry in Toronto and southern Ontario, with hotels, airlines and restaurants reporting decreased business.