TORONTO — Nearly 500 members of an international Catholic charismatic community have been quarantined after public health officials identified a cluster of SARS cases that spread during a Mass and a prayer meeting, infecting 31 people, including three children and two doctors who treated them.
All the members of the Bukas Loob sa Diyos Covenant are in isolation. Ten members of the group, whose name means Open in Spirit to God, are believed to have Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and another 19 are suspected of having the virus. Three of the cases are children under the age of 10 who are receiving medical care. They are reported in good health.
Bukas Loob sa Diyos, or BLD, was founded in the Philippines and has chapters throughout Canada and the United States. It’s noted for spiritual programs focusing on marriage and youth.
Health officials obtained mandatory quarantine orders against two members of the community who refused to isolate themselves.
SARS spread to the community after several members attended a wake on April 3 for a person who, it was later learned, died of the illness. Some members of the deceased’s family were coming down with the disease at the wake and officials say they may have passed the infection to some people who attended.
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