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Five years after SARS killed 44 people, jeopardized hundreds more and paralyzed the health-care system in Toronto, there's still much work to be done to deliver a system that effectively tracks infectious diseases across the province, experts said yesterday.

The lessons of SARS left the province much better prepared to deal with health-care emergencies, and the government is making "good strides" in creating a system to detect similar outbreaks, Health Minister George Smitherman said at an event attended by some of Ontario's leading disease-control experts.

While officials agree the province is better equipped to deal with a crisis such as SARS, they acknowledged there's still much work to be done in setting up a new arm's-length public health agency and a system for tracking infectious diseases.

One important position was filled yesterday when Mr. Smitherman named Dr. Vivek Goel, vice-president of the University of Toronto, to head the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. The agency will provide advice and support to protect public health.

Dr. Goel, a professor of public health sciences and health policy, vowed the agency will put the best interests of Ontario residents first and speak out about public health issues "even if what we have to say is not politically popular."

The agency's office will be named for Dr. Sheela Basrur, the former Toronto medical officer of health who was instrumental in managing the SARS crisis, Mr. Smitherman said.

Dr. Basrur, sporting a shorn head from her battle with a rare form of cancer, embraced the Health Minister after the announcement, her voice breaking as she thanked him.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, hit the Toronto area in the spring of 2003. Forty-five per cent of Ontario's 375 cases were health-care workers; two nurses and a doctor were among the 44 who died.