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TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - One person died and about 280
were placed in quarantine aboard a cross-Canada train on Friday
after a mystery illness caused violent flu-like symptoms.
Police spokesman Marc Depatie told CTV television that
seven passengers who boarded the VIA Rail train in the Rocky
Mountain resort of Jasper, Alberta, had fallen ill, and one, a
60-year-old woman, had died. Another passenger had been
airlifted to hospital.
"One person has been determined to be deceased. We are
awaiting hazmat officials...to attend the scene and board the
train to determine the exact cause of what has transpired," he
said.
"Seven persons are displaying symptoms of either flu or
flu-like conditions. Beyond that, no other person on the train
that we're aware of is experiencing any medical discomfort."
Officials said the Toronto-bound train was being held in
quarantine in the small northern Ontario community of Foleyet,
and nobody except emergency personnel was allowed aboard.
"At present we are also actively involved in containing the
scene so that there is no further threat to public safety, and
that's why our officers have been deployed the way they have
been," Depatie told CP-24 television.
VIA-Rail's trans-Canada rail services are popular with
tourists, many of whom board the train in Vancouver, British
Columbia, or Jasper, for its spectacular journey through the
Rockies.
Officials said they did not know the cause of the illness,
but microbiologist Donald Low at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital
told CTV he suspected influenza.
"This really points to something like influenza...
Obviously this is a pretty acute event, a number of individuals
sick with respiratory illness," said Low, who played a key role
containing Toronto's 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory
syndrome.
"We're not talking SARS, we're not talking avian
influenza... We see this happen on cruise ships and other
settings when you have people together in close confines."
Toronto and Asia were the epicenters for the outbreak of
SARS, a virulent atypical pneumonia that had high fatality
rates, especially among health care workers.
Foleyet is a town of about 350 people southwest of the
mining town of Timmins, Ontario. The town's website says it's
famous for a herd of rare white moose that lives nearby.
(Additional reporting by Reuters correspondents in Toronto,
Ottawa and Vancouver)
(Writing by Janet Guttsman; Editing by Peter Galloway)
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