Re: Canada: train quarantined; one person died, others have flu-like symptoms
Re: Canada: train quarantined; one person died, others have flu-like symptoms
Train quarantined near Timmins
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CAROL WOODHOUSE PHOTO
Ambulances wait outside a VIA train stopped at Foleyet in northern Ontario.
May 09, 2008 01:28 PM
<!-- AUTHOR 1 -->Curtis Rush
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One person is dead and 10 others have been taken to hospital after illness broke out aboard a Toronto-bound VIA train in northern Ontario this morning.
The train, carrying 264 passengers, was stopped at Foleyet, a small town northwest of Sudbury at about 8:35 a.m. after CN Rail was informed that a woman had taken ill and had stopped breathing.
Ten other people were taken to hospital in Timmins with flu-like symptoms, said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Laura Nichols.
The woman who died was 60, an OPP source said, and a member of a group of seven travellers, all of whom fell ill. Her name was not immediately released.
All the people who became ill boarded the same two cars in Jasper, Alta.
The train, which was due to arrive in Toronto at 8 p.m. today, started its journey on Tuesday afternoon in Vancouver.
Police are investigating to see if there is "any criminal element" to the situation, Nichols said.
The remaining passengers were initially quarantined aboard the train and emergency personnel with full protective gear went car to car to examine them, assisted by a doctor who was aboard the train.
Foleyet resident Judy Bromley, who can see the train from the front window of her home, said she first noticed it had stopped around 9:30 a.m.
Bromley said a coroner's van had been on the scene, and that three ambulances and three to four police cars remained outside the station late in the morning.
Word about the quarantined train is spreading throughout the small town, she added.
Bromley also said a large orange helicopter has landed in the baseball field near the tracks.
She said a CN official told her passengers were taken off the train and led to a railway rooming house nearby. She said railway employees use the two-story bunkhouse during layovers. The facility, located beside the Foleyet station, has 30 to 40 rooms.
Bromley said she saw ambulance workers outside her home preparing to enter the train. "They stopped outside, put on white suits and masks, then got back in and left."
Police blocked the entrance to the local CN yard at Young St. and Railway Ave.
Another resident said she saw at least two people loaded onto an air ambulance.
At midday, Timmins and District Hospital spokesperson Kali Garneau said one passenger had been airlifted there and was listed in stable condition.
Dr. Donald Low, the medical director of Ontario's public health lab, said he doesn't believe an exotic disease such as SARS or avian flu is responsible.
"It doesn't fit the profile because of the explosive nature of this event," said Low, who helped co-ordinate efforts to contain Toronto's SARS outbreak.
Low said food poisoning isn't likely either because it "usually doesn't kill you" and that is associated with gastrointestinal problems and diarrhea.
He said early indications suggest that influenza may be the cause.
"You've got 10 people showing the same symptoms," he said. "I think it could be an outbreak of influenza. This (death) is typical of an older person who maybe has an underlying heart disease."
Both SARS and avian flu take several days to manifest themselves, but
the illness that struck the passengers appeared to come on suddenly, he noted.
Low said he will know more when the public health lab in Toronto gets specimens from the health lab in Timmins, likely within the next 24 hours.
Ontario's Ministry of Health has sent two air ambulances with critical care paramedics to the scene from their home base in Sudbury, said ministry spokesperson Laurel Ostfield.
"They're more highly trained than regular ambulance crews," she added, noting the ministry is keeping a close watch on the situation and is working with the provincial agency Emergency Management Ontario.
Chris Woo, front office manager at Decore Hotels in Jasper, said passengers who board or get off in the resort mountain town stay in different places.
"They don't stay as one group but some go on to other places and others continue on to Toronto," said Woo this morning.
Helen Kelleher-Empey with Jasper Tourism and Chamber of Commerce said passengers who pass through the town of 4,500 via the train arrive from all over Canada and the United States.
"The train picks up people who come up from the States from Amtrak, and drops off people who come form Edmonton and others go on to Saskatchewan," she said. "We call ourselves the train hub of the Rockies."
Toronto resident Karen Maxwade believes her 73-year-old mother, June, is on the train. She said she has contacted Via Rail but has mostly been left in the dark.
?I asked if the train originated in Vancouver and they said they couldn?t tell me that," Maxwade said. "Then I asked if they could check if a certain passenger was on the train I was told they couldn?t give me that information.?
Maxwade said her mother was expected to arrive at 8 p.m. this evening at Union Station, the same time as the quarantined train.
With files from Rob Ferguson, Joseph Hall and Petti Fong
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http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/423330
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