Doctors in hazardous materials suits swarmed a passenger train in Canada’s outback on Friday to contain a possible outbreak after one person died and several fell ill, officials said.
But the emergency was soon deflated after laboratory tests found no evidence of infectious disease.
Police and ambulances rushed to the scene in the early morning in the hamlet of Foleyet, a tiny community of less than 300 in northern Ontario, 800km north of Toronto, to tend to those with flu-like symptoms and find out what was causing a “mystery” illness.
“At nine o’clock this morning, we were notified of an ongoing emergency health situation that was occurring on a Via passenger train which ... was heading to the Toronto area,” Ontario Provincial Police Constable Marc Depatie said.
The Via Rail train traveling from Vancouver to Toronto was immediately quarantined, he said.
A woman in her 60s was found dead and six people were ill with flu-like symptoms when the trans-Canada train with 260 passengers and 30 crew made its regular morning stop in Foleyet.
One person was taken by helicopter to an area hospital and was in “stable condition,” Emergency Medical Services regional director Steve Trinier said.
Meanwhile, medical personnel tried to determine if there was an infection or communicable disease at play, or whether the sudden sickness was because of toxic environmental exposure, or even food poisoning, he said.
Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement also directed federal officials to liaise with provincial, regional and local authorities “both in Foleyet and at all points along the route the train traveled,” he said in a statement.
By mid-afternoon, however, officials began to downplay the emergency after tests indicated no presence of an infectious disease and said the train would likely get underway later in the day.
“It has been determined that the deceased did most likely not have an infectious disease,” Ontario medical officer David Williams told a press conference.
A passenger who was airlifted to hospital also “does not have an infectious disease,” he said.
And five passengers who were isolated on the train were found to have had only “minor” symptoms.
What caused the one passenger’s death “is unknown at this time,” Williams said. But “it has been determined that the evacuation of surrounding communities is not necessary.”
One passenger who sat in the same coach as the deceased woman reported shortness of breath, but doctors determined that it was likely “an exacerbation of an underlying medical condition,” Williams said.
Of the five who “felt unwell before they got on the train,” one of them had seen a doctor in western Canada before the trip and was diagnosed with a viral or sinus infection that was treated with antibiotics, he said.
Earlier, Michael Gardam, director of the University Health Network’s infection prevention and control, had predicted the quarantine was just a “precautionary measure.”
He pointed out that panic and fear in 2003 overwhelmed Ontario’s capital Toronto, also the nation’s largest city and economic hub, after some 400 cases of the often deadly SARS were reported.
Related emergency healthcare costs, lost tourism revenues and other economic fallout in Toronto topped US$1 billion.
“The reality is you have to take these things seriously, even though usually they turn out to not be anything particularly serious,” Gardam said.
Police said the dead woman had boarded the train in Jasper, Alberta. They are now investigating possible foul play, Depatie said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not