Legionella identified as cause of "mystery outbreak" in Toronto
I was the guest on a local radio show on Wednesday to talk about influenza and other emerging diseases. Imagine my surprise when the host asked me about the latest SARS outbreak in Toronto. Good thing it was radio and no one could see the dumbstruck look on my face; I hadn't heard about SARS re-surfacing in Canada. Anyhoo, it turns out that the "mystery illness" was Legionaire's disease, not SARS.
Health officials have identified Legionnaire's disease as the illness that killed 16 elderly people at a Toronto nursing home, a medical officer said.
There have been no new deaths and the spread of the illness has been contained, said David McKeown of Toronto's health department.
***
Their inability to at first identify it spooked the elderly and cast a shadow over a city still trying to shed bad publicity from the SARS epidemic.
