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Three Die of Unknown Disease in Canada's B.C. Province

Posted on: Saturday, 15 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

Three die of unknown disease in Canada's B.C. province

OTTAWA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- While officials in Toronto are still working on the source of the deadly legionnaire's disease that has killed 17 elderly, another home for the aged in the Pacific coast province of British Colombia is faced with a similar trouble: four residents infected with an unknown respiratory disease with three of them already dead.

The Luther Court home for the elderly in the suburb of Victoria, capital city of B.C., was closed to visitors as officials conducted tests after a mystery ailment killed three people in one day and sent one woman to hospital, the Canadian Press said Friday.

The tests were focused on respiratory illnesses like influenza, but the cause of the deaths was yet to be determined, the report quoted Dr. Murray Fyfe, a Victoria medical health officer as saying.

Initial tests for influenza were negative, but further tests were planned, Fyfe said, noting that the possibility of legionnaire's disease was also being considered.

Luther Court is home to 30 long-term elderly residents. A walk- in medical clinic located in the same building as Luther Court was closed Friday as a precautionary measure, Fyfe said.

The three seniors, two females and one male, died on Wednesday. They were all in their late 80s or early 90s.

An elderly woman was taken to hospital early Thursday with similar symptoms when the three people who died, but she was reported in better condition Friday.

Fyfe said there had been no other cases of the illness since Thursday.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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