News

Steve Carleton has dubbed himself “Number 6” because when he was overcome with fierce stomach cramps last week and admitted to a northern Ontario hospital, health-care workers started numbering the beds.

While he jokes now that he “beat the rush,” the 22-year-old North Bay police constable turns serious when recalling his bout with E. coli during an outbreak that, as of Sunday, may have sickened upwards of 159 people, mostly in his home town.

“It was like I had razor blades rolling around in my stomach, it was so excruciating,” Mr. Carleton said.

“The pains were enough (that) you couldn't stay in bed or sit down, because you'd sit down and it'd hit you again and you'd be up and it'd give you that urge and you'd have to run to the washroom again.”

Mr. Carleton spent four, IV-drip-fuelled days recovering in hospital. He said he had earlier eaten a bacon cheeseburger at one of the busiest Harvey's restaurants in the area.

Health officials have linked that outlet of the fast-food chain, located at a thoroughfare junction popular among both locals and travellers, with an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7.

It's the same deadly strain behind the Walkerton, Ont., tragedy that claimed seven lives and made another 2,500 sick in May 2000. While the water supply was identified as the source of the contamination in Walkerton, health officials say they believe the source of the North Bay outbreak is isolated to the one location.

As of Sunday, the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit had tallied confirmed and suspected cases at 159 people, spread over six regions in the province. Of those, 26 are lab confirmed and 35 are under investigation.

A one-year-old baby is the bacterial infection's youngest victim, while the oldest is 90.

Some 19 people had been hospitalized, with two still recovering in hospital.

None of the cases has been fatal.

“I consider myself pretty fit, and a healthy all around person,” said Mr. Carleton, who exercises several times a week. “I couldn't imagine an elderly person, or even a young child, being able to fight their way through it.”

Emergency room visits by the public showing E. coli symptoms have slowed, and cases seem to be tapering off, said Dr. Catherine Whiting, the area's medical officer of health.

A team of experts is working to determine the exact source of the outbreak, though she said there is a potential to “never ever conclusively find a positive food source.”

E. coli is found naturally in the intestines of cattle, poultry and other animals, but can cause bloody diarrhea or even kidney failure in humans.

Rick McNabb, president of Harvey's Canada, has said there is no reason for the public to fear a more widespread problem or that other outlets in the 290-restaurant chain pose any health risk.

Residents ambling through the Algonquin Ave., shopping complex that houses the indefinitely closed Harvey's demanded answers.

“It will be a long while before I'd be going back,” said Franca Ahern, who used to eat at the Harvey's with her husband, Bob, once a month.

Rikki-lynn Morrison, 17, grabbed a bite shortly before the eatery was shut down and said learning of the E. coli left her scared.

“I started making my mind think and making my body, my stomach, start to feel weird,” said Morrison, who did not fall ill. “I was like, is that my mind, or is something actually wrong?”

Melanie Hastie resolved to no longer to snack at the pit stop — she had eaten there a day before the outbreak announcement. She wasn't particularly frightened though, she said, and cheerfully noted that she had already made it “seven days E. coli free.”

Canadore College student Sophie Houle, 18, was frustrated by the closure.

“There are always restaurants in town that you know to stay away from, but never Harvey's,” she said. “You just don't expect that.”

Mayor Victor Fedeli was quick to note that without a source determined yet, calling Harvey's at fault would be premature.

“That concludes there was something not beyond control at that restaurant, and that's unfair at this stage,” he said.

Mr. Fedeli lauded the health unit's management of the outbreak, and said the city was “blessed, that while it's the very same strain (as in Walkerton), most people do recover without intervention.”

Candace Tunney, a resident since 1975, echoed Mr. Fedeli's confidence.

“I know I would go back,” she said. “It's been here for a long time and it's the first time anything like this has happened. The business has been established and I trust it.”

Tanya Lott, who studied food safety in school, said she understands how such an outbreak could occur.

“My hope is that once they reopen, people will return,” she said.

About 21 cases are being investigated outside North Bay by health units in the communities of Timiskaming, Sudbury District, Porcupine, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, Simcoe Muskoka District and Toronto.

Normally, only one person develops an E. coli infection in North Bay each year.