TORONTO — With hundreds of passengers aboard, many believed to be foreign tourists, a VIA Rail train remained under quarantine in a small northern Ontario town Friday afternoon after a 60-year-old woman died from a mysterious flu-like ailment.
Five other passengers with similar symptoms were separated from the others and remained aboard the train while a sixth person was airlifted to hospital in Timmins.
However, the death of the 60-year-old woman does not appear to be connected to the other six passengers who became ill, said Rob Knox, detachment commander at the Ontario Provincial Police in South Porcupine.
He said the woman became ill on the train and subsequently died from an unknown illness. A second passenger who has been airlifted to a hospital in Timmins is in stable condition and is believed to be suffering from an upper respiratory illness, he said.
One person has died aboard a CN Rail train carrying more than 260 passengers to Toronto and has been quarantined in northern Ontario. (Carol Woodhouse for The Globe and Mail)
Videos
Expert discusses illness on Via Rail train
Dr. Michael Gardam discusses what illness may have caused the death of one woman and caused several others to fall ill on a Via Rail train
The five other ill passengers aboard the train are in stable condition and in good spirits, he said. The doctor aboard the train who is treating these passengers is “not concerned for their immediate health,” he added.
These passengers are in a separate car, isolated from others. He said there is no need to evacuate anyone from the immediate area surrounding the train.
As an army of ambulances, police cruisers and helicopters descended on Foleyet, a town of less than 400 people, only emergency personnel wearing full protective gear were being allowed aboard the train, which was en route to Toronto from Vancouver after leaving the West Coast three days ago.
Ontario public health officers were interviewing passengers, but a health official in Vancouver said all those who fell sick are believed to have boarded the train in Jasper.
A spokeswoman for Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said the five other passengers on the train who have taken ill are in stable condition. Medical officials at the scene are testing everyone who is in quarantine, Laurel Ostfield said. The ministry has two air ambulances with critical care paramedics, she added.
“We're still trying to piece the whole story together."
"We're just going crazy,” said Foleyet resident Carol Woodhouse, who works at a bunkhouse where train crews rest and eat.
"The rumours are flying, people are talking about SARS, nobody knows what's going on,” Ms. Woodhouse said. "Usually we only have two policemen here, now I think we've got 20.”
She estimated the train – carrying 246 passengers and 30 crew – consisted of at least 30 coaches, but the illness is believed to have been contained within one or two cars.
The train was halted about 8:35 a.m. after the woman was discovered dead.
All the communities in which the train made a stops were under scrutiny, Health Canada spokesman Alastair Sinclair said.
“Federal officials are collaborating with their provincial and regional counterparts to assess the situation and take action, as appropriate,” Mr. Sinclair said.
“The Minister of Health, Tony Clement, has been briefed and has directed his officials to notify and liaise with provincial, regional and local authorities, both in Foleyet and at all points along the route the train travelled. For the moment, Ontario is the lead on this.”
Constable Marc Depatie said in an interview that officials were still trying to determine what caused the illnesses on the train and how they are linked to the fatality.
“We don't know if the element is viral or bacterial or a case of food poisoning.”
The woman who died is believed to have boarded the train in Jasper, Alta., as part of a group of tourists, he said.
“It's my understanding that seven persons from the Jasper area are displaying flu or flu-like symptoms but not to the same degree or urgency that led to the person's [death] on the train,” Constable Depatie said.
Crime-scene investigators from the Ontario Provincial Police were also on hand but had not yet boarded the quarantined train, Constable Depatie said.
“From an OPP perspective, all sudden deaths are deemed to be suspicious in nature until we determine the root cause,” he said.
“So with that in mind, our crime unit is at the scene taking preliminary information down so we can perform an investigation of the event.”
Public health officials in British Columbia and Alberta were on standby this morning, awaiting more information being gathered by medical staff in Foleyet.
Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said officials had been alerted to possible concerns, but it wasn't clear if any health threat existed in B.C. or Alberta.
“We know basically … that there has been a death and there are other people with symptoms, but we are not even clear what those are yet,” Dr. Daly said.
Dr. Daly said the train started in Vancouver on Tuesday or Wednesday, but officials hadn't been told the train number or time of departure.
After leaving Vancouver, VIA trains usually stop in Kamloops and Jasper before continuing east.
“We're on standby. We've been advised. They did contact us and we're waiting for further information,” Dr. Daly said.
“As soon as we get more information we'll know if there is anything we have to do here,” she said.
“There's no sign of outbreaks in Jasper. Nothing has come into our health centres,” Aspen Regional Health Authority spokesman Scott Donaldson said.
The health region is now on standby as it waits for more information about the cause of the illness and where the passenger had been in the Rocky Mountain community before she died.
Perry Kendall, provincial health officer for B.C., said this morning that health officials have been looking for signs of disease activity in the communities where the train stopped en route.
So far they see no reason for concern.
“I've been in touch the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and with medical officers, public health officials in Vancouver and in the Interior, because the train started in Vancouver and stopped in Kamloops, and there is no unusual illness activity in any of those locations,” Dr. Kendall said.
“We've also been in contact with the chief medical officer of health for Alberta because the train stopped in Jasper and they aren't aware of any unusual illness activity in Alberta either.”
Dr. Kendall said before taking further action, health officials across Western Canada are waiting for reports from Ontario to confirm what kind of illness they are dealing with on the train.
“Ontario is probably desperately trying to get as much information together as they can right now,” Dr. Kendall said.
“What is really needed is probably a clinical diagnosis of the nature of the illness, or illnesses on the train.”
Dr. Kendall said although flu-like symptoms have been described, there are a wide range of medical possibilities, in addition to the most obvious, which would be influenza.
“It's possible to have flu-like symptoms and food poisoning, it's possible to have flu-like symptoms in heart disease or chronic lung disease,” he said.
Dr. Kendall said he has been told the people that are ill apparently all boarded in Jasper.
“The implication was that it was a group, but the information was a bit sketchy at that point in time. I'm expecting an update from Ontario as soon as they have something definitive,” he said.
Dr. Kendall said the train was stopped at 8:30 a.m., Ontario time, and he received a call alerting him to the situation a few hours later.
Alberta Health is also investigating, since the train travelled across the province, making stops in both Jasper and Edmonton on Wednesday.
Helen Kelleher-Empey, general manager of Jasper Tourism and Commerce, said train travel is crucially important to the resort town's economy and its 4,643 residents, especially as it gears up for the busy summer season when the population explodes.
“We are shocked and saddened that that someone has died,” Ms. Kelleher-Empey said, adding that her office is still waiting for more information about the nature of the illness before officials start worrying about a SARS-like public relations nightmare afflicting the town.
“We're concerned that someone has died,” she said. “It's hard to talk about an impact until I have more information.”
The Saskatoon Health Region said it has no reports from VIA Rail of any passengers getting on or off the train when it stopped briefly in the city on Thursday. However, officials are on standby if information comes to light that suggests any illness was not contained as it passed through the city.
Deborah DesRochers, chairwoman of the town of 380 about 100 kilometres southwest of Timmins, said the scene was chaotic as emergency vehicles arrived on the scene.
"The whole place is being overrun with ambulances and police cars, and we've got helicopters,” she said. "They've got the train quarantined. They're trying to isolate what it is.”
Others realized something unusual was happening when they saw the train stopped at the station around 9 a.m., local resident Fernande Dallaire said.
OPP cruisers, some with sirens blaring, cordoned off the local rail yard, she said.
Judy Bromley saw several ambulances show up and watched as a medical helicopter landed nearby and airlifted a female passenger away.
At one point, the OPP ordered the evacuation of a local railway rooming house, to turn it into a command centre and let healthy passengers use some of the 30-plus beds there.
But the plan was changed and passengers remained onboard the train cars.
Resident John Boudreau said he could see some sitting in the train's dining room, calmly having a meal.
The train was equipped for long-haul journeys, with sleeping berths and a fully equipped dining room, and it didn't appear to have immediate resupply needs, Mr. Boudreau said.
The normal duration of the Vancouver-Toronto journey is 30 minutes short of three days, and the trip has long been popular with foreign tourists, Ms. Woodhouse said.
A one-way “comfort class” ticket, which entails sitting up for the duration, sells for $591.15 according to VIA's current schedule.
With reports from Karen Howlett, Mark Hume in Vancouver, Dawn Walton in Calgary, Tu Than Ha and The Canadian Press
236
