Legionnaire's disease indentified as illness that has killed 16 in Canada, page 1

Health officials have determined that Legionnaire's disease is hwat has caused the deaths of 16 ederly people in Toronto. There have been no new deaths from the disease.
You may remember the Legionnaire's disease from news stories in Philadelphia in 1976 American Legion (which is where the disease got it's (public) name.
Legionnaire's disease is a type of pneumonia. It is estimated that 8,000-18,000 cases occur in the US every year

www.usatoday.com
TORONTO (AP) — Health officials identified Legionnaire's disease Thursday 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 healt department.

"Some people are fragile enough that they may still succumb to this," McKeown said at a briefing that included Toronto Mayor David Miller and Dr. Donald Low, medical director of Ontario's Public Health Laboratories.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I am glad that they have identified the virus and thus will be able to take steps in preventing more infections. I do have to question though why it took so long for them to identify the virus.

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
NEWS: Sixteen confirmed dead from mysterious outbreak in Toronto

[edit on 6-10-2005 by kenshiro2012]

[edit on 16-10-2005 by asala]