Death train could be in grips of flu outbreak: MD

A VIA rail train has been quarantined following the onboard death of a woman in her sixties. Ten other passengers on the train travelling from Vancouver to Toronto are also reported ill, suffering from "flu-like" symptoms. One has been airlifted to Timmins, about a 100km away from where the train has been stopped in Foleyet, Northern Ontario.

There's a lot of pretty outlandish speculation at this point about what the mystery illness could be (SARS, Norwalk, food poisoning, plague...), but some good old medical deductive reasoning produces a much saner theory: the flu.

"The thing that makes influenza more likely is that someone has died," Mount Sinai infectious disease specialist Dr Allison McGeer told the Toronto Star. "My guess is at this time of year Via trains are mostly taken by retired people and in an older population things will happen. You don't know what chronic illnesses she had."

UPDATE May 9, 5PM: The woman airlifted from the VIA rail train to a Timmins hospital has tested negative for influenza A and B. Swab results from the other sick passengers are expected tomorrow. "We'll do some of the more esoteric things on them just to make sure some of the other possibilities are ruled out," said Dr Donald Low, medical director of Ontario's public health lab. "But it sounds like a regular ... run of the mill cold." Police now say they don't believe the woman's death and the illness of other passengers are related.

Photo: National Post

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