Posted on 09/17/2002 7:57:29 AM PDT by areafiftyone
TORONTO (Reuters) - The mosquito-borne West Nile virus ( news - web sites) may have claimed its first victim in Canada this year with the death of an elderly Ontario man who tested positive for the disease, health officials said on Monday.
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The man died in hospital in Mississauga, located on the outskirts of Toronto. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed but if it is West Nile it would mark the first time the disease killed someone who contracted it within Canada.
"The coroner is investigating to determine the cause of death and is expected to make an announcement tomorrow," said David Jensen, a spokesman with the Ontario ministry of health.
Canada is just beginning to grapple with the West Nile virus, which has been blamed for at least 54 deaths this year in the United States.
Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has reported three confirmed cases of the disease including the man who died. Another 14 residents are suspected of having it and await test results from Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
In neighboring Quebec, three suspected cases of the disease have been reported.
Although West Nile is common in Africa and Asia, it did not reach North America until a 1999 outbreak killed seven people in the New York borough of Queens.
The disease had never been contracted within Canada until this summer, with the first suspected cases identified in August.
An Ontario man died of the disease in 1999, but he was believed to have contracted it in the United States.
Mosquitoes contract West Nile from infected birds and then spread it to humans. The virus cannot be spread from person to person through everyday contact, or from birds to humans.
Most people who become infected suffer no symptoms and those who do have only headaches or a flu-like illness. But the elderly, chronically ill and those with weak immune systems can develop encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain.
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