| ■ 27 Bus Riders Sought in Canadian TB Probe | 2008.10.06 |
| Canadian health officials are looking for 27 people who may have contracted tuberculosis from an infected passenger during a Toronto-to-Windsor bus trip in late August, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The infection risk is low, according to Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, but those on the Greyhound bus who may have been exposed need to be evaluated. The Detroit-bound bus had 42 passengers aboard when it reached Windsor, just across the Canadian border from Detroit, and 27 passengers got off the bus there, the wire service said. The infected person, according to Williams, had already tested positive for tuberculosis in the United States, was refused entry back into the country at the border, and was only identified as carrying a Canadian passport. Williams said officials don't know where the person was sitting on the bus or how many people sat close by, the AP reported. Mark Nesbitt, an Ontario health spokesman, said doctors are monitoring the remaining passengers on the bus, but none appears so far ill. Passengers on the bus are being asked to contact their local public health office as soon as possible. Williams said the infected person doesn't have the more serious forms of multi-drug resistant or extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis. TB can take three to eight weeks to incubate, officials said. |