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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Quebec orders inquiry into legionnaires' disease outbreak

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 08/31/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

QUEBEC -- The Quebec government has ordered a public inquiry into an outbreak of legionnaires' disease that has killed nine people.

Thursday's announcement came hours before public health officials announced the number of overall cases of the disease in Quebec City had jumped to 151 from 141.

Cooling systems in two building towers are believed to be the source of the current outbreak. Local authorities have disinfected the cooling systems in more than 100 buildings.

Inspectors are currently revisiting about 30 of them to look at the water and to make sure building owners have complied with cleanup directives.

A grieving relative held a news conference on Thursday with her lawyer, with whom she has discussed the possibility of a class-action lawsuit.

Lawyer Jean-Pierre Menard, an expert on class actions in the health field, says legal action is not being considered yet but he wants to know more about what happened.

Menard was accompanied at the news conference by Solange Allen, whose husband Claude Desjardins died of the illness on Aug. 19.

The woman said her husband was dead less than a week after the first symptoms showed up.

"My husband fell ill and had the shivers and a fever during the night Monday and we thought it was just a regular flu," she said.

"He went to work. But then on Wednesday (Aug. 15) his condition worsened."

Allen said Desjardins went to a clinic the next day and was rushed to hospital, where blood samples were taken.

"What I don't understand is that the doctor never talked to us about legionnaires' disease," she said.

Desjardins returned home but then had to be rushed to the emergency room of a local hospital where he died on the Sunday, just before noon.

"It was fast and during all that time, I never heard anyone talk about legionnaires' disease -- never, ever," she said.

"My husband was the fourth death and there was really criminal negligence there."

Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said he consulted Quebec coroners who agreed with him that it was necessary to go further than just holding a coroner's inquest.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 31, 2012 A16

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