Rare cholera outbreak on Vancouver Island linked to herring eggs
Posted March 25, 2018 12:01 pm.
Last Updated March 25, 2018 1:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – Public health officials in British Columbia say a small cholera outbreak on Vancouver Island is highly unusual.
Dr. Shannon Waters of Island Health says as many as four people have been infected with vibrio cholera after eating herring eggs harvested on the coast.
Waters says testing is still under way to determine the exact strain of the disease.
Symptoms of cholera include nausea, vomitting and diarrhea that can lead to extreme dehydration.
Harvesting herring eggs is a traditional practice of local First Nations and the illnesses have prompted an emergency fisheries closure in the area.
Cholera killed at least 20,000 people in Canada in the 1800s, but the disease has largely been eradicated in the country.
The Ontario Ministry of Health says an average of one case per year is reported in that province and all of those individuals were exposed to cholera in a country where the disease is endemic.
