Toronto reports first human rabies case since '31

By Helen Branswell The Canadian Press

TORONTO – Toronto has reported its first case of human rabies in 81 years, in an unidentified person who may have become infected during travel outside the country.

Toronto Public Health won’t reveal the gender or age of the individual or say where and when the person had been travelling.

Dr. Elizabeth Rae, associate medical officer of health for the city of Toronto said officials in an unnamed country have been notified of the case so that they can investigate whether the person’s contacts there need to be given treatment to prevent rabies.

People exposed or believed to have been exposed to rabies are given a combination of rabies shots and human rabies immune globulin, antibodies taken from the blood of people immunized against rabies.

Toronto Public Health is interviewing close contacts of the person and hospital staff who treated him or her before the diagnosis of rabies was made.

“We’re still in the middle of those moving numbers. But I can tell you all told, the number of people that even need to be screened to find out if there’s a problem is probably going to be under 75,” Rae said.

The investigation isn’t helped by the fact that it isn’t known how the person contracted the rabies virus, which is almost always fatal. By the time the diagnosis was made, the person was too ill to help in the investigation, Rae suggested.

“We do suspect that it’s travel related. That part is not entirely clear yet, but it might become clearer in the next couple of days. Because one of the things that the laboratory does is strain typing of the specific (virus),” Rae said. “So what actual strain of rabies is it?”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is testing samples from the person to try to identify the strain of rabies, which could indicate which animal the infection came from and where transmission took place. More >>