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The LIBERAL ■
$1 / 40 PAGES
Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015
yorkregion.com
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905-881-3373
Cyclospora outbreak hits 16 York residents
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MAGICAL PARK OPENING
BY LISA QUEEN
Stephen, Laureen Harper make campaign visits PAGE 26
Kayaker rescues stranded boys boating on Lake Wilcox PAGE 15
lqueen@yrmg.com
Sixteen York Region residents are among dozens of Canadians who have been infected by an outbreak of an intestinal illness called cyclospora since May, according to the region’s director of infectious disease control. “We don’t know yet what the source is,” Marjolyn Pritchard said. The microscopic parasite passed through people’s feces causes stomach cramps, diarrhea and loss of appetite and is usually contracted through infected water or food, particularly fruits and vegetables. Eleven York residents who picked up the illness had travelled outside of Canada. Five of the cases are not related to travel. Of the one case in May and four cases in June, one person had travelled to another province and the rest had not left Ontario. In a normal year, York would have no more than two domestic cases of cyclospora in the same time frame, Pritchard said. “It is certainly more than we have had reported in the past and the province is seeing the same thing. So, in Ontario, we’re seeing an overall increase,” she said. The source of the illness is not known, so it isn’t possible to say whether the domestic cases were contracted within the region, Pritchard said. “Whenever we get any of these cases, we do the normal follow-up of finding out what people have consumed prior to the period in which they would have become ill or the incubation period,” she said. “So, we do try and understand where people pick up these infections, because it’s not normally something Ontarians should be picking up or York Region residents should be picking up because it’s See WASH, page 22.
STAFF PHOTO/STEVE SOMERVILLE
Families could literally follow the rainbow to enjoy one of the town’s newest green spaces, Rouge Crest Park, located on Rothbury Road, south of Gamble Road. Despite a brief downpour, which did produce this colourful rainbow, children and adults joined town politicians to officially open the playground. See page 3 for more photographs.
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