London, Ont., Health Unit Identifies Source of Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak

Legionella pneumophila bacteria, which are responsible for causing the pneumonic disease Legionnaires' disease, in a 1978 electron microscope image. Francis Chandler/CDC via AP

A source of a serious illness that has sent more than 90 people to hospital and resulted in four deaths in London, Ont., has been linked to a meat processing plant in the city’s southeast.

An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was declared in July, after the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) said there had been 43 cases reported, including one death. It noted that most of the people infected lived or worked within a six-kilometre radius of one another in the southeast side of the city.