VANCOUVER – A Victoria hospital is preparing to launch a “pandemic and disaster response” to the anticipated arrival of upwards of 500 Tamil migrants who may have contracted highly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis after months at sea aboard a cargo ship.
The ship was located about 50 kilometres off Ucluelet at 11 a.m. Thursday and was being escorted to land by Canadian Navy vessels.
“We’re prepared. Tuberculosis is not an uncommon illness and we even see it on Vancouver Island from time to time so we are absolutely prepared to treat it,” said Shannon Marshall, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Island Health Authority.
In a memo distributed to VIHA employees Tuesday and obtained by The Vancouver Sun, VIHA’s Emergency Management director Norma Jones alerted healthcare providers that the seventh floor of Victoria General Hospital would be under a strict medical quarantine enforced by armed B.C. Corrections and/or Canadian Border Services personnel.
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