Even though four seniors died at a Nanaimo, B.C., long-term care facility during a January outbreak of human metapneumovirus, health officials said Friday it's hard to prove the virus was directly responsible for their deaths.

An outbreak of the human metapneumovirus at Dufferin Place, an extended care facility in Nanaimo, was first discovered by the local health authority in January, and lasted around six weeks.
(CBC)

The Vancouver Island Health Authority confirmed that over a six-week period, more than 60 of the 150 residents at the Dufferin Place extended-care facility were infected with the virus.

The outbreak lasted around six weeks and four residents eventually died of various illnesses including cardiac causes and pneumonia, said Suzanne Germain, the health authority's spokeswoman.

Human metapneumovirus is a human respiratory pathogen first discovered in 2001. It can cause both upper and lower tract disease and can lead to serious illness in the young, those with suppressed immune systems, and the chronically ill.

Mel Krajden, of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, says human metapneumovirus doesn't appear to be as severe a cause of respiratory disease as influenza A and B.
(CBC)

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said Friday the virus was not what's known as the "killer cold" that caused recent deaths in the United States.

"For human metapneumovirus, there's no anti-virals that are currently available. You basically have to suffer through the illness," said Mel Krajden, the centre's director of hepatitis services.

"This virus, although it's been detected as a new agent in 2001, has been around prior to that.

"It's clear that, although it can cause serious respiratory disease, it doesn't appear to be as severe a cause of respiratory disease as influenza A and B," he said.