The Northern Health Authority confirmed there was a case of Legionnaires' disease identified in a Prince George woman two months ago.
An environmental health officer for Northern Health spoke to the 53-year-old woman and later determined hers was an isolated case that did not require any health advisories.
"An interview was completed with the patient, but as there was no recollection of situations involving aerosolized water and no travel, as well as no contacts reported being ill, there were no potential sources to follow up on," said Northern Health spokesperson Jessica Quinn.
"It was reported to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, as per our normal routine, but single cases typically do not require a consult with the medical health officer on staff, so that's why Dr. [William] Osei was not aware of it.
"The reason behind that is patients have a right to privacy and since there is no risk of an outbreak, we wouldn't be reporting that to media or anybody else concerned."
The woman's case was brought to Northern Health's attention earlier this week after an Edmonton-area man contracted Legionnaires' disease while on a snowmobiling trip to Valemount over the Christmas break. In commenting on that case on Tuesday, Quinn said Dr. Osei was not aware of any cases of the disease in northern B.C. in the last four years.
Osei conducted an inspection of the Valemount hotel where the Alberta man stayed overnight during his trip and made routine inspections of all hotels in the city, located 285 kilometres southeast of Prince George.
The Legionella pneumophila bacteria is spread through water droplets in the air, and tests of the Valemount hotel focused on hot tubs, the heating and air conditioning systems. No maintenance issues were determined.
"The investigation is completed and we found no sources of the disease at any hotel in Valemount, so any other further information about possible sources of origin of the disease would have to be instigated by Alberta Health Services," said Quinn.
Quinn said the man got sick two days after he returned from Valemount. He was in an induced coma, being treated at University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.
"The initial test results in Alberta show that he has Legionnaires' disease," Osei said, in the Edmonton Journal.
He said it won't be confirmed until additional tests are conducted at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
