Toronto has reported an outbreak of meningococcal disease that claimed the life of one person and infected two others with the bacterial infection.

The three individual cases are aged between 20 and 30 years old and began experiencing symptoms between July 15 and 17, according to a press release issued by Toronto Public Health (TPH) on Thursday.

The health unit says the infected individuals were born outside Canada, in countries that do not provide childhood immunization against the disease. The place of birth of the infected individuals is unknown.

“TPH was unable to identify a connection between these cases. The three individuals were recently confirmed to be infected with the same rare strain of meningococcal disease from serogroup C.

Most invasive meningococcal infections are associated with a bacterium called Neisseria meningitidis, which causes infections in the meninges of the brain and spinal cord and bloodstream.

TPH says, "People transmit meningococcal bacteria to others by sharing respiratory and throat secretions (saliva or spit).

Generally, close or prolonged contact is required to spread this bacteria, and more specifically, the infection can be spread through kissing, coughing, and sharing common items such as eating utensils, cups, cigarettes, and musical instruments.

Symptoms of the infection include fever, aches, joint pains, headache, neck stiffness, and photophobia. The disease is known to develop rapidly and complications include low blood pressure, seizures, hearing loss, limb amputation, brain damage, or death.

Bacterial infection is relatively rare in Toronto due to the availability of routine vaccines for residents.

"Therefore, most people will be vaccinated at one year of age and again in high school.

So we know that most students in Toronto will receive the vaccine.

And we are concerned about anyone who has not been vaccinated either because they were not vaccinated here or because they come from a country where the vaccine is not routinely available," Dr. Rita Shahin told CP24 on Thursday morning.

TPH encourages adults aged 20 to 36 to get the meningococcal vaccine as soon as possible if they have not already.

Vaccines are 97 percent effective in infants within one year of vaccination and their efficacy drops to 68 percent after one year, according to TPH.

Shahin says most vaccinated individuals will not show any symptoms of the disease.