Six confirmed cases of swine flu in Canada - in B.C. and N.S.
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Sun Apr 26, 7:56 PM
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By Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press
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OTTAWA - Swine flu has entered Canada with a whimper but public-health authorities warn that a half-dozen mild cases reported in Nova Scotia and British Columbia could give way to a more serious outbreak.
All the Canadian illnesses are linked to Mexican travel, although the cases announced Sunday have been so innocuous that none of the patients in Nova Scotia or B.C. even required hospitalization.
That doesn't mean the bug will remain mild, federal authorities warned as they cast a wary glance at the scores of deaths in Mexico caused by the virus.
Federal officials said they have already begun discussions with drug companies about producing a new vaccine, amid fears that existing treatments would fail to resist the virus.
David Butler-Jones, the chief public health officer for the federal government, noted that the first patients may have had mild flu symptoms but he cautioned against complacency.
"It doesn't mean we won't see either more severe illness or, potentially, deaths," he said.
"There's many reasons to treat this seriously. No one should lull themselves into thinking that everything's just fine because it's a relatively mild disease."
Canadian government scientists helped identify the virus. Their Mexican counterparts contacted them by email with concerns on April 17 and they conducted tests at Winnipeg's national microbiology lab.
Fears of a pandemic quickly rippled across the globe. There were 20 cases reported in the U.S. in states ranging from California to New York; there were 10 suspected positive tests in New Zealand from students who recently went to Mexico; Russia even banned meat imports from Mexico, although health experts say it's unlikely the virus would be transmitted through food.
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she's been in touch with her provincial counterparts and has ordered the Public Health Agency of Canada to alert border authorities, quarantine officers and other officials.
Customs agents at airports are on the lookout for anyone with flu-like symptoms and have already pulled aside two arriving passengers and sent them to be examined.
Air Canada and Westjet both announced Sunday they would waive fees for anyone seeking to change their Mexican flight plans between now and April 30.
For the time being, however, Aglukkaq urged the general public to concentrate on "important but very simple precautions."
They include the standard advice for people to wash their hands frequently, cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze and stay home and avoid contact with others if they feel ill.
The minister also advised anyone who has recently visited Mexico and developed flu-like symptoms to see a doctor without delay.
In Vancouver, Dr. Danuta Skowronski, of B.C.'s Centre for Disease Control, told reporters that so far there is no sign in Canada of the severe respiratory illness that Mexico has been grappling with.
Skowronski said the two people on the B.C. Lower Mainland who have contracted the flu have been asked to "self-isolate" but have not been quarantined.
Twenty-one people at a private school in rural Nova Scotia were placed in quarantine after a trip to Mexico, which included a cultural and music exchange in the southern Yucatan Peninsula.
Four teenagers at King's-Edgehill School were diagnosed as some of Canada's first swine-flu patients. The children reported fatigue, muscle aches and coughing, but nothing out of the ordinary for a flu-sufferer.
Only one of those sick students had actually been to Mexico. The school placed the 17 children in its medical facility, while two teachers joined them there and two other teachers were forced to remain home.
Nova Scotia's chief public health officer said the four "very mild" cases of swine flu were detected in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.
"It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread," said Dr. Robert Strang.
Because swine flu is so new, most laboratories don't have tests to identify them, and they show up as untypeable influenza A when tests are run.
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told a national news agency the federal cabinet has set up an operations committee and has been monitoring the swine flu situation closely.
Foreign Affairs has posted information on its website on the health situation in Mexico but is not telling Canadians to stay away from the country.
More than one million Canadians travel to Mexico each year, and about 600,000 Mexicans visit Canada.
The federal government has a telephone hotline and websites for information about the virus.
The phone number is 1-800-454-8302, and the websites are www.fightflu.ca, www.voyage.ca and www.phac.gc.ca. |
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