[loubnaniTO]

and now in Canada..............


Swine flu confirmed in Canada
Globe and Mail Update

April 26, 2009 at 6:51 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — Canadian health officials are rushing to contain the spread of swine flu through human contact after at least a half-dozen cases were confirmed in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

Cases in both provinces were linked to Mexican travel — but unlike the deadly outbreak in that country, the illnesses in Nova Scotia and B.C. patients were so mild that none required hospitalization.

The two cases in B.C. involve two separate young men aged 25-35 who recently came back from Mexico, according to Dr. Danuta Skowronski, head of flu and respiratory illnesses at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, run by the provincial government.

The cases were discovered through normal flu testing conducted by the disease control centre after the men had visited a doctor with mild flu symptoms. It was noted they had just returned from Mexico.
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Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the United States has 20 swine flu cases in five states

A NYC high school will be closed Monday after more than 100 students came down with flu-like symptoms. It is believed to be the swine flu. That strain has killed more than 60 people in Mexico.


Dr. Skowronski said the two men, who are from the B.C. Lower Mainland, have been asked to “self-isolate” but have not been quarantined.

Dr. Skowronski said the swine flu appears to be “widespread in Mexico” and people should not consider it linked only with urban Mexico City. B.C. health officials also said people in the province should take normal precautions regarding the flu and shouldn't worry unduly - people should watch for a “severe” respiratory illness, rather than milder symptoms.

“We don't want to put a run on physicians' offices,” said Dr. Skowronski, adding that the number of Canadian cases is small so far given the amount of travel to Mexico.

Personnel at B.C. airports are on the watch for anyone with severe flu symptoms but provincial health officials said there isn't any unusual monitoring of passengers.

At a news conference in Ottawa, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she has been in touch with her provincial and territorial counterparts and has ordered the Public Health Agency of Canada to alert border authorities, quarantine officers and other officials.

“These cases are likely not the last we'll see in Canada,” Ms. Aglukkaq warned.

For the time being, however, Ms. Aglukkaq told 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 has developed flu-like symptoms to see a doctor without delay.

Four students at King's-Edgehill School in Windsor, a small town in the province's Annapolis Valley, have had a mild case of swine flu, public health officials confirmed on Sunday.

Classes at the private boarding school, with a student body of 350 in Grades 7-12, are still being held, although all community events and field trips have been cancelled, said headmaster Joseph Seagram.

Of the 23 students who went on the trip, 17 have been isolated from others on campus after feeling ill. Four staff members have also been isolated, two of them at their own homes.

“All of the students who have been sick over the last few days are recovering nicely, or have recovered completely,” Mr. Seagram told a news conference at a local community centre.

The students went on the trip to the Yucatan Peninsula from April 1-8, while the school also played host to a group of students and their families from the Yucatan and Campeche as part of the exchange program.

Health authorities said Sunday some students reported fatigue, muscle aches and coughing, but nothing out of the ordinary for people who suffer from the flu.

Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the four “very mild” cases of swine flu were detected in students ranging in age from 12 to 18.

“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” he told a news conference in Halifax.

“We have to keep things in perspective — it is a mild illness.”

Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, the Capital Health district's medical health officer, said the students reported “underwhelming” flu symptoms.

“One of the challenges with this illness is that the illness has been so mild that many of the students really can't tell us for certain if they have been sick or how sick,” Dr. Watson-Creed said.

“Some of them have been reporting that they had sniffles two weeks ago, some of them were reporting that they had allergies two weeks ago. So it's hard to pin down exactly what the number (of sick children) is, but we're working to uncover that.”

Dr. Strang said a lab in Halifax wasn't able to type specimens taken from the students. 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.

“That alerted us that this could be something different,” he said.

The samples were sent to the national biological laboratory in Winnipeg where they were confirmed as swine flu.

While closing the school is an option, Dr. Strang said there are advantages to keeping those people who are sick isolated in one place.

“Perhaps the best place to manage them is to keep them in school and you can monitor them and manage them there,” he said.

The illness has proven itself to be potentially deadly. Up to 86 people have died in Mexico as a result of swine flu. About 1,300 have been diagnosed with the sickness since April 13.

Air Canada announced Sunday it was waiving “change” fees for customers who had reservations for travel to and from Mexico City, up to April 30th.

In Calgary, WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer said for now, the airline wasn't changing its policy but was closely monitoring the situation.

Several U.S. airlines, including U.S. Airways and Continental Airlines, will also waive penalties for travellers who want to change bookings to Mexico City because of the flu outbreak.

A spokesman for The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said that for now, it wasn't screening passengers returning from vacations or business in Mexico at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

But GTAA spokeswoman Trish Krale said emergency workers were taking extra precautions by wearing masks and gloves when responding to any ill passenger who had been in Mexico in the past couple of weeks.

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told CTV 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.

Ontario health officials are monitoring eleven individuals who have recently travelled to Mexico and who are experiencing “mild” symptoms associated with the outbreak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said on Sunday. At this point, there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Ontario, he said.

The spokesman also said lab results obtained over the weekend have confirmed that a Crown attorney in Cornwall, Ont., does not have the swine flu. Guy Simard, 47, returned from Mexico last month with a mysterious illness, but has since recovered.

With reports from The Canadian Press and Karen Howlett