Re: Canada Suspected/Confirmed Swine Flu Cases April 26 +
Re: Canada Suspected/Confirmed Swine Flu Cases April 26 +
Source:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1542494
Canada confirms 13 cases of swine flu
Meagan Fitzpatrick, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Swine flu in Canada has now spread to four different provinces and infected a total of 13 people, after new cases were confirmed in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia on Tuesday.
Four cases were confirmed in Ontario, two in Alberta, and an additional case in British Columbia.
The two cases in Alberta -- one in Calgary and one in northern Alberta -- are considered mild and neither of the men was hospitalized. One has fully recovered and the other is nearly free of symptoms. Both patients had recently travelled to Mexico, the epicentre of the disease outbreak that is suspected of killing more than 150 people in that country and has virtually shut down its capital.
British Columbia's Centre for Disease Control also confirmed a third case in that province. More details are expected to be released on that case at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Canadian health officials have been warning that more cases would be confirmed in Canada as test results come back and that there could be deaths. Swine flu was first confirmed in Canada on Sunday, with the announcement of two cases in British Columbia and four in Nova Scotia.
The infection rate rose elsewhere on Tuesday with more confirmed cases in the United States, New Zealand and Spain. There are now 86 confirmed human cases of swine flu, but the new virus is suspected of making more than 1,600 people sick in Mexico alone. Laboratories around the world are rushing to confirm test results from patients while governments are stepping up their efforts to stop the spread of the virus, which health officials fear could be the next pandemic.
The growing swine flu outbreak prompted the World Health Organization on Monday to raise its pandemic alert a notch to level four on its six-level scale. The agency said the world is one step closer to a pandemic, but that one is not inevitable. The health agency said moving its alert level up was a signal to countries that the outbreak is a serious situation and that preparations should be made if it does escalate to a full-blown pandemic.
During a daily press briefing, the WHO's assistant director-general of health security, Keiji Fukuda, said countries should anticipate what their needs will be in such a scenario, and that it will be a global responsibility to assist developing countries.
"They are really hit hardest and they also have the least resources to deal with these situations," he said.
While the world's attention has been drawn to the quickly developing situation in recent days, Fukuda also cautioned Tuesday that other health issues should not be neglected.
"While we deal with this situation it's important for WHO but it's also important for other health agencies and countries out there to be mindful there are other health priorities that continue to need attention," he said.
In partnership with laboratories around the world, the WHO is working on making the agents needed to diagnose swine flu in case countries need them, and work is underway on developing a vaccine if one is needed.
Researchers are struggling to understand why the virus, which has a genetic makeup that has never been seen before, has been deadly only in Mexico and why it seems to severely affect relatively young and healthy people.
The WHO said even if countries are successful in mitigating the spread of the virus and its incidence goes down, it will likely be months before the outbreak can be declared over.
"It will be very hard to know whether this virus is actually disappeared until several months have gone by at the very least," said Fukuda. "That's the nature of this infection and that is something we will be on the lookout for."
In addition to Canada, Israel and New Zealand confirmed Tuesday their first cases of swine flu and Spain reported its second case. The United States also updated its numbers bringing its total to 64.
Governments are on full alert to try to prevent the spread of the swine flu, and are reacting with a range of measures. Several countries, including Canada, have issued travel advisories warning against non-essential travel, despite the World Health Organization's advice that travel restrictions are unnecessary.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said late Monday that if travel to Mexico was unavoidable, Canadians should make certain to receive influenza vaccinations, wash their hands regularly, and avoid contact with "people who appear to have a respiratory illness."
In addition to travel advisories, some countries have banned the import of pork products from affected countries, even though health officials have emphasized that properly cooking pork kills viruses. On Tuesday, Egypt's lower house of parliament called for the nation's 250,000 pigs to be killed over fears of the flu's spread.
As more cases are reported around the world, airlines and travel agencies began making adjustments to their operations. Some airlines are waiving fees for changing flights, while the Thomas Cook travel agency has canceled vacations to Cancun.
The World Bank said Tuesday it is too early to calculate an accurate cost of of the global economic impact of the quickly spreading illness.
"The situation's evolving constantly and it's just too soon to try and get anything approaching an accurate assessment of the global impact," Phil Hay, a World Bank health spokesman, told AFP.
The flu affects millions of Canadians each year, resulting in 20,000 admissions to hospital, on average, and 4,000 deaths. Normally, fewer than 0.1 per cent of people with influenza die, if they have no underlying medical conditions.
