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Canada confirms 6 cases of swine flu
Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu with public health officials reporting six people falling ill in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu with public health officials reporting six people falling ill in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Dr Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease said the six cases were all mild and no one required hospitalization.
She said the two people stricken in the Pacific province had links to travel to Mexico. Public health officials in Nova Scotia said the four cases in the east coast province also were linked to travel to Mexico.
Nova Scotia Chief Public Health Officer Dr Robert Strang said four students from King’s-Edgehill School ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18 are recovering from what he described as “very mild” cases of swine flu that did not require hospitalization.
“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Strang said of the Nova Scotia cases.
Canadian officials were planning a briefing yesterday in Ottawa on the swine flu situation, which the World Health Organization has declared to be a “public health emergency of international concern.”
Mexico’s health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened more than 1,400 in the country since April 13.
