Alberta confirms 2 cases of swine flu
Posted by dealsclub on April 28, 2009
Two human cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Alberta, the province’s chief medical officer of health said Tuesday.
Both individuals are male with a mild form of the illness. Neither was hospitalized.
One man from northern Alberta has fully recovered. A second man from Calgary is on the road to recovery.
Both men contracted the illness during recent trips to Mexico.
“These cases show that our monitoring and surveillance system is working as it should,” said Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. André Corriveau in a news release. “It was only a matter of time until cases of human swine influenza would show up in Alberta. These cases are both mild, similar to recent cases identified in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, and across the United States.”
The announcement brings the total confirmed cases in Canada to eight.
On Sunday, Alberta issued a public health alert and is joining other Canadian provinces in monitoring cases of the illness.
Alberta is planning to get its provincial laboratory ready to start diagnosing swine flu by the end of the week. Currently, the national lab in Winnipeg is the only place in Canada that can make a positive diagnosis of the illness.
In Mexico, at least 152 people are suspected to have died from a new strain of the swine flu virus. All the confirmed Canadian cases have been mild, so far.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/04/28/edm-alberta-swine-flu.html
