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Ottawa Public Health confirms H1N1 Swine Flu case
OTTAWA — One person from Ottawa has tested positive for the swine flu virus, making it the first case of the novel infection to be confirmed in the city.
The person, who had recently travelled to Mexico, is recovering, according to Ottawa's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Isra Levy. At a new conference Tuesday afternoon, Levy confirmed that the person is a man who returned from Mexico a week ago and presented himself an unspecified institution with "mild illness". He was assessed by infectious disease specialists, found to be stable, and then treated and released.
Levy said that health officials have followed up with those the man has been in contact with, and all appear healthy and have shown no signs of trouble. Levy added that the lone Ottawa case of swine flu so far follows the pattern of the vast majority of cases in Mexico, which is they are "clinically mild".
As of Tuesday morning, there were 17 new confirmed cases of the human swine flu in Ontario, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 31. The Ottawa case would bring Ontario's total to 32. Of the confirmed cases so far, the majority have been in the Greater Toronto Area. The World Health Organization reported 140 confirmed cases of the virus in Canada, with 21 countries reporting a total of 1,124 cases of the swine flu.
The news from Ottawa comes one day after Canada recorded its first serious case of the H1N1 flu, a young girl in Alberta who was in intensive care in an Edmonton hospital.
The child has no known connection to Mexico, and federal health officials said Monday they did not know whether the girl had any underlying medical conditions that would increase her risk of flu-related complications.
"We are starting to see some community-based spread," said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
Up until now, all confirmed cases in Canada have been relatively mild, and all have made a full recovery.
"The news of this first, more severe case, although disconcerting, is not surprising, and it does not change the course of action that we are taking," Butler-Jones said.
He said more cases of swine flu, with varying levels of severity, will be uncovered, and the rogue virus is following the pattern of normal, seasonal influenza.
"This case underscores a couple of things about influenza. It has few boundaries. It doesn't respect borders. It often doesn't respect age. Nature is very unpredictable, as is the influenza virus," Butler-Jones said. "Even with regular seasonal flu we see people get very ill. We on occasion also see young, otherwise healthy people get very ill, or die. It is a very, very serious disease. It takes its toll on people young and old. So we need to stay vigilant."
Meanwhile, scientists are getting a clearer picture of how the new strain is behaving compared to normal seasonal flu.
Where garden-variety influenza normally has an incubation period of up to five days, human swine flu appears to have an incubation period of up to eight days. As well, diarrhea affects up to half of infected patients, far more than usual.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is asking staff who may have travelled on official government business in the past 30 days to countries with human swine flu or had contact with animals "that they declare that upon return" to Canada, Dr. Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer said.
Butler-Jones said work on developing a vaccine continues, as well as genetic typing to get a clearer picture of the virus.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — One person from Ottawa has tested positive for the swine flu virus, making it the first case of the novel infection to be confirmed in the city.
The person, who had recently travelled to Mexico, is recovering, according to Ottawa's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Isra Levy. At a new conference Tuesday afternoon, Levy confirmed that the person is a man who returned from Mexico a week ago and presented himself an unspecified institution with "mild illness". He was assessed by infectious disease specialists, found to be stable, and then treated and released.
Levy said that health officials have followed up with those the man has been in contact with, and all appear healthy and have shown no signs of trouble. Levy added that the lone Ottawa case of swine flu so far follows the pattern of the vast majority of cases in Mexico, which is they are "clinically mild".
As of Tuesday morning, there were 17 new confirmed cases of the human swine flu in Ontario, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 31. The Ottawa case would bring Ontario's total to 32. Of the confirmed cases so far, the majority have been in the Greater Toronto Area. The World Health Organization reported 140 confirmed cases of the virus in Canada, with 21 countries reporting a total of 1,124 cases of the swine flu.
The news from Ottawa comes one day after Canada recorded its first serious case of the H1N1 flu, a young girl in Alberta who was in intensive care in an Edmonton hospital.
The child has no known connection to Mexico, and federal health officials said Monday they did not know whether the girl had any underlying medical conditions that would increase her risk of flu-related complications.
"We are starting to see some community-based spread," said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
Up until now, all confirmed cases in Canada have been relatively mild, and all have made a full recovery.
"The news of this first, more severe case, although disconcerting, is not surprising, and it does not change the course of action that we are taking," Butler-Jones said.
He said more cases of swine flu, with varying levels of severity, will be uncovered, and the rogue virus is following the pattern of normal, seasonal influenza.
"This case underscores a couple of things about influenza. It has few boundaries. It doesn't respect borders. It often doesn't respect age. Nature is very unpredictable, as is the influenza virus," Butler-Jones said. "Even with regular seasonal flu we see people get very ill. We on occasion also see young, otherwise healthy people get very ill, or die. It is a very, very serious disease. It takes its toll on people young and old. So we need to stay vigilant."
Meanwhile, scientists are getting a clearer picture of how the new strain is behaving compared to normal seasonal flu.
Where garden-variety influenza normally has an incubation period of up to five days, human swine flu appears to have an incubation period of up to eight days. As well, diarrhea affects up to half of infected patients, far more than usual.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is asking staff who may have travelled on official government business in the past 30 days to countries with human swine flu or had contact with animals "that they declare that upon return" to Canada, Dr. Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer said.
Butler-Jones said work on developing a vaccine continues, as well as genetic typing to get a clearer picture of the virus.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
