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First reports
The Mexican government starts tracking an increase in cases of a flu-like respiratory illness in the state of Veracruz. -
Crossing the border
A little girl is taken to a clinic in California for treatment of flu-like symptoms. The clinic happened to be involved in a flu study, so instead of just treating her and sending her home, they send a sample off for testing. -
First tests
A little boy in San Diego County is taken to a clinic complaining of a fever, vomiting and a cough. The doctor was working on a special disease surveillance program. He sent the boy's sample off for testing. -
First alerts
A Kirkland, Wash., company — Veratect — notices a sudden uptick in respiratory disease cases in Mexico's Veracruz area and changes in patterns of behaviour in the local populace. The company alerts the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Local officials declare a health alert in the town of La Gloria. More than 1,000 people in the town of 3,000 had sought medical treatment for a flu-like illness in the previous week. (Alexandre Meneghin/Associated Press) -
Test results
The California boy's sample arrives at the Centers for Disease Control. Tests show he had swine flu. The boy had not been in contact with pigs. -
Canada gets involved
The Mexican government asks Canada's National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg for help in testing samples from sick people. The California girl's sample arrives at the Centers for Disease Control and is tested. It shows swine flu. The CDC is now dealing with two unrelated cases of a new flu strain never before seen in people.
(Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press) -
California cases confirmed
The Centers for Disease Control publicly reports two cases of swine flu in California. -
Samples arrive
The Public Health Agency of Canada receives the Mexican samples. -
Results positive
Preliminary tests show signs of swine flu in the Mexican samples. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States holds its first media briefing on swine flu. -
Swine outbreak flu confirmed
More results confirm that Mexican outbreak is swine flu. Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and chief medical officer Dr. David Butler-Jones hold their first news conference.
Officials close schools, museums and libraries in Mexico City in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control says the two California cases are linked to the flu outbreak in Mexico — neither child had been to the affected area. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press) -
Health emergency declared
A committee convened by the World Health Organization to assess the flu outbreak declares a public health emergency of international concern. -
Confirmed cases spreading
Nova Scotia health officials confirm four cases of swine flu. B.C. officials confirm two cases. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control confirms 20 cases. As well, health officials in the U.K., Spain, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil say they are investigating suspected cases of swine flu. None of the cases outside Mexico is reported as serious. In Mexico, soccer games are played before empty stadiums. (Gregory Bull/Associated Press) -
Pandemic alert level increased
The World Health Organization raises its pandemic alert level to four. It's the first time the organization has upped its pandemic meter. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends Canadians postpone non-essential travel to Mexico. The federal government says it will monitor but not bar Mexican migrant farm workers coming to Canada to work on local farms. Canada's chief medical officer of health says there will be deaths from swine flu. -
Avoiding Mexico
Canada confirms 13 swine flu cases. Ontario health officials say anyone who shows up at a hospital with respiratory symptoms will be required to wear a mask. Several tour companies suspend travel to Mexico. Ecuador bans the import of pigs and pork from Mexico and the U.S. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declares a state of emergency, a move that gives his administration easier access to more money. The WHO confirms 79 global cases. (Israel Leal/Associated Press) -
Pandemic alert level rises to 5
The WHO raises the pandemic alert level to Phase 5. It means that a pandemic is imminent and that countries should make sure they are ready to cope with it.
In Canada, the number of confirmed cases rises to 19. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control confirms the first swine flu death outside Mexico – a 23-month-old boy. The CDC points out that the death is one of 53 seasonal flu-related deaths of children in the United States this year. (LM Otero/Associated Press) -
What's in a name?
The WHO distributes antiviral drugs to several countries, including Mexico, as confirmed human cases of swine flu rise to 236 worldwide. The number of confirmed cases in Canada rises to 34. The number of countries reporting cases rises to 12 as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Peru report their first cases. The WHO says it will stop referring to the illness as "swine flu," instead using "H1N1 influenza A," to make it clear there's no danger posed by pigs. (Slamet Riyadi/Associated Press) -
Working toward a vaccine
The WHO says efforts are being stepped up to develop a vaccine against the current swine flu virus. Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, tells reporters that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to produce a "seed stock" to form the basis for a swine flu vaccine. That step is expected to be completed within four weeks and samples would be sent to vaccine manufacturers immediately. The number of confirmed cases in Canada rises to 51 -
Students quarantined
China quarantines 70 Mexicans and 25 Canadian students amid concerns of swine flu. It also bans imports of pork from Alberta, after the virus is found on a central Alberta pig farm. -
Worldwide cases hit 1,000
The number of cases worldwide surpasses 1,000 in 20 countries. In Edmonton, a young girl comes down with serious enough symptoms that she is treated in hospital. Health officials say she is responding well. World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan tells the UN General Assembly there is "no indication" that the outbreak is similar to a pandemic in 1918 that killed tens of millions of people around the world. -
Focus on seasonal or swine flu vaccine production?
The World Health Organization says it will consider whether vaccine manufacturers should shift from seasonal to pandemic flu production. At least 20 companies make flu vaccines. Researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg say the swine flu in Mexico and Canada is the same strain. China lifts a quarantine order on 25 students and a professor from the University of Montreal. The group was in China to learn Chinese. -
WHO says pork is safe
The World Health Organization repeats a previous declaration that pork is safe to eat. The health body stresses that existing sanitary and animal health checks are sufficient to safeguard the food supply against the swine flu virus. As many as 20 countries had restricted pork imports from countries that had recorded swine flu cases. -
Flu a factor in death of Alberta woman
Alberta health officials say swine flu played a role in the death of a young woman on April 28. They note that she had chronic pre-existing medical conditions. The cause of death was initially linked to her pre-existing medical conditions. On May 5, health officials confirmed that another member of the woman's family had contracted a mild form of swine flu. After that confirmation, officials ordered further testing on the dead woman. Tests showed she also had a mild infection of the virus. -
China confirms its first case
China reports its first confirmed case of swine flu — a student who had returned from the United States. Health officials searched for about 150 people who shared the same flight with the student, who is reported to be suffering from mild flu symptoms. The World Health Organization says there are no signs of community transmission of the virus outside of North America. Officials close a Windsor, N.S., clinic that had been set up to test for swine flu following an outbreak at a local school. -
Mexico travel advisory lifted
Canada lifts a travel advisory for Mexico, as cases of swine flu wane. Canada's chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Butler-Jones, says it appears "we're over the worst of it in Canada for this season." -
Vaccine will take longer than expected
The World Health Organization says it will take longer than expected to produce a vaccine for the swine flu virus. Flu experts are having a tougher time than expected growing the virus in the lab, making it difficult for scientists to retrieve a seed stock necessary to make the vaccine. The organization says drug manufacturers won't be able to start making a vaccine until mid-July at the earliest. -
Mexico lowers alert
Mexico City lowers its swine flu alert level from yellow to green after no new infections are reported for a week. -
Flu virus circulating for more than a decade
Research published in the journal Science suggests that genes in the new H1N1 strain have been circulating undetected in the animals for at least 10 years. Rebecca Garten of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and her colleagues said pig populations need to be closely monitored for emerging influenza. -
Swine flu spreads north
More swine flu cases are reported in the Canadian North, with people in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories diagnosed with the disease. All cases are reported to be relatively mild. -
Edging closer to pandemic
Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director general of the World Health Organization, says the spread of swine flu in Australia, Europe and Asia has nudged WHO closer to declaring a pandemic. A 60-year-old Toronto man dies after contracting swine flu. He is the third Canadian believed to have had swine flu at the time of his death, though medical officials are unsure of how large a role the H1N1 virus played. -
Winnipeg paramedics exposed to virus
Two Winnipeg paramedics who transported northern Manitoba patients suspected of having swine flu might have contracted the disease from them. The Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU) said two emergency medical technicians who picked up the patients at the airport in Winnipeg weren't given any advance warning about the possibly infectious disease. -
Spike in number of Canadian cases
The number of reported cases of swine flu in Ontario jumps 25 per cent in the first few days of June, with most of the new cases in the Greater Toronto Area. Two residents of the remote Manitoba community of St. Theresa Point First Nation are diagnosed with swine flu. -
Officially a pandemic
The World Health Organization declares that swine flu has reached pandemic levels. It is the first time in 41 years that the body has called a global flu epidemic. "The virus is now unstoppable. However, we do not expect to see a sudden and dramatic jump in the number of severe and fatal infections," WHO's director-general, Margaret Chan, said. The flu virus is spreading from person to person in most regions of the world. (Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press) -
Swine flu virus 'stable'
The head of the World Health Organization says the swine flu virus shows no signs of mixing with other influenza viruses. "The virus is still very stable," Dr. Margaret Chan said. Health officials are looking for signs that the virus may combine with the deadlier H5N1 avian flu virus. -
Give swine flu vaccine to health workers first: WHO
The World Health Organization recommends that health-care workers in every country should be immunized against the swine flu pandemic strain. WHO said health-care workers are a priority since their exposure to the H1N1 vaccine may be greater and because they will also need to continue caring for people sickened by other diseases during the pandemic. Governments will make their own decisions on immunizing other groups that are at greater risk of hospitalization. -
Swine flu hits 3 Ontario summer camps
Dozens of children at three summer camps in Ontario's Muskoka region have been sent home after an outbreak of swine flu, health officials said Wednesday. Dr. Charles Gardner said most of the cases are mild and that the children were sent home to make it easier for the camps to manage the remaining children. -
Olympics organizers working on access to swine flu vaccine
Vancouver's Olympic organizers say they won't be at the front of the line if a vaccine against swine flu becomes available before the 2010 Games. However, Dr. Jack Taunton, chief medical officer for the Games, said organizers are in talks with the Public Health Agency of Canada about what kind of access to the vaccine Olympic staff, volunteers and athletes will have. -
Canada, WHO stop counting swine flu cases
The World Health Organization says there are so many new cases of swine flu around the world that maintaining an accurate count has become impossible because of the speed at which the virus is spreading. The agency says countries should stop sending counts of disease cases, and it will stop publishing national swine flu tables. WHO officials said governments do not need to know how many cases are in their countries in order to implement proper treatment protocols. -
Canadian swine flu vaccine set for October
Federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq says Canada will have enough H1N1 vaccine in place by late October to deal with any swine flu outbreak. She tells reporters drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Inc., with whom Ottawa has a contract to develop a swine flu treatment, should be able to produce enough of the drug by then to treat a major spread of the infection. -
Quebec man had drug-resistant swine flu
A 60-year-old Quebec man is one of a handful of people around the world to have a strain of swine flu that is resistant to drugs. Health officials said the man likely contracted the virus from his son and did not require hospital treatment. Officials said the new strains of drug-resistant swine flu raise a red flag but should not scare anyone. The man recovered and was never taken to hospital. -
Infected swine-flu inspector flew twice
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reveals that one of its inspectors flew on two commercial flights one day after contracting swine flu at a quarantined Alberta pig farm. The CFIA said the samples "posed no risk" to those on board despite the agency's admission that the vials "were not decontaminated at the farm as per normal procedures." Investigating the CFIA's swine flu fumble -
Swine flu pandemic in early days: WHO
The global swine flu epidemic is still in its early stages, even though reports of over 100,000 infections in England alone last week are plausible, the World Health Organization's flu chief said Friday. WHO has estimated that as many as two billion people could become infected over the next two years. -
Canada tallies swine flu vaccine needs
Canadian health officials are deciding on how much swine flu vaccine will be needed in the country this fall. Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said the order must be placed by the end of the month, and that officials are working on a firm number of how many people will want or need the vaccine. Officials expect the vaccine to first become available in mid-November. -
Outbreak cuts short military training camp
A military cadet training camp at New Brunswick's CFB Gagetown confirms 15 new cases of swine flu with 53 others in isolation. The camp cuts short part of its summer program. Lt.-Col. Kenneth Fells said 250 cadets would graduate two days early from Camp Argonaut. He said the training of these cadets was accelerated so they could be sent home early. -
Swine flu risks make pregnant women a priority: CDC
A U.S. government panel has recommended that pregnant women, health-care workers, and children six months and older be among those placed first in line for swine flu vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control is also recommending pregnant women be given antiviral drugs as soon as flu symptoms appear, even if the diagnosis is not confirmed. Canadian health officials have yet to draw up a priority list for vaccinations. (Javier Galeano/Associated Press) -
Mexican visitors offered free medical insurance
The government of Mexico City launches a program to provide free medical insurance for visitors to the capital. Anyone checking into a hotel in the city will receive an insurance card, good for coverage of any illness, accident or hospitalization, including treatment for swine flu. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the program was proposed in April after a swine-flu outbreak battered the capital's tourism industry, which sees about seven million tourists visit each year. -
Universities brace for fall swine flu wave
Universities and colleges across Canada are preparing for potential outbreaks of swine flu on campuses this fall. Students often live in dormitories, attend large classes and socialize in ways that help spread germs. Many schools are reminding students to stay in bed, and away from the lecture halls, if they fall ill, and are training dorm staff to recognize flu symptoms in students. Some university health centres have also stockpiled masks and gloves, and set up telephone lines for students to -
Swine flu deaths rise above 1,000: WHO
The World Health Organization reports that the number of deaths from swine flu is at least 1, 154, with most occurring in North and South America. The agency also reports that there is no evidence the H1N1 virus is mutating into a more dangerous form, as only six patients, so far, have been found to have a strain that is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. In another development, researchers in Hong Kong report that frequent hand washing and wearing face masks at home could help reduce tran -
Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses
Ottawa announces it will order 50.4 million doses of swine flu vaccine, and will pick up 60 per cent of the cost. The vaccine order is large enough to give one dose to every Canadian, or two doses to 75 per cent of the population, and will cost more than $400 million, reports Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones. Polling done for the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests about 60 per cent of Canadians may want pandemic flu shots -
Swine flu school closings discouraged
The U.S. Center for Disease Control releases guidelines recommending schools remain open in the fall, despite fears of swine flu, unless many students are sick and the virus starts to spread faster. The CDC suggests that officials should try to slow the spread of the H1N1 virus by keeping students further apart such as by moving desks, keeping classes from mixing and encouraging children to wash their hands several times a day with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. -
Swine flu spreads in Asia
The World Health Organization reports swine flu infections are increasing in India, Thailand and Vietnam, where the monsoon season coincides with the regular flu season. Both seasonal and H1N1 strains of the flu are being detect in the region, the agency says. The WHO also announces that the spread of the virus appears to have peaked in the Southern Hemisphere, where Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand report transmission rates have slowed. Meanwhile, South Africa's health minister says -
Inuit fear Canadian flu plan won't work
The national Inuit committee on health calls on Canadian health officials to develop a specific strategy for dealing with an H1N1 pandemic in northern Inuit communities. The committee says current plans to deal with a swine flu outbreak in Canada don't meet the needs of Inuit or people living in isolated communities who don't have the same access to health care as people in urban areas -
Pandemic plan help offered to businesses
Ottawa awards a $926,000 contract to the non-profit International Centre for Infectious Disease in Winnipeg, to help small and medium-sized businesses respond to the swine flu pandemic. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says the agency will help over300,000 small- and medium-sized businesses adapt tools and strategies as they prepare for the next wave of the pandemic. -
New mom with swine flu dies in Montreal
A 23-year-old Montreal woman who contracted swine flu in June, and had to have her baby by caesarean section, has died without ever seeing her new son. Fatiha Idrissi went to the emergency ward at Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital with a high fever when she was 38 weeks pregnant, according to her husband, Mohamed Idrissi. -
Swine-flu vaccine now being tested on humans
The manufacturer of Canada's swine flu vaccine has started human testing, the company announced. GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it plans to test its vaccine in more than 9,000 people in Canada, the United States and Europe as part of 16 clinical trials. -
Journal of Canadian doctors calls for swine flu "czar"
Canada needs an independent czar to lead the country's response to the swine flu pandemic, according to an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. -
Swine flu 'czar' needed: CMA Journal
The Canadian Medical Association Journal calls for a swine flu "czar" to lead the country's response to the pandemic. In an editorial, the journal says all countries need national leadership, including a "visible, independent health-care czar with executive powers across all jurisdictions and who is ultimately accountable to the highest office in the country," -
Swine flu fears at kids' hospital spur communal toy ban
The largest children's hospital in the Atlantic region will remove all magazines, books and toys from patient waiting areas to reduce the potential spread of swine flu, according to the IWK Health Centre. -
Number of swine flu cases to explode: WHO
The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must step up preparations for a swift response, says the World Health Organization. -
Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ
The Canadian Medical Association Journal criticizes Canada's approach to vaccinating people against swine flu as too slow to protect the most vulnerable. Health Canada has chosen to include an adjuvant — a substance used to stretch a vaccine's active ingredient and boost immune response to the serum — in the Canadian version of the vaccine. That approach means a slower review process, but allows more people to be immunized. -
Swine flu vaccine coming to Canada in October
Canada's chief medical officer of health - Dr. David Butler-Jones - says swine flu vaccine will start becoming available in a month "In early October, we'll start having vaccine, we'll actually have it in vials and safety tested by the company," Dr. David Butler-Jones said in an interview with CBC Newsworld. Federal public health officials are waiting for the results of clinical trials to be confident before moving forward to immunize people. -
Swine flu deaths top 2,800 worldwide
The World Health Organization reports that the number of deaths around the world has reached 2,837 - a jump of more than 625 in a week. "There is no sense that the virus has mutated or changed in any sense," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing in Geneva. "We are continuing to see increased number of deaths because we are seeing many, many more cases." -
H1N1 school closures need to be swift: WHO
It's only worth closing schools to slow the spread of the swine flu pandemic virus during the earliest stages of an outbreak, the World Health Organization said Friday. "[S]chool closure has its greatest benefits when schools are closed very early in an outbreak, ideally before one per cent of the population falls ill," the UN health agency said. "Under ideal conditions, school closure can reduce the demand for health care by an estimated 30 to 50 per cent at the peak of the pandemic." -
Swine flu vaccines get U.S. approval
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved new swine flu vaccines, which clears the way for Americans to start getting the shots as early as the beginning of October. Pregnant women and children will be among those at the front of the line when the first rationed supplies of the pandemic vaccine are distributed early next month. -
Ottawa sends body bags to Manitoba reserves
Aboriginal leaders in Manitoba expressed anger that some of the reserves hardest hit by swine flu in the spring received dozens of body bags from Health Canada. The bags came in a shipment of face masks and hand sanitizers. "It really makes me wonder if health officials know something we don't," Grand Chief David Harper said. "I make a plea to the people of Canada to work with us to ensure the lowest fatalities from this monster virus. Don't send us body bags ... send us medicine." -
Canada's releases guidelines on swine flu vaccine priority groups
Canada releases guidelines on who should be first in line for swine flu vaccines.
The groups include people with chronic medical conditions under the age of 65, pregnant women, children six months of age to under five years of age, people living in remote and isolated settings or communities, and health-care workers involved in pandemic response or who deliver essential health services. The first doses are expected to be ready in the third week of October. -
Fear over H1N1 flu rising in N.W.T. community
Fear about the possible spread of swine flu has started to spread in some of the most isolated communities in the Northwest Territories, prompting claims that calls for medical help have fallen on deaf ears. In the Dehcho First Nation community of Wrigley, which has about 175 residents, about two-thirds of people, including the band chief, have come down with flu-like symptoms. -
Outbreak hits Vancouver Island First Nation
More than 100 people in an aboriginal community north of Tofino, B.C., have reportedly fallen ill with swine flu in what's being described as the first pandemic outbreak in Canada's fall flu season, while one death linked the virus has been reported on a reserve near Victoria. The outbreak is centred on the remote community of Ahousat, the principal settlement on Flores Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is accessible only by water or air. -
Swine flu vaccines to fall short: WHO
The World Health Organization announces that the global production of vaccines to protect against swine flu will be "substantially less" than the previous maximum forecast of 94 million doses a week.That means the number of doses produced annually will fall short of the 4.9 billion doses that WHO previously hoped could be available, said spokesman Gregory Hartl. -
Flu shot campaign on track
Canada remains on track to start offering the swine flu vaccine early in November as planned, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said.
The H1N1 vaccine is currently being produced at GlaxoSmithKline's facility in Quebec, Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, told a news conference. Final approval for the vaccine is expected this month. -
Canada may move up H1N1 vaccine rollout
Federal health officials are considering shipping swine flu vaccine to the provinces earlier than scheduled, CBC News has learned.
The plan is to issue an interim order on Oct. 19 to begin shipping up to five million doses of the H1N1 vaccine.
The goal is to have the vaccine ready for distribution a week later on Oct. 26 — at least two weeks ahead of the previously scheduled rollout. -
Harper's hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion
Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have added to the confusion about the H1N1 vaccine by appearing to hedge on whether he would get immunized against the swine flu virus. "My plan, if it's generally recommended for people to get the vaccine, my plan is to get the vaccine," he said at a news conference near Edmonton. "But as yet ... we haven't actually made a final decision or set a date. We're ... waiting [for] final approval of the vaccine, but we expect that imminently." -
1st H1N1 vaccine doses shipped to provinces
Canada ships the first two million doses of swine flu vaccine to the provinces and territories. The vaccine has not yet been approved, but once it is, the doses will be ready to be dispensed. Vaccine clinics are expected to begin operating across the country by the first week of November. -
Swine flu hits Ontario turkey farm
The Ontario government says a turkey operation in the province has been hit by the H1N1 virus. The outbreak affected a breeder's flock of turkeys, which don't go into the food chain and therefore aren't a concern for human health, said Health Minister Deb Matthews. "There is no threat at all to human health on this," Matthews said. It's the second animal-species infection in the country. Swine flu hit an Alberta pig farm in April. -
Health Canada approves swine flu vaccine
Days after shipping out two million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to the provinces and territories, Health Canada approves the vaccine. Clinics are expected to be up and running within days. -
Canada enters 2nd wave of H1N1
Canada has officially entered the second wave of the H1N1 flu pandemic, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Friday. "We are starting to see an increase in the number of people who are getting sick from H1N1," Aglukkaq said. A drop in flu cases won't occur until enough people have been inoculated against the H1N1 influenza A virus — either through vaccination or by contracting the virus, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, chief medical officer of health. -
Swine flu immunization begins
H1N1 flu vaccine clinics open for people considered at a higher risk of complications from the disease. Eligible groups include individuals under the age of 65 who have chronic medical conditions, as well as pregnant women, children under the age of five and people living in First Nations or remote and isolated communities. Clinical trials suggest that people immunized will develop immunity within 10 days. -
H1N1 confirmed in Toronto teen's death; 3 deaths in B.C.
A 13-year-old Toronto boy, described as "healthy as can be," has died of the H1N1 virus. Evan Frustaglio, who played in a minor hockey league, died Monday night at St. Joseph's hospital. Evan went from having minor cold symptoms to dying within 48 hours, his father said. In B.C., health officials said three recent deaths were related to swine flu, bringing the provincial total to 12. All but one had underlying health issues. -
Postpone travel if sick: health officials
The Public Health Agency of Canada releases new infection-control guidelines related to travel on planes, trains, ferries and intercity buses. "To encourage people to stay home if they are sick, we are asking travel companies, airlines, bus lines, and others who operate public conveyance to allow Canadians to easily rebook their travel plans if they get ill," said Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. People are being encouraged not to travel if they feel sick - until they feel well. -
H1N1 vaccine queues try Canadians' patience
Long lineups formed at swine flu vaccine clinics across the country. In Calgary and Ottawa, people waited up to five hours to be inoculated. By midday, two Toronto clinics were closed after there were too many people in line to vaccinate. Meanwhile, federal health officials said fewer doses of the vaccine would be available for the provinces next week. However, there would be enough vaccine available for everyone who wants a shot by early December. -
H1N1 vaccine safe after millions of doses: WHO
The World Health Organization says millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine have been given so far and no unusual side-effects have been seen. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's top flu expert, told a news conference in Geneva on Thursday that 20 countries have started to administer the pandemic vaccine, which appears to be "very safe." He said the rates of local reactions like sore arms are similar and maybe even lower than seen with seasonal flu shots. -
H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs
Public health officials and journalists have overstated the importance of the swine flu, a former Ontario chief medical officer of health says. Dr. Richard Schabas, chief medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in eastern Ontario, said the H1N1 influenza outbreak needs to be put into proper perspective. About 200,000 people die in Canada every year from all causes combined, including about 4,000 from seasonal flu. -
Feds' H1N1 response too slow, Liberals say
The federal government's swine flu program hasn't done enough to help the provinces speed up distribution of the H1N1 vaccine, the Liberals charged Monday. Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett says the federal government needs to do more to speed up the H1N1 vaccination campaign. Ottawa pays for the vaccine, but the provinces and territories pay to operate the clinics. The Liberals said the government should be spending more money to help the provinces pay for delivering the vaccine. -
4.8 million doses of H1N1 vaccine on way
Swine flu vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline would deliver 4.8 million doses of vaccine to the provinces in the next two days. The previous largest shipment from the company had been two million doses. The shipment will allow the provinces and territories to open up vaccination clinics to the general public, not just priority groups. The move comes after shortages of vaccine across Canada caused many clinics to shut down. -
Swine flu 'levelling off' in Canada
The number of new swine flu cases in many communities across Canada appears to be levelling off according to federal health officials. "In most communities, the number of positive tests has fallen and there have been fewer reports of flu outbreaks in schools," Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, said. "This is in line with what some Northern Hemisphere countries are seeing." -
B.C. records 8 more swine flu deaths
Eight more people die in B.C. in the previous seven days after getting the H1N1 flu, bringing the provincial death toll to 42 since April, according to the weekly update issued by provincial health officials . Health officials say of those deaths, 37 patients had underlying medical conditions, four had no other health problems and one case is still under investigation.
