VANCOUVER — With another B.C. resident confirmed to have swine flu Tuesday, public health officials said it’s reassuring there are only three cases in the province so far, a sign the virus is neither highly virulent nor contagious.
“It remains true that across Canada, there have been 13 cases, no hospitalizations and no deaths so far,” said Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC).
“However, we’re monitoring for that possibility. We don’t want to be complacent. I expect there to be more cases. I expect there may be hospitalizations and deaths. That’s why we need to think ahead and prepare for that possibility.”
B.C.’s third confirmed case is Michelle Bossi, 30, of Victoria, who fell ill at a Cancun resort last Thursday and went to Royal Jubilee Hospital for testing on her return home Saturday.
“I’m fine,” Bossi said Tuesday afternoon after learning that her test results had been confirmed by BCCDC earlier in the day.
However, Bossi is concerned she may have inadvertently spread the virus after health professionals told her Saturday she was not contagious.
‘I’m annoyed I could have affected other people,” she said.
But the Vancouver Island Health Authority said all protocols were followed and, even though the swine flu situation was still evolving when Bossi first went to the hospital, there were no undue infection risks as she waited in Royal Jubilee Hospital emergency department or later visited a walk-in clinic.
“Our emergency department responded as would be expected. The management was appropriate,” said chief medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick.
Dr. Pamela Kibsey, VIHA medical director for microbiology and infection control, said those with the virus are most infectious the first two days, although they continue to be infectious for seven days, and Bossi was on her fourth day of illness before returning to Canada. That is also why initial tests, most effective in the first 48 hours of the illness, did not raise alarms, she said.
Skowronski refused to say how many other cases are now under investigation, a departure from a day earlier, when a BCCDC official said there were about six possible cases. The results of testing in those cases were not available Tuesday afternoon.
Skowronski said the number of possible cases wouldn’t be given because she doesn’t want the public to get “fixated” on numbers. “Remember we have put our health care system on high alert to be detecting influenza-like illness and our lab is responding to increased requests for lab tests. We have a number of reports we’re following up,” she said, noting that results are usually back within 48 hours, once nasal swabs and blood are collected.
The Vancouver Sun has disclosed that two of the three confirmed cases acquired swine flu while on holiday in Cancun, but Skowronski said public health officials are sticking to their plan not to disclose where affected patients have been because “we don’t want to mislead people into thinking there may be safe zones you can go in Mexico.
“As you know, Canada has now issued a travel health warning restricting non-essential travel to Mexico generally. We would prefer people to consider Mexico in its entirety as a possible risk area,” she added.
The BCCDC’s Dr. David Patrick said it is important to put into perspective the fact that each year, 400,000 to 800,000 B.C. residents get influenza, and as many as 1,400 die from it. Influenza outbreaks typically occur during winter months, so it is expected that even the swine influenza A (H1N1) should eventually fizzle out.
Until that happens, however, experts are reiterating the need for people with symptoms like fever and coughs to isolate themselves so as not to spread their germs.
Skowronski said she hopes the current public health threat helps change the culture so that if healthy bystanders see someone sick in schools or workplaces, they will say to the ill person: “‘You don’t look so good, maybe you should go home.’”
The swine influenza in humans is spread the same way as typical influenza — through coughing, sneezing and germs on the hands. Symptoms of swine flu are also the same as common strains of influenza — fever, lethargy, cough, lack of appetite, sore throat, runny nose, vomiting and diarrhea.
pfayerman@vancouversun.com
With file from Canwest News Service
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