World health agency schedules emergency meeting after 20 deaths
Last Updated: Friday, April 24, 2009
People wearing surgical masks enter the general hospital in Mexico City on Friday. Mexican health authorities closed schools across the metropolis of about 20 million after more than 1,000 people were sickened by what is thought to be a new strain of swine flu. People wearing surgical masks enter the general hospital in Mexico City on Friday. Mexican health authorities closed schools across the metropolis of about 20 million after more than 1,000 people were sickened by what is thought to be a new strain of swine flu. (Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press)The national laboratory in Winnipeg has confirmed human swine influenza virus in clinical specimens sent from Mexico for testing, Canada's health minister said Friday.
"Today we have received … results which confirm that the virus is human swine influenza,'' Leona Aglukkaq told a press conference in Ottawa.
A handful of cases of flu-like illness in Canadian residents who recently returned from Mexico are being monitored, however, "there have been no confirmed cases of human swine influenza yet," said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
Mexico sent 51 specimens for testing to Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory on Wednesday. Sixteen positives of swine flu were found among the samples.
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said Friday that 20 people were killed in the outbreak and 1,004 were infected throughout the country, prompting the World Health Organization to convene an emergency meeting Saturday.
Officials closed schools, museums and libraries in Mexico City on Friday to limit spread of the virus.
Dr. Rich Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said early analysis of Mexican samples of the virus showed it is very similar to those responsible for eight American cases, one confirmed Friday. All the U.S. victims have recovered.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/04/24/health-flu-mexico090424.html# 
