Not surprisingly, swine influenza has been confirmed in Canada: 4 cases in Nova Scotia and 2 cases in British Columbia. More cases are certain to follow. As in the cases reported from the US so far, all Canadian cases have been mild.

The 4 cases from Nova Scotia were from the same high school. One of the affected students had been on a school trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico recently. Presumably, he or she picked up swine flu in Mexico and other students were infected by that student or others that went on the field trip. This is similar to a cluster of cases from a high school in New York. Eight students from that school were diagnosed with swine flu while more than 100 students had flu-like disease (it’s unclear how many of these were tested).  The two cases from BC were both in people who recently returned from Mexico themselves.

I imagine that we’re going to see almost hourly reports over the next few days describing swine flu cases in people in various regions. Lets hope the pattern of mild disease that has characterized the Canadian and US cases persists.