VIRUS: After experiencing flu-like symptoms, the patient who had contracted swine flu quickly recovered
As the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, bad news has just appeared on the frontline of the fight against the spread of viruses. A case of swine flu was first detected in Canada in a human who contracted a rare subtype of the H1N2 virus, Canadian health officials said on Wednesday.
A variant that is still rare
The virus was detected in mid-October in a patient in the western province of Alberta who was experiencing flu-like symptoms. Good news all the same: he has since recovered quickly, said local authorities. “The variant of this influenza virus type A [H1N2] is rare, with only 27 cases recorded in the world since 2005, and none in Canada before this one”, they indicated.
3/3 H1N2v est une variante de l’influenza A, sans lien à la COVID-19. Il ne s’agit pas d’une maladie d’origine alimentaire. Je suis en contact avec ma collègue @CMOH_Alberta et nous continuerons de vous tenir informés à ce sujet. Plus de détails : https://t.co/JntUT7Qzae
— Dre Theresa Tam (@ACSP_Canada) November 4, 2020
“This is a rare type of flu in humans, contracted following exposure to infected pigs,” said Theresa Tam, head of Public Health Canada. “It is not known to spread easily from human to human,” she said. “We take this seriously,” said the Alberta authorities. But “there is no reason to believe for the moment that the virus has spread”, they added, citing a possible “isolated case”.
A public health investigation is underway to establish the origin of the virus and ensure that there has not been any spread. Important note: there is no risk of contracting the disease from eating pork, according to the authorities.
