Alberta confirms 2 cases of swine flu

Two human cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Alberta, the province's chief medical officer of health said Tuesday.

"One was in the northern part of the province. The other was in the Calgary region, so they were non-connected but both of them had history of recent travel to Mexico," Dr. André Corriveau said.

The announcement brought the total number of confirmed cases in Canada to eight. Later Tuesday, new cases in Ontario and B.C. were confirmed, bringing the total to 13.

Both individuals in Alberta are male and have a mild form of the illness. Neither was hospitalized.

The person from northern Alberta has fully recovered. The person from Calgary is on the road to recovery.

Both were told to try to isolate themselves, Corriveau said.

"They were advised to avoid spreading the infection but at this point, they've recovered. So as far as I know, there's no reason to keep them from enjoying normal life," he said.

'We don't want to create panic'

Corriveau did not reveal what town or city the male from northern Alberta was from.

"We're not going to provide the specific town because we don't want to create panic and we also want to make sure confidentiality of the family is respected," he said.

The confirmation of the Alberta cases was made by the provincial lab, not the national lab in Winnipeg, Corriveau said.

"They called me late last night. This is a result that was done in Alberta. So we now have the capacity," he said.

Swine flu has an incubation period of anywhere from seven to 10 days, so it's likely new Alberta cases will be diagnosed, Corriveau said.

On Sunday, Alberta issued a public health alert and said it was joining other Canadian provinces in monitoring cases of the illness.

In Mexico, at least 152 people are suspected to have died from a new strain of the swine flu virus. All the confirmed Canadian cases have been mild.