3 Nunavut children with swine flu recovering in hospital
Three Nunavut children who were diagnosed with swine flu last week are recovering at a Yellowknife hospital.
Dr. Isaac Sobol, the territory's chief medical officer of health, said the H1N1 influenza virus, which causes swine flu, caused lower respiratory tract infections in the children, similar to the effects of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The three cases were confirmed on Saturday, one day after Nunavut reported its first case of swine flu.
Officials are not identifying the patients, citing privacy concerns. Sobol said the cases weren't connected, and none came from a single community.
Sobol said none of the cases was severe, and treatment efforts have been conservative to date.
"They haven't required any extraordinary treatment; they haven't been in the intensive care unit," he said Monday.
"So with just what I would call supportive treatment they have been recovering."
Over the next two weeks, hospital and health centre staff across Nunavut will test everyone who shows up with a flu-like illness.
Sobol said that increased surveillance should give a clearer picture of the distribution of the H1N1 virus in the territory.
Officials watch for flu at track meet
Around the same time Nunavut reported the three new swine flu cases, the Northwest Territories confirmed its first case of swine flu in a child from Yellowknife. The child has since recovered.
Public health officials are now asking young athletes heading to this week's N.W.T. track and field meet in Hay River to stay home if they are showing flu symptoms.
About 1,300 young people from 20 communities across the territory will be arriving Tuesday night for the track championship, and officials say they want to protect participants as much as they can from the H1N1 virus.
"There was a lot of planning that went on with the public health nurses there and the environmental health officer," said Dr. Kami Kandola, the N.W.T.'s acting chief medical officer.
"They sent a two-page letter home to the kids' parents talking about preventing the flu. Also, if any of the children have influenza-like illnesses, they were asked to not come to track and meet and to stay home. They'll be handing out hand sanitizers, [and] around the food facilities they'll have hand wipes that people can use."
Kandola added that public health nurses will be making themselves available to track meet participants and assess anyone who comes down with any flu-like symptoms.
Anyone who shows flu-like symptoms is being asked to stay home. In the Northwest Territories, people should first call the N.W.T. Tele Care Health Line before going to see a doctor or health centre.