EDMONTON — Alberta’s chief medical officer has confirmed two mild cases of swine flu — one in Calgary and the other in the northern part of the province.
Dr. Andre Corriveau says both individuals are male and contracted the influenza virus during recent travel to Mexico.
Neither man was hospitalized. One no longer has symptoms, while the other has made almost a full recovery.
Corriveau says the Alberta cases are similar to ones in Nova Scotia, British Columbia and across the United States in that they are not severe.
“These cases show that our monitoring and surveillance system is working as it should,” Corriveau said in a news release.
“It was only a matter of time until cases of human swine influenza would show up in Alberta.”
Canada has joined the list of countries advising against travel to Mexico because of the swine flu outbreak.
The advisory from the Public Health Agency of Canada says any non-essential travel to Mexico should be postponed until further notice.
On Monday, the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 4 from Phase 3 to signal the increasing severity of the situation.
But the UN agency said it still does not characterize a swine flu pandemic as inevitable.
Mexico has linked 152 deaths to swine flu.
The U.S. has diagnosed 64 cases, Canada six, Spain one and Scotland two. New Zealand health officials announced Tuesday that 11 cases have been confirmed there.
No country outside of Mexico has seen any severe cases caused by the virus.