Deadly Flu - an advisory was issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada to health services across Canada

A severe respiratory illness believed to have killed 20 people in Mexico may affect Canadians who recently returned from the country, B.C. health officials warned Thursday. So far, there have been no confirmed links in Canada to what was described today as “clusters of severe respiratory illnesses in some areas in Mexico.” During a press conference in Vancouver, Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the BC Centre for Disease Control said there have been reports of severe flu-like illness in B.C. but so far none have been linked to Mexico. “We’re doing our best to keep people informed while our investigation is ongoing,” added Skowronski, an epidemiologist specializing in influenza and respiratory illness. She said Canadians who have recently returned from Mexico should be on alert for severe flu-like symptoms that could be connected to the illness. The illness acts quickly and has led to death in Mexico within five days, she said, adding among those who died were healthy young people between the ages of 20 to 44. “They deteriorate quite quickly,” Skowronski said. The flu-like symptoms include fever, cough, general aches and pains and shortness of breath, which quickly progresses to trouble breathing and severe respiratory illness, she said. Skowronski said an advisory was issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada to health services across Canada, but so far no travel advisory has been issued for Canadians headed to Mexico.

“The vast majority are returning from Mexico relaxed,” she said of Canadian tourists. But she advised travellers to take the usual precautions, such as getting a flu vaccination before heading south and washing hands thoroughly while in Mexico. The affected areas of Mexico were Mexico City, San Luis Potosí, Oaxaca and Baja, Skowronski said. Dr. Arlene King, director general of the Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said one of the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003 was the need for effective communications between various agencies and health care providers. Williams also stressed that a stringent record of any illnesses that might match the profile of the respiratory condition should be relayed to the proper authorities. "We'd rather know more than less . . . we want to know all the details," he said. "That's why we're engaging our wider medical community at this time to active surveillance rather than passive surveillance. "For (Mexico), it's early, and we're pleased they moved so quickly to inform their partners of what's going on. . . . That's to be applauded and that probably wouldn't have happened five or seven years ago." According to the federal government, more than 1.2 million Canadians visit Mexico each year. )