Swine Flu Timeline: A Rapid Spread
Posted April 29, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After a week of breathless reports about the swine flu’s rapid spread, it may seem like you’ve been reading about the disease for months. But this story really only surfaced last Thursday, when reports began to filter out that people in Mexico were getting sick – and so were returning tourists.
It’s testimony to the jet age we live in and the scope of world travel that in less than a week, there are now an escalating number of countries on the growing swine flu list. Here’s a brief timeline of how it all began.
Sometime before April 2nd: When 5-year-old Edgar Hernandez of the small village of La Gloria in the state of Veracruz, Mexico became sick, it seemed like a normal case of influenza. But officials now believe his initial infection was the first in the swine flu outbreak that’s sweeping the world. He’s been called patient zero and has since recovered.
April 6: Things go from bad to worse in La Gloria as more than 3,000 people are now sick with the same mystery ailment. Some 400 people seek medical treatment, and a good 60 per cent of the town’s small population of 3,000 are said to be ill. Local officials declare a health alert. But so far, it’s not on anyone else’s radar.
April 17: Tests show two southern California children who became sick in late March have the swine flu. They’re believed to be the first known cases from this strain outside of Mexico.
April 22: Three more cases surface in The Golden State and two in Texas.
April 23: First reports circulate that some Canadians are coming back from Mexico with a mysterious respiratory ailment. The Public Health Agency of Canada begins an investigation as memories of SARS resurface.
April 24: The first real alarm. The Mexican Minister of Health confirms there have been at least 20 deaths from the mystery illness with nearly a thousand other people sick across the country. In Mexico City, schools, theatres and other public gathering places are shut down to try to contain the spread. The city of millions becomes a virtual ghost town, as people begin wearing masks and staying off the streets to try and avoid infection.
April 24: Authorities finally put a name to the illness. Samples sent to Winnipeg’s Microbiology Lab and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta show it’s a new strain of the swine flu, believed to have originated in pigs and mutated to infect humans. At least eight cases are now cited in the U.S., as fears of a possible pandemic begin.
A man from Cornwall, Ont. is being probed for the disease but there are no known cases yet in Canada. That will soon change.
April 26: The first cases hit Canada. There are six overall, with patients in B.C. and Nova Scotia. All had been to Mexico. There are now 20 confirmed patients in the U.S., but unlike Mexico, all are mild and those affected recover. Authorities are unable to explain why the strain has been a killer south of the U.S. border but relatively benign elsewhere. But government officials in Canada warn the illness could still mutate and there could be deaths from it outside of Mexico.
The bug surfaces in more countries, including New Zealand, The U.K., Spain and Israel.
April 27: The World Health Organization, which has been monitoring the rapid spread, raises its pandemic level to Phase 4, indicating human-to-human transmission.
April 28: After days of tests and monitoring, the first cases of swine flu are confirmed in Ontario. All are from the GTA and all had recently returned from Mexico. Three women from Durham and a man from York Region are recovering and didn’t have to be sent to hospital. But all are being voluntarily isolated for seven days to ensure they don’t infect anyone else.
Some 20 others are being tested and the province’s Medical Officer of Health warns he expects more to turn up in the coming days.
April 28: Countries across the globe begin to react. Cuba becomes the first to halt all travel to Mexico. Argentina soon follows with an all out ban on flights to the country.
Back home, Air Canada, WestJet and Transat announce most flights to resort areas are on hold, while tour company operators, including Sunwing and Sunquest, temporarily cancel trips to the country.
April 29: The first death from swine flu outside the U.S. is a 23-month-old Mexican boy brought to Texas for treatment.
April 29: Officials in Ontario confirm three more cases of swine flu – one in Durham Region, one in York and, for the first time, one in Peel. The latest announcement brings the province’s total to seven and Canada’s to 19.
April 29: The crisis grows again, after the World Health Organization raises its warning level to phase 5, one below a full blown pandemic.
Photo credit: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images