Medical Officer of Health Doctor Hazel Lynn says authorities did the right thing over the past few weeks by ramping up epidemiology work on the virus and it does not appear it will be a serious threat.
She says authorities and vaccine developers want to see now if the virus should be included in the regular flu vaccine for the next season.
Lynn says the H1N1 strain appearing here is mild and isn’t spreading quickly.
She says it could have a low reproduction rate and is “smoldering.”
Lynn says there are so few cases in Ontario that it means the liklihood of H1N1 spreading is low.
Lynn says many Medical Officers of Health are even suggesting that the current surveillance measures be eased and the outbreak be simply treated as an ordinary flu.
There are currently 56 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in Ontario.
Lynn says H1N1 is a pandemic in the sense that it is all over the world, but the seriousness of it is not necessarily the same everywhere.