In the battle against the new flu, there's a troubling new development. As cases grow in Toronto - including a four-year-old child - there's word another youngster who came down with the H1N1 virus in Alberta has now become severely ill and has been sent to hospital.
It's the first time since the outbreak came to Canada that anyone has experienced anything but a mild case that quickly resolved itself. "We had one young girl that was admitted to one of our hospitals with a more severe form of illness that is currently under care and is doing well," relates Dr. Andre Corriveau, Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Adding to the concern - there's no evidence the young Edmonton patient or her parents had been to Mexico recently.
Still, authorities insist you shouldn't draw any conclusions from this or any case. "Each ... has to be assessed on its own. I think the concerning thing would be severe cases in otherwise healthy young adults," suggests Dr. Vivek Goel of the Ontario Health Prevention and Promotion Agency.
Ontario now has 31 cases of the new strain, with nine patients in Toronto, and 17 new cases overall. The four-year-old boy is one of the youngest - but he's said to be on the mend and all the instances in the GTA remain mild. York's monitoring has turned up seven cases, while Peel is dealing with two.
The disease has also shown up for the first time in other parts of Ontario. Simcoe has its first case, and so does Oxford. Sudbury has now joined the flu watch, with one patient. And there are four additional confirmed people with the strain in Windsor-Essex.
At least 25 of the 31 have been to Mexico, meaning several who hadn't travelled to the country likely acquired the disease from contact with others.
As of Monday, the country's flu map was being charted like this:
B.C.: 39
Alberta: 24
Manitoba: 1
Ontario: 31
Quebec: 3
New Brunswick: 2
Nova Scotia: 38
P.E.I: 2
Only Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, The Yukon, The Northwest Territories and Nunavut remain untouched by the flu - for now.
More than a thousand people in 20 countries are also showing symptoms, but officials are stressing while it's important to stay vigilant, it doesn't appear this strain is any worse than the common flu.
And despite the World Health Organization musing about raising the alert level to six - a full blown pandemic - they now say there's not much chance it will happen as long as the strain remains contained in Europe.
Meanwhile, the reaction - and the overreaction - to the flu spread continues to grow.
A group of 23 Quebec students visiting Changchun, China have been detained by the government. They've been told they can't leave their hotel, despite the fact they've shown no signs of the illness. Other Canadians have been similarly detained in Hong Kong.
"They're having their temperature taken individually four times a day," points out David Ownby of the University of Montreal.
And while Mexico readies to reopen for business on Wednesday after a lengthy business and tourist shutdown,
China, Russia, Croatia and Thailand have decided to ban all pork products from Canada, a move experts say is completely unnecessary.
Despite assurance that the meat doesn't carry the virus and that it's perfectly safe if prepared properly, even some Canadians are becoming ham-fisted when it comes to eating the meat.
"I think it's silly since our pork in Canada is one of the cleanest and the healthiest you can ever get," assures Shalom Kenigsberg of European Quality Meats & Sausages.
While many Canadians are still buying our bacon and other pork products, a few are simply waiting for the crisis to pass. "Personally, I wouldn't buy it. I will wait for a while," vows Lennox Braethwaite.
Kenigsberg insists that's not the common attitude he's experienced. "I think Canadians are a little smarter than that," he concludes.
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