First case confirmed in Iqaluit

So far, the Alianait Festival is still a go, even though swine flu has reached the Qikiqtaaluk region – and the first confirmed case has been recorded for Iqaluit.

An Iqaluit resident told Nunatsiaq News June 16 that she has been lab-confirmed as the city's first victim of the H1N1 virus, more commonly known as swine flu.

And the next day, Nunavut's chief medical officer, Dr. Isaac Sobol, reported 195 incidents of the disease confirmed throughout Nunavut, with two per cent of the total in the Qikiqtaaluk.

Simple arithmetic suggests this means four confirmed cases for the Qikiqtaaluk region, although Sobol refused to specify a number.

About 55 per cent of lab-confirmed cases were from the Kitikmeot Region as of June 16, Sobol said, with 43 per cent from the Kivalliq Region and two per cent from Baffin.

Public health staff will be on site at all Alianait events with hand-sanitizer solution and prevention handouts, festival coordinator Heather Daley confirmed.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's on with the show, and if you're sick, stay home."

If the disease develops in the Qikiqtaaluk as it has in the other regions, Nunavummiut can expect a large spike in reported numbers over the next few days. There is about a week's delay from when swabs are taken to reporting of results.

Lab-confirmed cases may not reach the heights they have in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq, though, as the department of health stopped taking test swabs from every patient with flu-like symptoms as of June 15.

Now only every fifth patient is tested, which should cut the number of confirmed cases to one-fifth of the actual cases.

As of June 15, Canada had 4,049 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1, or about one case per 10,000 people, compared to Nunavut's rate of almost 50 per 10,000 for the same date.