Canada sees 1st person-to-person case of H1N1 flu

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The province of Nova Scotia has recorded the first case of the new H1N1 flu strain spreading from one person to another within Canada, a medical official said on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Atlantic province's department of health promotion said the victim had contracted a mild case of swine flu from a student who had returned from Mexico on an organized school trip.

"We have recorded the first person-to-person transmission of (H1N1) in Canada. All the cases in Nova Scotia have had mild symptoms," said Lucas Wide, a spokesman for Nova Scotia's Health Promotion and Protection department.

The province has reported eight cases so far, four of them pupils who had been to Mexico on the school trip.

Separately on Thursday, federal officials reported 15 new cases of the flu in Canada, including the first confirmed case in the province of Quebec, bringing the national total to 34. All are considered mild.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)