U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(According the the CDC website)
U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(As of May 15, 2009, 11:00 AM ET)
47 states*
4,714 cases
4 deaths
*includes the District of Columbia
swine flu
Showing posts with label swine flu symptoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swine flu symptoms. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2009
Updated Swine Flu Numbers
U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(According the the CDC website)
U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(As of May 15, 2009, 11:00 AM ET)
47 states*
4,714 cases
4 deaths
*includes the District of Columbia
swine flu
Swine Flu Update, May 15, 2009
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The United States has 4,714 confirmed and likely cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.
US now has 4,700 cases of new swine flu - CDC
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The United States has 4,714 confirmed and likely cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.
Four people have died in the United States from the virus, which is behaving much like a seasonal influenza strain -- spreading rapidly and causing mainly mild disease, but severe illness in some people.
The CDC is now combining its confirmed and probable cases, having said that 99 percent of all suspected cases turn out to be the new H1N1 strain as opposed to other strains of influenza or other respiratory diseases.
The CDC also cautions that not every suspected case is being tested now, as it is more useful to look at the pattern of disease as opposed to counting the numbers. The World Health Organization reports more than 7,500 cases globally, most in the United States and Mexico.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox)
swine flu
US now has 4,700 cases of new swine flu - CDC
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The United States has 4,714 confirmed and likely cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday.
Four people have died in the United States from the virus, which is behaving much like a seasonal influenza strain -- spreading rapidly and causing mainly mild disease, but severe illness in some people.
The CDC is now combining its confirmed and probable cases, having said that 99 percent of all suspected cases turn out to be the new H1N1 strain as opposed to other strains of influenza or other respiratory diseases.
The CDC also cautions that not every suspected case is being tested now, as it is more useful to look at the pattern of disease as opposed to counting the numbers. The World Health Organization reports more than 7,500 cases globally, most in the United States and Mexico.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox)
swine flu
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Pandemic Defined.
Definition of Pandemic
Pandemic: An epidemic (a sudden outbreak) that becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a continent, or the world.
By contrast:
An epidemic affects more than the expected number of cases of disease occurring in a community or region during a given period of time. A sudden severe outbreak within a region or a group as, for example, AIDS in Africa or AIDS in intravenous drug users.
An endemic is present in a community at all times but in low frequency. An endemic is continuous as in the case of malaria in some areas of the world or as with illicit drugs in some neighborhoods.
The word "pandemic" comes from the Greek "pan-", "all" + "demos", "people or population" = "pandemos" = "all the people." A pandemic affects all (nearly all) of the people. By contrast, "epi-" means "upon." An epidemic is visited upon the people. And "en-" means "in." An endemic is in the people.
Source: MedicineNet.com
************************************************************************
Epidemics and pandemics refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is two-fold. First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected. In the most extreme case, the global population is affected by a pandemic.
An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected. However, in the case of a pandemic, even more of the population is affected than in an epidemic.
Let's take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let's further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn't catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.
Now let's take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.
To put a finer point on it, if the entire nation was affected but the rate of incidence never rose above that of an epidemic, it would still be considered an epidemic, even though the disease was nationwide.
Conversely, you might have a small population in a remote area of Africa, for example, that is nearly 100% affected by an illness or health problem. Because the incidence is so high, and the area relatively widespread in that it is affecting an entire population, this could be termed pandemic.
You can see with these subtle but significant differences how the terms might be confusing, but normally epidemics that grow out of hand due to the nature of the disease and other factors, turn into pandemics.
A pandemic may be regionally localized if it involves more cases than a simple epidemic; and an epidemic may be widespread if not enough of the population is affected to term it pandemic. Though in this latter case, you might still see it termed pandemic by some, just because the geographical area is so widespread. View Source
Source: WiseGeek.com
Pandemic: An epidemic (a sudden outbreak) that becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a continent, or the world.
By contrast:
An epidemic affects more than the expected number of cases of disease occurring in a community or region during a given period of time. A sudden severe outbreak within a region or a group as, for example, AIDS in Africa or AIDS in intravenous drug users.
An endemic is present in a community at all times but in low frequency. An endemic is continuous as in the case of malaria in some areas of the world or as with illicit drugs in some neighborhoods.
The word "pandemic" comes from the Greek "pan-", "all" + "demos", "people or population" = "pandemos" = "all the people." A pandemic affects all (nearly all) of the people. By contrast, "epi-" means "upon." An epidemic is visited upon the people. And "en-" means "in." An endemic is in the people.
Source: MedicineNet.com
************************************************************************
Epidemics and pandemics refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is two-fold. First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected. In the most extreme case, the global population is affected by a pandemic.
An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected. However, in the case of a pandemic, even more of the population is affected than in an epidemic.
Let's take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let's further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn't catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.
Now let's take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.
To put a finer point on it, if the entire nation was affected but the rate of incidence never rose above that of an epidemic, it would still be considered an epidemic, even though the disease was nationwide.
Conversely, you might have a small population in a remote area of Africa, for example, that is nearly 100% affected by an illness or health problem. Because the incidence is so high, and the area relatively widespread in that it is affecting an entire population, this could be termed pandemic.
You can see with these subtle but significant differences how the terms might be confusing, but normally epidemics that grow out of hand due to the nature of the disease and other factors, turn into pandemics.
A pandemic may be regionally localized if it involves more cases than a simple epidemic; and an epidemic may be widespread if not enough of the population is affected to term it pandemic. Though in this latter case, you might still see it termed pandemic by some, just because the geographical area is so widespread. View Source
Source: WiseGeek.com
Mexico Swine Deaths Slow...
By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writers Alexandra Olson, Associated Press Writers
MEXICO CITY – Mexico said a swine flu epidemic appears to be easing, but urged citizens Saturday not to let their guard down against a virus that has killed 17 people and is spreading across Asia and Europe. Experts warned the virus could mutate and come back with a vengeance.
With no suspected swine flu deaths since Wednesday and fewer people turning up at hospitals with virus symptoms, Mexican officials were guardedly optimistic that the worst was over in the outbreak's epicenter. Cases outside Mexico suggested the new swine flu strain is weaker than feared. But governments moved quickly anyway to ban flights and prepare quarantine plans.
In the first known reported case of the new, mutated virus infecting another species, pigs in the province of Alberta have become infected and are under quarantine. They apparently got the virus from a Canadian farm worker who recently visited Mexico and got sick with swine flu, Canadian officials said Saturday.
They told a press conference in Ottawa that the pigs do not pose a food safety risk, adding that the traveler recovered from the swine flu and the pigs are "well on their way to recovery." The outbreak occurred on a single farm, where about 10 percent of 2,200 pigs showed a fever and loss of appetite. No pigs have died from the virus, officials said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's too early to declare victory.
The World Health Organization also decided against a full pandemic alert, but that doesn't mean people can relax, said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's global alert and response director.
"These viruses mutate, these viruses change, these viruses can further reassort with other genetic material, with other viruses," he said. "So it would be imprudent at this point to take too much reassurance" from the small number of deaths.
"We have seen times where things appear to be getting better and then get worse again," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the U.S. agency's interim science and public health deputy director. "I think in Mexico we may be holding our breath for some time."
The global caseload was 763 and growing — the vast majority in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Costa Rica reported its first confirmed swine flu case — the first in Latin America outside Mexico.
Swine flu cases have been confirmed in 18 countries so far — including Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region — and experts believe the actual spread is much wider than the numbers suggest.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged caution Saturday.
"This is a new strain of the flu virus, and because we haven't developed an immunity to it, it has more potential to cause us harm," Obama said. Later, he spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon for about 20 minutes to share information.
What started as a swine flu outbreak more than a week ago in Mexico quickly ballooned to a global health threat, with the WHO declaring a pandemic was imminent. Now public health officials are having to carefully calibrate their statements. Push the message too far, and they could lose credibility if the virus fizzles out. But if they back off and it suddenly surges, the consequences could be much more dire.
Some Mexicans have criticized their government for reacting too slowly to the outbreak at first, and now for overreacting in ordering a five-day, nationwide shutdown of all nonessential government and private business. Responding to the attacks, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said: "It's absurd to think that Mexico was putting on a show. I think it's preferable, at a certain moment, to take advanced measures and succeed in containing the problem than to not take them and ask, 'Why didn't we take them?'"
Mexico's last confirmed swine flu death occurred Tuesday, and the last suspected death came Wednesday, said Pablo Kuri, an epidemiologist and adviser to Cordova.
Cordova said hospitals are now handling fewer patients with swine flu symptoms, a sign that the disease is presently not very contagious. Mexican investigators who visited 280 relatives of victims found only four had the virus.
But experts said there is much they don't know about the outbreak in Mexico, where tests confirmed 16 deaths and nearly 450 people sickened. A multinational team of virus sleuths are trying to piece together the epidemiological puzzle.
Kuri said three of the dead were children: a 9-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy. Four were older than 60.
The other nine were between 21 and 39 — unusual ages for people to die of the flu because they tend to have stronger immune systems.
Although most of the dead were from Mexico City, they came from different neighborhoods in the metropolis of 20 million people, Kuri said. One common factor may be that they sought treatment too late — an average of seven days before seeing a doctor. For those who recovered, the average wait was three days, said Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, deputy director of Mexico's Intelligence Unit for Health Emergencies.
Many of the sick around the world were people who had visited Mexico, including 13 of Britain's 15 cases.
South Korea reported Asia's second confirmed case — a woman just back from Mexico — and other governments prepared to quarantine airline passengers, eager to show how they have learned from the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003, when Hong Kong was criticized for imposing quarantines too slowly.
China suspended all direct flights from Mexico and sealed 305 people inside a Hong Kong hotel where an infected Mexican tourist stayed. Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby where the 25-year-old Mexican stayed before he became Asia's first confirmed case late Friday.
Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa complained that China had isolated 71 Mexican nationals in six cities, including Beijing, without reason — and urged Mexicans not to travel to China until the situation was resolved.
"These are discriminatory measures," she said.
___
Associated Press writers David B. Caruso in New York and Juan Carlos Llorca in Mexico City contributed to this report.
MEXICO CITY – Mexico said a swine flu epidemic appears to be easing, but urged citizens Saturday not to let their guard down against a virus that has killed 17 people and is spreading across Asia and Europe. Experts warned the virus could mutate and come back with a vengeance.
With no suspected swine flu deaths since Wednesday and fewer people turning up at hospitals with virus symptoms, Mexican officials were guardedly optimistic that the worst was over in the outbreak's epicenter. Cases outside Mexico suggested the new swine flu strain is weaker than feared. But governments moved quickly anyway to ban flights and prepare quarantine plans.
In the first known reported case of the new, mutated virus infecting another species, pigs in the province of Alberta have become infected and are under quarantine. They apparently got the virus from a Canadian farm worker who recently visited Mexico and got sick with swine flu, Canadian officials said Saturday.
They told a press conference in Ottawa that the pigs do not pose a food safety risk, adding that the traveler recovered from the swine flu and the pigs are "well on their way to recovery." The outbreak occurred on a single farm, where about 10 percent of 2,200 pigs showed a fever and loss of appetite. No pigs have died from the virus, officials said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's too early to declare victory.
The World Health Organization also decided against a full pandemic alert, but that doesn't mean people can relax, said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's global alert and response director.
"These viruses mutate, these viruses change, these viruses can further reassort with other genetic material, with other viruses," he said. "So it would be imprudent at this point to take too much reassurance" from the small number of deaths.
"We have seen times where things appear to be getting better and then get worse again," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the U.S. agency's interim science and public health deputy director. "I think in Mexico we may be holding our breath for some time."
The global caseload was 763 and growing — the vast majority in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Costa Rica reported its first confirmed swine flu case — the first in Latin America outside Mexico.
Swine flu cases have been confirmed in 18 countries so far — including Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region — and experts believe the actual spread is much wider than the numbers suggest.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged caution Saturday.
"This is a new strain of the flu virus, and because we haven't developed an immunity to it, it has more potential to cause us harm," Obama said. Later, he spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon for about 20 minutes to share information.
What started as a swine flu outbreak more than a week ago in Mexico quickly ballooned to a global health threat, with the WHO declaring a pandemic was imminent. Now public health officials are having to carefully calibrate their statements. Push the message too far, and they could lose credibility if the virus fizzles out. But if they back off and it suddenly surges, the consequences could be much more dire.
Some Mexicans have criticized their government for reacting too slowly to the outbreak at first, and now for overreacting in ordering a five-day, nationwide shutdown of all nonessential government and private business. Responding to the attacks, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said: "It's absurd to think that Mexico was putting on a show. I think it's preferable, at a certain moment, to take advanced measures and succeed in containing the problem than to not take them and ask, 'Why didn't we take them?'"
Mexico's last confirmed swine flu death occurred Tuesday, and the last suspected death came Wednesday, said Pablo Kuri, an epidemiologist and adviser to Cordova.
Cordova said hospitals are now handling fewer patients with swine flu symptoms, a sign that the disease is presently not very contagious. Mexican investigators who visited 280 relatives of victims found only four had the virus.
But experts said there is much they don't know about the outbreak in Mexico, where tests confirmed 16 deaths and nearly 450 people sickened. A multinational team of virus sleuths are trying to piece together the epidemiological puzzle.
Kuri said three of the dead were children: a 9-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy. Four were older than 60.
The other nine were between 21 and 39 — unusual ages for people to die of the flu because they tend to have stronger immune systems.
Although most of the dead were from Mexico City, they came from different neighborhoods in the metropolis of 20 million people, Kuri said. One common factor may be that they sought treatment too late — an average of seven days before seeing a doctor. For those who recovered, the average wait was three days, said Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, deputy director of Mexico's Intelligence Unit for Health Emergencies.
Many of the sick around the world were people who had visited Mexico, including 13 of Britain's 15 cases.
South Korea reported Asia's second confirmed case — a woman just back from Mexico — and other governments prepared to quarantine airline passengers, eager to show how they have learned from the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003, when Hong Kong was criticized for imposing quarantines too slowly.
China suspended all direct flights from Mexico and sealed 305 people inside a Hong Kong hotel where an infected Mexican tourist stayed. Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby where the 25-year-old Mexican stayed before he became Asia's first confirmed case late Friday.
Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa complained that China had isolated 71 Mexican nationals in six cities, including Beijing, without reason — and urged Mexicans not to travel to China until the situation was resolved.
"These are discriminatory measures," she said.
___
Associated Press writers David B. Caruso in New York and Juan Carlos Llorca in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Swine Not the Killer You Think It Is
May 2nd, 2009 2:06 PM Eastern
DR. MARC SIEGEL: Swine Flu — It’s Not the Killer You Think It Is
By Marc Siegel, M.D.
FOX News Medical Contributor/Associate Professor, NYU School of Medicine/Author, “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic”
I was listening to a conference call on Friday, organized by the NYC Health Department about — you guessed it — swine flu (now known as H1N1). The discussion centered around “Influenza-like illness” and it was soon clear to me that…
1) It is a late influenza season this year and some of these illnesses are from the garden-variety mild influenza B.
2) A lot of the so-called “influenza cases” are really just reports by worried people with the sniffles. When all is said and done, it is looking more and more like H1N1 (a designation which describes two proteins on the surface of the flu virus which help it spread) will end up being a mild, over-hyped virus despite the fact that it is new.
In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.
As I described in my book “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear,” there is a history of hysterical ovverreaction to health risks in this country especially as evidenced by the swine flu fiasco of 1976, SARS in 2003 and the bird flu scare in 2005.
In each case, Some of this overreaction was due to a distortion of the scientific information about the virus itself. In 1976, when a swine flu virus appeared to kill a military recruit and then be present in the blood of 500 others (who never got sick) this led to a massive hysteria and vaccination program for a pandemic that never occurred. Forty millon Americas were vaccinated and ascending paralysis (also known as Guillain Barre Syndrome) was associated with recipients in close to 1,000 patients.
The fears that prompted the mass vaccination were due to the ghost of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed at least 50 million worldwide. In 1976 and 2003 SARS, and again in 2006 with the bird flu, false assumptions were made connecting the memory of 1918 with another potential scourge.
Back in 1976 the prevailing theory was that pigs had been the source of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which was later disproven but served as an impetus for the hysteria at the time. In 2005, the knowledge that the 1918 scary virus was “bird-like” led the fearmongers to point a finger at an equally scary H5N1 virus that was killing millions of birds. But lost in the panic was the knowledge that human pandemics had likely never been caused by an H5 virus before.
In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.
The vast overreaction to this virus and its potential has severe economic consequences as it did previously in 1976, 2003, and 2006. This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).
Despite the fact that you can’t get this virus from eating pork, Egypt is destroying its pigs and several other countries are not importing pigs from the U.S. or Mexico. This is another form of hysteria.
Perhaps the greatest overreaction of all is the new pandemic alert system that the World Health Organization developed in response to the 2005 bird flu scare (an alert system developed in response to a scare??). Though it is reasonable to call a pandemic for an extensive spread of a new strain of killer flu to many parts of the world at once, what is sorely lacking in this alert system is any counting of actual cases or number of deaths before raising the alert level. As a result, we may end up with the first pandemic in history with less than a thousand deaths. Consider that the last pandemic, the 1968 Hong Kong Flu, which was controlled with the help of vaccines, public health measures, and treatments for secondary infections with antibiotics, killed 750,000 worldwide.
It look like H1N1 is another pandemic of mostly of fear — something that is stronger and more infectious than any virus.
Marc Siegel M.D., a FOX Medical Contributor, is the author of “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.”
DR. MARC SIEGEL: Swine Flu — It’s Not the Killer You Think It Is
By Marc Siegel, M.D.
FOX News Medical Contributor/Associate Professor, NYU School of Medicine/Author, “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic”
I was listening to a conference call on Friday, organized by the NYC Health Department about — you guessed it — swine flu (now known as H1N1). The discussion centered around “Influenza-like illness” and it was soon clear to me that…
1) It is a late influenza season this year and some of these illnesses are from the garden-variety mild influenza B.
2) A lot of the so-called “influenza cases” are really just reports by worried people with the sniffles. When all is said and done, it is looking more and more like H1N1 (a designation which describes two proteins on the surface of the flu virus which help it spread) will end up being a mild, over-hyped virus despite the fact that it is new.
In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.
As I described in my book “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear,” there is a history of hysterical ovverreaction to health risks in this country especially as evidenced by the swine flu fiasco of 1976, SARS in 2003 and the bird flu scare in 2005.
In each case, Some of this overreaction was due to a distortion of the scientific information about the virus itself. In 1976, when a swine flu virus appeared to kill a military recruit and then be present in the blood of 500 others (who never got sick) this led to a massive hysteria and vaccination program for a pandemic that never occurred. Forty millon Americas were vaccinated and ascending paralysis (also known as Guillain Barre Syndrome) was associated with recipients in close to 1,000 patients.
The fears that prompted the mass vaccination were due to the ghost of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed at least 50 million worldwide. In 1976 and 2003 SARS, and again in 2006 with the bird flu, false assumptions were made connecting the memory of 1918 with another potential scourge.
Back in 1976 the prevailing theory was that pigs had been the source of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which was later disproven but served as an impetus for the hysteria at the time. In 2005, the knowledge that the 1918 scary virus was “bird-like” led the fearmongers to point a finger at an equally scary H5N1 virus that was killing millions of birds. But lost in the panic was the knowledge that human pandemics had likely never been caused by an H5 virus before.
In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.
The vast overreaction to this virus and its potential has severe economic consequences as it did previously in 1976, 2003, and 2006. This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).
Despite the fact that you can’t get this virus from eating pork, Egypt is destroying its pigs and several other countries are not importing pigs from the U.S. or Mexico. This is another form of hysteria.
Perhaps the greatest overreaction of all is the new pandemic alert system that the World Health Organization developed in response to the 2005 bird flu scare (an alert system developed in response to a scare??). Though it is reasonable to call a pandemic for an extensive spread of a new strain of killer flu to many parts of the world at once, what is sorely lacking in this alert system is any counting of actual cases or number of deaths before raising the alert level. As a result, we may end up with the first pandemic in history with less than a thousand deaths. Consider that the last pandemic, the 1968 Hong Kong Flu, which was controlled with the help of vaccines, public health measures, and treatments for secondary infections with antibiotics, killed 750,000 worldwide.
It look like H1N1 is another pandemic of mostly of fear — something that is stronger and more infectious than any virus.
Marc Siegel M.D., a FOX Medical Contributor, is the author of “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.”
CDC Swine Flu Report
U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(As of May 2, 2009, 11:00 AM ET)
Arizona 4
California 24
Colorado 2
Connecticut 1
Delaware 4
Florida 2
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Kansas 2
Kentucky* 1
Massachusetts 8
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Missouri 1
Nevada 1
New Jersey 7
New York 50
Ohio 1
South Carolina 13
Texas 28 cases and 1 death
Virginia 2
TOTAL (21) 160 cases 1 death
CDC continues to take aggressive action to respond to an expanding outbreak caused by H1N1 (swine flu).
CDC’s response goals are to:
Reduce transmission and illness severity, and
Provide information to help health care providers, public health officials and the public address the challenges posed by this emergency.
CDC continues to issue and update interim guidance daily in response to the rapidly evolving situation. This includes guidance on when to close schools and how to care for someone who is sick at home. Supplies from CDC’s Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) are being sent to all 50 states and U.S. territories to help them respond to the outbreak. In addition, the Federal Government and manufacturers have begun the process of developing a vaccine against this new virus.
Response actions are aggressive, but they may vary across states and communities depending on local circumstances. Communities, businesses, places of worship, schools and individuals can all take action to slow the spread of this outbreak. People who are sick are urged to stay home from work or school and to avoid contact with others, except to seek medical care. This action can avoid spreading illness further.
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
(As of May 2, 2009, 11:00 AM ET)
Arizona 4
California 24
Colorado 2
Connecticut 1
Delaware 4
Florida 2
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Kansas 2
Kentucky* 1
Massachusetts 8
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Missouri 1
Nevada 1
New Jersey 7
New York 50
Ohio 1
South Carolina 13
Texas 28 cases and 1 death
Virginia 2
TOTAL (21) 160 cases 1 death
CDC continues to take aggressive action to respond to an expanding outbreak caused by H1N1 (swine flu).
CDC’s response goals are to:
Reduce transmission and illness severity, and
Provide information to help health care providers, public health officials and the public address the challenges posed by this emergency.
CDC continues to issue and update interim guidance daily in response to the rapidly evolving situation. This includes guidance on when to close schools and how to care for someone who is sick at home. Supplies from CDC’s Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) are being sent to all 50 states and U.S. territories to help them respond to the outbreak. In addition, the Federal Government and manufacturers have begun the process of developing a vaccine against this new virus.
Response actions are aggressive, but they may vary across states and communities depending on local circumstances. Communities, businesses, places of worship, schools and individuals can all take action to slow the spread of this outbreak. People who are sick are urged to stay home from work or school and to avoid contact with others, except to seek medical care. This action can avoid spreading illness further.
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
1/3 Swine Flu Cases from Visiting Mexico
CDC says a third of US flu cases visited Mexico
May 2nd, 2009 @ 12:53pm
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - About a third of the confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there, a federal health official said Saturday.
But investigations indicate many cases are getting the illness here, and that it probably still is spreading, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a press briefing, CDC officials said the agency knows of confirmed cases from 21 states, with Connecticut, Florida and Missouri the latest to join the list.
The CDC's count of 160 confirmed cases released Saturday is believed to already be outdated. Some states can now do their own tests for the swine flu virus and don't have to send samples to the CDC. States have reported about a dozen more cases, bringing the national total to more than 170.
The swine flu cases range in age from 1 to 81, but the majority are people younger than 20, said Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health. Most U.S. cases have been relatively mild; only 13 have been hospitalized.
May 2nd, 2009 @ 12:53pm
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - About a third of the confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there, a federal health official said Saturday.
But investigations indicate many cases are getting the illness here, and that it probably still is spreading, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a press briefing, CDC officials said the agency knows of confirmed cases from 21 states, with Connecticut, Florida and Missouri the latest to join the list.
The CDC's count of 160 confirmed cases released Saturday is believed to already be outdated. Some states can now do their own tests for the swine flu virus and don't have to send samples to the CDC. States have reported about a dozen more cases, bringing the national total to more than 170.
The swine flu cases range in age from 1 to 81, but the majority are people younger than 20, said Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health. Most U.S. cases have been relatively mild; only 13 have been hospitalized.
Swine Flu in Utah.
Swine flu confirmed in Summit Co. www.ksl.com
May 2nd, 2009 @ 2:05pm
PARK CITY -- Summit County health officials say the CDC has confirmed a case of H1N1 virus, or swine flu, in a school-aged child from Park City.
Steve Jenkins, director of the Summit County Health Department, said during a news conference Saturday morning that the student apparently contracted the virus while in Mexico on spring break. Since then, the student has fully recovered.
Park City schools will remain closed through May 10 to limit the possibility of transmitting the virus, said Tom VanGorder, director of student services for the Park City School District.
The state's first probable cases of the virus were reported in three students from that district on Wednesday. The district closed schools there while awaiting test results from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
By week's end, Utah health officials had sent nine probable cases to the CDC for testing. With the confirmed case, there are now five probable cases reported in Summit County, three in Salt Lake County, and one in Morgan-Weber Health District. Results of those tests could arrive as early as Sunday. So far, all of those cases are said to be mild. None have required hospitalization.
Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said he expects more cases to be confirmed. Yet he is not greatly concerned that this will be a serious epidemic. He says the virus appears to be acting like seasonal flu.
Saturday Utah received some kits from the CDC that will allow it to confirm cases within a day. The health department said it will take a couple of days to test the kits before they are put into use.
Early detection can be more critical than treatment. It can also make a difference in how long or even if a school closes.
Right now, all Park City schools and Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake are closed.
Mexico reported no new deaths from swine flu overnight. But the virus keeps spreading around the world, with new cases confirmed in Europe and Asia.
Mexico's confirmed caseload grew to 443. The U.S. count rose to 171 and there were 716 confirmed swine flu cases worldwide. www.ksl.com
May 2nd, 2009 @ 2:05pm
PARK CITY -- Summit County health officials say the CDC has confirmed a case of H1N1 virus, or swine flu, in a school-aged child from Park City.
Steve Jenkins, director of the Summit County Health Department, said during a news conference Saturday morning that the student apparently contracted the virus while in Mexico on spring break. Since then, the student has fully recovered.
Park City schools will remain closed through May 10 to limit the possibility of transmitting the virus, said Tom VanGorder, director of student services for the Park City School District.
The state's first probable cases of the virus were reported in three students from that district on Wednesday. The district closed schools there while awaiting test results from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
By week's end, Utah health officials had sent nine probable cases to the CDC for testing. With the confirmed case, there are now five probable cases reported in Summit County, three in Salt Lake County, and one in Morgan-Weber Health District. Results of those tests could arrive as early as Sunday. So far, all of those cases are said to be mild. None have required hospitalization.
Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, said he expects more cases to be confirmed. Yet he is not greatly concerned that this will be a serious epidemic. He says the virus appears to be acting like seasonal flu.
Saturday Utah received some kits from the CDC that will allow it to confirm cases within a day. The health department said it will take a couple of days to test the kits before they are put into use.
Early detection can be more critical than treatment. It can also make a difference in how long or even if a school closes.
Right now, all Park City schools and Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake are closed.
Mexico reported no new deaths from swine flu overnight. But the virus keeps spreading around the world, with new cases confirmed in Europe and Asia.
Mexico's confirmed caseload grew to 443. The U.S. count rose to 171 and there were 716 confirmed swine flu cases worldwide. www.ksl.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
Swine in 1976. Did we learn a lesson that will carry over to 2009?
1976: Fear of a great plague
By PAUL MICKLE / The Trentonian
On the cold afternoon of February 5, 1976, an Army recruit told his drill instructor at Fort Dix that he felt tired and weak but not sick enough to see military medics or skip a big training hike.
Within 24 hours, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass., was dead, killed by an influenza not seen since the plague of 1918-19, which took 500,000 American lives and 20 million worldwide.
Two weeks after the recruit's death, health officials disclosed to America that something called "swine flu" had killed Lewis and hospitalized four of his fellow soldiers at the Army base in Burlington County.
The ominous name of the flu alone was enough to touch off civilian fear of an epidemic. And government doctors knew from tests hastily conducted at Dix after Lewis' death that 500 soldiers had caught swine flu without falling ill.
Any flu able to reach that many people so fast was capable of becoming another worldwide plague, the doctors warned, raising these questions:
Does America mobilize for mass inoculations in time to have everybody ready for the next flu season? Or should the country wait to see if the new virus would, as they often do, get stronger to hit harder in the second year?
Thus was born what would become known to some medical historians as a fiasco and to others as perhaps the finest hour of America's public health bureaucracy.
Only young Lewis died from the swine flu itself in 1976. But as the critics are quick to point out, hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus.
According to his sister-in-law, John Kent of President Avenue in Lawrence went to his grave in 1997 believing the shot from the government had killed his first wife, Mary, long before her time.
Among other critics are Arthur M. Silverstein, whose book, "Pure Politics and Impure Science," suggests President Gerald Ford's desire to win the office on his own, as well as the influence of America's big drug manufacturers, figured into the decision to immunize all 220 million Americans.
Still, even the partisan who first branded Ford's program a fiasco, says now that it happened because America's public health establishment identified what easily could have been a new plague and mobilized to beat it amazingly well.
To understand the fear of the time you have to know something about the plague American soldiers seemed to bring home with them after fighting in Europe during World War I.
The Great Plague, as it came to be called, rivaled the horrid Black Death of medieval times in its ability to strike suddenly and take lives swiftly. In addition to the half million in America, it killed 20 million people around the world.
It got its name because it was a brand of flu usually found in domestic pigs and wild swine. It was long thought to have come, like so many flus, out of the Chinese farm country, where people and domestic pigs live closely together.
Recent research has shown, however, that the post-WWI flu was brought to Europe by American troops who had been based in the South before they went to war. Medical detectives, still working on the case in the 1990s, determined that a small group of our soldiers took swine flu to Europe and that it spread to the world from there.
How the swine flu got to Fort Dix in 1976 still hasn't been tracked down. At the time, Dix military doctors knew only that a killer flu had made it to the base and that they were lucky more men hadn't died or been sickened seriously.
Weeks after Lewis died, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and other federal public health officials were meeting in Washington, trying to decide if they should recommend the government start a costly program of mass inoculations.
One doc later told the authors of "The Epidemic that Never Was" that he and others in on the meetings realized there was "nothing in this for the CDC except trouble," especially because a decision had to be made fast to get the immunizations manufactured by the fall.
"...The obvious thing to do was immunize everybody," the doctor said. "But if we tried to do that ... we might have to interrupt a hell of a lot of work on other diseases."
The doctors knew they faced complaints if the epidemic broke out and vaccines weren't ready, as well as criticism if they spent millions inoculating people for a plague that didn't happen.
"As for 'another 1918,' 1 didn't expect that," the doctor continued in the book. "But who could be sure? It would wreck us. Yet, if there weren't a pandemic, we'd be charged with wasting public money, crying wolf and causing all the inconvenience for nothing ... It was a no-win situation."
By mid-March, CDC Director Dr. David J. Sencer had lined up most of the medical establishment behind his plan to call on Ford to support a $135 million program of mass inoculation.
On March 24, one day after a surprise loss to Ronald Reagan in the North Carolina Republican presidential primary, Ford decided to make the announcement to the American public.
Congress still had to appropriate the money, of course, and that wasn't going to be easy. Even before official congressional consideration of the plan was taken up, there were forces arguing against it.
Another big hurdle was the drug makers, who were insisting the government take liability for any harmful side effects from the vaccine. During congressional hearings in the spring and early summer, lawmakers heard some naysayers who noted that the swine flu of last winter never got beyond Dix and that only one death had been reported.
The president and his experts prevailed, however, and on Aug. 12 Congress put up the money to get the job done. The mighty task was put into the hands of a charismatic 33-year-old physician for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Dr. W. Delano Meriwether, a world-class sprinter who still competed in track meets.
Now he was in a race for life, or so he thought. Meriwether was given until the end of the year to get all 220 million Americans inoculated against swine flu.
By Oct. 1, the makers had the serums ready and America's public health bureaucracy had lined up thousands of doctors, nurses and paramedics to give out the shots at medical centers, schools and firehouses across the nation.
Jim Florio, then an ambitious rookie Democratic congressman supporting Jimmy Carter for president, didn't use the situation to take a shot at Ford. He lined up and was the first Jersey resident to take the inoculation.
Within days, however, several people who had taken the shot fell seriously ill. On Oct. 12, three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot, which led to suspension of the program in Pennsylvania.
Jersey pressed on with inoculations, however. Through the fall, even as more bad reports about the side effects of the vaccine came out, thousands of mostly older people in Greater Trenton lined up outside health centers, schools and firehouses to get the shot, sometimes waiting for an hour.
One of them was Lawrence's Mary Kent, a 45-year-old mother of two teenage boys who couldn't tie the ribbons on Christmas presents only days after she got her shot at the Trenton War Memorial in early December.
On Dec. 16, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the government suspended the program, having inoculated 40 million people for a flu that never came.
By year's end, Jack Kent knew his wife was seriously ill and started reading all about the side effects of the president's flu inoculation, especially nerve problems like those his wife was experiencing.
Even before Mary Kent died an invalid at age 51 in January 1982, Kent had joined the hundreds of Americans who filed suit against the government on behalf of children left without a parent due to fatal side effects from the swine flu vaccine.
Kent's sister-in-law, also named Mary Kent, recalled the other day that Jack Kent died in 1997 still angrily blaming the government for giving his wife Guillian-Barre, leading to her death.
The swine flu case of 1976 forever reduced confidence in public health pronouncements from the government and helped foster cynicism about federal policy makers that continues to this day.
Citing the swine flu fiasco, for instance, one scholar recently authored a report suggesting the threat of AIDS has been similarly overblown.
Yet Joseph Califano, one of the earliest to use the word "fiasco" in describing the swine flu affair, came to the conclusion that it all couldn't have been avoided. Califano, whom President Carter appointed Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare after beating Ford in the November election, said the doctors had no choice but to err on the side of the caution.
In "The Epidemic That Never Was," Califano said that faced with the threat of another killer plague with the potential to end millions of lives, the doctors were right to seek an inoculation program. Capital Century
By PAUL MICKLE / The Trentonian
On the cold afternoon of February 5, 1976, an Army recruit told his drill instructor at Fort Dix that he felt tired and weak but not sick enough to see military medics or skip a big training hike.
Within 24 hours, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass., was dead, killed by an influenza not seen since the plague of 1918-19, which took 500,000 American lives and 20 million worldwide.
Two weeks after the recruit's death, health officials disclosed to America that something called "swine flu" had killed Lewis and hospitalized four of his fellow soldiers at the Army base in Burlington County.
The ominous name of the flu alone was enough to touch off civilian fear of an epidemic. And government doctors knew from tests hastily conducted at Dix after Lewis' death that 500 soldiers had caught swine flu without falling ill.
Any flu able to reach that many people so fast was capable of becoming another worldwide plague, the doctors warned, raising these questions:
Does America mobilize for mass inoculations in time to have everybody ready for the next flu season? Or should the country wait to see if the new virus would, as they often do, get stronger to hit harder in the second year?
Thus was born what would become known to some medical historians as a fiasco and to others as perhaps the finest hour of America's public health bureaucracy.
Only young Lewis died from the swine flu itself in 1976. But as the critics are quick to point out, hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus.
According to his sister-in-law, John Kent of President Avenue in Lawrence went to his grave in 1997 believing the shot from the government had killed his first wife, Mary, long before her time.
Among other critics are Arthur M. Silverstein, whose book, "Pure Politics and Impure Science," suggests President Gerald Ford's desire to win the office on his own, as well as the influence of America's big drug manufacturers, figured into the decision to immunize all 220 million Americans.
Still, even the partisan who first branded Ford's program a fiasco, says now that it happened because America's public health establishment identified what easily could have been a new plague and mobilized to beat it amazingly well.
To understand the fear of the time you have to know something about the plague American soldiers seemed to bring home with them after fighting in Europe during World War I.
The Great Plague, as it came to be called, rivaled the horrid Black Death of medieval times in its ability to strike suddenly and take lives swiftly. In addition to the half million in America, it killed 20 million people around the world.
It got its name because it was a brand of flu usually found in domestic pigs and wild swine. It was long thought to have come, like so many flus, out of the Chinese farm country, where people and domestic pigs live closely together.
Recent research has shown, however, that the post-WWI flu was brought to Europe by American troops who had been based in the South before they went to war. Medical detectives, still working on the case in the 1990s, determined that a small group of our soldiers took swine flu to Europe and that it spread to the world from there.
How the swine flu got to Fort Dix in 1976 still hasn't been tracked down. At the time, Dix military doctors knew only that a killer flu had made it to the base and that they were lucky more men hadn't died or been sickened seriously.
Weeks after Lewis died, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and other federal public health officials were meeting in Washington, trying to decide if they should recommend the government start a costly program of mass inoculations.
One doc later told the authors of "The Epidemic that Never Was" that he and others in on the meetings realized there was "nothing in this for the CDC except trouble," especially because a decision had to be made fast to get the immunizations manufactured by the fall.
"...The obvious thing to do was immunize everybody," the doctor said. "But if we tried to do that ... we might have to interrupt a hell of a lot of work on other diseases."
The doctors knew they faced complaints if the epidemic broke out and vaccines weren't ready, as well as criticism if they spent millions inoculating people for a plague that didn't happen.
"As for 'another 1918,' 1 didn't expect that," the doctor continued in the book. "But who could be sure? It would wreck us. Yet, if there weren't a pandemic, we'd be charged with wasting public money, crying wolf and causing all the inconvenience for nothing ... It was a no-win situation."
By mid-March, CDC Director Dr. David J. Sencer had lined up most of the medical establishment behind his plan to call on Ford to support a $135 million program of mass inoculation.
On March 24, one day after a surprise loss to Ronald Reagan in the North Carolina Republican presidential primary, Ford decided to make the announcement to the American public.
Congress still had to appropriate the money, of course, and that wasn't going to be easy. Even before official congressional consideration of the plan was taken up, there were forces arguing against it.
Another big hurdle was the drug makers, who were insisting the government take liability for any harmful side effects from the vaccine. During congressional hearings in the spring and early summer, lawmakers heard some naysayers who noted that the swine flu of last winter never got beyond Dix and that only one death had been reported.
The president and his experts prevailed, however, and on Aug. 12 Congress put up the money to get the job done. The mighty task was put into the hands of a charismatic 33-year-old physician for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Dr. W. Delano Meriwether, a world-class sprinter who still competed in track meets.
Now he was in a race for life, or so he thought. Meriwether was given until the end of the year to get all 220 million Americans inoculated against swine flu.
By Oct. 1, the makers had the serums ready and America's public health bureaucracy had lined up thousands of doctors, nurses and paramedics to give out the shots at medical centers, schools and firehouses across the nation.
Jim Florio, then an ambitious rookie Democratic congressman supporting Jimmy Carter for president, didn't use the situation to take a shot at Ford. He lined up and was the first Jersey resident to take the inoculation.
Within days, however, several people who had taken the shot fell seriously ill. On Oct. 12, three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot, which led to suspension of the program in Pennsylvania.
Jersey pressed on with inoculations, however. Through the fall, even as more bad reports about the side effects of the vaccine came out, thousands of mostly older people in Greater Trenton lined up outside health centers, schools and firehouses to get the shot, sometimes waiting for an hour.
One of them was Lawrence's Mary Kent, a 45-year-old mother of two teenage boys who couldn't tie the ribbons on Christmas presents only days after she got her shot at the Trenton War Memorial in early December.
On Dec. 16, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the government suspended the program, having inoculated 40 million people for a flu that never came.
By year's end, Jack Kent knew his wife was seriously ill and started reading all about the side effects of the president's flu inoculation, especially nerve problems like those his wife was experiencing.
Even before Mary Kent died an invalid at age 51 in January 1982, Kent had joined the hundreds of Americans who filed suit against the government on behalf of children left without a parent due to fatal side effects from the swine flu vaccine.
Kent's sister-in-law, also named Mary Kent, recalled the other day that Jack Kent died in 1997 still angrily blaming the government for giving his wife Guillian-Barre, leading to her death.
The swine flu case of 1976 forever reduced confidence in public health pronouncements from the government and helped foster cynicism about federal policy makers that continues to this day.
Citing the swine flu fiasco, for instance, one scholar recently authored a report suggesting the threat of AIDS has been similarly overblown.
Yet Joseph Califano, one of the earliest to use the word "fiasco" in describing the swine flu affair, came to the conclusion that it all couldn't have been avoided. Califano, whom President Carter appointed Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare after beating Ford in the November election, said the doctors had no choice but to err on the side of the caution.
In "The Epidemic That Never Was," Califano said that faced with the threat of another killer plague with the potential to end millions of lives, the doctors were right to seek an inoculation program. Capital Century
CDC: New Virus Does Not Have Genes That Made 1918 Flu So Deadly
A U.S. health official says the new swine flu virus lacks genes that made the 1918 pandemic strain so deadly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday the new virus is "a very unusual" four-way combination of human genes and genes from swine viruses found in North America, Asia and Europe.
CDC flu chief Dr. Nancy Cox said the good news is "we do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus."
U.S. authorities are pledging to eventually produce enough swine flu vaccine for everyone but the shots won't begin until fall at the earliest.
Scientists are racing to prepare the key ingredient to make a vaccine against the never-before-seen flu strain — if it's ultimately needed.
10 Ways to Prevent Swine Flu
But it will take several months before the first pilot lots begin required human testing to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.
"We think 600 million doses is achievable in a six-month time frame" from that fall start, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Craig Vanderwagen said.
"I don't want anybody to have false expectations. The science is challenging here," Vanderwagen told reporters. "t's a question of can we get the science worked on the specifics of this vaccine."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported 141 cases of swine flu in 19 states. Some 300 schools have closed in communities across the country as health authorities work to contain the virus.
On Friday, the World Health Organization raised its tally of confirmed human cases to 331, up from 257.
Cox said the manufacture of a vaccine for the new virus would not interfere with the manufacture of a seasonal flu vaccine for the upcoming flu season. She said that, if it becomes necessary to make a supplemental swine flu vaccine, that vaccine would be prepared "in parallel" with the seasonal vaccine.
Because of this, world scientists are in agreement, for now, that the seasonal vaccine offers no protection, she said.
"We have no doubt making a successful vaccine is possible," Kieny said.
The reason why the vaccine will take so long to produce is because scientists must first isolate the virus and then adapt it to be made into a vaccine. It is believed that the adapted virus should be ready by the end of May. After this, the virus is injected into eggs where it will grow. From there, scientists will remove it, kill it and then formulate it into a vaccine.
After that, clinical trials in humans must be performed to ensure it's safety and effectiveness. Later, it will need to receive approval by national regulatory authorities, Kieny said.
The WHO is now reporting 11 countries have confirmed cases, including Germany, which confirmed Friday the first case of swine flu transmission within the country. This does not include Hong Kong and Denmark, which confirmed cases mid-morning Friday.
Federal officials had to spend much of Thursday reassuring the public it's still safe to fly and ride public transportation after Vice President Joe Biden said he wouldn't recommend it to his family.
"There's not an increased risk there," Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, said Friday. "If you have the flu or flu-like symptoms, you shouldn't be getting on an airplane or you shouldn't be getting in the subway, but for the general population that's quite fine to do," he said.
Clinics and hospital emergency rooms in New York, California and some other states are seeing a surge in patients with coughs and sneezes that might have been ignored before the outbreak.
Until a vaccine is ready, the government has stockpiled anti-viral medications that can ease flu symptoms or help prevent infection. The medicines are proving effective.
Reassurances from top health officials didn't stop the questions from coming.
An estimated 12,000 people logged onto a Webcast where the government's top emergency officials sought to cut confusion by answering questions straight from the public: Can a factory worker handling parts from Mexico catch the virus? No. Can pets get it? No.
And is washing hands or using those alcohol-based hand gels best? Washing well enough is the real issue, Besser said. He keeps hand gel in his pocket for between-washings but also suggested that people sing "Happy Birthday" as they wash their hands to make sure they've washed long enough to get rid of germs.
The Numbers
Although the CDC has tallied just 141 swine flu cases in the U.S., state health experts say the count is likely much higher. Among the U.S. cases confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California, as well as scattered cases in Kansas, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, Ohio, Maine and South Carolina.
State officials also confirmed cases in Minnesota, Georgia, Delaware, Utah, New Jersey, Virginia and Colorado.
About 300 of the nation's 132,000 schools have closed, while high school, college and professional sporting events have been called off nationwide due to increasing fears.
Nebraska's chief medical officer says federal tests have confirmed the first case of swine flu in the state. It involves a California man in his 40s who's vacationing in the Omaha area. Health officials have said the infection ultimately will be reported as a California case because the CDC counts cases of infectious disease by residence. Nebraska also has suspected cases of the flu.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared a public health emergency after two more probable cases of swine flu were identified in Wisconsin Thursday.
Thirty-nine Marines were confined to their base in California after one came down with the disease.
A pediatrician in Washington state saw 22 patients with flu-like symptoms before she developed serious symptoms and went to the emergency room. The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it continues to find people who it considers to be probable swine flu cases. It is investigating three new possible cases.
Illinois health officials say the number of probable swine flu cases in the state has more than doubled to 41.
A security aide helping with arrangements during President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico became sick with flu-like symptoms and three members of his family later contracted probable swine flu, the White House said Thursday.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs remained steadfast that the president was never at risk of contracting the flu.
It was also learned that a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family and died Monday night in Houston, spent a day with his family shopping at a huge Houston indoor mall the day before he began to show symptoms, said Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, who interviewed the boy's family.
Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania will hold a separate graduation for 22 students who recently returned from Mexico.
So far, the students are in good health, but school officials fear they could have been exposed to the swine flu. Commencement falls in the middle of an incubation period during which the students have been advised to limit contact with others. The students were in Mexico completing their student-teacher requirements.
Even though scientists say the new virus is more pig than human, the WHO said it plans to no longer call it "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the risk from pigs and eating pork. Health officials have stressed repeatedly that the disease is being transmitted human to human and that there is no risk from eating pork.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says the name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs.
He told reporters in Geneva "we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A."
Several countries have put a ban a pork imports. Hog futures fell for the sixth time in seven sessions on Thursday because of continued speculation that people will stop eating pork.
On Wednesday, the WHO boosted its alert level to one level below a full-fledged pandemic. The new Phase 5 alert, indicating a pandemic could be imminent as the virus spread further in Europe, prompted Mexico to announce the partial May 1-5 shutdown, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova said late Wednesday.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, has also spread to Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Spain, Israel and Austria.
The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.
Where Did Virus Originate?
Medical detectives have not pinpointed where the outbreak began. Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever since.
California is now being eyed as the potential source of the virus.
China has gone on a rhetorical offensive to squash any suggestion it's the source of the swine flu after some Mexican officials were quoted in media reports in the past week saying the virus came from Asia and the governor of Mexico's Veracruz state was quoted as saying the virus specifically came from China.
Swine Flu Timeline
One of the deaths in Mexico directly attributed to swine flu was that of a Bangladeshi immigrant, said Mexico's chief epidemiologist Miguel Angel Lezana.
Lezana said the unnamed Bangladeshi had lived in Mexico for six months and was recently visited by a brother who arrived from Bangladesh or Pakistan and was reportedly ill. The brother has left Mexico and his whereabouts are unknown, Lezana said. He suggested the brother could have brought the virus from Pakistan or Bangladesh.
By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and where small clinics provide the only health care.
The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms left them struggling to breathe.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. FOX
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday the new virus is "a very unusual" four-way combination of human genes and genes from swine viruses found in North America, Asia and Europe.
CDC flu chief Dr. Nancy Cox said the good news is "we do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus."
U.S. authorities are pledging to eventually produce enough swine flu vaccine for everyone but the shots won't begin until fall at the earliest.
Scientists are racing to prepare the key ingredient to make a vaccine against the never-before-seen flu strain — if it's ultimately needed.
10 Ways to Prevent Swine Flu
But it will take several months before the first pilot lots begin required human testing to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.
"We think 600 million doses is achievable in a six-month time frame" from that fall start, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Craig Vanderwagen said.
"I don't want anybody to have false expectations. The science is challenging here," Vanderwagen told reporters. "t's a question of can we get the science worked on the specifics of this vaccine."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported 141 cases of swine flu in 19 states. Some 300 schools have closed in communities across the country as health authorities work to contain the virus.
On Friday, the World Health Organization raised its tally of confirmed human cases to 331, up from 257.
Cox said the manufacture of a vaccine for the new virus would not interfere with the manufacture of a seasonal flu vaccine for the upcoming flu season. She said that, if it becomes necessary to make a supplemental swine flu vaccine, that vaccine would be prepared "in parallel" with the seasonal vaccine.
Because of this, world scientists are in agreement, for now, that the seasonal vaccine offers no protection, she said.
"We have no doubt making a successful vaccine is possible," Kieny said.
The reason why the vaccine will take so long to produce is because scientists must first isolate the virus and then adapt it to be made into a vaccine. It is believed that the adapted virus should be ready by the end of May. After this, the virus is injected into eggs where it will grow. From there, scientists will remove it, kill it and then formulate it into a vaccine.
After that, clinical trials in humans must be performed to ensure it's safety and effectiveness. Later, it will need to receive approval by national regulatory authorities, Kieny said.
The WHO is now reporting 11 countries have confirmed cases, including Germany, which confirmed Friday the first case of swine flu transmission within the country. This does not include Hong Kong and Denmark, which confirmed cases mid-morning Friday.
Federal officials had to spend much of Thursday reassuring the public it's still safe to fly and ride public transportation after Vice President Joe Biden said he wouldn't recommend it to his family.
"There's not an increased risk there," Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, said Friday. "If you have the flu or flu-like symptoms, you shouldn't be getting on an airplane or you shouldn't be getting in the subway, but for the general population that's quite fine to do," he said.
Clinics and hospital emergency rooms in New York, California and some other states are seeing a surge in patients with coughs and sneezes that might have been ignored before the outbreak.
Until a vaccine is ready, the government has stockpiled anti-viral medications that can ease flu symptoms or help prevent infection. The medicines are proving effective.
Reassurances from top health officials didn't stop the questions from coming.
An estimated 12,000 people logged onto a Webcast where the government's top emergency officials sought to cut confusion by answering questions straight from the public: Can a factory worker handling parts from Mexico catch the virus? No. Can pets get it? No.
And is washing hands or using those alcohol-based hand gels best? Washing well enough is the real issue, Besser said. He keeps hand gel in his pocket for between-washings but also suggested that people sing "Happy Birthday" as they wash their hands to make sure they've washed long enough to get rid of germs.
The Numbers
Although the CDC has tallied just 141 swine flu cases in the U.S., state health experts say the count is likely much higher. Among the U.S. cases confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California, as well as scattered cases in Kansas, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, Ohio, Maine and South Carolina.
State officials also confirmed cases in Minnesota, Georgia, Delaware, Utah, New Jersey, Virginia and Colorado.
About 300 of the nation's 132,000 schools have closed, while high school, college and professional sporting events have been called off nationwide due to increasing fears.
Nebraska's chief medical officer says federal tests have confirmed the first case of swine flu in the state. It involves a California man in his 40s who's vacationing in the Omaha area. Health officials have said the infection ultimately will be reported as a California case because the CDC counts cases of infectious disease by residence. Nebraska also has suspected cases of the flu.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared a public health emergency after two more probable cases of swine flu were identified in Wisconsin Thursday.
Thirty-nine Marines were confined to their base in California after one came down with the disease.
A pediatrician in Washington state saw 22 patients with flu-like symptoms before she developed serious symptoms and went to the emergency room. The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it continues to find people who it considers to be probable swine flu cases. It is investigating three new possible cases.
Illinois health officials say the number of probable swine flu cases in the state has more than doubled to 41.
A security aide helping with arrangements during President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico became sick with flu-like symptoms and three members of his family later contracted probable swine flu, the White House said Thursday.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs remained steadfast that the president was never at risk of contracting the flu.
It was also learned that a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family and died Monday night in Houston, spent a day with his family shopping at a huge Houston indoor mall the day before he began to show symptoms, said Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, who interviewed the boy's family.
Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania will hold a separate graduation for 22 students who recently returned from Mexico.
So far, the students are in good health, but school officials fear they could have been exposed to the swine flu. Commencement falls in the middle of an incubation period during which the students have been advised to limit contact with others. The students were in Mexico completing their student-teacher requirements.
Even though scientists say the new virus is more pig than human, the WHO said it plans to no longer call it "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the risk from pigs and eating pork. Health officials have stressed repeatedly that the disease is being transmitted human to human and that there is no risk from eating pork.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says the name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs.
He told reporters in Geneva "we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A."
Several countries have put a ban a pork imports. Hog futures fell for the sixth time in seven sessions on Thursday because of continued speculation that people will stop eating pork.
On Wednesday, the WHO boosted its alert level to one level below a full-fledged pandemic. The new Phase 5 alert, indicating a pandemic could be imminent as the virus spread further in Europe, prompted Mexico to announce the partial May 1-5 shutdown, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova said late Wednesday.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, has also spread to Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Spain, Israel and Austria.
The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.
Where Did Virus Originate?
Medical detectives have not pinpointed where the outbreak began. Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever since.
California is now being eyed as the potential source of the virus.
China has gone on a rhetorical offensive to squash any suggestion it's the source of the swine flu after some Mexican officials were quoted in media reports in the past week saying the virus came from Asia and the governor of Mexico's Veracruz state was quoted as saying the virus specifically came from China.
Swine Flu Timeline
One of the deaths in Mexico directly attributed to swine flu was that of a Bangladeshi immigrant, said Mexico's chief epidemiologist Miguel Angel Lezana.
Lezana said the unnamed Bangladeshi had lived in Mexico for six months and was recently visited by a brother who arrived from Bangladesh or Pakistan and was reportedly ill. The brother has left Mexico and his whereabouts are unknown, Lezana said. He suggested the brother could have brought the virus from Pakistan or Bangladesh.
By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and where small clinics provide the only health care.
The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms left them struggling to breathe.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. FOX
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Swine Flu. Comparative Statistical Data. Resistance.
CDC site
Influenza A (H1N1) 0.4% resistant
Influenza A (H3N2) 100% resistant
Swine flu spreads in 10 US states, Europe
WASHINGTON – Virulent swine flu spread to 10 U.S. states from coast to coast Wednesday and swept deeper into Europe, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas. Total American cases surged to nearly 100, and Obama said wider school closings might be necessary.
The World Health Organization said the outbreak is moving closer to becoming a full-scale pandemic.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's top flu expert, told reporters in Geneva that the latest developments are moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission. That's just one step below level 6, a full-fledged pandemic.
In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."
Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in Atlanta that there are confirmed cases now in ten states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while a single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.
In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined on their California base until tests come back.
Marine General James Conway told a Pentagon briefing an initial test indicated the sick Marine — who was not identified — might have swine flu but his illness did not appear life-threatening.
Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico, to Brownsville on April 4 and was brought to Houston after becoming ill. He died Monday night.
"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness.
Those sentiments were echoed by the Senate's top Republican. "This is a very worrisome situation and we're all following it very closely," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds."
Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.
The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.
In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus."
"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from it."
People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.
Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported four cases on Wednesday.
New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.
Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."
He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools — most prominently in New York City — already have followed.
"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be," Obama advised.
He advised people to take their own precautions — washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.
Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.
CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home — but now also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.
Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution," but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.
Human Infections with Swine Influenza A Virus:
On April 17, 2009, CDC and the California Department of Public Health determined that two cases of febrile respiratory illness occurring in children who reside in adjacent counties in southern California were caused by infection with a swine influenza A (H1N1) virus. On April 22, CDC confirmed an additional three cases of swine influenza among residents of the two counties, two adults and one adolescent. All case-patients had symptoms of ILI. Additional testing at CDC identified swine influenza A (H1N1). All five had self-limited ILI and have recovered; one required hospitalization. Two additional cases were identified from Texas and confirmed as swine influenza at CDC on April 23.
Of the five case-patients with swine influenza A (H1N1) infection from California, two are a father and daughter and other than the father-daughter, the five case-patients have no known epidemiologic link or contact with pigs. The two new case-patients from Texas are schoolmates and an epidemiologic investigation is currently underway.
The viruses from all seven cases are closely related genetically and contain a unique combination of gene segments that have not been reported in the United States or elsewhere. Viruses from 6 cases are all resistant to amantadine and rimantidine and sensitive to zanamivir and oseltamivir, and sensitivity testing is underway for the remaining virus.
Vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine containing human influenza A (H1N1) would not be expected to provide protection against swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
Additional information on swine influenza is available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/index.htm
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Fear Mongering. New Tactic.
I know that I have been somewhat to blame over the last couple of days for passing on the information about Swine Flu. However, is it interesting in a disturbing sort of way to anyone else that the information about this strain of flu is being blown out of proportion?!
Look at the center of this quote from an article today on Yahoo News
"On Monday morning, a 5.6 earthquake in Mexico added to that country's woes, where the death count from suspected swine flu cases had climbed to 152 and more than 1,600 people across the nation had fallen ill. So far, laboratories have confirmed only 26 of Mexico's cases, including seven deaths, as swine flu. In an effort to stem further spread of the apparently deadly disease"
Did you notice how low the numbers actually are (bold added)? It's kind of like the word "terrorist", or "terrorism" that was used in our face since 2001 to instill fear so that certain programs could happen and be justified. Now, instead of the "terrorism" threat, we have a health scare that is putting people on edge around the globe. What is it that this new fear tactic is covering up? What is actually going on?
Look at the center of this quote from an article today on Yahoo News
"On Monday morning, a 5.6 earthquake in Mexico added to that country's woes, where the death count from suspected swine flu cases had climbed to 152 and more than 1,600 people across the nation had fallen ill. So far, laboratories have confirmed only 26 of Mexico's cases, including seven deaths, as swine flu. In an effort to stem further spread of the apparently deadly disease"
Did you notice how low the numbers actually are (bold added)? It's kind of like the word "terrorist", or "terrorism" that was used in our face since 2001 to instill fear so that certain programs could happen and be justified. Now, instead of the "terrorism" threat, we have a health scare that is putting people on edge around the globe. What is it that this new fear tactic is covering up? What is actually going on?
Is Swine Flu in Utah?
Questions and answers about swine flu in Utah
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/28/2009 07:44:41 AM MDT
Utah has no confirmed or even suspected cases of swine flu as of Monday evening. But health officials, hospitals and others are preparing for possible cases. Here's what you need to know, from the Utah Department of Health and other responders.
How worried should I be about the swine flu breaking out in Utah?
Utahns should be highly alert for symptoms -- particularly if you have recently traveled to Mexico or had contact with someone who has -- but otherwise carry on with their normal lives. "What people don't acknowledge is we have deaths from seasonal influenza every year," said David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health.
Is it inevitable that Utah will have cases?
It's "likely," Sundwall said, adding: "I'll be surprised if it doesn't show up here." In Idaho, four reports of people with flulike illnesses were being investigated Monday, according to the state Department of Health and Welfare. One person is from Fremont County, two are from Madison County, and the fourth is from Ada County.
Are the symptoms of swine flu different than the seasonal flu?
Not really. Symptoms of either flu may include fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat or cough; some patients may also have nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen more severe diarrhea or vomiting, or both, in some cases of swine flu.
How do I avoid getting the flu?
Avoid close contact with people who are coughing or ill. Wash your hands frequently. If you're not sick, do not seek anti-viral medication from your doctor unless you have symptoms, the Utah Department of Health urges.
Will my seasonal flu shot protect me?
No.
What should I do if I feel ill?
» Stay home from work or school to avoid spreading the infection.
» Cover your cough with your shirt sleeve. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
» Seek medical care for severe symptoms; clinicians will collect samples for testing at the Utah Public Health Laboratory.
Do Utah's hog farms make the states' residents more vulnerable to swine flu?
No, because people who have the virus generally have not had contact with pigs, said Tom Hudachko, state health department spokesman.
Leonard Blackham, Utah commissioner of Agriculture and Food, added there is no sign that Utah hogs are infected with the new flu, and a network of state and private veterinarians will continue to monitor the health of farm animals.
Because pigs can catch the flu from humans, he added, producers are being urged to keep ill employees away from animals.
The high rate of international travel to and from Utah may be a more problematic factor, Sundwall said.
Can I catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine flu viruses are not transmitted by food. And cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills viruses and foodborne pathogens, Blackham said.
What is Utah doing to prepare for possible cases?
» Acquiring about 60,000 doses of anti-viral medication from the Strategic National Stockpile, bringing Utah's arsenal up to more than 100,000. Tamiflu and Relenza appear to affect the symptoms of the swine flu virus.
» Health and hospital officials are urging prevention and planning care for possible swine flu patients, based on existing detailed pandemic flu plans.
» Infectious disease experts and other clinicians at Intermountain Medical Center, Utah's largest Trauma 1 center, met Monday morning to discuss how to respond to the nation's declaration of a public health emergency and to prepare for potential patients.
» As a precaution, patients coming to any Intermountain Healthcare hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley -- LDS Hospital, Alta View Hospital and The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital -- are being asked to wear a mask if they have respiratory illnesses or symptoms, including coughing. Visitors with such symptoms are being asked to stay away.
» University Hospital alerted staff to be on the look out for symptoms, but had not seen an influx of patients with apparent swine flu symptoms. MountainStar hospitals, including St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, also are preparing to treat possible swine flu patients and are isolating patients with infectious symptoms in the meantime.
Is Salt Lake City International Airport taking precautions?
Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said a "very small" number of Customs officials and airline agents in the International terminal are voluntarily wearing masks and gloves to protect themselves.
She said as of Sunday, Delta Airlines stopped its last nonstop flight to Mexico City, because of a seasonal lull in travel. The airport still has 14 weekly nonstop flights to San Jose, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, Mexico. That is 1,700 seats each week, Gann said.
"Our exposure to direct Mexico flights is minimal," she said.
Is the outbreak having an affect on Utahns' travel plans?
Not yet. Morris Murdock Travel had only four cancellations Monday out of almost 1,000 people who had booked trips to Mexican resorts. A handful of customers switched destinations from Mexico to Hawaii or the Caribbean, said spokesman Jim Barsch. Mexico is the second largest source of foreign tourists to Utah, so industry officials are watching reports closely, but trying not to create a panic. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has not altered plans for a May 11-14 trade mission to Israel.
Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taking any precautions for missionaries in Mexico? Are all missionaries well?
Missionaries are safe but church authorities have canceled all meetings until further notice. LDS leaders have also advised missionaries and members in Mexico City to follow basic sanitary precautions as a guard against infections. LDS Church records show 1,121,933 members in Mexico and 21 missions with between 75 and 150 missionaries each.
Where can I learn more?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer more information at www.cdc.gov/swineflu. Utah has developed its own site at health.utah.gov/epi/SwineFlu/.
Tribune reporters Julia Lyon, Jason Bergreen, Mike Gorrell and Peggy Fletcher Stack contributed to this report.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/28/2009 07:44:41 AM MDT
Utah has no confirmed or even suspected cases of swine flu as of Monday evening. But health officials, hospitals and others are preparing for possible cases. Here's what you need to know, from the Utah Department of Health and other responders.
How worried should I be about the swine flu breaking out in Utah?
Utahns should be highly alert for symptoms -- particularly if you have recently traveled to Mexico or had contact with someone who has -- but otherwise carry on with their normal lives. "What people don't acknowledge is we have deaths from seasonal influenza every year," said David Sundwall, executive director of the Utah Department of Health.
Is it inevitable that Utah will have cases?
It's "likely," Sundwall said, adding: "I'll be surprised if it doesn't show up here." In Idaho, four reports of people with flulike illnesses were being investigated Monday, according to the state Department of Health and Welfare. One person is from Fremont County, two are from Madison County, and the fourth is from Ada County.
Are the symptoms of swine flu different than the seasonal flu?
Not really. Symptoms of either flu may include fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat or cough; some patients may also have nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen more severe diarrhea or vomiting, or both, in some cases of swine flu.
How do I avoid getting the flu?
Avoid close contact with people who are coughing or ill. Wash your hands frequently. If you're not sick, do not seek anti-viral medication from your doctor unless you have symptoms, the Utah Department of Health urges.
Will my seasonal flu shot protect me?
No.
What should I do if I feel ill?
» Stay home from work or school to avoid spreading the infection.
» Cover your cough with your shirt sleeve. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
» Seek medical care for severe symptoms; clinicians will collect samples for testing at the Utah Public Health Laboratory.
Do Utah's hog farms make the states' residents more vulnerable to swine flu?
No, because people who have the virus generally have not had contact with pigs, said Tom Hudachko, state health department spokesman.
Leonard Blackham, Utah commissioner of Agriculture and Food, added there is no sign that Utah hogs are infected with the new flu, and a network of state and private veterinarians will continue to monitor the health of farm animals.
Because pigs can catch the flu from humans, he added, producers are being urged to keep ill employees away from animals.
The high rate of international travel to and from Utah may be a more problematic factor, Sundwall said.
Can I catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine flu viruses are not transmitted by food. And cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills viruses and foodborne pathogens, Blackham said.
What is Utah doing to prepare for possible cases?
» Acquiring about 60,000 doses of anti-viral medication from the Strategic National Stockpile, bringing Utah's arsenal up to more than 100,000. Tamiflu and Relenza appear to affect the symptoms of the swine flu virus.
» Health and hospital officials are urging prevention and planning care for possible swine flu patients, based on existing detailed pandemic flu plans.
» Infectious disease experts and other clinicians at Intermountain Medical Center, Utah's largest Trauma 1 center, met Monday morning to discuss how to respond to the nation's declaration of a public health emergency and to prepare for potential patients.
» As a precaution, patients coming to any Intermountain Healthcare hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley -- LDS Hospital, Alta View Hospital and The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital -- are being asked to wear a mask if they have respiratory illnesses or symptoms, including coughing. Visitors with such symptoms are being asked to stay away.
» University Hospital alerted staff to be on the look out for symptoms, but had not seen an influx of patients with apparent swine flu symptoms. MountainStar hospitals, including St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, also are preparing to treat possible swine flu patients and are isolating patients with infectious symptoms in the meantime.
Is Salt Lake City International Airport taking precautions?
Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said a "very small" number of Customs officials and airline agents in the International terminal are voluntarily wearing masks and gloves to protect themselves.
She said as of Sunday, Delta Airlines stopped its last nonstop flight to Mexico City, because of a seasonal lull in travel. The airport still has 14 weekly nonstop flights to San Jose, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, Mexico. That is 1,700 seats each week, Gann said.
"Our exposure to direct Mexico flights is minimal," she said.
Is the outbreak having an affect on Utahns' travel plans?
Not yet. Morris Murdock Travel had only four cancellations Monday out of almost 1,000 people who had booked trips to Mexican resorts. A handful of customers switched destinations from Mexico to Hawaii or the Caribbean, said spokesman Jim Barsch. Mexico is the second largest source of foreign tourists to Utah, so industry officials are watching reports closely, but trying not to create a panic. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has not altered plans for a May 11-14 trade mission to Israel.
Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taking any precautions for missionaries in Mexico? Are all missionaries well?
Missionaries are safe but church authorities have canceled all meetings until further notice. LDS leaders have also advised missionaries and members in Mexico City to follow basic sanitary precautions as a guard against infections. LDS Church records show 1,121,933 members in Mexico and 21 missions with between 75 and 150 missionaries each.
Where can I learn more?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer more information at www.cdc.gov/swineflu. Utah has developed its own site at health.utah.gov/epi/SwineFlu/.
Tribune reporters Julia Lyon, Jason Bergreen, Mike Gorrell and Peggy Fletcher Stack contributed to this report.
Swine Flu Update.
Swine Influenza (Flu)
Swine Flu website last updated April 28, 2009 11:00 AM ET
U.S. Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
(As of April 28, 2009 11:00 AM ET)
California 10 cases
Kansas 2 cases
New York City 45 cases
Ohio 1 case
Texas 6 cases
TOTAL COUNT 64 cases
The human swine flu outbreak continues to grow in the United States and internationally. Today, CDC reports additional cases of confirmed swine influenza and a number of hospitalizations of swine flu patients. Internationally, the situation is more serious too, with additional countries reporting confirmed cases of swine flu. In response to the intensifying outbreak, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 4. A Phase 4 alert is characterized by confirmed person-to-person spread of a new influenza virus able to cause “community-level” outbreaks.” The increase in the pandemic alert phase indicates that the likelihood of a pandemic has increased.
CDC has activated its emergency operations center to coordinate the agency’s emergency response. CDC ’s goals are to reduce transmission and illness severity, and provide information to help health care providers, public health officials and the public address the challenges posed by this swine influenza virus. Yesterday, CDC issued a travel warning recommending that people avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. CDC continues to issue interim guidance daily on the website and through health alert network notices. CDC’s Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is releasing one-quarter of its antiviral drugs, personal protective equipment, and respiratory protection devices to help states respond to the outbreak. The swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. This is a rapidly evolving situation and CDC will provide updated guidance and new information as it becomes available.
WebMD...
What is swine flu?
Like people, pigs can get influenza (flu), but swine flu viruses aren't the same as human flu viruses. Swine flu doesn't often infect people, and the rare human cases that have occurred in the past have mainly affected people who had direct contact with pigs. But the current swine flu outbreak is different. It's caused by a new swine flu virus that has spread from person to person -- and it's happening among people who haven't had any contact with pigs.
What are swine flu symptoms?
Symptoms of swine flu are like regular flu symptoms and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. Those symptoms can also be caused by many other conditions, and that means that you and your doctor can't know, just based on your symptoms, if you've got swine flu. It takes a lab test to tell whether it's swine flu or some other condition.
If I think I have swine flu, what should I do? When should I see my doctor?
If you have flu symptoms, stay home, and when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue. Afterward, throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands. That will help prevent your flu from spreading.
If you've got flu symptoms, and you've recently been to a high-risk area like Mexico, CDC officials recommend that you see your doctor. If you have flu symptoms but you haven't been in a high-risk area, you can still see a doctor -- that's your call.
Keep in mind that your doctor will not be able to determine whether you have swine flu, but he or she would take a sample from you and send it to a state health department lab for testing to see if it's swine flu. If your doctor suspects swine flu, he or she would be able to write you a prescription for Tamiflu or Relenza. Those drugs may not be required; U.S. swine flu patients have made a full recovery without it.
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