DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum More cases of swine flu reported; WHO warns of 'health emergency'

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu/index.html

(CNN) -- A potentially deadly new strain of the swine flu virus cropped up in more places in the United States and Mexico on Saturday, in what the World Health Organization called "a public health emergency of international concern."

The most recent reports Saturday afternoon were of two confirmed cases of the virus in Kansas -- bringing the number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11.

Those joined nine confirmed cases in Texas and California and an apparent outbreak at a private school in New York City, where officials say eight children likely have the virus.

Mexican health officials say 81 deaths are now "likely linked" to the swine flu virus.

President Felipe Calderon on Saturday issued an executive decree detailing emergency powers of the Ministry of Health, according to the president's office.

The order gives the ministry with the authority to isolate sick patients, inspect travelers' luggage and their vehicles and conduct house inspections, the statement said.

The government also has the authority to prevent public gatherings, shut down public venues and regulate air, sea and overland travel.

The WHO's Gregory Hartl said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains.

"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus," Hartl told CNN.

In Mexico, otherwise young and healthy people have been hit by the virus -- "one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us," he said.

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities because of the virus, and the country's National Health Council said all Saturday's soccer games would be played without public audiences. Watch an alarmed Mexico City react with face masks, cancellations »

WHO has sent experts to Mexico at the request of the country's government, Chan said.

Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, was expected to officially announce the two cases later Saturday, a written statement from the state said.

All of the eight U.S. patients in Texas and California have recovered, Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday. Two of the cases were in Texas, near San Antonio, and six of the cases were in southern California, the CDC said.

U.S. health officials said Friday they were concerned that some cases of the swine flu virus, which has infected eight people in the United States, matched samples of a virus that may have killed at least 68 people in Mexico. Watch for more on the U.S. cases »

More than 1,000 people have been sickened in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of those patients have swine influenza, the country's health minister, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, said.

U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus.

On Saturday, New York's Bureau of Communicable Diseases said preliminary tests from a Queens school suggest that eight out of the nine cases of the virus found there are probably swine flu.

Dr. Don Weiss said the samples will be sent to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine the subtype of the strain. The results will likely come back either Sunday or Monday. Watch news conference with NYC health department spokesman »

He said the samples, which were taken from oral and nasal swabs from nine students at St. Francis Preparatory School, came back positive for "Type A" flu and the tests will need to determine the samples' subtype -- which could be swine flu.

He said up to 200 students at the school reported feeling ill.

"What's concerning about this is, first, that it's likely swine flu; second is that at this time it is spreading from person to person," Weiss said. Watch author John Barry discuss potential for a pandemic »

When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off.

The people sickened in Kansas are a man who traveled to Mexico on business and his wife, Eberhart-Phillips said. The man had flu-like symptoms when he returned and went to his doctor, and his wife got sick about three days later, officials said.

Neither of them was hospitalized, and one is still sick, he said.

The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines by Saturday afternoon.

The Canadian Public Health Agency had issued a travel health notice, saying, "The Public Health Agency of Canada is tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico." Watch CBC report on Canadian microbiologists' concerns »

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said.

Besser advised people with flu-like symptoms to stay home from work or school and to see a doctor.

Always something new out there about to kill us... sars, bird flu, mad cow... always something...

Dude this is more serious than the normal "flu" because it's a mutated strain of the virus....this is actually how it will start...this is how the big plagues in the past started....if this strain is more virulent..it's going to cause a lot MORE deaths if not contained. As you know there is no cure for a virus. so this makes sense. who knows how many more would be infected right now if they weren't doing what they are right now.

These numbers sound small right now because of what they did. Sometimes nothing helps if they didn't start quarantine in time.

In my emerging viruses class they told us they are predicting the next big pendamic to start from pigs to human interaction. They moniter pig farms like crazy cuz of this. Bird to human is also a big possiblity as most of you know already how china had the bird flu prb.

What I don't get is why 86 cases in Mexico have been fatal, whereas in the US, none of the cases (yet) have been fatal. They have all recovered, or are currently recovering.

Could it be that the people in Mexico who have died from this had pre-existing health conditions? Or perhaps they were very young or very old?

I'll believe in these scares when at least ONE of them comes true.

Don't pig out.

I'm not leaving the house until they get this cleared up.

Good plan! I'll call the doc right now.

Guys the media is making it worse then it is....the mortality rate of this strain is weak...which is a good thing....
Would u rather they take precaution and jump on this thing early so people don't die like in the US? or would u find out a month later that 1000 ppl got infected and they all died including few frm US? and they only started warning you once this thing had gotten out of control?

The news is supposed to just warn you to look out for symtoms so that you can do what needs to be done.

Here is some more info...it's all about having the knowledge so IF you come across this thing u know whats up. It's not meant to scare you. So Michelle you can leave your house

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090427/hl_time/08599189402900
Swine Flu: 5 Things You Need to Know About the Outbreak
By BRYAN WALSH Bryan Walsh – 28 mins ago
Concern that the world could be on the brink of the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years escalated Sunday as France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Spain reported potential new cases in which people had been infected with swine flu and Canada confirmed several new cases. In the U.S., where 20 such infections have been confirmed, federal health officials declared a public-health emergency and are preparing to distribute to state and local agenciesa quarter of the country's 50 million-dose stockpile of antiviral drugs. Meanwhile, in hard-hit Mexico, where more than 80 people have died from what is believed to be swine flu, the government closed all public schools and canceled hundreds of public events in Mexico City.


Though the World Health Organization (WHO) is referring to the situation as a "public-health emergency of international concern," the apparent emergence in several countries of an entirely new strain of H1N1 flu virus has led some scientists to believe that it is only a matter of time before the WHO declares pandemic status, a move that could prompt travel bans to infected countries. "We are clearly seeing wide spread," says Michael Osterholm, a pandemic risk expert who runs the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. "There is no question." (Read about the vaccine being prepared in case of a pandemic.)


Health officials in Washington were quick to point out Sunday that none of the 20 cases identified in the U.S. so far has been fatal; all but one of the victims has recovered without needing to be hospitalized. Officials also noted that only one American has been infected so far who had not recently traveled to Mexico - a woman in Kansas got sick after her husband returned from a business trip in that country, where he became ill - but that could change as more intensive disease surveillance begins. "As we continue to look for more cases, I expect we're going to find them," said acting Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Richard Besser.


In the U.S., where cases have also been found in California, Texas, and New York City, the declaration of a public-health emergency is part of what federal officials termed an "aggressive response" to the outbreaks. In addition to releasing from the national stockpile some 12.5 million doses of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza - which scientists say has so far been effective against the H1N1 swine flu virus - the Department of Homeland Security will begin "passive surveillance" to screen people entering the U.S. Any traveler coming from a country with a confirmed human swine flu infection will be questioned, checked for symptoms and potentially isolated if they are found ill. Though the CDC has issued public warnings about the more serious outbreak in Mexico, there are no recommendations from Washington against traveling to the neighboring country.


That is in contrast to the more extreme actions of some other governments, including Hong Kong, where officials on Sunday urged residents to avoid going to Mexico. Hong Kong officials also ordered the immediate detention in a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever above 100.4 F, respiratory symptoms and a history of traveling over the past seven days to a city with a confirmed case of swine flu infection.


But Washington officials Sunday did their best not to overstate the situation and emphasized that their response wasn't out of the ordinary. "I wish we could call it declaration of emergency preparedness, because that's really what it is in this context," said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. "We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."


See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.


See TIME's pictures of the week.

Right now health officials around the world are trying to take precautions without inciting panic. Here are just a few of the questions facing them - and ultimately, us as well:


1. Is this a flu pandemic?


The influenza virus is constantly mutating. That's why we can't get full immunity to the flu, the way we can to diseases like chicken pox, because there are multiple strains of the flu virus and they change from year to year. However, even though the virus makes us sick, our immune systems can usually muster enough of a response so that the flu is rarely fatal for healthy people.


But every once in awhile, the virus shifts its genetic structure so much that our immune systems offer no protection whatsoever. (This usually happens when a flu virus found in animals - like the avian flu still circulating in Asia - swaps genes with other viruses in a process called reassortment, and jumps to human beings.) A flu pandemic occurs when a new flu virus emerges for which humans have little or no immunity and then spreads easily from person to person around the world. In the 20th century we had two mild flu pandemics, in 1968 and 1957, and the severe "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 40 to 50 million people worldwide.


The WHO has the responsibility of declaring when a new flu pandemic is underway, and to simplify the process, the U.N. body has established six pandemic phases. Thanks to H5N1 avian flu, which has killed 257 people since 2003 but doesn't spread very well from one human to another, we're currently at phase 3. If the WHO upgraded that status to phase 4, which is marked by a new virus that begins to pass easily enough from person to person that we can detect community-sized outbreaks, such a move would effectively mean that we've got a pandemic on our hands.


The H1N1 swine flu virus has already been identified as a new virus, with genes from human and avian flus as well as the swine variety. And since it is apparently causing large-scale outbreaks in Mexico, along with separate confirmed cases in the U.S. and Canada and suspected cases in other countries, it would seem that we've already met the criteria for phase 4. But though an emergency committee met on April 25 to evaluate the situation, the WHO hasn't made the pandemic declaration yet. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's interim assistant director-general for health, security and environment, said on Sunday that its experts "would like a little bit more information and a little bit more time to consider this." The committee is set to meet again by April 28 at the latest.


As health officials have repeatedly emphasized, with good reason, the swine flu situation is evolving rapidly, and more lab tests are needed to ascertain exactly what is going on in Mexico and elsewhere. "We want to make sure we're on solid ground," said Fukuda, a highly respected former CDC official and flu expert.


2. What will happen if this outbreak gets classified as a pandemic?


Moving the world to pandemic phase 4 would be the signal for serious containment actions to be taken on the national and international level. Given that these actions would have major implications for the global economy, not to mention the effects of the public fear that would ensue, there is concern that the WHO may be considering politics along with science. "What the WHO did makes no sense," says Osterholm. "In a potential pandemic, you need to have the WHO be beyond question, and (April 25) was not a good day for them."


Of course, declaring a pandemic isn't a decision that should be taken lightly. For the WHO, phase 4 might trigger an attempt to keep the virus from spreading by instituting strict quarantines and blanketing infected areas with antivirals. But we appear to have missed the opportunity to contain the disease at its source since the virus is already crossing borders with ease. "We cannot stop this at the border," said Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim director for science and public health. "We don't think that we can quench this in Mexico if it's in many communities now."


See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

See TIME's pictures of the week.

That would leave the WHO and individual countries to fall back on damage control, using antivirals and old-fashioned infection control - like closing schools, limiting public gatherings and even restricting travel - to slow the spread of the virus. But such efforts would likely inflict serious damage on an already faltering global economy - and the truth is, we don't know how well those methods will work.

3. Why have the U.S. cases been so much milder than the ones in Mexico?

This is the question that has health officials from Geneva to Washington puzzled. In Mexico, swine flu has caused severe respiratory disease in a number of patients - and even more worryingly, has killed the sort of young and healthy people who can normally shrug off the flu. (Fueling such concerns is the fact that similar age groups died in unusually high numbers during the 1918 pandemic.) Yet the cases in the U.S. have all been mild and likely wouldn't have even garnered much attention if doctors hadn't begun actively looking for swine flu in recent days. "What we're seeing in this country so far is not anywhere near the severity of what we're hearing about in Mexico," said the CDC's Besser. "We need to understand that."

Some of the difference may be due to the fact that Mexico has apparently been grappling with swine flu for weeks longer than the U.S. As doctors across the U.S. begin checking patients with respiratory symptoms for swine flu, CDC officials expect to see more severe cases in the U.S. as well - and as better epidemiological work is done in Mexico, we'll probably hear about more mild cases there too. Right now, however, the true severity of the H1N1 swine flu virus is still an open question, whose answer could change over time. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic began with a fairly mild wave of infections in the spring, but the virus returned a few months later in a far more virulent form. That could happen with the current swine flu as well. "It's quite possible for this virus to evolve," said Fukuda. "When viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people."

4. How ready is the U.S. - and the world - to respond to a flu pandemic?

In some ways, the world is better prepared for a flu pandemic today than it has ever been. Thanks to concerns over H5N1 avian flu, the WHO, the U.S. and countries around the world have stockpiled millions of doses of antivirals that can help fight swine flu as well as other strains of influenza. The U.S. has a detailed pandemic preparation plan that was drafted under former President George W. Bush. Many other countries have similar plans. SARS and bird flu have given international health officials useful practice runs for dealing with a real pandemic. We can identify new viruses faster than ever before, and we have life-saving technologies - like artificial respirators and antivirals - that weren't available back in 1918. "I believe that the world is much, much better prepared than we have ever been for dealing with this kind of situation," said Fukuda.

At the same time, the very nature of globalization puts us at greater risk. International air travel means that infections can spread very quickly. And while the WHO can prepare a new swine flu vaccine strain in fairly short order, we still use a laborious, decades-old process to manufacture vaccines, meaning it would take months before the pharmaceutical industry could produce its full capacity of doses - and even then, there wouldn't be enough for everyone on the planet. The U.S. could be particularly vulnerable; only one plant, in Stillwater, Penn., makes flu vaccine in America. In a pandemic, that could produce some ugly political debates. "Do you really think the E.U. is going to release pandemic vaccine to the U.S. when its own people need it?" asks Osterholm.

See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

See TIME's pictures of the week.

Indeed, the greatest risk from a pandemic might not turn out to be from the swine flu virus itself - especially if it ends up being relatively mild - but what Osterholm calls "collateral damage" if governments respond to the emergency by instituting border controls and disrupting world trade. Not only would the global recession worsen - a 2008 World Bank report estimated that a severe pandemic could reduce the world's GDP by 4.8% - but we depend on international trade now for countless necessities, from generic medicines to surgical gloves. The just-in-time production systems embraced by companies like Wal-Mart - where inventories are kept as low as possible to cut waste and boost profit - mean that we don't have stockpiles of most things. Supply chains for food, medicines and even the coal that generates half our electricity are easily disruptable, with potentially catastrophic results. Though we'll likely hear calls to close the border with Mexico, Osterholm points out that a key component used in artificial respirators comes from Mexico. "We are more vulnerable to a pandemic now than at any other time over the past 100 years," he says. "We can't depend on ourselves."

5. So how scared should we be?

That depends on whom you ask. Officials at the CDC and the WHO have emphasized that while the swine flu situation is serious, they're responding with an abundance of precautions. Even Osterholm, who has been highly critical of the U.S. government's long-term failures to better prepare for a pandemic, gives the CDC a 9 out of 10 for its response so far. Outside of Mexico, the swine flu hasn't looked too serious yet - unlike during the SARS outbreaks of 2003, when an entirely new virus with no obvious treatment took the world by surprise. In the U.S., the normal flu season is winding down, which should make it easier for public-health officials to pick out swine flu cases from run-of-the-mill respiratory disease. And there are simple things that people can do to protect themselves, like practicing better hygiene (wash hands frequently and cover mouth and nose when sneezing) and staying away from public places or traveling if they feel sick. "There's a role for everyone to play when an outbreak is ongoing," said Besser.

But the truth is that every outbreak is unpredictable, and there's a lot we don't know yet about the new swine flu. There hasn't been a flu pandemic for more than a generation, and there hasn't been a truly virulent pandemic since long before the arrival of mass air transit. We're in terra incognito here. Panic would be counterproductive - especially if it results in knee-jerk reactions like closing international borders, which would only complicate the public-health response. But neither should we downplay our very real vulnerabilities. As Napolitano put it: "This will be a marathon, not a sprint." Be prepared.

See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

See TIME's pictures of the week.

View this article on Time.com

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This is kinda scary...

Quote:

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Guys the media is making it worse then it is....

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Of course it is... they need a new story, they were tired of everyone beating up on Obama and the Economy.
The only Obama stories I see running right now are image-boosting puff pieces. The only economy thing I see is what is happening with GM, which is too big for the media to ignore.

So, we hear about a nothing Mexican Swine Flu and Mexican drug wars.


JMHO Conspiracy Theory,

I do hope you guys take this seriously...this is exactly how pedamics in the past have started...don't let the media make you numb and ignore simple advise...the 5 things you need to know i posted are pretty general and informative.....no need of being scared yet. IF controlled properly this thing will blow over soon nuf...but that means you can't just ignore it.

Speaking of Obama, even he is telling everyone to chill out...


Obama: Swine flu not a reason for 'alarm'




WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Monday that the threat of spreading swine flu infections is a cause for concern but "not a cause for alarm" as the United States undertook close border monitoring to contain it.

"The Department of Health and Human Services has declared a Public Health Emergency as a precautionary tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively," Obama told a gathering of scientists, amid increasing worries worldwide about a possible pandemic.

The acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier Monday had said that people should be prepared for the problem to become more severe, and that it could involve "possibly deaths." Dr. Richard Besser said U.S. officials were questioning border visitors about how their health.

The quickening pace of developments in the United States in response to some 1,600 swine flu infections in neighboring Mexico was accompanied by a host of varying responses around the world. The European Union advised against nonessential travel to the United States and Mexico, China, Taiwan and Russia considered quarantines and several Asian countries scrutinized visitors arriving at their airports.

In the United States, a private school in South Carolina was closed Monday because of fears that young people returning from Mexico might have been infected.

"We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States," Obama said. "I'm getting regular updates on the situation from the responsible agencies, and the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Centers for Disease Control will be offering regular updates to the American people so that they know what steps are being taken and what steps they may need to take."

"But one thing is clear: Our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community," the president said. "And this is one more example of why we cannot allow our nation to fall behind."

web page

This one is for the ladies








It's no wonder all woman don't come down with this flu since all of us guys are pigs.

I'm gonna be ill

The sky is falling!!

haha... OINK OINK

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Speaking of Obama, even he is telling everyone to chill out...

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Of course he is.. since he realizes this is all his fault.

It's causing earthquakes now... it's one helluva Flu!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090427/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_earthquake/print

Quake jars already-nervous Mexico City residents
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
17 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – A strong earthquake struck central Mexico on Monday, swaying tall buildings in the capital and sending office workers into the streets.

The quake rattled nerves in a city already tense from a swine flu outbreak suspected of killing as many as 149 people nationwide.

"I'm scared," said Sarai Luna Pajas, a 22-year-old social services worker standing outside her office building moments after it hit. "We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is happening — the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this — it feels like the Apocalypse."

Co-worker Harold Gutierrez, 21, said the country was taking comfort from its religious faith, but he too was gripped by the sensation that the world might be coming to an end.

"If it is, it is God's plan," Gutierrez said, speaking over a green mask he wore to ward off swine flu.

Televisa television network quoted Mexico City officials saying there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake had a magnitude of 5.6 and was centered near Chilpancingo, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) southwest of Mexico City or 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the resort of Acapulco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

USGS earthquake analyst Don Blakeman said the quake was felt strongly in Mexico City because the epicenter was relatively shallow and the ground under the capital — which is built on a former lake bed — tends to intensify shock waves.

"Distant quakes are often felt" strongly in the city, he said.

The USGS revised the quake's magnitude down from its preliminary estimate of 6.0, and said its depth was 30 miles (50 kilometers).

Tourists also streamed out of hotels in Acapulco and congregated on sidewalks and medians for several minutes. Local Civil Protection officer Silvia Rodriguez said there were no injuries.

hmmm I wonder if it woke them up from their siesta's

"The WHO's Gregory Hartl"
Sorry,Greg,nobody can replace Keith Moon

" Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea,"
I had it Sun.mourning when I got out of bed.I'm just now getting over it.The next time my brother tells me to leave those pigs alone,I'm going to listen.

I told you to stop hanging around the bars till they close, but did you listen........ NOOOOOOOOO

I heard a medical guy on TV talking about this.

He said that there have been fatalities in Mexico ..... but there's little overall data as far as who died. They don't really have a good read on the general overall health of the people before they caught this flu, etc.

He also said that regular handwashing was the best defense.


I would add .... 300 some million people in the US .... less than 100 reported cases ..... no fatalities .....

Not my biggest concern at the moment. Especially when there are evidently 2 drugs that do a really good job of treating this particular strain.


I also saw some Democrat bemoaning the fact that $850 million dollars was cut from the stimulus package that would have gone for flu epidemic. Let's see ... right now 100 cases ..... no fatalities ..... $85 million per case .. sounds about right for government.

Well they just canceled our itinerary for our cruise to Cozumel. They are replacing the port stop with another day at sea.

Oh, well, free food, and lotsa drinks to be had. Make the best of it I say.

We give up on Cozumel. Our first trip there a few years ago, they had boarded up and closed the town for Hurricane Emily, so we didn;t see it now. Guess we never will .:)

Stop planning your trips during flu and hurricane season.

The last estimates I saw say that around 150 persons have died in Mexico, one in Texas (but she was a mexican citizen in Texas for health care reasons)

NYC has 45 of the 70 cases reported in the US.. Ohio has one known case of the swine flu at this time. There are a few folks that they are watching closely but it's too early to say if it's swine flu or not.

Basically, 70 cases in the states.

I don't see where the 700 million that was taken from the budget would have stopped that from occuring.

I further don't understand the president asking for 1.5 billion to combat this. I mean, I can imagine some amount is required,, but 1.5 BILLION... seems like a lot but then I don't know how they intend to spend it either.

I was wondeirng why so much,, thanks,, that makes sense..