SWINE FLU - UPDATES & USEFUL INFORMATION

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Suspected outbreaks



Although all of the deaths so far have been in Mexico, the flu is spreading in the United States and suspected cases have been detected elsewhere:


 
Susan Watts, BBC Science editor :

"The next few days and weeks will be crucial."



One possibly hopeful sign is that of the eight cases in the US there has been only one hospitalisation, and no deaths.


So it may turn out that there is some other kind of infection at work in Mexico, as well as the new flu virus.





Eleven confirmed infections in the US



In addition, eight suspected cases are being investigated at a New York City high school where about 200 students fell mildly ill with flu-like symptoms

Ten New Zealand students are among a group which travelled to Mexico have tested positive for influenza A - making it "likely", though not definite, that they are infected with swine flu, said Health Minister Tony Ryall

In France, a top health official told Le Parisien newspaper there were unconfirmed suspicions that two individuals who had just returned from Mexico may be carrying the virus

In Israel, medics are testing a 26-year-old man who has been taken to hospital with flu-like symptoms after returning from a trip to Mexico

But a UK hospital conducting tests for swine flu on a British Airways cabin crew member said the tests proved negative.

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Mexico shutdown



The Mexican government, which has faced criticism for what some see as a slow reaction to this
outbreak, is now taking an increasingly hard line to try to contain the virus, says the BBC's
Stephen Gibbs in Mexico City.

Public buildings have been closed and hundreds of public events suspended.

Schools in and around Mexico City have been closed until 6 May, and some 70% of bars and
restaurants in the capital have been temporarily closed.



"It's eerily quiet here in the capital.
Lots of people with masks"

BBC reader Dr Duncan Wood, Mexico City



People are being strongly urged to avoid shaking hands, and the US embassy has advised visitors
to the country to keep at least six feet (1.8m) from other people.

Mexico's Health Secretary, Jose Cordova, said a total of 1,324 people had been admitted to hospital with suspected symptoms since 13 April and were being tested for the virus.

"In that same period, 81 deaths were recorded probably linked to the virus but only in 20 cases we
have the laboratory tests to confirm it," he said.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has announced emergency measures to deal with the situation.

They include powers to isolate individuals suspected of having the virus without fear of legal repercussions.



In Mexico, face masks are handed out, while the head of the WHO voices concern

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'International concern'



In the US, seven people in California, two people in Texas, and two people in Kansas have been
infected with the new strain.

In New York, city health commissioner Dr Thomas Frieden said preliminary tests conducted on the
ailing students showed they were possible cases of swine flu.

Further tests will clarify if it was the same strain that was detected in the other three states.

Following a meeting of its emergency committee on Saturday, the WHO said the virus had the
potential to become a pandemic but it was too early to say whether that would happen.





 FLU PANDEMICS



1918:
The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times - infecting
up to 40% of the world's population and killing more than 50m people, with young adults parti-
cularly badly affected


1957:
Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining
with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The elderly were particularly vulnerable


1968:
An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to
one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die





WHO Director General Margaret Chan said recent events constituted "a public health emergency
of international concern" and that countries needed to co-operate in heightening surveillance.

The WHO is advising all countries to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults, a characteristic of past pandemics.

Officials said most of those killed so far in Mexico were young adults - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly.

There is currently no vaccine for the new strain but severe cases can be treated with antiviral medication.

It is unclear how effective currently available flu vaccines would be at offering protection against the new strain, as it is genetically distinct from other flu strains. 

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                                    Mexico on edge as reports of swine flu cases climb
           





Mark Stevenson,
Associated Press Writer
April 26, 2009
MEXICO CITY

– A new strain of swine flu has this metropolis of 20 million people increasingly fearful as suspected flu deaths grow, and world health officials warn that Mexico City could be at the epicenter of a global epidemic.

Everything from concerts to sports matches and church services were canceled Sunday to keep people from congregating and spreading the virus in large crowds.

President Felipe Calderon assumed new powers to isolate people infected with a deadly swine flu strain that Mexico's health minister says has killed up to 81 people and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13.

Mexican soldiers and health workers patrolled airports and bus stations, looking for people showing symptoms, which include a fever of more than 100 degrees, body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

Markets and restaurants were nearly empty. And throngs of Mexicans — some with just a fever — rushed to hospitals.

Mexico appears to have lost valuable days or weeks in detecting the new flu strain, a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to. Health officials have found cases in 16 Mexican states. Two dozen new suspected cases were reported in the capital on Saturday alone.

Eleven cases of swine flu were confirmed in California, Texas and Kansas, with more suspected in New York City.

The World Health Organization on Saturday asked all countries to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease, as airports around the world were screening travelers from Mexico for flu symptoms.

On Sunday, New Zealand reported that 10 students "likely" have swine flu after a school trip to Mexico, though Health Minister Tony Ryall said none of the students was seriously ill and there was no guarantee they had swine flu. Israel's Health Ministry said there is one suspected case in that country and France is investigating two possible cases.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak of the never-before-seen virus has "pandemic potential." But she said it is still too early to tell if it would become a pandemic.

WHO guidance calls for isolating the sick and blanketing everyone around them with anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu. Too many patients have been identified in Mexico's teeming capital for such a solution now. But some pandemic flu experts say it's also too late to contain the disease to Mexico and the United States.

"Anything that would be about containing it right now would purely be a political move," said Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota.

Mexican authorities ordered schools closed in the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi until May 6, and the Roman Catholic Church announced the cancellation of Sunday masses in the capital.

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A team from the Centers for Disease Control had arrived in Mexico to help set up detection testing
for the swine flu strain, something Mexico previously lacked.

Health authorities started noticing a threefold spike in flu cases in late March and early April, but
they thought it was a late rebound in the December-February flu season.

Testing at domestic labs did not alert doctors to the new strain. Health Secretary Jose Cordova acknowledged Mexican labs lacked the necessary profiling data to detect the previously unknown
strain.

The first death occurred in southern Oaxaca state on April 13, but Mexico didn't send the first of 14 mucous samples to the CDC until April 18, around the same time it dispatched health teams to
hospitals looking for patients with severe flu or pnuemonia-like symptoms.

Those teams noticed something strange: The flu was killing people aged 20 to 40. Flu victims are
usually either infants or the elderly. The Spanish flu pandemic, which killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults.

Even though U.S. labs detected the swine flu in California and Texas before last weekend, Mexican authorities as recently as Wednesday were referring to it as a late-season flu.

But mid-afternoon Thursday, Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued said, officials got a call "from the United States and Canada, the most important laboratories in the field, telling us this
was a new virus."

Asked why there were so many deaths in Mexico, and none so far among the U.S. cases, Cordova
noted that the U.S. cases involved children — who haven't been among the fatal cases in Mexico, either.

"There are immune factors that are giving children some sort of defense, that is the only explanation
we have," he said.

Another factor may be that some Mexican patients may have delayed seeking medical help too long, Cordova said.

Others are forced to work and leave their homes despite health concerns.

Wearing two dirty, blue surgical masks she says she found and a heavy coat, Daniela Briseno swept garbage early Sunday morning from the streets in Mexico City.

"This chill air must be doing me harm. I should be at home but I have a family to support," the 31-
year-old said.

Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic from viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals.

A "seed stock" genetically matched to the new swine flu virus has been created by the CDC, said
Dr. Richard Besser, the agency's acting director. If the government decides vaccine production is necessary, manufacturers would need that stock to get started.

___



Associated Press Writers

David Koop
in Mexico City;

Frank Jordans
in Geneva;

Mike Stobbe
in Atlanta;

Malcolm Ritter
in New York; and

Maria Cheng
in London

contributed to this report.

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                                    WHO declares international concern over swine flu






           
Frank Jordans,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 25, 2009
GENEVA

– The World Health Organization warned countries around the world Saturday to be on alert for any unusual flu outbreaks after a unique new swine flu virus was implicated in possibly dozens of human deaths in North America.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak in Mexico and the United States constituted a "public health emergency of international concern."

The decision means countries around the world will be asked to step up reporting and surveillance
of
the disease, which she said had "pandemic potential" because it is an animal virus strain infecting people. But the agency cannot at this stage say "whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic,"
she added.

Chan made the decision to declare public health emergency of international concern after consulting with influenza experts from around the world. The emergency committee was called together Satur-
day for the first time since it was created in 2007.

In theory, WHO could now recommend travel advisories, trade restrictions or border closures, none
of which would be binding. So far it has refrained from doing so.

The agency also held off raising its pandemic alert level, citing the need for more information.

Earlier, Chan told reporters that "it would be prudent for health officials within countries to be alert
to outbreaks of influenza-like illness or pneumonia, especially if these occur in months outside the
usual peak influenza season."

"Another important signal is excess cases of severe or fatal flu-like illness in groups other than
young children and the elderly, who are usually at highest risk during normal seasonal flu," she said.

Several Latin American and Asian countries have already started surveillance or screening at airports and other points of entry.

At least 62 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by a flu-like illness in Mexico, WHO says. Some of those who died are confirmed to have a unique flu type that is a combination of bird, pig and human viruses. The virus is genetically identical to one found in California.

U.S. authorities said eight people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas, and all recovered.

So far, no other countries have reported suspicious cases, according to WHO.

But the French government said suspected cases are likely to occur in the coming days because of global air travel. A French government crisis group began operating Saturday. The government has already closed the French school in Mexico City and provided French citizens there with detailed instructions on precautions.

Chilean authorities ordered a sanitary alert that included airport screening of passengers arriving
from Mexico. No cases of the disease have been reported so far in the country, Deputy Health
Minister Jeanette Vega said, but those showing symptoms will be sent to a hospital for tests.

In Peru, authorities will monitor travelers arriving from Mexico and the U.S. and people with flu-like symptoms will be evaluated by health teams, Peru's Health Ministry said.

Brazil will "intensify its health surveillance in all points of entry into the country," the Health Ministry's National Health Surveillance Agency said in a statement. Measures will also be put in place to inspect cargo and luggage, and to clean and disinfect aircraft and ships at ports of entry.

Some Asian nations enforced checks Saturday on passengers from Mexico.

Japan's biggest international airport stepped up health surveillance, while the Philippines said it may quarantine passengers with fevers who have been to Mexico. Health authorities in Thailand and Hong Kong said they were closely monitoring the situation.

Asia has fresh memories of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which hit countries across the region and severely crippled global air travel.

Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries have also seen a number of human deaths
from H5N1 bird flu, the virus that researchers have until now fingered as the most likely cause of a future pandemic.

The Dutch government's Institute for Public Health and Environment has advised any traveler who returned from Mexico since April 17 and develops a fever over 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit (38.5 Celsius) within four days of arriving in the Netherlands to stay at home.

The Polish Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that recommends that Poles postpone any travel plans to regions where the outbreak has occurred until it is totally contained.

The Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said earlier Saturday it
shared the concerns about the swine flu cases and stood ready to lend support in any way possible.

___



Associated Press Writer

Maria Cheng
in London, and

AP writers around the world
contributed to this report

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                                   CDC Readies Vaccine in Case of Swine Flu Pandemic






         
Alice Park
– Sun Apr 26, 2009
Time.com

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged on Friday that "concern has grown" since the first reports of a novel swine flu infecting patients in Texas and California emerged late March.


Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the agency, said health officials are closely tracking the spread of the swine flu, after additional cases of flu and some deaths were reported in Mexico. Preliminary testing of flu viruses in patients in Mexico and the U.S. show that the strains are similar. Of the 14 samples of suspected swine flu from Mexico that the CDC has tested so far, half are positive for swine flu, a form of influenza that normally infects pigs and can be transmitted to people. (See pictures of the world's most polluted places.)


So far, eight residents of San Diego and Imperial counties in California, and San Antonio, Texas, have tested positive for the new swine flu strain - an as yet unseen combination of swine flu, bird flu and human influenza viruses. There have been no deaths in the U.S. associated with the virus; so far the infections, which cause typical flu-like symptoms, are being controlled with antiviral medications, and only one patient has required hospitalization.


Besser says it's too early to raise alarms about a pandemic flu, but officials are watching the new virus closely and aggressively, since the geographic distance between the infected patients suggests that it can be transmitted easily from person to person (apparently none of the patients had come into contact with pigs). The CDC is working with the World Health Organization to keep track of any additional cases to determine whether and when a warning of a pandemic would be warranted. In preparation for such a scenario, the CDC has created a seed stock of a vaccine against the swine flu, which could be pushed into production should the number of cases jump significantly. The CDC did not specify what the threshold for vaccine production would be.


In the meantime, the government has not restricted travel to Mexico, California or Texas, but has issued an outbreak notice to inform travelers to those areas that cases of a contagious respiratory illness have been reported. In the affected regions, the CDC is recommending that doctors test samples from people complaining of flu-like symptoms to determine if they are infected with the new swine flu strain.





View this article on Time.com

Related articles on Time.com:



Does the Flu Vaccine Really Protect Kids?

Indonesia's Bird Flu Showdown

The Vaccine Dilemma

A Fresh Dose of Flu Vaccine

Vaccine Recall: What Parents Need to Know

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                                   Mexico Takes Powers to Isolate Cases of Swine Flu
 




             
MARC LACEY and
ELISABETH MALKIN
The New York Times
April 25, 2009
MEXICO CITY

— This sprawling capital was on edge Saturday as jittery residents ventured out wearing surgical
masks and President Felipe Calderón published an order that would give his government emergency powers to address a deadly flu outbreak, including isolating those who have contracted the virus, inspecting the homes of affected people and ordering the cancellation of public events.

White-coated health care workers fanned out across the international airport here to look for ailing passengers, and thousands of callers fearful they might have contracted the rare swine flu flooded government health hot lines. Health officials also began notifying restaurants, bars and nightclubs throughout the city that they should close.

Of those Mexicans who did go out in public, many took the advice of the authorities and donned the masks, which are known here as tapabocas, or cover-your-mouths, and were being handed out by soldiers and health workers at subway stops and on street corners.

“My government will not delay one minute to take all the necessary measures to deal with this epidemic,” Mr. Calderón said in Oaxaca State during the opening of a new hospital, which he said
would set aside an area for anyone who might be affected by the new swine flu strain that has
already killed as many as 81 people in Mexico and sickened more than 1,300 others.

Mr. Calderón pointed out that he and the other officials who attended the ceremony intentionally
did not greet each other with handshakes or kisses on the cheek, which health officials have urged Mexicans to avoid.

At a news conference Saturday night to address the crisis, Mexico’s health minister, José Ángel Córdova, said 20 of the 81 reported deaths were confirmed to have been caused by swine flu, while
the rest are being studied. Most of the cases of illness were reported in the center of the country,
but there were other cases in pockets to the north and south.

The government also announced at the news conference that schools in and around the capital that serve millions of students would remain closed until May 6.

With 20 million people packed together tight, Mexico City typically bursts forth on the weekends into parks, playgrounds, cultural centers and sidewalk cafes. But things were quieter than usual on Saturday.

The government encouraged people to stay home by canceling concerts, closing museums and banning spectators from two big soccer matches on Sunday that will be played in front of television cameras, but no live crowd.

At street corners on Saturday, even many of the jugglers, dancers and musicians who eke out a living collecting spare change when the traffic lights turn red were wearing bright blue surgical masks.

The newspaper Reforma reported that President Obama, who recently visited Mexico, was escorted around Mexico City’s national anthropology museum on April 16 by Felipe Solis, an archaeologist who died the next day from flu-like symptoms. But Dr. Córdova said that it does not appear that Mr. Solis died of influenza.

White House officials said Saturday that they were aware of the news reports in Mexico but that there was no reason to be concerned about Mr. Obama’s health, that he had no symptoms and that his medical staff had recommended he not be tested.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said Saturday that it had sent a team of experts to Mexico to assist with the investigation of the outbreak, which has already been reported in Texas and California and possibly in New York, raising fears that it could spread into a global pandemic.

The possible New York cases were reported at a Queens high school, where eight students tested positive for a type of influenza that health officials suspect could be the new swine flu. Some of the school’s students had traveled to Mexico recently.

Still, the World Health Organization, which held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the outbreak, chose not to raise the level of global pandemic flu alert, which has been at a Level 3 because of the avian flu.

Epidemiologists want to know exactly when the first cases occurred in Mexico. Mexican health officials said they first noticed a huge spike in flu cases in late March. In mid-April, they began noticing that otherwise healthy people were dying from the virus. But it was only on Thursday night that officials first sounded an alarm to the population by closing schools, after United States health officials announced a possible swine flu outbreak.

By issuing the emergency decree Saturday, Mr. Calderón may have been trying to head off criticism
that his government had been too slow to act. He had earlier called in the army to distribute four million masks throughout the capital and its suburbs.

Lt. Raymundo Morales Merla, who stood outside a military transport truck parked outside a downtown subway station on Saturday, led a group of 27 soldiers who had arrived at 7 a.m. to hand out as many masks as they could.

The scene at the airport was alarming, with doctors stationed at the entrances to answer questions and to keep an eye out for obviously sick people. Regular public address announcements in English and Spanish warned travelers that anyone exhibiting any symptoms should cancel their flight and immediately seek medical attention.

Even Sunday Mass will probably be affected. The Roman Catholic Church gave worshipers the option
to listen to Masses on the radio and told priests who decided to hold services to be brief and put Communion wafers in worshipers’ hands instead of their mouths.

Axel de la Macorra, 46, a physics professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, said he became worried when he learned recently that a 31-year-man who played at a tennis club he once belonged to had suddenly died. “He got sick at the beginning of April and two weeks later, he was dead,” said Mr. de la Macorra, who was weighing whether to attend a First Communion with 200
guests on Saturday.

“My mother told me to wear it so I did,” said Noel Ledezma, 29, who had his mask pulled down so he could sip a coffee and eat a muffin as he walked to work. “Who knows who will be next.”

Sarahe Gomez, who was selling jewelry at a mall in the upscale Polanco neighborhood, spoke through
a mask to the few customers who visited her kiosk. “I’m in the middle of all these people and one of them could have it,” she said. “The virus could be anywhere. It could be right here.”

She then took a half step back.

“This is no joke,” said Servando Peneda, 42, a lawyer who ventured out to pay a bill, but left his two sons home. “There’s 20 million of us in this city and I’d say half of us have these masks on today. I know all of us will die one day, but I want to last out the week.”



Antonio Betancourt
contributed reporting
from Mexico City, and

Sheryl Gay Stolberg
from Washington.

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                                       Swine flu confirmed in NYC high school students
           





Karen Matthews,
Associated Press Writer
– 37 mins ago
April 26, 2009
NEW YORK

– New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
confirmed that students at a city high school were infected with swine flu.

New York officials previously had said they were eight "probable" cases, but tests later confirmed that
it was indeed swine flu. Bloomberg stressed that the cases were mild and many are recovering.

The city is awaiting the tests of additional samples to see if more St. Francis Preparatory School
students were infected.

About 100 students complained of flu-like symptoms at the school. Some students went to Cancun
on a spring break trip two weeks ago.

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                                      Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans
           





Frank Jordans,
Associated Press Writer
– 1 hr 18 mins ago
April 26, 2009
GENEVA

– Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as
global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. Nations
from New Zealand to France reported new suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan held teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world but stopped short of recommending specific measures to halt the disease beyond urging governments
to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.

Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.

Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright
despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.

Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.

Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic potential" because the virus can pass from
human to human.

Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice.

"Countries are encouraged to do anything that they feel would be a precautionary measure," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said. "All countries need to enhance their monitoring."

New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico "likely" had swine flu. Israel said a man who
had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are currently under investigation, including a family of three in the northern Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico. Tests on two separate cases of suspected swine flu proved negative, they said.

Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.

Mexico closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak after hundreds were sickened there. In the U.S., there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of swine flu in California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.

New York health officials said more than 100 students at the St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, recently began suffering a fever, sore throat and aches and pains. Some of their relatives also have been ill.

Some St. Francis students had recently traveled to Mexico, The New York Times and New York Post reported Sunday.

Preliminary tests of samples taken from sick students' noses and throats confirmed that at least eight had a non-human strain of influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, city health officials said. The exact subtypes were still unknown, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was conducting further tests.

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                                         Questions and answers about swine flu






The Associated Press
– Fri Apr 24, 2009

Mexico is contending with an outbreak of swine flu, suspected in the deaths of dozens of people and sickening perhaps 1,000. In the United States, at least eight cases have been confirmed with the infection, all of them in California and Texas; only one person was hospitalized. Here are some questions and answers about the illness:

Q. What is swine flu?

A. Swine flu is a respiratory illness in pigs caused by a virus. The swine flu virus routinely causes outbreaks in pigs but doesn't usually kill many of them.

Q. Can people get swine flu?

A. Swine flu viruses don't usually infect humans. There have been occasional cases, usually among people who've had direct contact with infected pigs, such as farm workers. "We've seen swine influenza in humans over the past several years, and in most cases, it's come from direct pig contact. This seems to be different," said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert with the University of Michigan.

Q. Can it spread among humans?

A. There have been cases of the virus spreading from human to human, probably in the same way as seasonal flu, through coughing and sneezing by infected people.

Q. What are the symptoms of swine flu?

A. The symptoms are similar to those of regular flu — fever, cough, fatigue, lack of appetite.

Q. Is the same swine flu virus making people sick in Mexico and the U.S.?

A. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Mexican virus samples match the U.S. virus. The virus is a mix of human virus, bird virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Q. Are there drugs to treat swine flu in humans?

A. There are four different drugs approved in the U.S. to treat the flu, but the new virus has shown resistance to the two oldest. The CDC recommends the use of the flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.

Q. Does a regular flu shot protect against swine flu?

A. The seasonal flu vaccine used in the U.S. this year won't likely provide protection against the latest swine flu virus. There is a swine flu vaccine for pigs but not for humans.

Q. Should residents of California or Texas do anything special?

A. The CDC recommends routine precautions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases: wash your hands often, cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, avoid close contact with sick people. If you are sick, stay at home and limit contact with others.

Q. What about traveling to Mexico?

A. The CDC has not warned Americans against traveling to Mexico but advises that they be aware of the illnesses there and take precautions to protect against infections, like washing their hands.

___

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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                                      Swine flu empties Mexico City's churches, streets
           





David Koop,
Associated Press Writer
– 6 mins ago
APRIL 26, 2009
MEXICO CITY

– Churches stood empty Sunday in heavily Roman Catholic Mexico City after services were canceled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrardo said two more people died of swine flu overnight in the overcrowded capital, and three other deaths are suspected to have been caused by the strain. Another 73 more people were hospitalized with influenza, possible swine flu.

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said most of the fatalities involve victims who only sought medical help after the disease was well advanced and urged people to seek urgent care

President Felipe Calderon has assumed new powers to isolate people infected with the deadly swine flu strain that health officials say has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened about 1,400 in the country since April 13.

The flu has spread beyond Mexico's borders with 20 confirmed cases in five U.S. states and suspected cases as far away as New Zealand.

The U.S. declared a public health emergency, which will let federal and state governments easier access to flu tests and medications.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that students at a city high school were infected with swine flu.

New York officials previously had said they were eight "probable" cases, but tests later confirmed it was swine flu. Bloomberg stressed that the cases were mild and many are recovering.

About 100 students complained of flu-like symptoms at the school. Some students went to Cancun, Mexico, on a spring break trip two weeks ago. Mexican authorities have not said whether swine flu has been found in the Caribbean beach resort.

The U.S. has also found the swine flu in California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio.

In Mexico, soldiers and health workers patrolled the capital's subway system on Sunday handing out surgical masks and looking for possible flu cases. People were advised to seek medical attention if they suffered from symptoms including a fever of more than 100 degrees, body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

Hundreds of public events from concerts to sports matches to were called off to keep people from congregating and spreading the virus in crowds. Zoos were closed and visits to juvenile correction centers were suspended.

About a dozen federal police in blue surgical masks stood in front of Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral, which was nearly empty after a measure canceling services to avoid large concentrations of people.

Johana Chavez, 22, said she showed up for her confirmation only to find a sign advising that all Masses, baptisms and confirmations were canceled until further notice.

"We are all Catholic so this is a big step, closing the cathedral," she said, cradling a squirming infant in her arms. "The flu must be bad. I guess I'll have to come back later."

Markets and restaurants were nearly empty. And throngs of Mexicans — some with just a fever — rushed to hospitals.

Mexico appears to have lost valuable days or weeks in detecting the new flu strain, a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to. Health officials have found cases in 16 Mexican states. Two dozen new suspected cases were reported in the capital on Saturday alone.

The first death was in southern Oaxaca state on April 13, but Mexico didn't send the first of 14 mucus samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until April 18, around the same time it dispatched health teams to hospitals looking for patients with severe flu or pnuemonia-like symptoms.

Those teams noticed something strange: The flu was killing people aged 20 to 40. Flu victims are usually either infants or the elderly. The Spanish flu pandemic, which killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults.

The World Health Organization on Saturday asked all countries to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease, as airports around the world were screening travelers from Mexico for flu symptoms.

On Sunday, New Zealand reported that 10 students "likely" have swine flu after a school trip to Mexico, though Health Minister Tony Ryall said none of the students was seriously ill and there was no guarantee they had swine flu. Israel's Health Ministry said there is one suspected case in that country and France is investigating four possible cases.

[Bianca]

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak of the never-before-seen virus has "pandemic potential." But she said it is still too early to tell if it would become a pandemic — an epidemic that spreads in humans around the world.

Mexican authorities ordered schools closed in the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi until May 6.

A team from the CDC was in Mexico to help set up detection testing for the swine flu strain, something Mexico previously lacked.

Health authorities noticed a threefold spike in flu cases in late March and early April, but thought it was a late rebound in the December-February flu season.

Testing at domestic labs did not alert doctors to the new strain. Health Secretary Jose Cordova acknowledged Mexican labs lacked the profiling data needed to detect the previously unknown strain.

Even though U.S. labs detected the swine flu in California and Texas before last weekend, Mexican authorities as recently as Wednesday were referring to it as a late-season flu.

But mid-afternoon Thursday, Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued said, officials got a call "from the United States and Canada, the most important laboratories in the field, telling us this was a new virus."

Asked why there were so many deaths in Mexico, and none so far among the U.S. cases, Cordova noted that the U.S. cases involved children — who haven't been among the fatal cases in Mexico, either.

"There are immune factors that are giving children some sort of defense, that is the only explanation we have," he said.

Another factor may be that some Mexican patients may have delayed seeking medical help too long, Cordova said.

Others are forced to work and leave their homes despite health concerns.

Wearing two dirty, blue surgical masks she says she found and a heavy coat, Daniela Briseno swept garbage early Sunday morning from the streets in Mexico City.

"This chill air must be doing me harm. I should be at home but I have a family to support," the 31-year-old said.

Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic from viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals.

___




Associated Press writers


Mark Stevenson and
Olga R. Rodriguez
in Mexico City;

Frank Jordans
in Geneva;

Mike Stobbe
in Atlanta;

Malcolm Ritter
in New York; and

Maria Cheng
in London

contributed to this report.

[Bianca]

                                     2 Swine Flus in Kan., US Total 11; 8 Likely in NYC


           Kan. health officials confirm 2 swine flu cases, US total 11; NY braces as 8 likely at school







By VERENA DOBNIK
NEW YORK
April 25, 2009
The Associated Press


Hundreds of alumni are reuniting at a New York City high school that is being sanitized after health officials warned that eight current students probably have swine flu. A city health department spokeswoman says the building is being sanitized as a precaution. But she says it's not really the environment that passes the flu.

Two cases of the human swine influenza have been confirmed in Kansas and one more in California, bringing the U.S. total to 11. At least eight students at a New York City high school probably have swine flu also, but health officials said Saturday they don't know whether they have the same strain of the virus that has killed people in Mexico.

New York Gov. David Paterson on Saturday directed the state Department of Health to mobilize its infectious-diseases, epidemiology and disaster preparedness workers to monitor and respond to possible cases of the flu. He said 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu had been sent to New York City.

A strain of the flu has killed as many as 81 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico, where authorities have extended school closures in the capital and two neighboring states with outbreaks. The World Health Organization chief said Saturday the strain has "pandemic potential" and it may be too late to contain a sudden outbreak.

Kansas health officials said Saturday they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico. The couple, who live in Dickinson County, were not hospitalized, and the state described their illnesses as mild.

Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, the state health officer, said, "Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves."


The man traveled to Mexico last week for a professional conference and became ill after returning home. His wife became ill later. Their doctor suspected swine flu, but it wasn't confirmed until flu specimens were flown to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A flu viruses, the CDC's Web site says. Human cases of swine flu are uncommon but can happen in people who are around pigs and can be spread from person to person. Symptoms of the flu include a fever of more than 100 degrees, body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

[Bianca]

At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas.

The new California case, the seventh there, was a 35-year-old Imperial County woman who was hospitalized but recovered. The woman, whose illness began in early April, had no known contact with the other cases.

The 11 U.S. swine flu victims range in age from 9 to over 50. All recovered or are recovering; at least two were hospitalized.

Health officials are worried because people appear to have no immunity to the virus, a combination of bird, swine and human influenzas. Also, the virus presents itself like other swine flus, but none of the U.S. cases appears to involve direct contact with pigs, said Eberhart-Phillips, who called the strain "a completely novel virus."

"It appears to be able to transmit easily between humans," Eberhart-Phillips said. "It's something that could potentially become very big, and we're only seeing, potentially, the very beginning of a widespread outbreak."

New York health officials said more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, had come down with a fever, sore throat and other aches and pains in the past few days. Some of their relatives also have been ill.

New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said nose and throat swabs had confirmed that eight students had a non-human strain of influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, but the exact subtypes were still unknown.


Samples had been sent to the CDC for more testing. Results were expected Sunday.

Parent Elaine Caporaso's 18-year-old son Eddie, a senior at the school, had a fever and cough and went to a hospital where a screening center had been set up.

"I don't know if there is an incubation period, if I am contaminated," Caporaso told the Daily News. "I don't want my family to get sick, and I don't want to get anybody else sick."

The symptoms in the New York cases have been mild, Frieden said, but the illnesses have caused concern because of the deadly outbreak in Mexico, where classes in Mexico City, neighboring Mexico state and the northern state of San Luis Potosi have been canceled until May 6 and where up to 81 deaths are suspected and 20 have been confirmed.