Swine Flu In US

The World Health Organization (WHO) voiced concern today at a confirmed outbreak of swine flu in the United States and what it called more than 800 human “influenza-like” cases in Mexico, including about 60 deaths.

http://www.survivalblog.com/asianflu.html

Print this out! It has excellent information. It is by James Wesley, Rawles -- Editor of www.SurvivalBlog.com And the blog site he has is great also.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=32.639375,-110.390625&spn=15.738151,25.488281&z=5 Flu map

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=102656&videoChannel=1

Not sure how true this is,

During Mr. Obama's recent trip to Mexico he was greeted by a man who may have subsequently died from the Swine Flu epidemic that is sweeping across Mexico. ...

This flu is a soup of bird, swine and human viruses.

I'm surprised that they haven't created a mercury ridden vaccine for this that won't work.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

Mexico’s Calderon Declares Emergency Amid Swine Flu Outbreak




By Thomas Black
April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.
Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.
“The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic,” Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.
At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.
Obama’s Visit
The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.
The Mexican government is distributing breathing masks to curtail the disease’s spread. There is no vaccine against the new strain of swine flu, health authorities said.
Museums, theaters and other venues in the Mexico City area, where large crowds gather, have shut down voluntarily and concerts and other events canceled to help contain the disease. Two professional soccer games will be played tomorrow in different Mexico City stadiums without any fans, El Universal newspaper reported. Catholic masses will be held, the newspaper said, although church officials urged worshipers to wear breath masks and to avoid contact.
Schools will likely remain closed next week, Calderon said in the Oaxaca speech. The decree allows Calderon to regulate transportation, enter any home or building for inspection, order quarantines and assign any task to all federal, state and local authorities as well as health professionals to combat the disease.
“The health of Mexicans is a cause that we’re defending with unity and responsibility,” Calderon said. “I know that although it’s a grave problem, a serious problem, we’re going to overcome it.”
Normal Airport Operations
Mexico City’s international airport, which handles about 70,000 passengers each day, is operating normally, said Victor Mejia, a spokesman. Passengers are given a questionnaire asking if they have flu symptoms and recommending they cancel their trip and see a doctor if they do. The measures are voluntary, Mejia said, and no case of swine flu in airport passengers, workers or visitors has been confirmed.
Authorities throughout Central America have issued alerts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Guatemala ordered tighter control yesterday of its northern border with Mexico, according to EFE. Gerberth Morales, who’s heading the Guatemala government’s response, said no cases of swine flu have been reported in his country, the Spanish news agency reported.
Brazil is intensifying vigilance in ports, airports and borders to check travelers’ health, luggage, aircrafts and ships in a preventive action against the outbreak in Mexico, the Agency for Sanitary Vigilance said on its Web site.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 25, 2009 16:45 EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/26/swine.flu/index.html#cnnSTCText

updated 2 minutes ago

U.S. prepares for possible swine flu epidemic as global cases riseStory Highlights
U.S. airline association: It's "time for appropriate precautions but not panic"

U.S. military issues worldwide caution to look for illness signs in troops

Total number of U.S. swine flu cases is 20

CDC director says additional cases expected in next few days


(CNN) -- The United States stepped up preparations for a possible swine flu epidemic, and Canada confirmed its first cases on Sunday as researchers worked to determine how contagious the virus could be.


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano briefs reporters at the White House Sunday.

1 of 3 more photos » Keiji Fukuda, the assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, called the outbreak "serious" on Sunday. Researchers are still trying to determine how easily the virus is transmitted person to person and it's too early to predict whether there will be a mild or serious pandemic, said Fukuda.

By Sunday afternoon, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said 81 deaths were suspected to be from the outbreak and 374 people remained hospitalized. Another 929 people have been examined and sent home, he said.

"These people have shown up at some medical institution in the country with respiratory symptoms that required to be studied and diagnosed," he said.

Mexico City closed all of its schools and universities until further notice because of the virus, and troops passed out filter masks outside the National Cathedral on Sunday morning. No masses were scheduled at the cathedral, but dozens of worshippers put on masks and went inside the church to pray on their own.

Mexican Finance Minister Augustin Carstens said Sunday that the World Bank was lending Mexico $205 million to deal with the outbreak. "We are getting an immediate loan of $25 million for the requisition of medicines, medical equipment and epidemiological equipment and in addition, $180 million to build up strategic operational and institutional capacities to deal with this issue," he said.

Canada confirmed six cases of mild illnesses on Sunday, and the United States reported 20. Meanwhile, Spain, Israel and New Zealand were investigating possible but unconfirmed cases.

According to the World Health Organization, a public health emergency is an occurence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.

At a White House news conference Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the emergency declaration is standard procedure -- citing that one was declared for the inauguration and for recent flooding. In Washington, the head of the Centers for Disease Control said 20 cases had been confirmed in five U.S. states by noon Sunday. The largest number of cases was in New York, where the CDC confirmed cases in eight students at a preparatory school in that city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.

Another seven cases have been confirmed in California, two each in Kansas and Texas and one in Ohio, said Dr. Richard Besser, the CDC's acting director. Only one person has had to be hospitalized, but Besser said authorities are likely to see "a broader spectrum of disease" in the days ahead.

"Given the reports out of Mexico, I would expect that over time we're going to see more severe disease in this country," he said.

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones said the symptoms seen there -- headaches, fevers, coughs and muscle aches -- were mild by the standards of serious flu cases. But he added, "It's still pretty miserable."

The U.S. government declared a public health emergency -- a step Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said "sounds more severe than really it is."

"This is standard operating procedure and allows us to free up federal state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation," she said.

The outbreak "is of great concern to the White House," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, but, he added, "It's certainly not a time to panic."

"If you're sick, stay home, get treatment, go see a doctor," Gibbs told reporters. "The government is taking all the steps it needs to and must do to take the precautions to deal with whatever size and scope we may be facing," he said. Watch how public health officials grade phases of pandemic alerts »

Meanwhile, the U.S. military issued a worldwide caution, telling its medical personnel to be on the lookout for troops with signs of swine flu and reiterated the need for public health precautions.

The WHO ordered countries worldwide to look out for "unusual" outbreaks of flu following an emergency meeting Saturday. WHO official Gregory Hartl said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains. iReport.com: Do you think we should be worried about swine flu?

"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," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the U.S. airline industry, said the group is taking the matter seriously.

"This is a time for appropriate precautions but not panic," said ATA assistant general counsel Katherine Andrus. She said the industry group is following the lead of the CDC and is in regular contact with the agency.

Airport employees and flight crews are on the lookout for any passengers who show signs of illness, and procedures are in place for determining whether ill passengers may fly, Andrus said.

At Los Angeles International Airport, custodians have been instructed to pay additional attention to sanitizing door knobs, handrails and faucets in airport restrooms, according to a statement from Los Angeles World Airports.

"In addition, public education signs with general tips on preventing the spread of illnesses -- that are posted throughout the airport during regular flu season -- are being re-posted," the statement said.

The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually associated with pigs. 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. Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said. Learn more about swine flu and how to treat it »

In New Zealand, officials said 22 students and three teachers, who returned from a three-week language trip to Mexico, may have been infected with the swine flu virus. The group remains quarantined at home, and Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A -- the general category of strains that includes the H1N1 swine flu.

In Spain, six people, all of whom had recently returned from Mexico, were being isolated in hospitals, the country's health ministry reported. And in Israel, doctors are running tests on a man who recently returned from Mexico with light flu symptoms.

In London, a hospital spokesman said a British Airways crew member developed flu-like symptoms during a flight from Mexico City and was tested for swine flu, but the results came back negative. The flight attendant is back at work, British Airways told CNN. Watch CBC report on Canadian microbiologists' concerns »

Concerns over the virus have prompted Canada to issue a travel health notice, saying the public health agency was "tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico." But Mexico's Tourist Board said Saturday there are no restrictions on travel to the country. Watch efforts in Mexico to prevent spread of the virus »

Neither Britain nor the United States have issued any travel warnings or quarantines. But South Korea said it will test airline passengers arriving from the United States, and Japan will convene a Cabinet meeting Monday to come up with measures to block the entry of the virus into the country.

Katherine Andrus, an attorney for the U.S. Air Transport Association, told CNN that the airline trade association was in regular contact with the CDC.


Andrus said airlines are following their own procedures to watch for ill passengers and crews have standard procedures for dealing with ill passengers. Any onboard communicable disease incidents must be reported to the CDC, she said.

"This is a time for appropriate precautions but not panic," she said.