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UPDATE 1-U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak
* US to release 25 percent of anti-viral stockpile
* Health chief recommends planning for school closures
* Too early to determine impact on economy (Updates to add information from CDC briefing)
By Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States declared a public health emergency on Sunday because of an outbreak of swine flu that has been diagnosed in 20 people in this country -- the same strain suspected of killing 81 people in Mexico.
The outbreak is yet another distraction for President Barack Obama as he focuses on rescuing the economy from its worst crisis in decades. His administration will also be mindful of the damage to former President George W. Bush over his government's inept handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"At this point, a top priority is to ensure that communication is robust and that medical surveillance efforts are fully activated," John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security, told a White House briefing.
Dr Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a separate briefing she feared that some people would die in the United States as the virus spread.
Health and Homeland Security officials announced steps to release some of the U.S. stockpiles of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. They recommended that local authorities plan for possible school closures and that anyone with symptoms stay at home to reduce the possibility of transmission.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it was too early to say what impact the outbreak could have on efforts to get the economy back on its feet. Spiraling healthcare costs are already a huge drain on the economy.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration of the public health emergency was necessary to free federal, state and local agencies' resources and authorize the release of funds to buy more antivirals.
"This is standard operating procedure," Napolitano stressed, adding that similar declarations had been issued in the past to help states cope with flooding or hurricanes.
CASES MILD
The CDC confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in the United States and said all the patients had recovered and only one person had to be hospitalized. Officials said they were not testing air travelers from Mexico for the virus.
UPDATE 1-U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak
The CDC is preparing a "yellow card" for travelers explaining the flu symptoms and what precautions to take, Schuchat said. U.S. health officials are stressing frequent hand washing as the first line of defense against the virus.
Tests so far show that the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against the new H1N1 swine flu strain, Schuchat said. It could take several months to develop a vaccine for the new virus, she added. Continued...
The virus in the U.S. cases appeared to be the same strain as the one that has killed scores in Mexico, CDC acting Director Dr Richard Besser said, although it was not yet clear why it had not proven as deadly in the United States. Health officials from the United States and Canada were now in Mexico to try to answer this "critical question," he said.
"We expect to see more cases of swine flu. As we continue to look for cases, we expect that we will find them," Besser said.
Napolitano said the United States would release 25 percent of the 50 million anti-flu drugs from the strategic national stockpile. The Department of Defense has also bought 7 million courses of Tamiflu for defense personnel, she said.
Tamiflu, a pill made by Roche AG ROG.X and Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) (GSK.N) and Biota's (BTA.AX) Relenza, an inhaled drug, can treat influenza if given quickly. They have been shown to work against this new flu strain.
Gibbs said Obama, who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, had shown no symptoms of the virus and had therefore not been tested. (Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Donna Smith and Maggie Fox; editing by Eric Beech)
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2649351120090426
* Health chief recommends planning for school closures
* Too early to determine impact on economy (Updates to add information from CDC briefing)
By Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States declared a public health emergency on Sunday because of an outbreak of swine flu that has been diagnosed in 20 people in this country -- the same strain suspected of killing 81 people in Mexico.
The outbreak is yet another distraction for President Barack Obama as he focuses on rescuing the economy from its worst crisis in decades. His administration will also be mindful of the damage to former President George W. Bush over his government's inept handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"At this point, a top priority is to ensure that communication is robust and that medical surveillance efforts are fully activated," John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security, told a White House briefing.
Dr Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a separate briefing she feared that some people would die in the United States as the virus spread.
Health and Homeland Security officials announced steps to release some of the U.S. stockpiles of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. They recommended that local authorities plan for possible school closures and that anyone with symptoms stay at home to reduce the possibility of transmission.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it was too early to say what impact the outbreak could have on efforts to get the economy back on its feet. Spiraling healthcare costs are already a huge drain on the economy.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration of the public health emergency was necessary to free federal, state and local agencies' resources and authorize the release of funds to buy more antivirals.
"This is standard operating procedure," Napolitano stressed, adding that similar declarations had been issued in the past to help states cope with flooding or hurricanes.
CASES MILD
The CDC confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in the United States and said all the patients had recovered and only one person had to be hospitalized. Officials said they were not testing air travelers from Mexico for the virus.
UPDATE 1-U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak
The CDC is preparing a "yellow card" for travelers explaining the flu symptoms and what precautions to take, Schuchat said. U.S. health officials are stressing frequent hand washing as the first line of defense against the virus.
Tests so far show that the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against the new H1N1 swine flu strain, Schuchat said. It could take several months to develop a vaccine for the new virus, she added. Continued...
The virus in the U.S. cases appeared to be the same strain as the one that has killed scores in Mexico, CDC acting Director Dr Richard Besser said, although it was not yet clear why it had not proven as deadly in the United States. Health officials from the United States and Canada were now in Mexico to try to answer this "critical question," he said.
"We expect to see more cases of swine flu. As we continue to look for cases, we expect that we will find them," Besser said.
Napolitano said the United States would release 25 percent of the 50 million anti-flu drugs from the strategic national stockpile. The Department of Defense has also bought 7 million courses of Tamiflu for defense personnel, she said.
Tamiflu, a pill made by Roche AG ROG.X and Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) (GSK.N) and Biota's (BTA.AX) Relenza, an inhaled drug, can treat influenza if given quickly. They have been shown to work against this new flu strain.
Gibbs said Obama, who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, had shown no symptoms of the virus and had therefore not been tested. (Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Donna Smith and Maggie Fox; editing by Eric Beech)
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2649351120090426
You are being an alarmist. Stop it. Now.
For someone who is so concerned with nutrition and proper eating has it occurred to you that people might have been able to eat all that well and had compromised immune systems (and health) at the end of the Great War (WWI)? They also didn't have the ways of sharing information from medical community to medical community that we do now. There have been a ton of advancements and this is a different world than it was then.
Being an alarmist only compromises your own immune system, eh? So chill. It's May Day. Go and smell some flowers.
For someone who is so concerned with nutrition and proper eating has it occurred to you that people might have been able to eat all that well and had compromised immune systems (and health) at the end of the Great War (WWI)? They also didn't have the ways of sharing information from medical community to medical community that we do now. There have been a ton of advancements and this is a different world than it was then.
Being an alarmist only compromises your own immune system, eh? So chill. It's May Day. Go and smell some flowers.
It was swine
The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak
The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak was exceptionally severe, and affected approximately one-third of the world's population, which amounted to about five-hundred million people at the time. The rate of death associated with this outbreak of SIV was estimated to be between fifty-million and one-hundred million people.
The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak
The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak was exceptionally severe, and affected approximately one-third of the world's population, which amounted to about five-hundred million people at the time. The rate of death associated with this outbreak of SIV was estimated to be between fifty-million and one-hundred million people.
The 1918 pandemic was Spanish flu. Medical care has come a long way since then. Try to relax, just wash your hands a lot and don't touch your face any more than you have to. You will be ok.
1918 flu pandemic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Two American Red Cross nurses demonstrate treatment practices during the influenza pandemic of 1918.The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.[1] Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920,[2] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide,[3] or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,[4][5][6] more than double the number killed in World War I.[7] This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms. The pandemic is estimated to have affected up to one billion people: more than half the world's population at the time.[8]
Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Two American Red Cross nurses demonstrate treatment practices during the influenza pandemic of 1918.The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.[1] Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920,[2] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide,[3] or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,[4][5][6] more than double the number killed in World War I.[7] This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms. The pandemic is estimated to have affected up to one billion people: more than half the world's population at the time.[8]
Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
The last swine pandemic to hit the in 1918 killed 500,000 million....thats 1/2 billion....there maybe cause for some concern...dont you think?
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