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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:38 am Post subject: New flue strain threatens Mexico, US |
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New flu strain threatens Mexico, US
Saturday, 25 April 2009 08:25
Mexican and US health officials are searching for signs an outbreak of a new flu strain is spreading further, after it killed up to 68 people in Mexico and infected eight in the US.
As Mexico shut schools and museums and cancelled public events, global health officials stopped short of declaring a pandemic.
But they warned more cases could come to light as the flu spreads between people and infected some individuals who had no contact with one another.
The World Health Organization said the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients was the same genetically as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas who later recovered.
The Mexican government said the flu had killed 20 people and it may also be responsible for 48 other deaths.
In all, 1,004 suspected cases have been reported nationwide.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova encouraged people to avoid crowds and wear face masks, noting there was no guarantee that going to get a flu vaccine would help against the new strain.
He said the death rate appeared to have steadied and hospitals in the past few days had not seen the exponential rise in the number of people infected that many had feared.
Genetic analysis shows the flu strain is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses.
In California, Dr Gil Chavez, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health and the state's chief epidemiologist, said many more cases could come to light as patients are tested.
'The more we look the more we are likely to find,' he said.
In New York City, health officials were investigating what had sickened scores of students who fell ill with flu-like symptoms in a Queens' high school.
The symptoms were reported as mild and a city health official said he could not speculate about which flu strain was responsible.
The US government said it was taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0425/mexico.html |
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Robot_Teacher
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Location: Robotting Around the World
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:28 am Post subject: |
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| This so weird for a flu to go around in mid Spring and a killer one at that. I sure hope it doesn't make it to Asia, because if it does, it'll spread like wildfire as Asia is so populated like Mexico City. The USA might control it better since people are spread further apart and bleach is commonly used everywhere. If it gets to Asia, they'd have to shut subways, buses, schools, and other places where people are packed close together and living on top of each other in unsanitary conditions. They'd have to Clorox bleach every thing and I mean every fixture, surface, floor, and anything the masses touch such as vending machines and doors. Well, it's good to Clorox everything every now and then anyhow to prevent microbiology from getting out of hand causing unsanitary conditions. I do it in my home. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:28 am Post subject: |
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I wonder if this could be the start of a major global pandemic.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-mexico-swine-flu25-2009apr25,0,3847221.story
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Mexico scrambles to contain swine flu outbreak
Flu virus kills up to 60, many in Mexico City, prompting closure of schools. Eight cases in the U.S. have recovered. U.S. officials say the virus is easily passed, but doesn't seem especially virulent
By Tracy Wilkinson and Thomas H. Maugh II
April 25, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Mexico City � An outbreak of swine flu that may have killed as many as 60 people prompted authorities in Mexico City to close schools Friday throughout the sprawling city of 20 million and order emergency health measures in an attempt to contain the disease.
In the United States, officials said they had found one new case in San Diego, bringing the number of U.S. cases to eight. All have recovered fully. The World Health Organization in Geneva said the strain in Mexico was identical to the one that has been detected in California and Texas.
Nervous parents in Mexico City formed long lines at clinics Friday morning, some wearing surgical masks and carrying toddlers. They were full of questions, about symptoms, how they could stay home from work to care for the sick, where to get the medicines.
"We are monitoring the evolution of the epidemic and, so far, it is under control," national Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said. He said the rate of deaths was slowing and that there were no plans to close the country's borders because of the outbreak.
But it was possible that schools would remain closed next week, officials said, adding that they were considering whether to shut down businesses and offices.
In Mexico state, museums, theaters and cinemas will be closed for the weekend, and Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard canceled public events, including concerts and sports matches.
Cordova said 20 deaths have been confirmed as being caused by swine flu and 40 other cases are still being investigated. He said 1,004 people are reported to be ill with flu symptoms, which include a high fever, severe headache and persistent cough.
International health officials said they were considering whether to raise the alert for a possible pandemic -- a global outbreak.
"We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human," Thomas Abraham, a spokesman for WHO, said in Geneva, news agencies reported. Human-to-human transmission is the crucial requirement for a new virus to precipitate a large-scale outbreak.
But researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found nothing connecting the U.S. victims or any common behaviors, acting director Dr. Richard Besser said Friday in a telephone news conference. That suggests "there has been transmission through several cycles" -- meaning that several intermediaries passed it among themselves before the virus reached the identified victims.
If that is the case, Besser said, many people have been exposed to the virus and it is too late to contain a potential outbreak in the United States. The good news is that none of the intermediaries appear to have become seriously ill, suggesting that the disease is not especially virulent.
None of the U.S. victims has had any contact with pigs and only one has traveled to Mexico recently, he said. Six of the U.S. cases were in San Diego and Imperial counties and the other two in Guadeloupe County, Texas.
"It's really critically important we learn what is happening in Mexico," Besser said. "Sorting out which of the cases are caused by swine flu is an important public health question. . . . There is much uncertainty, more than anyone would like."
Cordova, the Mexican health secretary, said the virus was different because it wasn't striking the most vulnerable populations, but rather young adults and people who were otherwise healthy. That is potentially alarming because the 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed at least 20 million people worldwide, also struck the young and healthy.
"We have confirmation that this is a mutant of a virus that comes from pigs that . . . never had provoked an epidemic, that is, had never spread among humans," Cordova said.
Besser said the CDC had found that half of 14 samples from Mexico were positive for swine flu, with "similarity" to the strain that appeared in the U.S. "It's safe to say it's the same virus, from what we know," he said.
Investigators are looking into why the disease is so much more severe in Mexico, Besser said, and a CDC team will be traveling to Mexico.
In New York, health officials said Friday that about 75 students at a Queens high school had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms and were being tested to rule out the swine flu strain, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. health experts note that influenza deaths are common, most often among the very young and the elderly. In an average year in the United States, about 35,000 people die of the flu, and in bad years nearly twice that number.
The new swine virus is unlike any researchers have seen before. It appears to be a combination of segments from four viruses from three continents, with a human segment, an avian segment and pig segments.
In Mexico, officials took the rare step of a national television broadcast late Thursday night to order parents to keep children home from school in Mexico City and surrounding Mexico state. Most of the flu cases have been reported in Mexico City, but a small number have appeared in six other states, the government said.
Closing schools in Mexico state affected nearly 7 million students -- from preschool through university. Mexican news reports said it was the first general closure of schools since the 1985 earthquake, which leveled parts of the capital and killed 10,000 people.
The government warned people to avoid public gatherings, restrict travel if they have symptoms and to redouble sanitation and hygiene efforts.
On Friday, the city's famously snarled traffic was less so, and pedestrian crowds in downtown and other areas also seemed reduced. At metro stations and bus terminals, many people were wearing surgical masks. Teachers at daycare centers stacked chairs on tables and washed floors and walls with disinfectants.
In Washington, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said the Northern Command was monitoring the outbreak and focusing on whether measures would be needed to protect U.S. troops stationed near the border with Mexico.
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:55 am Post subject: |
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The new swine virus is unlike any researchers have seen before. It appears to be a combination of segments from four viruses from three continents, with a human segment, an avian segment and pig segments.
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Can someone explain how a virus arises de novo containing elements of three different species short of being engineered in a laboratory?
There may well be a coherent, plausible virological genesis scenario. If so, I'd just like to hear it. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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| short of being engineered in a laboratory |
Who's the most likely suspect? Bilderberg? the Tri-lateral Commission? Space Lizards? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
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| short of being engineered in a laboratory |
Who's the most likely suspect? Bilderberg? the Tri-lateral Commission? Space Lizards? |
Jews, dude. Jews. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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8 New York Students Likely Have Strain of Swine Flu
By LIZ ROBBINS and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
As health officials from New York to Mexico raced on Saturday to combat a rare and rapidly spreading influenza virus, eight students at a Queens high school tested positive for a type of influenza that is probably swine flu, and possibly the same strain that has killed as many as 68 people in Mexico City.
At the same time, the World Health Organization said it was considering whether to declare an international public health emergency, a move that could involve travel advisories and border closings. For now, it only went so far as to term the outbreak a �public health emergency of international concern.�
In New York City the health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said at news conference that eight of nine students from St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens, tested positive for the type A influenza virus, which meets the probable conditions for swine flu.
Additional tests are being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and will probably be completed to determine whether that virus is the same H1N1 strain that was identified in Mexico on Friday, Dr. Friedan said.
�So far, every person we�ve identified has mild symptoms,� Dr. Frieden said. He said that none of the students had to be hospitalized.
Nonetheless, he said that if the centers confirmed that the students have swine flu, the health department will recommend that St. Francis not reopen on Monday �out of an abundance of caution.�
"You could say, all you got is a lot of kids with mild illness, why close the school?" Dr. Frieden said. "On the other hand, it is very important to say, that schools can be an area where not only can students become ill but can be an area for amplifying or spreading the infection."
In Mexico, the effects of the virus were far more harsh and widespread, and the government response was far more sweeping.
President Felipe Calder�n published an order Saturday that would give his government extraordinary powers to address the deadly flu epidemic, including isolating those affected by the rare virus, inspecting their homes and ordering the closing of any public events that might result in more infection.
The government has already taken steps to try to control the swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 68 people and infected possibly 1,000 more. Since Friday, officials have canceled hundreds of public events and closed schools for millions of students in and around Mexico City. On Saturday, another 24 suspected cases were reported in the capital city, according to The Associated Press.
Mexicans were encouraged to avoid public places and if the went out to wear masks, known as tapabocas or cover-your-mouths.
In the United States, officials at the C.D.C. said on Saturday that they understood that the outbreak potential in the United States was serious.
�It�s clear that this is widespread,� said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health program for the C.D.C. said in a teleconference on Saturday. �We do not think we can contain the spread of this virus.�
By Saturday, eight cases of swine flu had been reported in the United States in addition to those in New York -- seven in southern California -- in San Diego and Imperial Counties, which share a border with Mexico -- two in Cibolo, Tex., near San Antonio, and two in Kansas.
In New York City, Dr. Frieden said that 100 to 200 students from St. Francis Prep, which has a student body of 2,700, reported some symptoms of influenza.
�We don�t know if it is spreading from person to person,� he said. �In the cases we have seen, we have seen a very short incubation period. From the time you got exposed to the time you got sick was only one to two to five days.�
Although Dr. Frieden would not confirm whether students recently traveled to Mexico, at least two students interviewed on Saturday said that they knew of other students from the school that went there for Spring Break. On Thursday, about 75 students went to the school�s medical center with symptoms from headaches, to fevers, to burning eyes.
�When kids heard the news that people in Mexico City were dying from it, some kids were getting scared� said Jack Castronova 17, a student at the school.
In addition to the school in Fresh Meadows, Dr. Frieden said that health officials were examining 30 children from a day care center in the Bronx had flu-like symptoms. And at least two people who recently returned from Mexico contacted the city health department and said their children had similar symptoms, Dr. Frieden said.
He cautioned that schools can be a place where viruses spread rapidly because children do not always take precautions, (like covering their mouths, to contain their germs.
�We will also continue working with hospitals to identify people with serious respiratory symptoms,� Dr. Frieden said.
The United States has a detailed pandemic preparedness plan that was written in 2005 during the early years of the scare over H5N1 bird flu. But one person involved in planning said that federal officials were �not pulling the trigger on any part of it yet.�
Officials are considering moving stockpiles of the flu drug Tamiflu and protective gear like masks and gloves closer to San Diego, San Antonio and other places where the first cases of swine flu were reported in the United States.
Before any aspect of the pandemic plan can be set in motion, one official explained, there has to be some idea how many people in Mexico are infected. Fewer than 100 deaths from pneumonia or flu-like illness in a city of 20 million is not very many.
Most of Mexico�s dead were young, healthy adults and none were over 60 or under 3 years old, the World Healrth Organization said. That alarms health officials because seasonal fluus cause most of their deaths among infants and the bedridden elderly, but pandemic flus often strike the young and healthy the hardest.
The current swine flu outbreak comes at a time when many of the top federal health positions in the United States have not been filled by the Obama adminstration. Dr. Besser is the acting head of the centers, and there is also an acting surgeon general.
A health official and a flu expert who were consulted on planning and who spoke on condition of anonymity to keep from being cut off from consultations said that in recent days they had taken part in several unnecessarily long conference calls with what one called �newbies.�
Teams from the centers have gone to Texas and California and will be helping local officials with case contacts, laboratory testing and other steps. They also will be watching for any sharp increase in emergency room admissions for respiratory problems. In addition, they want to examine whether the very unusual combination of North American swine, human and avian strains with a Eurasian swine strain, is mutating and whether it is becoming more virulent.
If the World Health Organization decides to raise its alert level to 4 from 3, indicating it had found sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus, the United States -- whose pandemic alert level is now at zero -- might raise its levels. That would include putting emergency rooms and first-responders on alert, making sure they have seasonal flu shots and putting them first in line for any early batches of a vaccine based on the current swine strain.
In addition, raising the alert level could also include closing schools, theaters and ball parks, requiring people to wear masks while on public transportation, banning large gatherings and imposing travel restrictions.
Public officials are usually reluctant to take such steps because of the panic and economic disruption they can cause.
To combat the disease, the centers has already started preparation of a �seed strain� for a swine flu vaccine, weakening the virus until it provides protection without causing disease takes time and careful testing. continued,,, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26flu.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss |
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Forward Observer
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Location: FOB Gloria
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Just watched the news report on this, they say it'll be months before there's a vaccine available. Even then, it'll take a year before it's available to the masses. Brace yourselves! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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MEXICO CITY � Mexico's president assumed new powers Saturday to isolate people infected with a deadly swine flu strain as authorities struggled to contain an outbreak that world health officials warned could become a global epidemic.
New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City. But officials said they didn't know whether the New York cases were the strain that now has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13, according to figures updated late Saturday by Mexico's health secretary.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/med_swine_flu
NEW YORK � At least 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, but health officials said Saturday they don't know whether they have the same strain of the virus that has killed scores of people in Mexico.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/ap_on_re_us/us_swine_flu_states
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. |
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Gimpokid
Joined: 09 Nov 2008
Location: Best Gimpo
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
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The new swine virus is unlike any researchers have seen before. It appears to be a combination of segments from four viruses from three continents, with a human segment, an avian segment and pig segments.
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Can someone explain how a virus arises de novo containing elements of three different species short of being engineered in a laboratory?
There may well be a coherent, plausible virological genesis scenario. If so, I'd just like to hear it. |
It's natural genetic shift.
A flu virus enter a cell and splits apart into nine segements which are copied and recombine then exit the cell. When two or more strains are present in a cell natural genetic mixing occurs.
Bird or swine flu is not unique to birds and swines. Animals and people all over the planet share flu strains.
Nothin nefarious about it. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:51 pm Post subject: Pandemic |
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Hmmm...
The 'Sars' Scare revisited? Or Avian birdflu? I was in China at the time, & set off the Sars alarm, when leaving China / entering Hong Kong, with a hot cup of coffee. 2 cups in fact. When I put down the coffee, I passed the scan test, with flying colours, much to everyones relief. Also got scanned on my forehead, with a red laser light to detect fever, before boarding a bus in Fujian province, several weeks earlier. |
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Marc Ravalomanana
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Seems to have a ~6% mortality rate... |
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aquaponics08
Joined: 22 Dec 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:33 am Post subject: |
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| We need a secure border fence and guards between the USA and the hellhole known as Mexico! |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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aquaponics08
Joined: 22 Dec 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:40 am Post subject: Re: Border Security |
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They should! |
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