Mexico City closed schools across the metropolis of 20 million Friday after at least 16 people died and more than 900 others fall ill from what health officials suspect is a new strain of swine flu. World health officials worried that it could mark the start of a flu pandemic.
The World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland said at least 57 have died in the outbreak, although it wasn't yet clear if this larger number of deaths was due to swine flu.
"We are very, very concerned," said Thomas Abraham, a spokesman for the agency. "We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human." If international spread is confirmed, that meets WHO's criteria for raising the pandemic alert level, he added..............http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517737,00.html
New Cases of Swine Influenza Confirmed in Kansas, California and Suspected in NYC
Saturday , April 25, 2009
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. A strain of the flu has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico. 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 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 he returned 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.
At least nine swine flu cases also have been reported in California and Texas. The new California case, the seventh there, was a 35-year-old woman who was hospitalized but recovered. The woman, whose illness began in early April, had no known contact with the other cases.
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 on Sunday.
US declares public health emergency for swine flu Published - Apr 26 2009 03:58PM EST
Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, left, talks to White Press Secretary Richard Gibbs, center, as Dr. Richard Besser, right, Acting Director Center for Disease Control and Prevention speaks during a news conference at the White House to discuss reported Swine Flu outbreaks, Sunday, April 26, 2009 in Washington. The US is declaring a public health emergency to deal with the emerging new swine flu. The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.
Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York. Unlike in Mexico where the same strain appears to be killing dozens of people, cases in the United State have been mild _ and U.S. health authorities can't yet explain why.
"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," predicted Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."
At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.
Top among those is declaring the public health emergency. As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.
Napolitano called the emergency declaration standard operating procedure _ one was declared recently for the inauguration and for flooding. She urged people to think of it as a "declaration of emergency preparedness."
"Really that's what we're doing right now. We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size of seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States is not testing airplane travelers from Mexico for the swine flu virus that has heightened fears of a possible pandemic, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday.
"Right now we don't think the facts warrant more active testing or screening of passengers coming in from Mexico," she said at a White House briefing.
The boarders should be shut down and all travel halted. That's all we need is some illegals coming into this country and coughing and sneezing all over us.
And may I also say that Homeland Security was created to protect us against TERRORISTS. Is the swine flu a terrorist or the people who carry the virus? And who ever made Janet Napolitano director of homeland security? And I also agree.....isn't a disease a job for the Surgeon General?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
If they test travelers coming or close the border then the Latino vote may not be 100% Democrat in the next election. Better to let Americans die (as usual) by their standards.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
MADRID (AP) -- The top EU health official urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to the United States and Mexico because of the swine flu virus, and Spanish health officials confirmed the first case outside North America.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.
World stock markets fell as investors worried that the deadly outbreak could go global and derail any global economic recovery. Airlines took the brunt of the selling.
The virus was suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with more than 1,600 cases suspected, while 20 cases were confirmed in the United States and six in Canada.
EU: Don't travel to USA and Mexico... *US calls EU travel warning unwarranted... **Russia to check all planes from Americas... JANET: NO TESTING OF INCOMING PLANE PASSENGERS... STATE DEPT TO ISSUE TRAVEL WARNING TO MEXICO... Every passenger arriving in Britain from Mexico screened... Has globalization made us more catastrophe-prone? 'NO EVIDENCE' OF BIO-TERROR... PIG SICK: NYC... Could mutate to 'more dangerous' strain... Flu could boost gov't intervention further... Mexico flu scare empties streets, churches, bars... Spreads to Europe, markets edgy...
Swine flu virus may cause global pandemic: UN chief
Apr 27 12:59 PM US/Eastern
A deadly swine flu virus strain could unleash a new global pandemic, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Monday, after the probable death toll from the disease rose to 149 in Mexico. "We are concerned that this virus could cause a new influenza pandemic. It could be mild in its effect or potentially be severe," Ban told reporters.
"We don't know yet which way it will go but we are concerned that in Mexico most of those who died were young and healthy adults."
Ban described the outbreak as the "first test" of the pandemic preparedness work undertaken by the international community over the past three years.
The United Nations is responding "quickly and effectively," he said, adding that the World Health Organization (WHO) was leading the global body's efforts to tackle the outbreak.
I didn't know that Homeland Security is now handling health issues. Don't we still have a surgeon general and the cdc?
I just heard today on Fox is was actually Pres Bush (43) that changed the delegation to DHS after the 9/11 attacks - thinking that if a biological attack was possible, DHS would be in the best position to address it and react.
Soooooo...couldn't this be a bio-terrorist attack? And if the DHS is in charge, why aren't all of the boarders locked down until they canget a handle on this? Why isn't this being acted on as if it were a bio-terrorist attack?
They call this a 'designer' virus. 10% of the effected population in Mexico died. What IF 500,000 people in NYC become infected with this virus and 10% dies....just think of how many people would be dead. Where are the lock downs?
And when the government says they have a stock pile of vacines ready...they clearly do NOT have a vacine for this strain. Common sense tells us that this virus is new and just mutated (or created). What the hell are they thinking?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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