Experts probe deadly Mexico flu

[Easy Bakes 253]

^^ The key word there being PONTENTIAL, along with SARS and Bird Flu.

Keep tracking it though WHO. I guess they  have to start off with the words Pandemic to get any attention paid to it, so they can help  prevent it spreading.


 

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

Wow, it reached Australia? Even Brazil? This is pretty serious.

Do you only get this from contact with pigs, or can you get it from eating pig products (you know, hotdogs?)

[belfastuniguy 18]

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot

Wow, it reached Australia? Even Brazil? This is pretty serious.

Do you only get this from contact with pigs, or can you get it from eating pig products (you know, hotdogs?)quote>

It started in pigs.

Its now moving between humans, like a 'normal' flu virus

[belfastuniguy 18]

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - Kansas state health officials confirmed two cases of swine flu in Kansas on Saturday, just minutes after New York health officials said they had eight probable cases.

Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, director of the Kansas division of health, was to hold a news conference at 5:15 p.m. EDT (2115 GMT) in the Kansas capital, Topeka.

Health officials across the United States are testing for the new and unusual strain of H1N1 swine flu that is suspected of killing 68 people in Mexico and has caused mild illness in at least eight people in the United States. (Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)quote>

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Tests have confirmed that eight New York City schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus, likely swine flu, city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said on Saturday.

Samples have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing to see if they are indeed the unusual H1N1 flu strain that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico and may have sickened others, Frieden told a news conference.

"In every single case, illness was mild. Many of the children are feeling better," Frieden said.

"What is concerning about this is that it is likely swine flu and second that it is spreading person to person," Frieden said. He added, "We have seen no increase citywide in flu-like cases."

About 100 students at a school in the New York City borough of Queens became sick last week, prompting the tests, according to local media reports.

A quick throat swab test can tell if a person has influenza but further testing is usually required to determine the strain.

The World Health Organization has declared the swine flu outbreaks in Mexico and the United States a "public health event of international concern," but says more information is needed before raising the pandemic threat level.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed eight people from California and Texas were infected with the H1N1 strain, but all had recovered. (Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Peter Cooney)quote>

In other news, a British Airways pilot has been taken to hospital with suspected Swine Flu.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

In a few more weeks, the swine flue plague zombies will be devouring their way through London!  I better read up on "The Zombie Survival Guide" after all.

Bring out your dead!  Bring out your dead!

[mightygoose 92]

now 69 dead estimated 1200 infected, confirmed cases in brazil, kansas, california, new york, unconfirmed cases in london and canada... all deaths in mexico as of now..school closures in california, kansas and mexico. japan screening all inbound travellers from airports near confirmed infected areas...

[krbe 193]

Originally posted by: sneakeypete

OHMIGOD! Flu, in Australia! it could be a deadly outbreak!quote>

And it probably is, whether it's swine flu or not. Though flu usually only kill old people, or the very young.

If flu isn't usually deadly, then why do we encourage our elders to get vaccinated each time we find a new virus?

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: krbe

Originally posted by: sneakeypete

OHMIGOD! Flu, in Australia! it could be a deadly outbreak!quote>

And it probably is, whether it's swine flu or not. Though flu usually only kill old people, or the very young.

If flu isn't usually deadly, then why do we encourage our elders to get vaccinated each time we find a new virus?

quote>

Because its deadly to the elderly and young because their immunities are compromised, and they tend to catch other

infections while fighting off the flu. People with immune deficiencies, if its  from aids or transplant therapy are

also at risk for the same reason.

[sneakeypete 16]

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot

Wow, it reached Australia? Even Brazil? This is pretty serious.

Do you only get this from contact with pigs, or can you get it from eating pig products (you know, hotdogs?)quote>

No, not australia, that was just me being sarcastic.

[Duke87 1,070]

Just to give a little perspective here:

From Wikipedia

Typically, in a year's normal two flu seasons (one per hemisphere), there are between three and five million cases of severe illness and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide, which by some definitions is a yearly influenza epidemic.^[75] Although the incidence of influenza can vary widely between years, approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations are directly associated with influenza every year in America.^[76][77][78]quote>

So... 69 deaths compared to 500,000.

Four orders of magnitude difference.

[sneakeypete 16]

81 or whatever it is now deaths in a few days, compared to 500000 in a year.

For simplicity's sake, lets just say that its 80 in a week.

Now, 500000 in a year is a lot. its about 10000 a week, however, that's world wide. Mexico has about 1&2/3% of the worlds population, and if they got an equal amout of flu's as other places, it boils down to about 160 flu deaths a week in mexico as per usual.

Not so much of a difference now is there?

[toxicpiano 125]

Worrying quotes from BBC news website:

I'm a specialist doctor in respiratory diseases and intensive care at the Mexican National Institute of Health. There is a severe emergency over the swine flu here. More and more patients are being admitted to the intensive care unit. Despite the heroic efforts of all staff (doctors, nurses, specialists, etc) patients continue to inevitably die. The truth is that anti-viral treatments and vaccines are not expected to have any effect, even at high doses. It is a great fear among the staff. The infection risk is very high among the doctors and health staff.

There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here. Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here.

Antonio Chavez, Mexico City

quote>

I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from "under control". As a doctor, I realise that the media does not report the truth. Authorities distributed vaccines among all the medical personnel with no results, because two of my partners who worked in this hospital (interns) were killed by this new virus in less than six days even though they were vaccinated as all of us were. The official number of deaths is 20, nevertheless, the true number of victims are more than 200. I understand that we must avoid to panic, but telling the truth it might be better now to prevent and avoid more deaths.

Yeny Gregorio Dávila, Mexico City

quote>

Others here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm

[mightygoose 92]

SWINE FLU SITREP 15:44 GMT+1(DST) 26/04/2009

UPDATED 15:49 - extra french case susprected and 3 new suspected cases in Spain.

UPDATED 16:58 - New york Press Conference confirms 9 cases of Swine flu in NY school. White house conference to follow.

 

Country	Confirmed cases	Confirmed deaths	Suspected cases	Suspected deaths	Notes
Mexico	18	20	1324+	81 - 200+	lower estimate from official news sources, however doctor's testimony to BBC varies but tends to suggest much larger fatality count, including medical staff.
United States	21	0	2-300	0	kansas california, New York, Ohio and texas confirmed outbreaks.
Brazil	0	0	0	0	No cases reported in Brazil as yet
New Zealand	0	0	10	0	Tourist group of 22 school trip quarantined.
Israel	0	0	1	0	A 26-year-old man has been hospitalized in Netanya, Israel and is suspected of contracting swine flu after returning from Mexico.
United Kingdom	-1	0	1	0	British Airways pilot testing returned negative for Swine flu.
France	0	0	3	0	Officials in France say they are testing two people who may have been infected with swine flu after visiting Mexico - Le Parisien newspaper.
Canada	0	0	0	0	Confusion may have arisen as they Corroborated the Mexican sample results.
Spain	0	0	3	0	Spain is investigating three suspected cases of swine flu in Bilbao, Valencia and Albacete, according to El Mundo. They had visited Mexico.
Columbia	0	0	5	0	Reported on 24/04/09

[mightygoose 92]

SWINE FLU SITREP 11:35 GMT+1(DST) 27/04/2009

Country	Confirmed cases	Confirmed deaths	Suspected cases	Suspected deaths	Notes
Mexico	20	103	1614+	250+	lower estimate from official news sources, however doctor's testimony to BBC varies but tends to suggest much larger fatality count, including medical staff.
United States	22	0	200+	0	kansas california, New York, Ohio and texas confirmed outbreaks.
Brazil	0	0	2	0	two suspicious flu like cases
New Zealand	0	0	10	0	Tourist group of 22 school trip quarantined.  Two now hospitalised
Israel	0	0	1	0	A 26-year-old man has been hospitalized in Netanya, Israel and is suspected of contracting swine flu after returning from Mexico.
England	0	0	1	0	British Airways pilot testing returned negative for Swine flu.
France	0	0	3	0	Officials in France say they are testing two people who may have been infected with swine flu after visiting Mexico - Le Parisien newspaper.
Canada	6	0	18+	0	4 nova scotia, 3 british columbia suspected
Spain	1	0	23	0	Spain is investigating three suspected cases of swine flu in Bilbao, Valencia and Albacete, according to El Mundo. They had visited Mexico.
Columbia	0	0	11	0	Reported 26/04/09 government on high alert
Scotland	0	0	2	0	Two people have been admitted to hospital in Scotland after displaying "mild" flu-like symptoms following Mexico trip
Australia	0	0	2	0	Reports that 2 people have been admitted to hospital in Queensland with swine flu symptoms.
Hong Kong	0	0	1	0	woman being tested.
Denmark	0	0	3	0	three hospitalised in copenhagen.

Cases now confirmed in Spain & Canada

New suspected infections in Brazil, Hong Kong, Denmark, Scotland & Australia.

Mexican official Death toll passes 100, 1600 or more infected....

[Glenni 1,447]

You can add Norway to that list now, one suspected case for testing in Haugesund, Norway

[Haljackey 17,398]

May as well post a couple pics from Wikipedia, as it puts it into perspective.

2,000+ confirmed cases now, with at least 103 deaths (all deaths in Mexico right now).

     Confirmed cases followed by death     Confirmed cases     Unconfirmed or suspected cases

World:

Spain:

Canada:

Mexico:

United States:

Its becoming widespread in NA, and is now spreading to other continents as well.  Let's all hope its not as bad as it can be and we can stop its spread quickly.

[mayorbk 66]

"In every single case, illness was mild. Many of the children are feeling better," Frieden said. quote>

So it sounds like this isn't that big of a deal and as long as its treated properly.

My advice: Just stay home and play SimCity!!

[Duke87 1,070]

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[belfastuniguy 18]

Swine flu cases confirmed in UK

Nicola Sturgeon says the pair are recovering in a hospital in Airdrie

Two people admitted to a Scottish hospital after returning from a holiday in Mexico have been confirmed as the UK's first swine flu cases.

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said both individuals were recovering well in a Lanarkshire hospital from mild cases of the virus.

It comes after Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the Commons 25 possible cases had been reported in the UK.

Nine of those have proved negative, while 14 are still being investigated.

Those 14 individuals were well enough to be managed in the community, Mr Johnson told MPs.

Announcing the results of the Scottish cases, Ms Sturgeon said: "I would reiterate that the threat to the public remains low.

"The precautionary actions we have taken over the last two days have been important in allowing us to respond appropriately and give us the best prospect of disrupting the spread of the virus."

Meanwhile, UK tourists have been warned against travel to Mexico and other directly affected areas by the EU Health Commissioner.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Monday that 149 people had died after contracting suspected swine flu.

However, there have been no deaths elsewhere.

See map showing confirmed and suspected cases

The Department of Health (DoH) has said surveillance arrangements are being "stepped up" in the UK.

Among the UK cases that were reported were the two people in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, and a 62-year-old female Canadian visitor to Sale, Greater Manchester, who was taken to hospital as a precaution after showing flu-like symptoms.

NHS Northwest say the tests on the woman in Manchester have proved negative, and her case has been downgraded to being an unspecified viral infection.

Facemask advice

Mr Johnson also said the government proposed to use its stockpile of anti-viral drugs to treat patients showing symptoms of the disease, should the virus start spreading in the UK.

He added: "People will wish to know whether they should wear facemasks.

"Although we are aware that facemasks are being given out to the public in Mexico, the available scientific evidence does not support the general wearing of facemasks by those who are not ill, whilst going about their normal activities."

Alan Johnson: 'The UK has been preparing for a flu pandemic for five years'

And Mr Johnson said preparations had been going on to cope with a flu pandemic for the last five years.

"We have established a stockpile of enough anti-virals to treat more than 33m people, that is to say half of the UK population," he said.

There are fears that the virus has begun to spread around the world:

• There are 40 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu in the US, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada and one in Spain, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday
• Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Britain and Israel who fell ill following travel to Mexico
• The United States and the European Union have urged travellers to Mexico to exercise caution
• WHO experts are meeting to consider raising the global pandemic alert level.

EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said: "I'd try to avoid non-essential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the centre of the cluster in order to minimise the personal risk and to reduce the potential risk to spread the infection to other people."

England's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said a potential pandemic would mean "many many more people becoming ill than occur every winter with the normal seasonal flu".

SWINE FLU Swine flu is a respiratory disease thought to spread through coughing and sneezing Symptoms mimic those of normal flu - but in Mexico people are beginning to die Good hygiene like using a tissue and washing hands thoroughly can help reduce transmission Warnings as swine virus spreads Q&A: Swine flu

He added: "If a new pandemic does start as a result of this outbreak in Mexico and the United States, we can't make it go away, but what we can do through our plans, particularly our stockpiles of anti-virals, is mitigate its effect."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was "right that we put the issue of swine fever on the foreign ministers' agenda" because there needed to be "maximum European co-ordination" on the issue.

Agency procedures

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has a procedure for confirming whether or not a patient has swine flu.

If a patient rings their GP or NHS Direct to report symptoms, they will be told to stay at home, not to visit a surgery or hospital.

The HPA has prepared an "algorithm" - in essence, a flow chart - for suspected cases. On the phone, or possibly even face to face depending on the circumstances, the patient's GP or NHS Direct will take the patient through the algorithm.

If the answers to the algorithm lead the questioner to believe the patient may have swine flu, a sample will be taken that will then be sent to one of the HPA's network of regional labs for testing.

If the sample is confirmed as influenza type A, it will then be sent to the HPA's Reference Lab at the Centre for Infections in Colindale, where they will carry out genetic typing on it and establish whether it is a confirmed case of swine flu.

There have also been cases of swine flu reported in Canada and a suspected case in France.

Medical correspondent Fergus Walsh sees what UK scientists are doing about swine flu

However, no-one outside of Mexico has yet died, leading to suggestions that the severity of the cases there may be due to the strain mixing with a second unrelated virus circulating in the community.

UK-based pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline said it had supplied 100,000 packs of flu drug Relenza and 170,000 additional doses of its seasonal flu vaccine to the Mexican authorities, at their request, since the outbreak began.

Swine flu is usually found in pigs and contracted only by people in contact with the animals.

Contingency plans

The DoH said they could not yet give details of what the "stepped up" surveillance arrangements were and that meetings were ongoing, adding that the outbreak was "unusual and of concern".

Professor Steve Field is the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, which heads research into flu in the UK.

He says the coming days will be crucial in assessing the scale of the threat to the UK if people do contract swine flu.

He said: "We'll know a lot more... tomorrow and by the end of the week.

"What we've got to try and do is stop people who've come in from Mexico, places where this is prevalent, going to their GPs and spreading it amongst vulnerable people. That's what's really important this week."

In trading on the London stock market, shares in British Airways were down 7.4% and Thomas Cook fell 4.3% on fears over the economic impact of the swine flu outbreak.

Mexico: 149 dead - 26 confirmed cases United States: 40 confirmed cases of swine flu Canada: 6 confirmed cases UK: 2 confirmed cases Spain: 1 confirmed case UK, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand: suspected cases being tested

Return to storyquote>

[fukuda 351]

Originally posted by: Duke87

quote>

Lol, in the real thing there was a guy asking if genetically modified maize caused the swine flu 

[confused04 14]

Haljackey quote>

Oh the dangers of quoting Wikipedia. Whoever edited that map doesn't know the difference between South Dakota and Minnesota. In the text it describes SD with unconfirmed cases but Minnesota his highlighted while SD is not. Addtionally there are no suspected cases in Minnesota and all cases of symptoms resembling influenza since Thursday, BY PROTOCOL, have been sent for testing coming up negative for swine flu 12 for 12.

[Aontan 0]

Four samples being tested in Ireland:

Swine  flu:  Four  Irish  samples  tested

Monday, 27 April 2009 20:58

Four samples are being tested in Ireland in connection with the swine flu virus.

Dr William Hall, Chairman of the Pandemic Expert Group, said one sample had been tested last night and proved negative.

He said the public would be informed if and when any case proves positive over the coming days and weeks.

...

 

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, chief medical officer of the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohan said the country was well-prepared if swine flu hits Ireland, with enough anti-viral drugs to cover half the population.

The Health Service Executive is advising anyone from Ireland who has recently returned from Mexico, California or Texas (within seven days), and develops an influenza-like illness, to phone their family doctor for advice.

 

RTÉ News

quote>

[Heblem 600]

Now an earthquake while the flu is spreading... imagine how scared the people is...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090427-714613.html

[toxicpiano 125]

News 24 had something reassuring a while ago. On the reason why people are dying in mexico and nowhere else, the reporter in Mexico city said it was likely because people who were dying with the disease were being treated too late to survive.

This is mainly because of how long it took Mexican authorities to alert the public. Apparently people had been contracting and dying of this since march, and doctors hadn't had the sufficient equipment or whatever to determine what strain of flu it was (they could only identify it was some kind of influenza). Because of this, those who have contracted the disease in Mexico obviously thought nothing of it until they were subsequently rushed to hospital where it was 1. unknown what they had or 2. too late for them to be treated because they assumed it was normal flu (just before the Mexican government sent out the alert). The reason noone in the United States has died then is because those who were ill have been almost immediately treated with tamiflu. The US authorities actually alerted the mexican authorities because they were able to test and discover the new strain.

So assuming this is correct, if people are treated early enough at the very least (as they have been in 1st world countries like the US), this may not be a pandemic. This is good news (assuming it's true). What is worrying if it spreads to a densely populated developing country like India. I imagine China would be well prepared, due to recent history with outbreaks of diseases.

[belfastuniguy 18]

@Toxic

That appears to be the case. Eye witness reports from British citizens in Mexico City have been saying that medical teams don't seem to have a clue what to look for or how to act. It's also true that developed nations seem capable of dealing with the possible outbreak and cases are treated quickly and the people only suffer minor illness. The major concern is when it starts spreading to poorer nations (if it hasn't already). It's not unfair to say they aren't going to be able to cope and that is when we will see the numbers of dead rise.

[powellinthesouth 0]

Few unconfirmed cases in NC, FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[manubeas 0]

well.... as a mexican I'd had to say I'm pretty scared.... I mean its the first time in history in which they have closed down schools and I was happy on friday (I mean no school come on) but now I'm really worried. I think this is becoming much bigger than anyone ever imagined. Anyways, I know that if I stay home nothing will happen to me as long as no one enters lol. We won't have classes till the 6th of march and this period could be extended depending on the situation

[mightygoose 92]

SWINE FLU SITREP 01:55 GMT+1(DST) 28/04/2009

UPDATE - ### massive day today,, new chart required. total infected i put at 2560+, confirmed cases 83, and dead at least 149 still with unconfirmed reports of up to 1000 around.###

Country	Confirmed cases	Confirmed deaths	Suspected cases	Suspected deaths	Notes
Mexico	26	149	1995	350	lower estimate from official news sources, however doctor's testimony to BBC varies but tends to suggest much larger fatality count, including medical staff.
United States	48		350		kansas california, New York, Ohio and texas confirmed outbreaks.
Brazil			4		two suspicious flu like cases
New Zealand			62		Tourist group of 22 school trip quarantined.  Two now hospitalised
Israel			2		A 26-year-old man has been hospitalized in Netanya, Israel and is suspected of contracting swine flu after returning from Mexico.
England			25		British Airways pilot testing returned negative for Swine flu.
France			3		Officials in France say they are testing two people who may have been infected with swine flu after visiting Mexico - Le Parisien newspaper.
Canada	6		28		4 nova scotia, 3 british columbia suspected
Spain	1		35		Spain is investigating three suspected cases of swine flu in Bilbao, Valencia and Albacete, according to El Mundo. They had visited Mexico.
Columbia			11		Reported 26/04/09 government on high alert
Scotland	2		9		Two people have been admitted to hospital in Scotland after displaying "mild" flu-like symptoms following Mexico trip
Australia			7		Reports that 2 people have been admitted to hospital in Queensland with swine flu symptoms.
Hong Kong			1		woman being tested
Denmark			4		three hospitalised in copenhagen
Switzerland			5		WHO annoucement 27/04/09
Peru			1		WHO annoucement 27/04/09
Czech Republic			3		WHO annoucement 27/04/09
South Korea			1		Yonhap news agency 28/04/09
Republic of Ireland			4		RTE.com reported 27/04/09
Poland			3		Gazeta.pl reported 27/04/09
Guatemala			3		laprensahn.com reported 27/04/09
Argentinia			1		Infobae.com reported 27/04/09
Costa Rica			1		Inside costa rica reported 27/04/09
Russia			1		NewsRU.com reported 27/04/09
Norway			1		Source unknown currently

 

 

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Bird flu, SARS, now this. I'm running out of things to be paranoid about.