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Swine flu continued its slow spread through New York City’s schools and jails Tuesday as health authorities investigated whether the virus had killed a toddler whose parents are from Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak.
A hospital official says a school assistant principal has become the first New York City death linked to the swine flu virus. He had been sick for nearly a week before his school was closed on Thursday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, CDC Acting Director Dr. Richard Besser says Americans cannot let their guard down when it comes to the risk of swine flu, even as the threat of the virus.
A Texas woman who lived near a popular border crossing was confirmed as the first U.S. resident and the second person outside Mexico to die after contracting swine flu.
The A/H1N1 flu outbreak is leading to a potential diplomatic row between China and Mexico, as Chinese health authorities round up and quarantine scores of Mexicans — only one of whom is thus far reported to be sick — as they fly in on business and holiday trips.
Mexico’s foreign minister said Mexican citizens with no signs of infection had been isolated in “unacceptable conditions” in China. Patricia Espinosa told a news conference Saturday that such measures were “discriminatory and ungrounded” and that the government is advising Mexicans to stay away from China.
She also criticized four Latin American countries — Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Cuba — for suspending flights coming from Mexico against the recommendation of the World Health Organization. – from WSJ
Only the influenza Type-A virus is capable of what is known as antigenic shift.
The current flu in circulation is an entirely new, mutated pathogen formed from elements of human, pig, and avian virus strains.
Overflowing with mutated viruses, the respiratory epithelial host cells of the pig eventually burst open and circulate the new flu virus into the susceptible human population.
U.S. health officials say there are now 226 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States. The tally released Sunday by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention also shows 30 states now have cases of swine flu.
New York Governor David Paterson updates the swine flu case count and says another school will close temporarily.
Britain’s first swine flu victim was in the audience at a Edinbrgh rock concert just days before being diagnosed, it has been revealed.
The number of swine flu deaths have ebbed in Mexico, but experts are warning people not to get complacent because the virus keeps spreading around the world.
The number of suspected deaths from swine flu in Mexico has been cut by 75 to 101, indicating the outbreak may not be as bad as initially feared. The country has ordered a five-day shutdown in a bid to contain the virus. US President Barack Obama is calling for continued vigilance but says the virus that has travelled across the border also appears weaker. – from BBC
In the first known reported case of the new, mutated virus infecting another species, pigs in the province of Alberta have become infected and are under quarantine. They apparently got the virus from a Canadian farm worker who recently visited Mexico and got sick with swine flu, Canadian officials said Saturday. They told a press conference in Ottawa that the pigs do not pose a food safety risk, adding that the traveler recovered from the swine flu and the pigs are “well on their way to recovery.” The outbreak occurred on a single farm, where about 10 percent of 2,200 pigs showed a fever and loss of appetite. No pigs have died from the virus, officials said. – from AP
Confirmed cases of swine flu jumped by more than 65 percent Saturday with the World Health Organization reporting 615 people in 15 countries infected with the virus commonly known as swine flu. The organization had reported 367 cases on Friday. The jump in cases was due to ongoing testing of a backlog of specimens in Mexico, the WHO said. The most cases were in Mexico, where 397 people were infected and 16 deaths were attributed to the virus, according to the WHO. Next was the United States, which has 141 cases and one death. “What the increase reflects is that we are moving forward in confirming many of the cases that have been left untested for some time, so in an way that’s reassuring,” said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood. – From CNN
A flight from Germany to Washington has been diverted to Boston because a passenger complained of flu-like symptoms. Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella says United Airlines Flight 903 was being diverted Friday afternoon after a 53-year-old female passenger told flight attendants about her symptoms.
He says the flight from Munich had 245 passengers and six crew members. The flight had been scheduled to land at Washington Dulles International Airport later Friday.
It isn’t yet clear what caused the woman’s symptoms or whether she might be suffering from swine flu.
The number of confirmed cases of the N1H1 virus jumped more than 30 percent with 331 people being sickened by the virus known as swine flu, the the World Health Organization said Friday. The organization announced that 251 people had virus Thursday.
The largest outbreak was in Mexico which had 156 confirmed cases.
In the U.S. there were 109 confirmed cases and one death, the WHO said.
The virus had spread to 11 countries, but the hardest hit areas were in the western hemisphere, the organization said.
We have not “seen sustained human to human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region,” said Thomas Abraham, WHO spokesman.
- from CNN
Mexican health authorities say they have confirmed 300 swine flu cases due to the virus among a total of 679 people tested so far. That’s up from 260 confirmed cases announced just a few hours ago. Less than half of the suspected cases tested have been confirmed as swine flu. Health workers have visited the homes of 76 suspected victims and found only two cases in which relatives tested positive for an A-type flu virus which could be related to the swine strain.
Health Secretary Jose Cordova said Thursday that authorities have spent 1.6 billion pesos ($116 million) on medical supplies and equipment so far in the epidemic. The outbreak has caused a confirmed 12 deaths in Mexico. – from AP
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics. In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
“Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.
His remarks Wednesday came the same day Texas authorities announced that a nearly 2-year-old boy with the virus had died in a Houston hospital Monday.
“Any time someone dies, it’s heartbreaking for their families and friends,” Olsen said. “But we do need to keep this in perspective.”
Researchers are scrambling to study the evolution and spread of the novel H1N1 strain of swine influenza whose leap to humans was officially confirmed last week. The possible imminent onset of a swine-flu pandemic is also testing international preparedness plans put into place to deal with something else: the much-feared H5N1 avian flu virus that has spread across Asia, Europe and Africa since 2003. – from Nature
But is everyone getting the same virus? Part of me wants to believe that it’s not spreading as fast as it seems because some of the apparent spread is some other, milder virus. But Butler reminds us that the fast spread through the school in New York, where 28 kids have been cconfirmed to have the same virus that has run through Mexico (though none of the NY students terribly sick), argues against that optimistic take. At the same time. from here
World Health Organisation assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda said researchers on the ground were seeing the infection spread from person-to-person. “It is clear that the virus is spreading and we don’t see evidence of it slowing down at this point,” he said. – from Sky
On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its alert level although that is still two steps short of a full pandemic. As of Tuesday, the virus was suspected in 152 fatalities and 1,600 illnesses – all in Mexico. Elsewhere, 90 cases of the flu had been confirmed in at least 11 countries – 50 cases alone in the United States. SARS, by comparison, was believed responsible for 800 fatalities and 8,000 illnesses. – from CSmonitor
The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second-highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent. The Phase 5 alert indicates sustained human-to-human spread in at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up. – from Dallas
The WHO has confirmed 154 cases in nine countries, and hundreds of people are being tested for the virus from Australia to New York. Eight of those known to have had swine flu have died, though many more may be carrying the virus and not getting seriously ill, the WHO said. The case in Spain may signal that the disease is being transmitted easily outside of Mexico, where the outbreak began, officials said.
“It is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,” Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said at a news conference in Geneva yesterday. “The biggest question right now is this: How severe will the pandemic be? All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic plans.” – from Bloomberg
Health officials say the number of confirmed swine flu cases in New York has risen to 51, and tests are under way on the first three probable cases outside New York City.
Close the Mexican Border now, stop Swine Flu!
The swine flu outbreak that started less than a month ago has caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico and more than 60 confirmed cases across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with suspected cases in France, Spain, Israel and New Zealand. – from CNN
Travel restrictions under consideration by the U.S. to prevent the spread of a new flu virus may be influenced by politics more than science, the World Health Organization’s chief said today. – from Bloomberg
It couldn’t have struck at a worse moment. Reeling from economic crisis and public insecurity, Mexico was now faced with a public health emergency of unknown proportions. Across the country, from Tijuana in the north to Tapachula in the south, schools were closed, masses canceled, restaurants and nightclubs shuttered, museums and libraries shut down, and workplaces put on reduced hours. Slammed with travel warnings and restrictions from abroad, Mexico’s important tourist industry, already teetering on the brink, was threatened with a coup de grace from the deadly hand of the swine flu. – from NewspaperTree
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Wednesday that closing borders with Mexico would not help contain the swine flu. Napolitano said in prepared testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that closing the border “would yield only very marginal benefits,” but would lead to very high costs. Some lawmakers and media writers had earlier urged the government to close the U.S. border with Mexico, the origin of the swine flu outbreak, in a bid to stop the spread of the disease. – from here
A Mexican toddler in Texas has become the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico, as authorities around the world struggle to contain a growing global health menace.
Residents in small Mexican town believe their community is ground zero for swine flu epidemic.