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Swine Flu in TX, CA

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106K views 825 replies 158 participants last post by  Halkon 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Good catch, a baby flu pandemic

either they didn't diagnose a bunch of people who are already over it, or there are a bunch of people still in the incubation period (read the article as to source)
 
#3 ·
Little more than a minor pandemic... I've been watching this all day. :eek:

Respiratory illness sickening visitors to Mexico

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/623074

Alberta health advisory
Apr 23, 2009 09:13 AM

David Bruser
Staff Reporter

A mysterious and "severe" respiratory illness that has surfaced in parts of Mexico is killing some and leaving others on ventilators.

The flu-like condition – health officials say some specimens have tested positive for influenzas A and B – has so far affected healthy young adults between the ages 25 and 44.

The victims were sickened in central and south Mexico and showed influenza-like symptoms that quickly progressed to "severe respiratory distress" in five days. Some health care workers have been affected.

A bulletin from Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care does not say how many have been killed or sickened, and it is not clear if any Canadians are among the victims.

Officials are saying little else, though a ministry press release adds it is not yet clear if the several cases are linked, and there is no evidence that a new strain of influenza is at work.

_______________________________________

500 cases reported in Mexico City


http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=117125

Translated using Google from Spanish

The contagion has affected workers and employees of major public hospitals in the Capital,
such as the Juarez Hospital, General Hospital, National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, and
hospitals in the area of Tlalpan

MEXICO CITY .- At least 500 employees of the Health sector in Mexico City are infected with influenza
virus, reported Antonio Sanchez Arriaga, general secretary of the National Independent Union of Health Workers.

The contagion has affected workers and employees of major public hospitals in the Capital, such as the Juarez Hospital, General Hospital, National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, and hospitals in the area of Tlalpan, where the National Institute Cardiology, the National Nutrition Institute and the
Hospital Manuel Gea González, in addition to the Red Cross Polanco.

The union leader warned that the number of infections could triple this week not to take necessary health measures "Last Friday we learned of the infection and ask our representatives in the various hospitals who send us reports of patients, and found that the focus of infection and reached 500 partners," said Sanchez Arriaga.

The leader of the guild said that the authorities are overcome by the presence of influenza in hospitals and only palliative measures have been implemented to try to prevent further infections.

"Right now we are being vaccinated and are taking a week leave to employees who are sick, but this is already an epidemic, and again we believe that if this continues this week we could have more than 500 thousand infected," he said.

Sanchez Arriaga explained that it is essential to vaccinate personnel working in the areas of neonatology, pediatrics, gynecology and pulmonology, and who have the most potential for spreading infection in high risk populations.

(Imelda Garcia / Agency Reform)

_______________________________

Seven people in U.S. hit by strange new swine flu


http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN23355101

*Five new cases found in addition to two people on Tuesday

*CDC says no reason for concern yet

*Flu is unusual mixture but no deaths seen

(Updates throughout with quotes, details)

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Seven people have been diagnosed with a strange and unusual new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

"We are likely to find more cases," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told a telephone briefing. "We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."

The CDC reported the new strain of swine flu on Tuesday in two boys from California's two southernmost counties.

Now, five more cases have been seen -- all found via normal surveillance for seasonal influenza. None of the patients, whose symptoms closely resembled seasonal flu, had any direct contact with pigs.

"We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring," Schuchat said. "That's unusual. We don't know yet how widely it is spreading ... We are also working with international partners to understand what is occurring in other parts of the world."

Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio "and there's a father-daughter pair in California," Schuchat said. One of the boys whose cases was reported on Tuesday had flown to Dallas but the CDC has found no links to the other Texas cases.

STRANGE MIXTURE

Unusually, said the CDC's Nancy Cox, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

"We haven't seen this strain before, but we hadn't been looking as intensively as we have," Schuchat said. "It's very possible that this is something new that hasn't been happening before."

Surveillance for and scrutiny of influenza has been stepped up since 2003, when highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza reappeared in Asia. Experts fear this strain, or another strain, could spark a pandemic that could kill millions.

H5N1 currently only rarely infects people but has killed 257 out of 421 infected in 15 countries since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

The influenza strain is an H1N1, the same family as one of the seasonal flu viruses now circulating. Now that the normal influenza season is waning, it may be easier to spot cases of the new swine flu, Schuchat said.

Only one of the seven cases was sick enough to be hospitalized and all have recovered, Schuchat said.

"This isn't something that a person could detect at home," she said. The new cases appear to have somewhat more vomiting and diarrhea than is usually seen in flu, which mostly causes coughing, fever, sore throat and muscle aches.

The CDC is asking doctors to think about the possibility of swine flu when patients appear with these symptoms, to take a sample and send it to state health officials or the CDC for testing.

Cox said the CDC is already preparing a vaccine against the new strain, just in case. "This is standard operating procedure," Cox said. The agency will issue daily updates here

Seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people globally in an average year. And every few decades, a completely new strain pops up and it can cause a pandemic, a global epidemic that kills many more than usual. (Editing by Eric Walsh)

__________________________________________________ ____________________________

Human Swine Flu Spread to Texas and Likely Import from Mexico

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/04...ne_Mexico.html

April 24, 2009
Now, five more cases have been seen -- all found via normal surveillance for seasonal influenza. None of the patients, whose symptoms closely resembled seasonal flu, had any direct contact with pigs.

"We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring," Schuchat said. "That's unusual. We don't know yet how widely it is spreading ... We are also working with international partners to understand what is occurring in other parts of the world."

Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio "and there's a father-daughter pair in California," Schuchat said. One of the boys whose cases was reported on Tuesday had flown to Dallas but the CDC has found no links to the other Texas cases.

Only one of the seven cases was sick enough to be hospitalized and all have recovered, Schuchat said.

The above comments in Reuters describe several points made in today’s CDC conference call. The additional confirmed cases leave little doubt that the swine flu is transmitting human-to-human and has now been confirmed in three distinct locations in two states (see updated map), confirming sustained transmission.

The infection of classmates in San Antonio, as well as the father and daughter in California further highlight efficient transmission. The hospitalization of one patient, who had been on a ventilator, raises concerns that infections will produce a wide range of presentations.

The location of the confirmed cases in states that border Mexico, as well as media reports of pneumonia in Canadian travelers returning from Mexico, strongly suggests that the outbreak of influenza in Mexico is also swine flu.

The confirmed cases in the United States likely represent a pandemic of H1N1 swine flu. At this point, most confirmed cases in the United States have been mild and there have been no confirmed fatalities. However, in Mexico there has been a high case fatality rate among young adults, 25-44, with atypical pneumonia, which has similarities with the 1918 pandemic.

Moreover, the 1918 pandemic was composed of eight gene segments representing recombination between H1N1 seasonal flu and H1N1 swine flu.

An efficiently transmitted swine flu can lead to co-infection with H1N1 seasonal flu. Oseltamivir resistance (H274Y) has become fixed in H1N1 seasonal flu, raising concerns that recombination or reassortment will lead to Tamiflu resistance in the swine flu, which is already resistant to amantadine and rimantadine. Moreover, the existing trivalent seasonal flu vaccine will likely offer little protection.

The spread of swine flu in the United States, and likely import from Mexico, creates a major cause for concern.
 
#14 ·
#10 ·
Mexico, USA and Canada.

It starts out with flu like symptoms and within 48 hours those affected have to be hooked up to assisted respiration machines. It is at first glance similar to SARS and those affected range in age from 24 to 68. It affects the young and strong just as bad as the old and frail.

Main hubs of propagation at the moment are Southern and Central Mexico but it seems to be spreading with tourists returning home from Mexico.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Keep a close eye on this! It has potential.

Swine flu cases in US, mystery ailment in Mexico have experts scrambling

Published: Thursday, April 23, 2009 | 9:04 PM ET

Concurrent outbreaks of human cases of swine flu in the southwestern United States and a mystery respiratory illness in Mexico had health authorities across the continent struggling Thursday to figure out what is unfolding.

Laboratories in Atlanta and Winnipeg are looking at clinical specimens trying to determine if the mounting number of human cases of swine flu - seven and counting - in California and Texas, and an unusual explosion of severe respiratory illnesses in Mexico are pieces of the same puzzle or confusing coincidences.

Even on its own the human infections with swine flu viruses are significant enough to have experts wondering whether the world is watching the start of a flu pandemic.

But official pronouncements are being crafted with caution by authorities, who remember all too well the 1976 swine flu scare - a feared pandemic that didn't materialize.

The World Health Organization, which has been monitoring the situation, said at this point it does not believe the threat of a pandemic - the first since the 1968 Hong Kong flu - has risen.

"We would not see any evidence yet for this being a phase change," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl, referring to the organization's six step pandemic alert scale. The world is currently at phase 3 - occasional human cases with a novel flu virus - because of ongoing sporadic human infections with the H5N1 avian flu virus.

"We never want to overestimate or underestimate something, so we're following it closely," Hartl said from Geneva. "But as of the moment we see no evidence to change the global pandemic phase."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which earlier in the week revealed they had found two human cases of swine flu, announced Thursday that the number of confirmed cases has risen to seven. There are two clusters, a father-daughter pairing and two 16 year old boys who attended the same school.

Symptoms are similar to seasonal flu, though there are more reports of vomiting and diarrhea that is seen with regular flu. All of the cases have recovered, though one person required hospitalization. It appears none of the cases had contact with pigs.

"We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's national centre for immunization and respiratory diseases.

"That's unusual. We don't know yet how widely it's spreading. And we certainly don't know the extent of the problem."

Genetic sequencing done to date reveals a seemingly unique influenza A virus of the H1N1 subtype made up of a distinctive mix of swine, bird and human flu virus genes. There have been no reports of this virus in pigs, said Dr. Marie Gramer, a swine flu expert with the University of Minnesota's college of veterinary medicine.

"It doesn't seem to be very similar to anything that is currently circulating, from what I have," said Gramer, who has an extensive library of swine flu virus isolates.

The CDC said they expect to confirm more cases in coming days as contacts of the cases are checked and doctors and clinics are put on notice the CDC wants samples of flu viruses that can't be identified by standard methods.

They also cautioned they can't currently tell if the events unfolding represent something new or something that happens occasionally but which has gone unnoticed in the past.

"We have improved and intensified influenza surveillance over the past few years. So it certainly is possible that events like this occurred in the past and we simply didn't detect them," said Dr. Nancy Cox, head of the CDC's influenza division.

The first of the known cases fell ill on March 28 and the most recent developed symptoms last Sunday. Most of the cases have been children or teenagers, though two are adults. Ages range from nine to 54 years. They live in and around San Diego and in San Antonio, Tex., cities that are nearly 3,000 kilometres apart. Except for the family pairing and the school mates, there don't appear to be links among the cases.

No infections with this virus have been found in Canada, Canadian authorities said.

Nor does it seem that any cases of an unusually severe respiratory illness plaguing parts of Mexico have turned up in this country, said Dr. Danielle Grondin, assistant deputy minister for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

One person from Ontario was ill after returning from Mexico but Grondin said it seemed unlikely the illness was related to the apparent outbreak, which is affecting mainly young, previously healthy adults.

Alerts that have been sent out to health providers and public health officials in Canada say 20 deaths have been associated with the outbreak, which seems to be centred around central Mexico and Mexico City.

Grondin said Canada would issue a travel advisory warning Canadians who plan to travel to Mexico of the problem, though it was not released Thursday.

And she said the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is testing samples from Mexico looking for the cause or causes of the illnesses. Samples were also en route Thursday to the CDC's labs in Atlanta, Cox said.

Schuchat said there is no evidence yet that what is happening in Mexico is linked to what is happening in California and Texas.

"At this point, we do not have any confirmations of swine influenza in Mexico. We are working with them in terms of understand what they are seeing clinically as well as the virus characteristics of what they're seeing," she said.

A key test will be to see if any of the samples from Mexico contain the unusual swine flu virus being found in the southeastern United States.

"It will be critical to determine whether or not the strains of H1N1 isolated from patients in Mexico are also swine flu," said Dr. Donald Low, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.
Swine flu caused Mexican cases, health minister says.

Most cases occurring in healthy young adults, world health agency spokesman says

Last Updated: Friday, April 24, 2009 | 10:33 AM ET Comments63Recommend84CBC News

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says most of the cases of flu-like symptoms in Mexico have been reported among healthy adults. (CBC)An outbreak of "influenza-like" cases in Mexico was caused by swine flu, Mexico's Health Minister Angel Cordova said Friday.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," he told the Televisa network, according to Reuters.

Earlier Friday, the World Health Organization expressed "heightened concern" on Friday over more than 800 "influenza-like" cases reported in Mexico, after seven human cases of swine flu were confirmed in two U.S. border states.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told CBC News on Friday that health officials are dealing with three separate events in Mexico, with most of the 828 cases in and around the capital, Mexico City.

At least 24 cases have been reported in the central region, while four have been reported in the north. The mystery illness has led to at least 20 deaths in the country.
Most of the cases have occurred in healthy young adults, Hartl said.

"Because these cases are not happening in the very old or the very young, which is normal with seasonal influenza, this is an unusual event and a cause for heightened concern," Hartl said in an interview from WHO headquarters in Geneva.
It is also rare to see such high flu activity so late in the season, he said.

"The end of April, especially in a place like Mexico, you would think that we would see quite a steep decline," said Hartl.

All classes canceled in Mexico City!!!
A Mexican Health Ministry statement issued on Thursday afternoon said the country "was in the presence of a new influenza virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic which is controllable, so far."

The Mexican government ordered that all classes in Mexico City and the surrounding state be cancelled on Friday, from pre-schools to universities. It also has warned the public to avoid gathering places and major events.


On Thursday, Canadian health officials issued a travel advisory warning travellers who have recently returned from Mexico to be on alert for flu-like symptoms that could be connected to the illness.

In the U.S., health officials were scrambling this week to deal with a new strain of swine flu, which has been diagnosed in seven people in Texas and California.
The states share a border with Mexico not far from a town where two deaths were reported.

The U.S. cases are unusual, because it appears none of the patients had contact with pigs, and the virus is one that health officials have never seen before.
No cases of this swine flu have been found in Canada.

Samples positive for influenza A and B
The cause of the illness has not been confirmed. Mexican health officials said samples so far have tested positive for influenza A and B.

People infected with the virus initially suffer flu-like symptoms that include:

Fever, Cough, Sore throat, Muscle and joint pain, Shortness of breath.

The illness may elevate to a severe respiratory illness within about five days.
 
#18 ·
This is an interesting article on the '76 outbreak and disastrous vaccination program which ensued.

Full Article
A Shot in the Dark: Swine Flu's Vaccine Lessons

By David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer

Twenty-six years ago, the United States government got word that a deadly virus nobody had seen for years -- and which experts thought was gone forever -- was possibly circulating again.

There wasn't any proof it was back, just a few worrisome hints. However, the microbe had killed millions of people earlier in the century, so even a small amount of evidence had to be taken seriously. So, at great effort and expense, the government launched a plan to vaccinate the American population against the virus..............
 
#19 ·
#20 ·
Swine flu cases reported in Texas, California and Mexico

There are been several cases of Swine flu recently reported in Texas, California and Mexico.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6389153.html

ATLANTA — A unique type of swine flu has been diagnosed in seven people in California and Texas, up from the two reported earlier this week, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
From what I understand, the cases in Texas are directly related to the ones in California. The people in Texas had recently made a trip to California and that is where they contracted the disease.

At this time I have no information on whether the Mexico and California cases are related.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23355101.htm

* No reason for concern yet - CDC

* Flu is unusual mixture but no U.S. deaths seen (Adds details about cases in Mexico, Canada concern)

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Seven people have been diagnosed with a new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

"We are likely to find more cases," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told a telephone briefing. "We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."
Note, that the person says, "We are likely to find more cases,".

I recommend that members of this community keep an eye on this matter.


http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/news/releases/20090423.shtm

The Texas Department of State Health Services today announced that swine flu has been confirmed in two 16-year-old boys from Guadalupe County near San Antonio.

One became ill on April 10, the other on April 14. Their illnesses were relatively mild. Neither was hospitalized. Both have recovered. Though the boys are friends, it has not been determined how either became infected.

Laboratory test results received today from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the illnesses were caused by a swine influenza A (H1N1) virus. Preliminary lab data suggests that the virus closely matches the viruses from recent swine flu infections in human cases from Southern California.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Thoughts and Opinions?:eek:
The author is not linking to his/her sources. There is one link in the article, but it goes to a search. I would have liked to see a link to the CDC article the author is citing.

---- EDIT ---

The 2 threads on swine flu were merged.
 
#91 ·
Not from pigs

this strain is in human transmission, it just shares an origin or some DNA with the old swine flu. Rememeber in Asia, pigs and yaks are so valuable that they are frequently brougt in the house for safekeeping.

cooked pig is fine
 
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