Swine Flu Fears

Date: 4/27/2009

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517958,00.html

Source: FOX News

Main Points:

1. Meanwhile, officials from New York State have confirmed 20 more cases of swine flu, bringing the confirmed total up to 28. The state is watching another 17 possible cases.
2. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are on high alert tracking swine flu cases throughout North America and the world. Spain was the first European country to confirm a case of swine flu, in an announcement earlier Monday. Suspected cases from New Zealand to Israel were raising concern that the new virus was spreading rapidly.
3. EU health officials 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. Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving from North America. South Korea and Indonesia introduced similar screening. China, Russia and Taiwan said it would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.
4. The World Health Organization said Monday during a news conference it's confirmed 40 cases in the United States. It said none of the cases in the U.S. have been fatal, and the figures were confirmed by the U.S. Government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
5. Still, the U.N. agency could decide in a matter of hours whether to raise its pandemic alert level as a result of the increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases in Mexico and elsewhere, said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood. "Today we've seen increased number of confirmed cases in several countries," Garwood told The Associated Press. "WHO is very concerned about the number of cases that are appearing, and the fact that more and more cases are appearing in different countries."
6. Mexico still appeared the epicenter, with 1,614 suspected swine flu cases and as many as 103 deaths in which the virus is suspected, according to Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova.
7. Obama told a gathering of scientists Monday that the administration is "closely monitoring" cases of swine flu, how many people have it and what the threat is. Obama also said the American people can expect to get regular and frequent updates about what Washington is doing. He said the swine flu threat dramatizes how the United States cannot allow itself to fall behind in scientific and medical research.
8. Dr. Richard Besser, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday U.S. officials were questioning border visitors about their health. The U.S. government declared a public health emergency Sunday to respond to the outbreak, which also has sickened people in Kansas, California, Texas and Ohio. Health officials in Michigan said they have one suspected case. Many of them had recently visited Mexico.
9. Besser said Monday people can best protect themselves against the swine flu threat by taking precautions they were taught as kids, like frequently washing their hands and covering their mouths when coughing. The virus also appears responsive to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which can be used to reduce the severity of the flu if used within two days of the appearance of flu symptoms. Roughly 12 million doses of Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
10. Also, Baxter International Inc. has requested the swine flu virus sample from the World Health Organization so that it can research the virus and then develop a vaccine in what the company spokesperson said is half the time, approximately 13 weeks, of normal manufacturing, which is usually 26 weeks. Baxter specializes in research and development in emerging vaccines.

Comments: Keep your immune system very healthy to combat the flu. The swine flu has killed at least 149 people in Mexico. That stat above is outdated.

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