Swine Flu Updates

More than 100 people till date have died in Mexico and the first European case has been registered in Spain. Ya Allah Khaaaiiiirrrr

(CNN) -- Seventy-three cases of swine flu have been confirmed worldwide, the World Health Organization said Monday.
A man wearing a protective mask reads a newspaper Sunday outside a hospital in Mexico City.

Forty of those cases are in the United States, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada and one in Spain, a WHO representative said.

Hundreds more cases are suspected, especially in Mexico, where as many as 103 deaths in Mexico are thought to have been caused by the virus, the country's health minister said. More than 1,700 cases have been reported but not confirmed in the country.

Federal officials confirmed 20 new U.S. cases on Monday.

A federal official said they were at the same school in New York in which eight U.S. cases were confirmed earlier. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week.

The outbreak is a particular concern because of who it is hitting hard, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

"We are concerned that in Mexico, most of those who died were young and healthy adults," he said.

President Obama said Monday that the swine flu outbreak is a "cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert," but is not a "cause for alarm."

He added that the federal government is closely monitoring emerging cases and had declared a public health emergency as a "precautionary tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond quickly and effectively."

Meanwhile, the European Union's health commissioner Monday called on people to avoid traveling to both the United States and Mexico, which seems to be the epicenter of the outbreak.

Swine influenza, or flu, is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. Outbreaks in pigs occur year-round. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions.

When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight off because people have no natural immunity.

The symptoms are similar to the common flu. They include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Learn more about swine flu and how to treat it »
Public Health Emergency
According to the World Health Organization, a public health emergency is an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.

At a White House news conference Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the emergency declaration is standard procedure -- citing that one was declared for the inauguration and for recent flooding.

The virus spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes around another person. People can become infected by touching something with the flu virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes.

The WHO has called the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern."

Researchers are trying to determine how easily it can jump from person to person. And Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general, said it was too early to predict whether there will be a mild or serious pandemic.

The cases confirmed in the U.S. and Mexico were enough of a concern for Andorra Vassiliou, the European Union's health commissioner, to recommend against travel to North America.

People "should avoid traveling to Mexico or the USA unless it is very urgent for them," Vassiliou said.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Vassiliou's warning was "not warranted."

In Mexico, authorities closed all schools until at least May 6 because of the virus. In Mexico City, and military troops distributed 4 million filter masks in the city of 20 million residents.

Updated at: 2122 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009
GENEVA:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level over the swine flu virus to phase four on Tuesday. So far the outbreak has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and spread to the United States, Canada and Europe.

“This can be interpreted as a significant step towards pandemic influenza, but also it is a phase which says that we are not there yet,” acting WHO assistant director-General Keiji Fukuda told a conference here.

Fukuda said the virus was too widespread to make containment feasible and that closing borders and imposing travel restrictions would do no good at this point. It would be prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for those who developed symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, he added.

Some 40 cases have also been confirmed in the US, with 28 of them in New York. The rest are in California, Texas and Ohio. There have also been six cases in Canada.

While EU health commissioner Androulla Vassiliou advised yesterday that people should not travel to affected areas, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday evening she was not advising anybody to restrict their travel.

The WHO has not advised people to restrict their travel either, and the organisation’s advice will be closely monitored and followed.

Meanwhile, all necessary precautionary measures have been completed to prevent the spread of swine flu in Pakistan, Director General Health, Prof Dr Rasheed Jumma said.

Talking to Geo news, he said high alert has been declared at National Institute of Health to cope with any emergency. Also close contacts have been maintained with World Health Organisation to deal with any emergency.

The health authorities have sought the assistance of immigration officials to track down and check the health of passengers who have arrived from the affected countries, Juma said.

Screening of selected international passengers has also been ordered to bolster vigilance, he concluded.

Updated at: 1557 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009
JERUSALEM: An Israeli hospital has confirmed the country's first case of swine flu and says the patient has fully recovered.

Hospital officials say the 26-year-old patient recently returned from Mexico. Local hospital's medical director says Israeli Health Ministry laboratory tests confirmed swine flu. Dr. Avinoam Skolnik says he doesn't know whether the strain is the same one that appeared in Mexico.

Skolnik said Tuesday the patient is in ``excellent condition. ''No other details were immediately available. The hospital is located in Netanya, a coastal city north of Tel Aviv.

In Afghanistan, the Disease Early Warning System has already been alerted to detect potential cases. As we don’t have sufficient information about the new flu, we are asking everyone to take precautions.

Wash your hands.

Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs.

Wash with soap and water or clean with alcohol-based hand cleaner.



Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.



Avoid close contact.

If you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too. If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness. Only visit the health facility if you are very ill.



Cover your cough.

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.

If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.

Put your used tissue in the waste basket. Clean your hands after coughing or sneezing.



Practice other good health habits. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.



Dr. Wahidi

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – 1 min ago

WASHINGTON – Virulent swine flu swept deeper into Europe Wednesday, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler in Texas, and said wider school closings in the United States may be necessary. Total U.S. cases surged to nearly 100.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators at a hearing in Washington about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that "passive surveillance" of U.S. land and seaports was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."
Still, she said the disease has spread to four more states and 91 cases now have been confirmed.
In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine lieutenant in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined at the Twentynine Palms base until tests come back.
In Washington, Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico, to Brownsville on April 4 and was brought to Houston after becoming ill. He died Monday night.
"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness

WHO warns swine flu threatening to become pandemic



By MICHAEL WARREN and PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writers Michael Warren And Paul Haven, Associated Press Writers – 11 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – Global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico.

New cases and deaths finally seemed to be leveling off in Mexico, where 160 people have been killed, after an aggressive public health campaign. But the World Health Organization said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus.

"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them."

It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.

The first U.S. death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last U.S. death from swine flu.

The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 have been sickened in 11 states.

Eight states closed schools Wednesday, affecting 53,000 students in Texas alone, and President Barack Obama said wider school closings might be necessary to keep crowds from spreading the flu. Mexico has already closed schools nationwide until at least May 6.

"Every American should know that the federal government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus," Obama said, highlighting his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding for vaccines.

Just north of the Mexican border, 39 Marines were being confined to their California base after one contracted swine flu. Senators questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about her decision not to close the border, action she said "has not been merited by the facts."

Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel either to or from Mexico, and other nations considered similar bans. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with cabinet ministers to discuss swine flu, and the health minister said France would ask the European Union to suspend flights to Mexico.

The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.

Germany and Austria became the latest countries to report swine flu infections Wednesday, with cases already confirmed in Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.

In addition to the 160 deaths, the virus is believed to have sickened 2,498 people across Mexico. But only 1,311 suspected swine flu patients remained hospitalized, and a closer look at daily admissions and deaths at Mexico's public hospitals suggests the outbreak may have peaked during three grim days last week when thousands of people complained of flu symptoms.

Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever since. Unlike with bird flu, doctors have no evidence suggesting a direct pig-to-human infection from this strain, which is why they haven't recommended killing pigs.

Medical detectives have not zeroed in on where the outbreak began. One of the seven deaths in Mexico directly attributed to swine flu was that of a Bangladeshi immigrant, said Mexico's chief epidemiologist, who suggested that someone could have brought the virus from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Miguel Angel Lezana, the epidemiologist, said the unnamed Bangladeshi had lived in Mexico for six months and was recently visited by a brother who arrived from Bangladesh or Pakistan and was reportedly ill. The brother has left Mexico and his whereabouts are unknown, Lezana said.

By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and where small clinics provide the only health care.

The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms left them struggling to breathe.

Days later, a door-to-door tax inspector was hospitalized with acute respiratory problems in the neighboring state of Oaxaca, infecting 16 hospital workers before she became Mexico's first confirmed death.

Neighbors of the inspector, Maria Adela Gutierrez, said Wednesday that she fell ill after pairing up with a temporary worker from Veracruz who seemed to have a very bad cold. Other people from La Gloria kept going to jobs in Mexico City despite their illnesses, and could have infected people in the capital.

The deaths were already leveling off by the time Mexico announced the epidemic April 23. At hospitals Wednesday, lines of anxious citizens seeking care for flu symptoms dwindled markedly.

The Mexican health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said getting proper treatment within 48 hours of falling ill "is fundamental for getting the best results" and said the country's supply of medicine was sufficient.

Cordova has suggested the virus can be beaten if caught quickly and treated properly. But it was neither caught quickly nor treated properly in the early days in Mexico, which lacked the capacity to identify the virus, and whose health care system has become the target of widespread anger and distrust.

In case after case, patients have complained of being misdiagnosed, turned away by doctors and denied access to drugs. Monica Gonzalez said her husband, Alejandro, already had a bad cough when he returned to Mexico City from Veracruz two weeks ago and soon developed a fever and swollen tonsils.

As the 32-year-old truck driver's symptoms worsened, she took him to a series of doctors and finally a large hospital. By then, he had a temperature of 102 and could barely stand.

"They sent him away because they said it was just tonsillitis," she said. "That hospital is garbage."

That was April 22, a day before Mexico's health secretary announced the swine flu outbreak. But the medical community was already aware of a disturbing trend in respiratory infections, and Veracruz had been identified as a place of concern.

Gonzalez finally took her husband to Mexico City's main respiratory hospital, "dying in the taxi." Doctors diagnosed pneumonia, but it may have been too late: He has suffered a collapsed lung and is unconscious. Doctors doubt he will survive.

Swine flu has symptoms nearly identical to regular flu — fever, cough and sore throat — and spreads like regular flu, through tiny particles in the air, when people cough or sneeze. People with flu symptoms are advised to stay at home, wash their hands and cover their sneezes.

While epidemiologists stress it is humans, not pigs, who are spreading the disease, sales have plunged for pork producers around the world. Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs on Wednesday, even though no cases have been reported there. WHO says eating pork is safe, but Mexicans have even cut back on their beloved greasy pork tacos.

Pork producers are trying to get people to stop calling the disease swine flu, and Obama notably referred to it Wednesday only by its scientific name, H1N1. U.N. animal health expert Juan Lubroth noted some scientists say "Mexican flu" would be more accurate, a suggestion already inflaming passions in Mexico.

Authorities have sought to keep the crisis in context. In the U.S. alone, health officials say about 36,000 people die every year from flu-related causes.

Mexico's government said it remains too early to ease restrictions that have shut down public life in the overcrowded capital and much of the country. Pyramids, museums and restaurants were closed to keep crowds from spreading contagion.

"None of these measures are popular. We're not looking for that — we're looking for effectiveness," Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said. "The most important thing to protect is human life."

___

Associated Press writers Olga Rodriguez in Oaxaca, Mexico, E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City, Lauran Neergaard and Tom Raum in Washington, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Patrick McGroarty in Berlin and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

The Airport Authorities have detained the first suspected Swine Flu Case of Pakistan on 30th April 2009 after a person at arrival at Lahore Airport from NewYork developed symptoms of Flu. He was quarantined at May Hospital Lahore and will remain till clearance of his symptoms or his diagnosis otherwise

Swine Flu is playing like Tendulkar or Jayasuriya

Yes May God,Protect us from this disease, It is spreading by leaps and Bounds
It's the Reciprocal of Talibanization for them.
"God Knows Better"

Obama, Gordon Brown, Manmohan Singh may put al blame on Alqaida for the spread of Swine Flu. We can expect anything from them

Officials have conducted medical checkups on about 200 of the guests and staff holed up at the Metropark. Sixty people who had mild symptoms were taken to hospitals for follow-ups, Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center of Health Protection was quoted as saying on radio RTHK's Web site Saturday.

Ireland, the business traveler, said some guests appeared anxious and others were just bored.

"I'm not worried, but there are some people who are really panicked," he said. "We don't have any books to read. It's boring, but what can one do?"

Officials in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong hurried to locate the infected tourist's recent contacts on flights from Mexico to Shanghai and from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

The patient, who was not identified, arrived in Shanghai on AeroMexico flight AM 98 and continued on to Hong Kong on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505. He developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon and is now in stable condition and isolated at a hospital.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a notice on its Web site that it would suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai, the only city in the mainland where direct flights land.

The government was also looking for 11 people who arrived in Shanghai on a flight from Mexico Thursday and traveled to southern China, raising questions about whether Beijing can effectively track those who could be infected.

South Korea also confirmed its first case of the disease on Saturday, state disease control center chief Lee Jong-koo said. The 51-year-old woman returned from Mexico on April 26 and reported to authorities the next day that she had flu symptoms. She has been quarantined, but a doctor treating her told reporters Saturday that she is in good condition with few symptoms.

In New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region with confirmed cases, the tally remained at four Saturday, Health Minister Tony Ryall told reporters.

California officials, meanwhile, suspended all visitations at prisons pending results of tests on an ill inmate at Centinela State Prison.

In the Canadian province of Alberta, officials quarantined about 220 pigs that became infected from a worker who had recently returned from Mexico. It was the first documented case of the H1N1 virus being passed from a human to another species. Canada stressed that pigs often get the flu and there's no danger in eating pork.

Egypt has ordered all pigs in the country slaughtered as a precaution, sparking riots Sunday by pig farmers who threw stones at police.

According to tallies by the CDC, World Health Organization and governments, there were 101 confirmed cases of swine flu in Canada; 40 in Spain; 18 in Britain; eight in Germany; four in New Zealand; two each in Italy, France, Israel, and South Korea; one each in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Fear spread in other parts of the globe, much of it directed at Mexican nationals or those who have traveled to Mexico.

China quarantined more than 70 Mexican travelers in hospitals and hotels there, and Mexicans on arriving flights were being taken into isolation, said Mexico's ambassador, Jorge Guajardo. Even the Mexican consul in Guangzhou was briefly held after returning from a vacation in Cambodia, Guajardo said.

"In many cases we have gotten reports that they were being quarantined for the sole fact that they had a Mexican passport, whether or not they came from Mexico, whether or not they had been in Mexico, whether or not they had been in contact with someone else from Mexico," Guajardo said.

Hong Kong isolated 350 people in a hotel after a Mexican traveler there was determined to have the swine flu.

In Trinidad, crew aboard a Mexican tanker had been isolated since Friday at the Point Lisas Port. The Ministry of Health said Sunday they were tested and cleared of any flu infection and that the vessel was expected to be released.

Health officials around the world cautioned that despite encouraging signs, swine flu still poses a very real threat.

"Most experts would agree that the current outbreak that we are experiencing is mild to moderate in severity," Dr. Jon Andrus of the Pan American Health Organization said in a teleconference from Washington. "That is not to say that things cannot change very rapidly and very dramatically."

Under one scenario, the virus could peter out now, only to roar back in the fall when flu seasons begins. That's why health officials are watching the Southern Hemisphere so closely.

To Listen the Audio conversation (Q & A) about Swine Flu, click the link below;

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/swine-flu/MY00676