Waukegan Talk

I wonder if our health and school officials will be discussing this growing emergency? It's not out of the realm of possibility that someone has arrived in Waukegan from Mexico in the last week. Granted the odds are small but I want them to be prepared. Schools have been shut down in Mexico City.


81 dead in Mexico as flu emergency goes global

(CNN) -- Mexican officials are asking citizens to avoid large crowds, refrain from kissing as a greeting and maintain a distance of at least 1.8 meters (six feet) from each other amid growing concern in the country and elsewhere over new cases of suspected and confirmed swine flu infection.
Swine flu is usually diagnosed only in pigs or people in regular contact with them.

Several countries issued travel notices and tightened restrictions to brace against the virus the World Health Organization is calling "a public health emergency of international concern."

By Sunday, 81 deaths had been deemed "likely linked" to a deadly new strain of the virus by health authorities in Mexico. Viral testing has confirmed 20 cases, said Dr. Jose A. Cordova Villalobos, Mexico's health secretary. In the United States, the number of confirmed swine flu cases stood at 11.

In New Zealand, officials said 22 students and three teachers, who returned from a three-week-long language trip to Mexico, may have been infected with the virus.

The 25 students and teachers at Auckland's Rangitoto College returned to New Zealand via Los Angeles on Saturday.

Fourteen have shown flu-like symptoms, with four "more unwell than others," said Dr. Julia Peters, clinical director of Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A. The specimens will be sent to WHO to determine whether it is H1N1 swine influenza. H1N1 influenza is a subset of influenza A.

The WHO results are expected back by midweek. The group remains quarantined at home.

"It's certainly has not been confirmed that they have swine flu," said Dr. Craig Thornley, medical officer of health in influenza. "We already have provisional information that some of the group have influenza A. We won't know if they have the type of influenza A that is swine flu."

In England, authorities stressed that a crew member who developed flu-like symptoms during a flight from Mexico City to Heathrow did not test positive for swine flu.

"I can confirm that the patient doesn't have swine flu," said Jonathan Street, a spokesman for Northwick Park Hospital in London.

"We have done all test, and they all came back negative."

In Israel, doctors are running tests on a man who recently returned from Mexico with light flu symptoms.

U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus in the United States matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus. All the patients have recovered or are expected to.

The panic over the virus prompted Canada to issue a travel health notice, saying the public health agency was "tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico." Video Watch CBC report on Canadian microbiologists' concerns »

South Korea said it will test airline passengers arriving from the United States. And Japan will convene a Cabinet meeting Monday to come up with measures to block the entry of the virus into the country.

The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines.

But US Airways said Saturday night it would allow passengers to change plans if they wanted to because of the outbreak.
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Airline spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said it was not asking people not to travel to Mexico, but wanted to "give them that flexibility" if "they don't feel comfortable."

Gregory Hartl, of the World Health Organization, said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains.Video Watch how public health officials grade phases of pandemic alerts »

"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus," Hartl said.

He said that, in Mexico, otherwise young, healthy people have been hit by the virus -- "one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us," he said.

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities until further notice because of the virus. Video Watch efforts in Mexico to prevent spread of the virus »
Health Library

* MayoClinic.com: Influenza (flu)

More than 1,300 people with flu-like symptoms have been admitted to hospitals in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of them have swine flu, said Jose Cordova Villalobos, the country's health minister.

The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually associated with pigs. When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off.

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said. Learn more about swine flu and how to treat it »
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President Barack Obama, who visited Mexico last week en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, is not sick.

"The president's trip to Mexico has not put his health in any danger," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Officials: 8 NYC Students Probably Have Swine Flu
Department Of Health Officials Tests 75 Students At St. Francis (4/25/2009)
At least eight students at a high school in New York City probably have human swine influenza, but authorities don't know for sure whether they have the strain that has killed people in Mexico.

City health officials say more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens have come down with a fever, sore throat and other aches and pains.

New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden says a government lab needs to do more testing before authorities can pinpoint which strain of flu the students have.

Q&A: What Is Swine Flu?

"We're looking at this minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day," New York Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden says. "What's concerning about this is that it is likely swine flu. Second, at this time, it is spreading from person-to-person."

"So many kids getting sick all in one day, it's something unexpected," student Philip Pantoja says.

Results are not expected until Sunday.

The symptoms in New York have all been mild and no students have been hospitalized, but the illnesses have caused concern because of an outbreak of a strain in Mexico responsible for as many as 68 deaths.

There are mounting fears about a deadly swine flu virus that is reported to have killed as many as 60 people in Mexico, one that health officials fear has already seeped into the United States.

St. Francis Prep was ordered to cancel an evening program Friday night because the New York City Department of Health isn't sure what made students sick Thursday and Friday with flu-like symptoms.

"They should close the school down for a week just to check out everything," student John Lindo says.

"I just saw lot a lot of kids lined up along the wall near the nurse's office," sophomore Kelsey Dittmeir said.

If it's the flu, the question is what kind of flu? And could it be the unique strain suspected in 20 recent deaths?

"It could be a strain we've seen before. It could be the regular flu," Dr. Ross Weiss said. "It could be flu B that happens late in the year. It could be any of those so we really can't speculate at this point. That's why we were very anxious to get samples to the lab and get them tested so we can find out what we are dealing with."

If it's the new strain of swine flu it could be a problem. Most cases have been reported in Mexico, where schools, museums and public gathering places have been closed.

Eight patients have also turned up in California and Texas, although their symptoms have been mild.

Students told CBS 2 HD they plan on getting tested over the weekend. One senior we spoke to said she left school Thursday before her fellow classmates got ill.

"My chest just hurts and I have shortness of breath. My ears were hurting me earlier but they are okay now. My head is still in and out," Noel Alexandria said.

Added Dr. Weiss: "There were people tonight interviewing students and we'll be here tomorrow. And when we get the test results that will dictate what our next steps are."

The city hopes to identify those symptoms as flu it has seen before. If the tests come back negative they will be sent down to the Centers for Disease Control. So far, officials have been told all the cases have shown mild symptoms.

"The city is very well-prepared," Frieden says. "We've prepared for years at every level."

The NY State Department of Health has set up a hot line number for residents who have questions about the swine influenza. That number is 1-800-808-1987.

CBS 2's Dave Carlin and Lou Young contributed to this report

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Kansas Couple Contracts Swine Flu
State Describes Illnesses As 'Mild'


TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansas health officials say they've confirmed two cases of swine flu in a married couple living in central Kansas.

The man and woman, who live in Dickinson County, were not hospitalized and the state is describing their illnesses as mild.

Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, the state health officer, said "Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves."

The man traveled to Mexico last week for a professional conference and became ill after he returned home. His wife became ill later. Their doctor suspected swine flu but it wasn't confirmed until flu specimens were flown to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The state declined to provide more information about the couple.

A strain of the flu has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico. The World Health Organization chief said the strain has "pandemic potential" and it may be too late to contain a sudden outbreak.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said besides the two confirmed cases in Kansas, there are nine in California and Texas.

Samples from New York have been sent to the CDC for more testing. Results are expected Sunday.

Stay with KMBC 9 News and kmbc.com for more details about this developing story.


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The US is briefing now. Twenty cases in five states.


Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Streaming at 12:30: White House Press Briefing
The Office of the Press Secretary issued the following advisory this morning concerning a special White House Briefing to discuss the reported swine flu cases. Watch it streamed at 12:30pm EDT at WhiteHouse.gov/live, and find up-to-the-minute information through the HHS/ CDC swine flu widget.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/">http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/</a><!-- m -->


THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SUNDAY, April 26, 2009

White House Briefing to Discuss Reported Swine Flu Cases – Today at 12:30pm EDT

WASHINGTON – Obama administration officials will host an on-camera briefing this afternoon in the White House Press Briefing Room to provide an update on swine influenza in the United States and the government response.

WHO: Secretary Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security; Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2009, 12:30pm EDT

WHERE: White House Press Briefing Room

Why worry? Santuary City Bob has a plan. Just pretend illegal Mexicans aren't a problem and move on to more critically important issues, like dumping the towing ordinance. A little flu never hurt anybody.

aliotakirk Wrote:Why worry? Santuary City Bob has a plan. Just pretend illegal Mexicans aren't a problem and move on to more critically important issues, like dumping the towing ordinance. A little flu never hurt anybody.

The towing ordinance is unconstitutional thus un-American. In my opinion people who don't support the Constitution and Bill of Rights are also un-American.

Mayor elect Sanctuary Bob, is nimble enough to handle both of these important issues. Eliminating the towing ordinance will help to lure all those swine flu carriers back home satisfying both of Sanctuary Bob's constituencies.

I vote for the 'flu that fizzles.'


Is swine flu 'the big one' or a flu that fizzles?
Associated Press

Published: 4/27/2009 12:06 AM

ATLANTA -- As reports of a unique form of swine flu erupt around the world, the inevitable question arises: Is this the big one?

Is this the next big global flu epidemic that public health experts have long anticipated and worried about? Is this the novel virus that will kill millions around the world, as pandemics did in 1918, 1957 and 1968?

The short answer is it's too soon to tell.

"What makes this so difficult is we may be somewhere between an important but yet still uneventful public health occurrence here -- with something that could literally die out over the next couple of weeks and never show up again -- or this could be the opening act of a full-fledged influenza pandemic," said Michael Osterholm, a prominent expert on global flu outbreaks with the University of Minnesota.

"We have no clue right now where we are between those two extremes. That's the problem," he said.

Health officials want to take every step to prevent an outbreak from spiraling into mass casualties. Predicting influenza is a dicey endeavor, with the U.S. government famously guessing wrong in 1976 about a swine flu pandemic that never materialized.

"The first lesson is anyone who tries to predict influenza often goes down in flames," said Dr. Richard Wenzel, the immediate past president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

But health officials are being asked to make such predictions, as panic began to set in over the weekend.

The epicenter was Mexico, where the virus is blamed for 86 deaths and an estimated 1,400 cases in the country since April 13. Schools were closed, church services canceled and Mexican President Felipe Calderon assumed new powers to isolate people infected with the swine flu virus.

International concern magnified as health officials across the world on Sunday said they were investigating suspected cases in people who traveled to Mexico and came back with flu-like illnesses. Among the nations reporting confirmed cases or investigations were Canada, France, Israel and New Zealand.

Meanwhile, in the United States, there were no deaths and all patients had either recovered or were recovering. But the confirmed cases around the nation rose from eight on Saturday morning to 20 by Sunday afternoon, including eight high school kids in New York City -- a national media center. The New York Post's front page headline on Sunday was "Pig Flu Panic."

The concern level rose even more when federal officials on Sunday declared a public health emergency -- a procedural step, they said, to mobilize antiviral medicine and other resources and be ready if the U.S. situation gets worse.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say that so far swine flu cases in this country have been mild. But they also say more cases are likely to be reported, at least partly because doctors and health officials across the country are looking intensively for suspicious cases.

And, troublingly, more severe cases are also likely, said Dr. Richard Besser, the CDC's acting director, in a Sunday news conference.

"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," he predicted. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."

Besser also repeated what health officials have said since the beginning -- they don't understand why the illnesses in Mexico have been more numerous and severe than in the United States. In fact, it's not even certain that new infections are occurring. The numbers could be rising simply because everyone's on the lookout.

He also said comparison to past pandemics are difficult.

"Every outbreak is unique," Besser said.

The new virus is called a swine flu, though it contains genetic segments from humans and birds viruses as well as from pigs from North America, Europe and Asia. Health officials had seen combinations of bird, pig and human virus before -- but never such an intercontinental mix, including more than one pig virus.

More disturbing, this virus seems to spread among people more easily than past swine flus that have sometimes jumped from pigs to people.

There's a historical cause for people to worry.

Flu pandemics have been occurring with some regularity since at least the 1500s, but the frame of reference for health officials is the catastrophe of 1918-19. That one killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people worldwide.

Disease testing and tracking were far less sophisticated then, but the virus appeared in humans and pigs at about the same time and it was known as both Spanish flu and swine flu. Experts since then have said the deadly germ actually originated in birds.

But pigs may have made it worse. That pandemic began with a wave of mild illness that hit in the spring of 1918, followed by a far deadlier wave in the fall which was most lethal to young, healthy adults. Scientists have speculated that something happened to the virus after the first wave -- one theory held that it infected pigs or other animals and mutated there -- before revisiting humans in a deadlier form.

Pigs are considered particularly susceptible to both bird and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of deadly, easily spread flu, scientists believe.

Such concern triggered public health alarm in 1976, when soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, became sick with an unusual form of swine flu.

Federal officials vaccinated 40 million Americans. The pandemic never materialized, but thousands who got the shots filed injury claims, saying they suffered a paralyzing condition and other side effects from the vaccinations.

To this day, health officials don't know why the 1976 virus petered out.

Flu shots have been offered in the United States since the 1940s, but new types of flu viruses have remained a threat. Global outbreaks occurred again in 1957 and 1968, though the main victims were the elderly and chronically ill.

In the last several years, experts have been focused on a form of bird flu that was first reported in Asia. It's a highly deadly strain that has killed more than 250 people worldwide since 2003. Health officials around the world have taken steps to prepare for the possibility of that becoming a global outbreak, but to date that virus has not gained the ability to spread easily from person to person.

wow, everyone sure is worked up about this. guess i've been too busy with the Y2K bug.
oh wait, that was another story the media used to scare everyone.

a little common sense and a lot of hand soap goes along way. let's all try it.

Over 100 people have died from this in the past several days down in Mexico. Most of those who have died were young and healthy. This influenza virus seems to provoke the same immune system over-reaction which made SARS, avian flu, and even the 1918 epidemic so dangerous. While I don't think it's time for panic, I do think it's naive to think that a little soap and water will wash away this potential global health problem.

At the very least, it's an opportunity to evaluate the emergency plans in place at home, at work, at school, and in various levels of the government.