An outbreak of a new type of swine flue in Mexico may have killed up to 81 people there this month, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Saturday.Mexico City streets are empty. [Link]
More than 1,300 people in Mexico were suspected to be infected with the flu, which global health experts have warned could become a global epidemic. All schools will be closed in Mexico City, the surrounding area and the central state of San Luis Potosi until May 6, Cordova said.
Parents canceled children's parties, nightclubbers were booted out and people stocked up on DVDs as Mexico City residents huddled at home for the weekend in the midst of a serious flu scare.8 NYC students have swine flu. [Link]
The capital, one of the world's biggest cities, suspended public events and closed bars and restaurants to try to halt the spread of a new flu virus that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico and infected at least eight in the United States.
The World Health Organization warned that the swine flu outbreak could become a global epidemic, putting health authorities around the world on alert. [ID:nN24462379]
Sidewalks were quiet in central Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis that is home to some 20 million people and where most of the confirmed flu deaths have occurred.
Bird song echoed clearly through an almost deserted Chapultepec Park, which usually rings with the sound of large families on joy rides and rowing boats.
As millions more people than usual stayed indoors, DVD rental stores did a roaring trade.
"A ton of people have been coming in. They come and rent three movies at once because they know they are going to stay in the house all weekend," said Manuel Garcia, 28, an employee at a DVD rental shop in the Polanco neighborhood.
The most popular titles were disaster movies and films about epidemics like 2008's "Blindness," in which people worldwide lose their sight to an unknown infection, he said.
2 cases in Kansas. [Link]New York City Health officials reported today that at least eight students at a private high school had "probable" swine flu.
About 200 of the 2,700 students attending St. Francis Preparatory High School in the Queens borough of the city missed school earlier in the week due to fever, sore throats and other flu-like symptoms, prompting school officials to notify the health department.
Investigators interviewed more than 100 students and their family members. All had mild symptoms and none were hospitalized, but some family members had developed similar symptoms, indicating their illness had spread in the family, according to Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.
A preliminary analysis of viral samples obtained from nose and throat swabs from nine affected students found that eight tested positive for influenza A. Because none matched the known H1 and H3 subtypes of human flu, they were considered "probable cases of swine flu," Frieden said. The samples have been sent to the CDC for further analysis. Those results were expected on Sunday. If the tests come back positive, officials plan to ask that the school remain closed on Monday, Frieden said.
Kansas state health officials have confirmed two cases of swine flu, just minutes after New York health officials said they had eight probable cases, CNN reported on Saturday.Wikipedia on H1N1.Health officials across the United States are testing for the new and unusual strain of H1N1 swine flu that is suspected of killing 68 people in Mexico and that has caused mild illness in at least eight people in the United States.
UPDATE: Information from the CDC. [Link]H1N1 is a subtype of the species Influenza A virus. The "H" refers to the Hemagglutinin protein, and the "N" refers to the Neuraminidase protein. H1N1 has mutated into various strains including the Spanish Flu strain (now extinct in the wild), mild human flu strains, endemic pig strains, and various strains found in birds. A variant of H1N1 was responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1919.[1] A different variant exists in pig populations.
"When he compared the 1918 virus with today's human flu viruses, Dr. Taubenberger noticed that it had alterations in just 25 to 30 of the virus's 4,400 amino acids. Those few changes turned a bird virus into a killer that could spread from person to person."[2]
Low pathogenic H1N1 strains still exist in the wild today, causing roughly half of all flu infections in 2006.[3]
Question: Is there any explanation for the high fatality rate in mexico as opposed to US?
Answer: Don't know, but it is "quite a concern." "Current diagnostics... for seasonal influenza ... will not be able to tell you if individual has swine flu or seasonal flu." Thus it's hard to know how to treat patients with influenza symptoms in US, since swine flu is amantadine resistant and seasonal is resistant to Tamiflu.
Question: Is there discussion of upgrading WHO phase?
Answer: "Stay tuned" - discussions are ongoing.
Question: Were current cases vaccinated?
Answer: 1 of the 8 US cases received current vaccine. Others either not vaccinated or unknown. Looking at cross-reactivity with seasonal H1N1. Preliminary evidence is that the current vaccine is not a good match. Vaccine development is underway - traditional and reverse genetics - and live virus vaccine.
1 comment:
I've heard from a few different sources that there would be no vaccination for such a rare virus as the Swine Flu, I hope this isn't the case
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