Posted on 04/24/2009 2:42:42 PM PDT by Crazieman
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States.
CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating, treating or isolating people.
"There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very likely," he said.
He said the U.S. cases and Mexican cases are likely the same virus. "So far the genetic elements that we have looked at are the same." But Besser said it was unclear why the virus was causing so many deaths in deaths in Mexico and such mild disease in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
I figured I’d stock up on the first thing I could think of, which will likely run out: hand sanitizer.
I’m set. :)
Also picked up some rubbing alcohol. Just in case. I figure you can always stay away from other people, but you really need a way first, to keep sanitary.
I’ll be selling hand sanitizer next month, for $50 / bottle.
That's not exactly right. Double combinations happen, but are not as common between species (e.g., one of the reasons bird flu hasn't taken off, hasn't found a good human flu receptor). Triple species combinations are rare. This is a triple combination with two different Swine flus (from two Asia and Eurasia), a NORTH AMERICAN bird flu (don't know the type yet) and a human flu. This is a big deal. My bet is if you walked up to any virologist and told them this combination they would opt that it was lab created rather than natural occurance.
I thought it was the bird flu we had to watch out for? The banking regulators wasted (and are still wasting) billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours on the bird flu.
Oops...
At least they’ll keep nukes of NK’s and Iran’s hands and protect those keeping us safe over the past 8 years....
Let hope Sarah Palin prepares a refuge for us Freepers up in Anwar to escape the coming plague. I’ll chop wood if you cook ...
Did you see this?
Wasn’t there a big Swine Flu scare in the 1970’s.I remember a corney joke then ,”How did the pig get off the Empire State building?”Punchline was “The Swine Flu.”That’s what reminded me.
I'd bet you a considerable amount of money that they'd say the opposite.
The alarm appears to be worldwide. These are the Twitter breaking news alerts for the last several hours. I’ve only been following the Twitter breaking news recently (since the Pirate incident), but in that short time, this is by far the most active the breaking news has been. Read from bottom up for chronology:
Death toll by the swine flu outbreak in Mexico has risen to 68, CNN is reporting quoting Health officials as saying.
20 minutes ago
Crisis units have been activated in Brasil, France, Colombia, Chile and Nicaragua to monitor the swine flu outbreaks in the US and Mexico.
36 minutes ago
Testing is under way in New York to rule out the strain of swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico.
about 2 hours ago
New York City health officials say that about 75 students at a Queens high school have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms. Tests underway. about 2 hours ago
Canada’s chief public health officer says authorities are investigation a number of flu-like cases to see if they match swine flu.
about 4 hours ago
Canada’s health minister says the swine flu poses “no immediate threat” to the country; is monitoring the situation closely.
about 4 hours ago
The Mexican government has delayed the national tax deadline to May 31st, one month later because of the swine flu outbreak. (corr.) about 4 hours ago
The Mexican government has delayed the national tax deadline to May 31st, one week later because of the swine flu outbreak. about 5 hours ago
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has activated the Joint Emergency Operations Center of the Department of Public Health. about 5 hours ago
BULLETIN — CALIFORNIA ACTIVATES THE JOINT EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER TO COMBAT SWINE FLU. about 5 hours ago
Mexican authorities say it is unknown when schools in Mexico City are able to re-open. about 5 hours ago
The majority of deaths in Mexico flu outbreak were people between 25 and 45 years old, unlike normal flu, Mexican Health official says.
about 6 hours ago
The San Diego County Health And Human Services asks people who feel sick to stay home, urges sick people not to go to school or travel.
about 6 hours ago
The San Diego County Health And Human Services say it is on heightened alert to prevent the spread of swine flu.
about 6 hours ago
The San Diego County Health And Human Services say it is not a question if there will be more swine flu cases in the US.
about 6 hours ago
BULLETIN — SAN DIEGO COUNTY OFFICIALS SAY U.S. OUTBREAK OF SWINE FLU WILL SPREAD.
about 6 hours ago
WSJ: The World Health Organization has raised its internal alert system to divert more money and personell to deal with swine flu.
about 6 hours ago
The World Health Organization says this type of virus has not been previously detected in either pigs or humans.
about 6 hours ago
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel says there are no plans to close the borders in light of the deadly swine flu outbreak.
about 6 hours ago
Reuters: Mexican Health Minister says it has detected at least 1,004 cases of swine flu nationwide but says the death rate is slowing.
about 6 hours ago
The World Health Organization, in a statement, says the swine flu outbreaks are of “high concern”.
about 6 hours ago
The World Health Organization says swine flu is affecting young adults in particular, unlike normal flu.
about 6 hours ago
The World Health Organization says it has recorded at least 24 cases of swine flu in San Luis Potosi with 3 fatalities so far.
about 6 hours ago
World Health Organization says at least 854 people have been infected with swine flu in the Federal District of Mexico; 59 of them fatal.
about 6 hours ago
The United States government has reported 9 suspected cases of swine flu, according to the World Health Organization.
about 6 hours ago
Reuters: Mexico Health minister says the death rate in swine flu is slowing down.
about 6 hours ago
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms an eighth U.S. person has been infected with swine flu in California.
about 7 hours ago
At least 4 people have been infected with swine flu in Mexicali, Mexico, reports say.
about 7 hours ago
BULLETIN — MEXICO REPORTS NEW SWINE FLU OUTBREAK IN MEXICALI.
about 7 hours ago
In 2005 it was discovered that H5N1 “could be infecting up to half of the pig population in some areas of Indonesia, but without causing symptoms [...] Chairul Nidom, a virologist at Airlangga University's tropical disease center in Surabaya, Java, [Indonesia] was conducting independent research earlier this year. He tested the blood of 10 apparently healthy pigs housed near poultry farms in western Java where avian flu had broken out, Nature reported. Five of the pig samples contained the H5N1 virus. The Indonesian government has since found similar results in the same region, Nature reported. Additional tests of 150 pigs outside the area were negative.”[7]
[edit] Veterinary swine flu vaccine
Swine influenza has become a greater problem in recent decades. Evolution of the virus has resulted in inconsistent responses to traditional vaccines. Standard commercial swine flu vaccines are effective in controlling the problem when the virus strains match enough to have significant cross-protection and custom (autogenous) vaccines made from the specific viruses isolated are created and used in the more difficult cases.[8] SIV vaccine manufacture Novartis paints this picture: “A strain of swine influenza virus (SIV) called H3N2, first identified in the US in 1998, has brought exasperating production losses to swine producers. Abortion storms are a common sign. Sows go off feed for two or three days and run a fever up to 106°F. Mortality in a naïve herd can run as high as 15%.”[9]
[edit] 1918 epidemic
Main article: Spanish Flu
In the spring of 1918, swine influenza mutated into a severe form in just a few months. Eighty percent of the victims became severely ill and died, while the rest suffered from mild symptoms. In the US, the first deaths were recorded among sailors in Boston in August 1918, and the epidemic quickly spread to all parts of the country. Between the autumn of 1918 and the spring of 1919, 548,452 people died of this flu in the US. In the UK, France and Germany, around 600,000 people died. Worldwide, the number of casualties was between 20 and 50 million, or maybe more. The puzzling fact is that the epidemic erupted almost simultaneously at distant locations, therefore it is likely that the virus was incubated in people with only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Other inexplicable facts are that the disease attacked people in their twenties and thirties, thought to have strong immune systems, and most of the infections were lethal. At the military prison at Deer Island (Massachusetts) in Boston Harbor there was an attempt to develop a vaccine during the 1918 outbreak.[10]
[edit] 1976 U.S. outbreak
On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. Alarmed public-health officials decided that action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and they urged that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease. President Gerald Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, but about 24% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was canceled. [11]
There is “enough evidence to suggest that” about 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome resulting in death from severe pulmonary complications for 25 people was caused by an immunopathological reaction to the vaccine in some people.[11] Other influenza vaccines have not been linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome.[12]
[edit] 2007 Philippine outbreak
On August 20, 2007, Department of Agriculture officers investigated the outbreak of swine flu in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon, Philippines. The mortality rate is less than 10 % for swine flu, if there are no complications like hog cholera. Earlier, or on July 27, 2007, the Philippine National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) raised a hog cholera “red alert” warning over Metro Manila and 5 regions of Luzon after the disease spread to backyard pig farms in Bulacan and Pampanga, even if these tested negative for the swine flu virus.[13][14]
[edit] 2009 Mexico outbreak
This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
See also: H1N1
[15][16]
In March and April 2009, nearly 1,000 cases of swine flu in humans were detected in the southwestern United States and in Mexico, causing more than 60 deaths.[17] The first two cases detected in the US were two children living in two different counties near San Diego, California, who became ill on March 28 and 30.[18] The story was broadcast live first in Mexico on 2009-04-23 at around 11 pm and was reported by The Art Dept Chronicles early the next morning. A new swine flu strain has been confirmed in 16 of the deaths and 44 others are being tested as of 24 April 2009.[19] The Mexican cases are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu.[20]
On April 24, 2009, schools (from pre-school to university level)as well as libraries, museums and any public gathering place, were shut down by the government in Mexico City and neighbouring State of Mexico to prevent the disease from spreading further. News sources report the spread as far north as San Diego.[21]
After spreading in Mexico it crossed the border to the U.S.,[citation needed] causing eight human cases in Texas and California. The patients have recovered. The acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that preliminary tests on 7 out of 14 samples from patients in Mexico had matched the virus found in the US, which experts say is a new strain of swine flu.[19] Officials believe that human-to-human transmission has been occurring.[21]
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement “Because there are human cases associated with an animal influenza virus, and because of the geographical spread of multiple community outbreaks, plus the somewhat unusual age groups affected, these events are of high concern” and “WHO acknowledges the United States and Mexico for their proactive reporting and their collaboration with WHO and will continue to work with Member States to further characterize the outbreak”.[22]
wikipedia
According to algore, we’re all going to die in a great big ball of fire this week from global warning anyway.
Well, there’s quite a bit of discussion about this on forum of folks that follow this sort of thing. So far the concensus is that there hasn’t been a cross-species quite this complex.
So if you know of an example, can you please post it? Thanks in advance
I hear you on that.
We don't have a well, but our little village has its own so we should be OK that way.
Do these forums include epidemiologists and virologists?
How many hundreds of thousands of "forum posts" were there over the last eight years absolutely, positively convinced the Amerithrax attacks were from either Iraq or the 9/11 hijackers?
As with many other incidents and accidents, there are enormous numbers of people that approach anything like this from the perspective of WANTING it to be bioterrorism, and more specifically, Al Queda. That's not a particularly objective analytical viewpoint.
"Still, flu experts were concerned but not alarmed about the latest outbreak."
"We've seen swine influenza in humans over the past several years, and in most cases, it's come from direct pig contact. This seems to be different," said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert with the University of Michigan."
There's something about the way this was said: "This seems to be different,
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