VA: Swine Flu case confirmed on [Va.] Tech campus

A participant of a summer camp on Tech's campus has been confirmed by Schiffert Health Center to have a case of H1N1 influenza, according to an e-mail to on-campus students from Housing and Dining Services.

The H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu, recently hit pandemic status in early June, indicating widespread global activity, as defined by the World Health Organization. According to the Center for Disease Control website, the pandemic status only reflects the spread of the virus to over 70 countries and not its severity. Housing's e-mail, sent by Associate Director for Occupancy Management Kenneth Belcher, clarified that the CDC has downgraded H1N1 to a "normal flu classification."

Virginia Tech's Housing Department is enacting its exposure control plan, said Belcher. "All housekeeping personnel are properly trained in procedures for sanitizing to reduce transmission of contagious viruses," he said in the e-mail.

I suggest reading information from the following article regarding the origins of the swine flu. Speculations of Origins of Swine Flu Proliferate Across Internet

An excerpt:

According to a source known to former NSA official Wayne Madsen, “A top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, concluded that H1N1 possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

Madsen claims that his source, and another in Indonesia, “Are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States and Canada is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.”

However, it’s important to stress that it is far too early to make this assumption. We have to bear in mind that the number of victims has been comparatively low when one considers the fact that hundreds of thousands in Mexico contract infectious diseases every year related to poverty like tuberculosis and malaria.

Fear is spreading across the internet that a mass pandemic is being readied as a biological attack. Investigators point to the highly unusual number of deaths of top microbiologists to suggest that people with knowledge of the program are being eliminated.

There are some factors that suggest the swine flu may be a biological weapon, but obviously no such conclusion can be drawn at this time. The World Health Organization and the U.S. government have been quick to deny such claims.

With the recent revelation that an American company, Baxter was caught shipping vaccines With live avian flu virus, many top health and political experts are questioning the suspicious nature and origins of this virus.

Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.

Baxter has now confirmed that it is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) on a potential vaccine to curb the swine flu virusreports the Chicago Tribune. They are seeking a sample of the potentially lethal never before seen form of swine/avian/human flu virus in order to assist the WHO in development of the new vaccine, reaping billions in the process.

Why should Baxter be trusted, when they have already been proven to be at the very least criminally negligent, and at worst a prime suspect in attempting to carry off one of the most heinous crimes in the history of mankind?

The swine flu outbreak is going to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Share prices have already risen for two of eight public traded companies in the firm’s portfolio of Pandemic and Bio Defense investments. BioCryst, up more than 26 percent, to $2.21 per share, and Novavax, maker of viral vaccines, escalated 75 percent to $1.42 per share on the first announcement of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

Another thread to read: The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act: An Assault on Civil Liberties in the Name of Homeland Security

Excerpt:

Under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, upon the declaration of a "public health emergency," governors and public health officials would be empowered to: 1. Force individuals suspected of harboring an "infectious disease" to undergo medical examinations.
2. Track and share an individual's personal health information, including genetic information.
3. Force persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases.
4. Mandate that all health care providers report all cases of persons who harbor any illness or health condition that may be caused by an epidemic or an infectious agent and might pose a "substantial risk" to a "significant number of people or cause a long-term disability." (Note: Neither "substantial risk" nor "significant number" are defined in the draft.)
5. Force pharmacists to report any unusual or any increased prescription rates that may be caused by epidemic diseases. 6. Preempt existing state laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to privacy, medical licensure, and--this is key--property rights.
7. Control public and private property during a public health emergency, including pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, nursing homes, other health care facilities, and communications devices.
8. Mobilize all or any part of the "organized militia into service to the state to help enforce the state's orders."
9. Ration firearms, explosives, food, fuel and alcoholic beverages, among other commodities.
10. Impose fines and penalties to enforce their orders.

One more related article: As the anticipated July release date for Baxter’s A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is

Excerpt:

Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

Thanks for the ping :)

Unready for the next wave

Canada must prepare for another swine flu outbreak this fall

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail Last updated on Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009 12:17AM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/unready-for-the-next-wave/article1206214/

Is Canada ready for a second wave of H1N1 (swine flu) that may hit in the fall? Britain says it may have 100,000 new cases a day by late August, based on the current doubling each week of the number of people falling ill. If Canada is hit proportionately, that would be roughly 50,000 cases a day.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is now ordering hundreds of ventilators in case the provinces do not have enough. Based on current expectations for the influenza’s spread, there may not be enough ventilators.

Andrew Simor, the head of microbiology and infectious diseases at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, puts it this way: “If we assume even a moderate type of pandemic, in the number of people and severity of disease, it will definitely overwhelm our health-care system.” It is not just a matter of a shortage of ventilators but of doctors, nurses and respiratory technologists trained to care for the patients and to use and maintain the equipment. “I suspect that is the situation we will likely encounter” beginning this fall, Dr. Simor says.

Who, then, would qualify for the desperately needed ventilators? Canadian acute-care facilities may be in the position of the people in the proverbial lifeboat with not enough drinking water to go around. “If there is a large-scale health emergency,” says an Ontario health-ministry spokesman, “it comes down to the fact that you’re dealing with only so much resources.” It is a disturbing prospect, and should wake Canadians from any complacency they may feel.

The first wave of H1N1 has been, mostly, mild; and the mildness has bred complacency. Some of it has been nurtured by public health officials, who refer to “underlying health conditions” among those who have become the sickest. What are those underlying conditions? Pregnancy, diabetes, asthma and obesity are among them. So is smoking. There may be nearly as many households with an underlying condition in them as not.

The outbreak is likely to worsen. Most flus hit hardest at the old, sick and weak; H1N1 strikes people between 20 and 50. Most flus disappear in summer; Canada has five times the flu rate this summer because of H1N1. Of the 29 Canadians who died, several had no other health problems. Canada has a high rate of the disease compared with other countries, but that may be a sign it keeps a closer eye out for it.

What lies ahead? If Britain’s plan is an indication, efforts at containment would end. Schools would stay open, no matter how many cases of sick children had been reported, unless staff members fell ill in large numbers. The focus would be on medical treatment, from an overwhelmed system.

Britain already has a national information campaign on swine flu; nothing in Canada thus far compares. Public authorities here need, as a first step, to communicate the importance of knowing the flu’s symptoms, of applying common sense – don’t go to work and infect colleagues. But more than that, the authorities need to make whatever investments are necessary to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed, and that lifesaving care is available to all.

UK:

Forty people a day could die from swine flu by next month

Published Date: 04 July 2009
By SHÂN ROSS
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Forty-people-a-day-could.5429067.jp

ABOUT 40 people will die of swine flu in Britain every day by the end of next month if the current fatality rate stays the same.

The stark assessment came as a 19-year-old man was confirmed yesterday as the first person in London to die after contracting swine flu, taking the UK death toll to four.

The teenager, who had underlying health problem, tested positive for the virus following his death on Wednesday. London, a “swine flu hot spot”, is the second-worst affected area in the UK. West Midlands is the worst hit, with Scotland third.

The youth’s death came as UK Health Secretary Andy Burnham warned Britain could have more than 100,000 new cases a day by the end of next month.

There are 7,447 confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK. Four patients have died, all of whom had underlying health problems. If the death toll stays at that level (roughly one in 2,500), the disease could kill about 40 people a day by September.

The Scottish Government has said 10,000 people a day north of the Border were expected to contract the virus by next month.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “It is too early at this stage to know how the pandemic will progress over the coming months; therefore any estimates as to the number of infections or deaths can only be conjectural.

“For example, it is entirely possible that during the summer transmission rates may fall and we will not continue to see the significant rises in cases each week that has been the case in the hot spots in the UK so far.”

Figures released yesterday show Scotland has 64 new cases of influenza A (H1N1), taking the total of confirmed cases to 1,325. Of the 64 newly confirmed cases, 53 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, five in Tayside, two in Lanarkshire, two in Ayrshire and Argyll, and one each in Grampian and Highland; 61 were not travel-related.

The Scottish Government, in line with Westminster, is abandoning its daily log of exact numbers who have contracted the disease, and from next week will issue a weekly update giving the percentage infected per 100,000 of the population.

[snip]

The Westminster government has signed contracts with GSK and Baxter for the supply of 130 million doses of swine flu vaccine – enough for the entire population. The first delivery is expected next month, and 60 million doses should be delivered by the end of the year. T

Health workers and at-risk groups, such as those with heart disease, diabetes or asthma, and children under five, are likely to get the vaccine first.

• Eight pupils from Sevenoaks School in Kent, all between 16 and 18, have been treated for swine flu in hospital in Romania
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