Flu CDC: 8 Confirmed Cases of Swine Flu in U.S.

CDC: 8 Confirmed Cases of Swine Flu in U.S. | Fox News

CDC: 8 Confirmed Cases of Swine Flu in U.S.

Friday, April 24, 2009

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Reuters

April 24, 2009: Women wear masks as they walk past a closed school in Mexico City.

Mexico closed its schools across its capital Friday after at least 16 otherwise healthy people died and more than 900 others fell ill from what could be a new strain of swine flu. The World Health Organization worried that it could mark the start of a flu pandemic.
Scientists in the U.S. and Mexico determined the deaths were due to the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California.
The World Health Organization counted at least 57 deaths in Mexico, although it wasn't yet clear if this larger number was due to swine flu.
"We are very, very concerned," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said. "We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human." If international spread is confirmed, that meets WHO's criteria for raising the pandemic alert level, he added.
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WHO also raised its internal alert system Friday, enabling the agency to divert more money and personnel to dealing with the outbreak. "It's all hands on deck at the moment." Abraham said.
Mexico's Health Secretary, Jose Cordova, said only 16 of the deaths have been confirmed to have been caused by the new strain, through testing at government laboratories. Samples from 44 other people who died were still being tested. The health department put the total number of people sickened at around 943 nationwide.
Cordova said samples also were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to determine whether it's the same virus infecting seven people in Texas and California. As of now, tests show the flu is a "new, different strain ... that originally came from pigs," he said.
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The CDC has set up a section on its Web site to provide the public with information about swine flu.
"We certainly have 60 deaths that we can't be sure are from the same virus, but it is probable," Cordova told MVS radio in Mexico City.
Cordova described a chilling new strain that had killed only people among the normally less-vulnerable young and mid-adult age range. One possibility is that the most vulnerable segments of the population — infants and the aged — had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.
But Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said "at this point, we do not have any confirmations of swine influenza in Mexico" of the kind that sickened seven California and Texas residents.
All eight U.S. victims recovered from a strain of the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before. The swine flu's symptoms are like those of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea.
Closing the schools across the metropolis of 20 million kept 6.1 million students home from day care centers through high schools, and thousands more were affected as colleges and universities closed down. Parents scrambled to juggle work and family concerns due to what local media said was the first citywide schools closure since Mexico City's devastating 1985 earthquake.
Lillian Molina and other teachers at the Montessori's World preschool scrubbed down their empty classrooms with Clorox, soap and Lysol on Friday between fielding calls from worried parents. While the school has had no known cases among its students, Molina supported the government's decision to shutter classes, especially in preschools.
"It's great they are taking precautions," she said. "I think it's a really good idea."
Authorities advised capital residents not to go to work if they felt ill, and to wear surgical masks if they had to move through crowds. Libraries, museums and state-run theaters were shutdown Friday afternoon.
A wider shutdown — perhaps including shutting down government offices — was being considered.
"It is very likely that classes will be suspended for several days," Cordova said. "We will have to evaluate, and let's hope this doesn't happen, the need to restrict activity at workplaces."
Still, U.S. health officials said it's not yet a reason for alarm in the United States. The cases in California and in Texas have all recovered, and testing indicates some common antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.
Schuchat of the CDC said officials believe the new strain can spread human-to-human, which is unusual for a swine flu virus. The CDC is checking people who have been in contact with the eight confirmed U.S. cases, who all became ill between late March and mid-April.
The U.S. cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the eight people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.
CDC officials described the virus as having a unique combination of gene segments not seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
Health officials have seen mixes of bird, pig and human virus before, but never such an intercontinental combination with more than one pig virus in the mix.
Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The virus may be something completely new, or it may have been around for a while but was only detected now because of improved lab testing and disease surveillance, CDC officials said.
The virus was first detected in two children in southern California — a 10-year-old boy in San Diego County and a 9-year-old girl in neighboring Imperial County.
It's not known if anyone is getting sick from the virus right now, CDC officials said.
It's also not known if the seasonal flu vaccine that Americans got last fall and early this year protects against this type of virus. People should wash their hands and take other customary precautions, CDC officials said.

 

Very preliminary info: death rate (with treatment) over 6%.
=====
Mexico, April 24 .- The Mexican government confirmed that 1,004 reported cases so far with the infection of influenza virus and 68 deaths.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, said that for this reason suspending classes in all schools in the Mexican territory until further notice, pending a declaration of unemployment, since so far only those who are infected should be treated health centers, and will be a widespread distribution of items such as prevention mask.

At a press conference, the Secretary of Health said that as a measure of government support is extended until May 31 the deadline for filing tax returns for individuals that are due on April 30.

Clarified that the 68 deaths, 20 are found to have occurred due to influenza virus type and pig mutual Eurasian that was transported by an individual who traveled to that region.

He explained that it is similar to a virus that attacked in 1976 in the state of Wisconsin in United States, but that did not spread to cause a pandemic.

It also clarified that there is no vaccine for this type of germ and the World Health Organization has declared that no quarantine for foreigners traveling to Mexico. (Gerardo Flores/MCH)

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm
Official releases say 64 deaths, doctor in Mexico City says over 200.

Possible scenario.

 

Due and owing to the fact that I live in Phoenix, Arizona...
WE have had some cases here already, whether they have been reported in the news media or not!
In fact, where my wife wrks @ Honeywell, there are quite a few illegals working there and she informed me late last night, early this am, theyare showing signs of flu like symptroms as well.
Now, where I live is also a hot bed/ breeding ground.....
There are 95% illegals here and 6-7 caucasians, out of 95 mobile homes in this park.
They travel frequently to and from Mexico, some weekly.
It appears that my wife already has the flu, and we are not sure whether or not it is the one in the news.
The odds are 90-1 it is.

 

flu fest...

Programming note:

Alex Jones is doing a 2hour doom fest on the mexican flu epidemic,on infowars audio( started 8pm cst)
he's got folks in mexico city and san antonio calling in...
claims 68 confirmed dead is really 200+ (per mexican doctors in a bbc report)doom doom doom there isn't enough robitussin in the conus... (not funny , folks are dieing rapidly with this stuff).Mexican authorities are supposedly locking down northermexican states.

 

Re: flu fest...

Captain Trips - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Trips_(disambiguation).

A form of superflu (Influenza - Wikipedia, it originates in an American Biological warfare laboratory under the Mojave Desert in California commanded by a General William "Billy" Starkey, and is hinted to have been created by breeding a hybrid of influenza and an AIDS -like illness. 99.4% of the human population is vulnerable and the disease is universally and swiftly fatal to those that catch it. Those who are immune to Captain Trips are utterly immune — in one instance, protagonist Stu Redman is unknowingly injected with the virus, only to have his Immune system kill it. No medical basis for this Immunity identified in the research conducted, nor is it discovered why some people have immunity (although it is implied that the survivors are chosen by a higher power). The only evident connection between the immune persons that doctors identify is that all seem to be heavy, vivid Dream.

Captain Trips is given several other Nickname by survivors, including “the rales,” and “Tube Neck.” “Captain Trips” and “the superflu” are the dominant names. The official Code name - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia of the virus development project was “Project Blue.”

I haven't read any Steven king...Kinda odd this previously unseen strain has snippets of dna from european swine, other swine and asian bird influenza's Sounds alot like somebody got the biological erector set out...and targeted one of the most densely populated cities in the western world and a sure vector into the u.s.

 

Re: flu fest...

Don't be thrown by the "new" posting name....
I am 'NOT' a new member by any means, but here under a pseudo address...
Reason: I'm not stupid.
I know people that have intel on/from: Ft. Dietrich Md.
The "bug" boys up there have been awfully busy haven't they?
It started somtime ago, when I worked on a D.O.D. contract, for the containment seals, to keep those bugs in their jars! ( I did some for the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station as well)
Then there was an "event", where the US dug up and 'scavenged' bodily remains from 1917-1918 influenza victims, to "play" with that particular virus, that could be "genetically enhanced and modified" into a weapons status.
This is a test.
This is ONLY at test!
Apparently, they decided to "enhance" their super bug, and make it nearly impossible to defend against, as if "THE" virus itself wasn't bad enough.
So, they came up with a new and improved BUG, that is genetically composed of 4 separate virus'. (read today's JWR's survivalblog.com)
On a bio-engineering scale, it really was quite a feat, as these virus' ususally destroy each other, leaving only the most virulent left, alive in the "host".
You may find it quite interesting and mystifying, to discover that "Roche" a pharmaceutical firm, seems to be the ONLY one in the entire world, that claims to have a vaccine.
Something to consider.

 

Re: flu fest...

Hmm... Strap on your tin foil boys and gurlz:
Say you wanted to lock down ( obtain martial control over the us populace without killing the manpower resources contained within). Introducing a violently lethal bug in mexico city with large numbers of fatalities, and then a less virulent orcommon bug up here

people clamor for locking down interstate travel
Any time anybody gets a sniffle its panic time
("snorfle": you've got it!!)!
but us cases are (surprisingly) non lethal...
Fear without U.S. casualties

 

Re: flu fest...

The single greatest failing of all these high-minded idiots touting "population reduction" is that THEY are always unwilling to "lead by example"......

 

Re: flu fest...

Fort Detrick disease samples may be missing


Justin M. Palk
Frederick News Post
April 26, 2009
Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick.
As first reported in today’s edition of The Frederick News-Post by columnist Katherine Heerbrandt, the investigators are from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division unit at Fort Meade. Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
He said the only other detail he could provide is that the investigation is ongoing.
Fort Detrick does not have its own CID office, Jones said, which is why Fort Meade’s CID was brought in.


Fort Detrick disease samples may be missing

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=89293

 

Re: flu fest...

("NBC") "G"

 

Re: flu fest...

Joeseph Biden: he will betestedin the first 6months;"AN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS , A GENERATED CRISIS."mark my words.
achooooo:
gesundheit joe...

YouTube- Joe Biden: Obama will be tested by a generated crisis

 

Re: flu fest...

Omigod you got it !!!!