H1N1 (Swine Flu) spreads worldwide= Is declared a Pandemic

[Derek Ortt]

many of those non confirmed cases were really swine flu. The actual value is a lot less than 13% mortality. Even so, there are only 76 total cases. Far more people get sick daily from smoking, and we do not waste money going out of our way to ban it

[grentz7721]

I just read in my local newspaper that Horry County, SC just got its 22nd swine flu yesterday. So Far, 399 cases in South Carolina has been
reported.

[cycloneye]

The information here in PR has turned very slow as they are releasing the numbers only once a week.

Deaths=12
Suspisious deaths=25
Cases confirmed=107
Not confirmed cases=1206

[cycloneye]

The latest stats from Puerto Rico:

Deaths=19
Suspisious deaths=29
Cases confirmed=123
Not confirmed cases=2156

[LilGrimmy]

One young girl in Buffalo died over the summer because of Swine Flu

[cycloneye]

Sad news from here.They just announced that the total deaths in Puerto Rico has reached 30 and that in proportion compared to the U.S. is ahead of them.Also the number of cases confirmed has risen to 189.

[funster]

White House: Swine flu may infect half the U.S. population this year, hospitalize 1.8 million patients and lead to as many as 90,000 deaths, more than twice the number killed in a typical seasonal flu. Wow, hospitals are going to be crowded.

Source: Bloomberg

[JonathanBelles]

The first case of Swine Flu was announced today at St. Petersburg College, campus unannounced.

[grentz7721]

The South Carolina has reported the first H1N1 death today and there are more than 500 comfirmed cases of H1N1.

[DanKellFla]

How many deaths have occured due to the regular flu this year relative to H1N1?

[lurkey]

For iPhone/iPod Touch owners:

There is a new app called "Outbreaks Near Me" that was. .l

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546143,00.html

". . Developed by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab, the application combines the GPS system of the iPhone with outbreak tracking information from HealthMap.org, a web prowling system that mines official and unofficial Internet data sources for information on outbreaks of emerging, infectious diseases.

"Outbreaks Near Me" provides "location based alerting" of infectious disease outbreaks, according to HealthMap co-founder John S. Brownstein, an assistant professor at the Children's Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP). Users can also choose to set alerts to notify users of new local outbreaks or when they are entering new areas.

"If people know what's happening around them, they might be more likely to take basic precautions," such as washing their hands and getting vaccinated, Brownstein said.

On top of alerting users to outbreaks, the application allows users to submit reports, even photos if they want, of potential outbreaks from their own phones, which would be reviewed by HealthMap, according to HealthMap co-founder Clark Freifeld."

[vbhoutex]

I received an interesting email the other day from someone that works at CDC who I went to high school with saying that we all need to get both the regular flu vaccine and the novel H1N1 vaccine. There wasn't any new information in the email but she urged us all to do this. I know she is missing my High School 40th reunion because she is too busy with H1N1.

[cycloneye]

The latest stats from Puerto Rico as of 9/4/09:

Deaths=34
Suspisious deaths=40
Confirmed cases=344
Not confirmed cases=2205

[vbhoutex]

Has anyone heard anything about this?
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html

[arkess7]

I don't know but this whole thing is freaking me out! I'm really on my daughter about washing her hands. She's been pretty good about it. I'm always washing mine!

[Stephanie]

arkess - then don't read this post:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090906/hl ... 0906183917

2,000 students at US university report swine flu symptoms

Some 2,000 students at Washington … .Sun Sep 6, 2:38 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AFP) – Some 2,000 students at Washington State University have reported symptoms of swine flu, university officials said, in one of the largest reported outbreaks of the virus on a US college campus.

The west-coast school last week instituted a blog to help provide information to students about the sudden and dramatic spread of the A(H1N1) virus on campus just days into the new school term.

"We estimate that we have been in contact with about 2,000 students with influenza-like illness in the first 10 days of our fall semester," the latest online posting said.

"At this time of year, we would typically only see a handful of patients with influenza-like illness. Health care providers in the local community have also seen WSU students with influenza-like illness, but we have no way of knowing how many.

"We also have no way of estimating how many students are self-caring at home without contacting us," school officials said.

They also said they had been asked by the county health department "to track numbers in this way to give us a better idea of how many students at WSU actually have influenza-like illness."

The university of about 19,000 students added that it is following guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in advising students how to avoid catching and spreading the virus.

WSU said it has begun handing out flu self-care kits to students.

"Two hundred of these kits have already been distributed with 1,000 more in process," university officials said, adding that none of the cases of swine flu so far has required hospitalization.

"The overwhelming majority of our patients have had mild symptoms and are usually better in three to five days," the university said.

None of the WSU cases have been fatal. There have been 593 swine flu-related deaths in the United States, however, second only to Brazil which has recorded 657 deaths.

[Stephanie]

Has anyone heard anything about this?
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html

I think that there are a ton of vaccines, medications, etc. that have been pushed out the door that have not been sufficiently tested. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this is the case with this vaccine. They were under severe pressure to get a vaccine ready within months.

[cycloneye]

The lastest stats in Puerto Rico.

34 deaths
41 suspisious deaths
356 confirmed cases
2224 probable cases

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

U.S. reports 2 additional cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu
By Helen Branswell Medical Reporter (CP) – 2 hours ago

Two American campers developed Tamiflu-resistant swine flu earlier this summer, the first confirmed cases where resistant viruses may have passed from one person to another, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday.

The adolescent girls shared a cabin and both developed swine flu despite being given the drug on a preventative basis. While it's impossible to prove the resistant viruses spread from one to the other, both carried a mutation not previously reported with this virus.

There is no evidence of spread of the virus to people outside the camp, the agency said in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, its fast-track public health journal.

An editor's commentary noted the cases underscore the importance of not giving healthy people oseltamivir - sold as Tamiflu - to prevent infection after they've been exposed to the pandemic virus. Using the drug to prevent infection is called prophylaxis.

"Because the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus is resistant to adamantanes, limited treatment options will be available if widespread oseltamivir resistance develops," the commentary warned.

There are only four flu drugs currently on the market and the virus has been resistant to two of them since it first emerged in people earlier this year. Those drugs, amantadine and rimantadine, are adamantane drugs.

The pandemic viruses are susceptible to Tamiflu and Relenza (zanamivir), the other two drugs. But global supplies of Tamiflu are far greater than those of Relenza. And the latter is not licensed for treatment of children less than seven years old and shouldn't be used by people with airway diseases.

Earlier this week the CDC issued new guidelines for use of antiviral drugs. The new recommendations stressed that only people who are at high risk of falling seriously ill should be given antiviral prophylaxis if they've been exposed to someone suffering from the pandemic virus.

These cases add to 13 previously reported cases of Tamiflu resistance in the new H1N1 virus, according to figures released by the drug's manufacturer, Roche. The earlier cases have been reported in Denmark, Japan, Canada, China, Singapore and the United States.

Most of the cases involved people who had taken the drug, either for prophylaxis or treatment. In one case - an American girl who travelled from San Francisco to Hong Kong while ill - resistant virus was isolated from someone who had not taken the drug. The source of her infection has not been discovered.

The newly reported cases occurred in July, at a summer camp in North Carolina.

The girls shared a cabin and the timing of the onset of their illnesses points to the possibility that the second girl caught the resistant virus from the first. Other options, the CDC said, are that both were infected with resistant viruses from an unidentified source or that resistance arose independently in both.

The CDC said testing of viruses from throughout the state showed no other cases where the resistance mutation or the new mutations were seen. It isn't known what the second mutation, called 1223V, does.


Follow Canadian Press Medical Writer Helen Branswell's flu updates on Twitter at CP-Branswell
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadi ... fLl5N_-GKA

[somethingfunny]

Uh oh.

Swine Flu Kills 11-Year-Old Garland Girl

An 11-year-old Garland girl died after becoming ill with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, Dallas County Health officials confirmed Monday.

Cynthia Garcia, sixth-grader at Vernon Price Elementary in Mesquite who lived in south Garland, died at a hospital Sunday.

Maria Badillo Garcia, the girl's mother, said it all happened so fast.

She took her daughter to the doctor after she went home from school sick Thursday. Cynthia was diagnosed with a bacterial infection, pneumonia and the swine flu.

Maria Garcia said her daughter was taking fever-reducing medicine, but her condition kept getting worse. By Saturday, she was losing her voice and complained of weakness. Her family called an ambulance Saturday.

Cynthia did not have any underlying medical conditions, health officials said.

"We are following the guidelines of the health department and the CDC," Ian Halperin, a MISD spokesman told StarLocalNews.com. "We had a crew at the school last night cleaning and sanitizing by hand the entire facility."

Vernon Price Elementary has had some cases of flu-like illness among students this school year, but it doesn't have an unusually high number of cases when compared with other district campuses, MISD officials said.

The school district said counselors were being made available for students, faculty and staff.

Maria Garcia said the family is devastated by Cynthia's death. Speaking in Spanish, she said she is still in shock.

"Now I have to stay healthy and strong for my other kids," she said in Spanish.

Cynthia Garcia's death marks Dallas County’s third H1N1-related fatality, health officials said. The first two deaths involved adults who had underlying medical conditions. One was a 52-year-old woman who died on Aug. 27, and the other was a 37-year-old man who died on Sept. 4.

Texas has had four confirmed swine flu deaths of people younger than age 18, Dallas County Health officials said.

During the last flu season, there were 11 pediatric flu deaths in Texas. Out of those deaths, two occurred in Dallas County.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Mesquite-Girl-Dies-From-H1N1-Virus-59257117.html