Day 3: Tracking Swine Flu

Headlines of the day: U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu
April 26, 2009, New York, Washington
American health officials declared a public health emergency on Sunday as 20 cases of swine flu were confirmed in this country, including eight in New York City.

Warning: Top global flu experts struggled to predict how dangerous the new A (H1N1) swine flu strain would be as it became clear that they had too little information about Mexico’s outbreak — in particular how many cases had occurred in what is thought to be a month before the outbreak was detected, and whether the virus was mutating to be more lethal, or less.

“We’re in a period in which the picture is evolving,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director general of the World Health Organization. “We need to know the extent to which it causes mild and serious infections.”

Without that knowledge — which is unlikely to emerge soon because only two laboratories, in Atlanta and Winnipeg, Canada, can confirm a case — his agency’s panel of experts was unwilling to raise the global pandemic alert level, even though it officially saw the outbreak as a public health emergency and opened its emergency response center.

As a news conference in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called the emergency declaration “standard operating procedure,” and said she would rather call it a “declaration of emergency preparedness.”

“It’s like declaring one for a hurricane,” she said. “It means we can release funds and take other measures. The hurricane may not actually hit.”

The emergency declaration in the United States lets the government free more money for antiviral drugs and give some previously unapproved tests and drugs to children(!). One-quarter of the national stockpile of 50 million courses of antiflu drugs will be released.
________________________________________________________________






Confirmed cases

• As of Monday, officials had confirmed 42 cases of a new A(H1N1) swine flu virus in the United States, including 28 New York City high school students.
  
• 6 cases were identified in Canada — all linked to travel in Mexico.
  
• While the World Health Organization says 20 swine flu cases in Mexico have been confirmed, officials say there are at least 1,600 suspected infections and at least 149 suspected deaths.
  
• 1 infection was confirmed in eastern Spain.

___________________________________________________________

Swine flu and humans

• Swine flu viruses can be passed between pigs and humans, but human infections are not common.
• Most infections occur among people with direct pig contact.
• Sometimes a flu virus can mutate to be more transmissible to humans.
• An outbreak occurred among soldiers in Fort Dix, N.J., in 1976, resulting in 200 infections, several serious illnesses and one death.
  

Human symptoms

• All flus are passed by coughs and sneezes. Symptoms can include fever, fatigue, coughing, vomiting and diarrhea.
• Seasonal flus typically kill the old and young.
• New flus like this one can kill healthy people whose own immune reactions overwhelm them.

Vaccine and treatments

• Officials do not know if the seasonal flu vaccine will protect against the A(H1N1) swine flu virus.
• In the laboratory, the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are effective against this new flu; amantadine and rimantadine are not.

Swine flu versus avian flu

• The avian flu, A(H5N1), is found among birds and humans and is highly lethal but not very transmissible.
• Scientists believe this new flu is more transmissible but less lethal.

Precautions

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends

1. washing hands frequently,
2. avoiding touching the face,
3. covering the nose and mouth when sneezing
4. staying home when sick.
5. People cannot be infected by eating pork.