Developments on swine flu worldwide

Source: Associated Press


50 minutes ago.

Deaths: 168 in Mexico, eight confirmed as swine flu and rest suspected. One confirmed in U.S., a 23-month-old boy from Mexico who died in Texas.

_Sickened: 2,498 suspected and 91 confirmed in Mexico. Confirmed elsewhere: at least 93 in U.S.; 19 in Canada; 13 in New Zealand; five in Britain; four in Germany; 10 in Spain; two in Israel; and one in Austria.

_U.S. cases confirmed by CDC and state officials: 51 in New York, 14 in California, 16 in Texas, three in Maine; two in Kansas, two in Massachusetts, and one each in Indiana, Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. CDC also said Michigan had two, but state officials said only one was confirmed.

_World Health Organization raises pandemic alert to second highest level, meaning it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hZVkRqV2uZVim0TRk5R1ZBfovTCAD97SH64O2

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Here's the CDC web page on the swine flu mess.

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

Let's find out who cut the budgets of the CDC and local health departments.

Let's also find out who is benefiting from this mess.

They'll line up without doubt. If that happens, we will have achieved true socialism for the rich and survival of the fittest for the rest of us.

But our will isn't important is it?

Let's wait until this is all over before we pull out the pitchforks.

You're right. But it's worth putting on the agenda. Of course, we'd have to "look back" to do it;)

far more than last month, I can bet

This attitude is amazing to me

read my disclaimer at the bottom

Is there some flu constituency that I've missed;)

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 - Stanford University

"The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. "

did you miss that memo?

I am sure you have seen the CIA did this, in a CDC lab, helped by the Germans (only tidbit of perhaps truth, roche accident) and threw pigs out of Mexican Airforce planes onto La Gloria, in the District of El Perote.

And if I really want to add the funny voice... it is a plan to destroy us all!!!!!!!!!!!

:-)

does my tinfoil need adjustment?

Cats are people too!

bluedawk posted an interesting tidbit... on anther thread

the big picture from automed

Well it seems our suspect is pure swine flu, well no birdies and humans in this frankenstein... but plenty of piggies, from different places in the world, ah globalization

What will the tin foil hatters say now>

You could practically eat off of
those shields they're so clean.

And they didn't have "census records" the way we do now although even today in some countries there are none. Why no one really knows how many were killed by the tsunami a couple of years ago. The estimates of how many were killed by the Spanish Flu differ but some estimate that it was 50 million. Regardless of how many, it was a pandemic that the world had never seen before and hasn't seen since. It apparently was three pandemics. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about it. But they do suspect it was an avian flu. And this current strain is part avian flu. That is why some are very alarmed.

in 1917. She was 11 years old. She nearly died from it. She and my grandfather told me the stories about it. So many people died so quickly that the undertakers couldn't keep up and embalming came to a near halt. There weren't enough coffins for the dead. Some were put in "mass" graves. This was in New Jersey.

We presently have much better medical care than we did in those days. Something as simple as IV support would have saved many of those who died in that pandemic. In any case, when that many people get sick at the same time, there is also the probability of not enough resources to provide the proper care. Third world countries have much greater reason to fear a flu pandemic than we do. A plain old flu epidemic causes many deaths every year without reaching pandemic proportions. In a pandemic many more people get sick more quickly and that is a reason to be concerned even in wealthy nations.

There is no reason to panic, but ignoring the risk or shrugging it off is pure foolishness.

April 29, 2009
As Swine Flu Spreads, Its Chances to Mutate Increase

TOKYO—Swine flu has reached Asia, with South Korea reporting its first suspected case yesterday. Like the vast majority of other cases outside Mexico so far, it is mild, but virologist Kennedy Shortridge warns that is no reason for complacency. He says that the farther the virus spreads, the more chance it will mix, or reassort, with other flu viruses in circulation and turn into something more lethal. "The prospects for change are considerable and worrying," he says.

Shortridge is a professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong, where he led investigations into the initial emergence of H5N1 avian influenza in 1997, when it killed six of the 18 people it infected. The city squelched that outbreak by slaughtering all 1.4 million chickens and ducks in the territory. H5N1 re-emerged in 2003 and since then has claimed 257 lives while devastating poultry flocks throughout much of Asia and parts of Africa. He has long advocated global cooperation in the surveillance of circulating flu viruses to spot emerging new strains so public health officials could plan a response and drug companies could get a head start in making vaccines.

Shortridge was among the first to suggest that pigs might act as mixing vessels for new combinations of viruses. And the swine flu now spreading from Mexico "fits into the mixing vessel hypothesis," he says.

Analysis of flu specimens by Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, have found that the virus is made up of pieces of human, swine, and avian viruses from North America, Europe, and Asia. The mixture "gives an order of complexity we really don't understand at this point," Shortridge says.

In particular, he says he is concerned that this patched-together virus might not be stable and could easily reassort with other viruses encountered in a human or animal host. The virus has now spread to Asia, where the H5N1 virus is circulating. And he says that in many areas there are strains of human H1N1 in circulation that are resistant to Tamiflu, the drug of choice for treating the disease in humans. He speculates that swapping one or more genes among these viruses could result in a virus that is more pathogenic or more easily passed from person to person or both.

As a precaution, Shortridge suggests sequencing as many viral samples as quickly as possible to watch for any telltale changes in the virus—a massive job requiring worldwide cooperation. He says such cooperation seems to be off to a good start, thanks to the experience of dealing with the 2003 SARS crisis and recent efforts to prepare for an influenza pandemic. "There is a success story in this in that the world is alert" to the possibility of a pandemic, he says. Still, he adds, even better collaboration and communication will be required in the face of a threat that could change overnight.

—Dennis Normile
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/04/as-swine-flu-sp.html#more

We can't wait to see what will happen because if the worst happens it will be too late.

He speculates that swapping one or more genes among these viruses could result in a virus that is more pathogenic or more easily passed from person to person or both.
_____________________________________________________________________

So far avian and swine viruses have not been easily transmitted between humans. So far this one appears not to be. Which is why there are so few cases. But who knows about tomorrow. Interesting that his hypothesis about pigs has apparently proven true. Interesting and scary.

a few years ago. That is the place I worry about as H5N1 is endemic there in poultry.

This virus is transmitting MUCH more rapidly human-to-human than any avian flu we've seen in the past.

How do you justify saying that this isn't easily transmitted between humans?

Staying on top of this thing is our current best defense.

There's the simple fact that some diseases hit some countries worse than others. An epidemic (what kind doesn't matter) could hit a country like the US or Canada, places with effective sanitation, health care, etc., without causing that much damage. Even Mexico would qualify there, when compared to a lot of the planet. However, the same illness would probably wreak all kinds of havoc in Indonesia or Pakistan or central Africa because those institutions and infrastructures aren't in place, or aren't well-established enough.

A lot of people are pooh-poohing the swine flu and their reasonings are more or less amounting to the fact that it's only really taken hold among foreigners, not real people, and that the panic is clearly some Rovian blah blah blah blah. They're forgetting the fact that the WHO and other such agencies are worried about this being something that spreads on a global scale, and even if it doesn't hit the United States terribly hard, there's large swathes of the other ninety-five percent of humanity who are vastly more vulnerable. An extremely contagious disease whose fatalities are concentrated in the young and fairly healthy would be a nightmare scenario for a lot of countries which have fairly young populations on average compared to the US, not to mention enough other problems going on as it stands.

Neither car crashes or tobacco are infectious. Is this a serious post? Mostly because I'm wondering what's up here...? Wow.

Who's benefitting now? From tamiflu or the shot that may or may not work?

Doesn't sound like this mess started here, but it sure sounds like it's getting out of control.

Budget for what? Stockpiling a vaccine that they haven't even developed? It will be months before one is even developed. And as we found out last fall, the vaccine may not provide any protection if the virus has mutated by the time the vaccine is developed. Stockpiling anti-virals? Which may work. And may not work. Billions of dollars isn't going to stop this. And there is no treatment per se. Not so far.

So far it seems to be a mild virus. But it may not be a mild virus tomorrow. Or next week. Or in the fall.

They worried about avian flu because if it became transmissible between humans they might not have time to develop a vaccine. Or test anti-virals. It would be an unknown. This is an unknown. This is worse because it is not only an avian strain but two swine strains.

When the possiblity of avian flu was raised several years ago I believe it was the NY Times that ran a series about influenza. It got into the curiousity of what happened with the Spanish Flu. It apparently was three pandemics. One in early 1917. Then one in late 1917 through early 1918. Followed by one in late 1918 through early 1919. That was the one that killed so many. This may be following the same pattern.

You can budget for research. But with this, well, how do you research something that until a week ago no one knew anything about? There is nothing to research from 1918. They don't even know what it was. They only assume it was an avian flu.

It isn't just going to go away. It is now a human strain. Which will mix at some point with other human strains. Or mutate as it spreads.

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/27/collins-opposed-pandemic-flu-funding/

Collins, Schumer opposed pandemic flu funding in stimulus
@ 3:39 pm by Eric Zimmermann

Whoops.

Seems that in her effort to pare down President Obama's stimulus plan, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) specifically called out pandemic flu preparedness as unnecessary.

"I think everybody in the room is concerned about a pandemic flu," Collins said on MSNBC. "But does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? No. We should not."

Collins wasn't the only one. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also bragged of removing the funding:

"All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic, they're all out," Schumer said, according to the NY Post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASibLqwVbsk

But it is certainly getting the thieving bankers off the front page, isn't it?

They're always front page to me.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0904/S00140.htm

and she died! :scared:

This shit. Please everyone just stop.

Stop posting every time theres a 'New' report.
Stop crying every time a 'New' story breaks of a possible confirmed case in a state somewhere close to you that might somehow effect you sometime down the road.
Stop calling this 'the next this' and 'next that'.
Stop believing the Mainstream Media every time they cook up the next big epidemic.
Stop bringing your lives to halt because you might trip and fall down the stairs.

Life will go on. Let the scientists do their jobs. Let the CDC do their job. Take standard precaution. Other then that just stop.

Please.

Love, Yours truely

http://doihaveswineflu.org/

(FWIW, I agree with you :thumbsup: )

Because this is a news story. If you don't like it, don't read it.

This thread is infected with virtual swine flu