WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

GENEVA — The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of swine flu has begun. The decision was made after the U.N. health agency held an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts.

New York Times, By Nick Cumming-Bruce & Andrew Jacobs, June 11

GENEVA — The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, news services reported.

The move came after an emergency meeting with flu experts here that was convened after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, which reported 1,224 cases on Wednesday, and rising numbers in Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, the W.H.O. said it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, indicating a global pandemic outbreak, The Associated Press said, attributing the information to health officials from Scotland, Indonesia and Thailand. An official announcement of the change was due at 6 p.m. Geneva time on Thursday (noon in New York).

In an effort to avoid triggering panic with such an announcement, W.H.O. officials are expected to include a caveat that the flu, which has resulted in mostly mild cases, is not more deadly now that it has been declared a pandemic. Rather, the announcement reflects the global spread of the disease, not an increase in its severity.

Flu-stricken native community 'in a war with no artillery'

roll over and click each of the four tabs for graphics

How do Australian aboriginals usually react to flu?

_{--Sell Texas to China!}

There were 1565 cumulative cases yesterday, mostly in the UK and Spain. NO DEATHS, which means that the virus is milder than it used to be.

I wonder what's the mixture of normal flu and new A(H1N1) in Australia. This is the sum of all flu viruses etc.: http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_au/

In the USA the new A(H1N1) is behind a higher proportion of flu cases than a normal influenza virus during a winter.

Note that the news are very vague in which countries there are official epidemics outside Americas. Scotland is not a country.

The low number of cases in Russia and Africa seem to be impossible. It probably reflects the lack of testing.

_{--Sell Texas to China!}

lets face it, most first world countries are not doing comprehensive investigations.

triage is culling out the seriously ill influenza victims and testing them. the rest are being told, "you have the flu, go home and get well, if you get worse come back and see us, heres some tamiflu just in case"

Back in 2007 we had nasty h3n1 and h1n1 viruses doing the rounds in late winter (August), deaths doubled and tripled that year, giving the flu forums a bit of excitement. A tamiflu blanket was used back then, spring came and all was well.

This week the local school that had a child in the kindergarten with a positive swine influenza diagnosis shut down the kindegarten, but parents of older children descended en masse with their children to the dedicated flu clinic, causing chaos with too little staff on hand. Many adults who had been in contact with earlier confirmed cases left before being seen...

It's spreading, it's a flu: most people will survive and life will go on.

has just posted on the USA school closing problem

1st death after 2096 confirmed cases. The flu is less lethal than earlier. BBC.

237 new cases during the last 24 hours -> epidemic is spreading efficiently in the UK despite summer. I assume they export this first to the Netherlands.

_{--Sell Texas to China!}

Suddenly there were now 18 new deaths in the USA in a week even if the virus is not especially common because of summer.

The focus will move from counting sick people to counting deaths.

_{--Sell Texas to China!}

stuff.co.nz- The number of confirmed cases of swine flu has risen to 86, an increase of 15 from yesterday, Health Minister Tony Ryall said today.

The number was expected to rise and the Ministry of Health was going to step up its public information campaign about flu prevention, Mr Ryall said at a press conference.

"What we're seeing around the world is that there's a rapid transfer in young people," he said.

"The strategy remains containment. We want to delay the major impact of swine flu beyond the normal winter cycle."

abc.net.au - Western Australian doctors are being told they don't need to test patients with flu-like symptoms for swine flu. Doctors are also being advised against prescribing the influenza medication Tamiflu for patients who are not at high risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus.

The Health Department's Paul Effler says because the virus is mild in the vast majority of cases, there is no need for medication.
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The number of West Australians infected with swine flu continues to rise. The Health Department says there are now 75 confirmed cases of the virus in WA, and 19 probable cases. In total, 27 children have the flu, and 48 adults.

Xinhuanet roundup

abc.net.au - Many sick passengers who flew to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam have taken fever reducers to cheat temperature scanners at the airport, leading to the discovery of several infected cases later.

Nguyen Van Chau, head of Ho Chi Minh City's health department, has been quoted in state-run Tien Phong daily as saying "a series of passengers" took fever reducers three hours before arrival.

"That's why when they passed through the airport, the body temperature scanners skipped them," he said.

Vietnam has confirmed 26 people infected with H1N1 flu, 23 of whom came by air after travelling in the United States or Australia. Three others fell sick after coming into contact with the infected travellers.

The country requires inbound passengers found with fever to be isolated for seven days.

Clinical investigations of the infected cases revealed they had taken fever reducers, Mr Chau said.
ate, including 144 deaths, according to the WHO's latest figures.

Vietnam has so far had no deaths from swine flu.

CNN, June 12

LONDON, England -- A person with swine flu died in Scotland on Sunday, the government announced, marking the first known death of a swine flu patient outside of the Americas, according to the latest World Health Organization information.

The patient who died in Scotland had "underlying health conditions," the Scottish government statement said. No information was released about the patient.

"We are now waiting for the results of the death certificate to determine the cause of death," the statement said.

A total of 145 people had died from the H1N1 virus, as swine flu is officially known, as of Friday, according to the WHO. More than two-thirds of the deaths were in Mexico, where the outbreak was first detected. There have also been 27 deaths in the United States, four in Canada, two in Chile, and one each in Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

Reuters, By Maggie Fox, June 18

*Up to 7 percent of population sick in heavily hit areas
*Flu season could last all year this year in US

WASHINGTON - The new strain of H1N1 flu is causing "something different" to happen in the United States this year -- perhaps an extended year-round flu season that disproportionately hits young people, health officials said on Thursday.

An unusually cool late spring [and rainy *cough* global warming *cough*] may be helping keep the infection going in the U.S. Northeast, especially densely populated areas in New York and Massachusetts, the officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

And infections among healthcare workers suggest that people are showing up at work sick -- meaning that workplace policies may be contributing to its spread, the CDC officials said.

[...]

The United States has been hardest hit, with upward of 100,000 likely cases and probably far more, with 44 deaths and 1,600 hospitalized.

"The fact that we are seeing ongoing transmission now indicates that we are seeing something different," the CDC's Dr. Daniel Jernigan told a news briefing.

"And we believe that that may have to do with the complete lack of immunity to this particular virus among those that are most likely affected. And those are children," Jernigan added.

"The areas of the country that are most affected, some of them have very high population densities, like Boston and New York. So that may be a contributor as well. Plus the temperature in that part of the country is cooler, and we know that influenza appears to like the cooler times of the year for making transmission for effective."

Jernigan said in areas that are the most affected up to 7 percent of the population has influenza-like illness.