Swine Flu Pandemic @ 2 Billion !!!!!

Continuing activity of pandemic H1N1 influenza in the Southeast, particularly in Georgia, is raising fears of a third wave of swine flu cases, federal officials said Monday

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-swine-flu30-2010mar30,0,2212261...

* L.A. County officials confirm first H1N1 case in a local pet
December 31, 2009


Swine flu could infect half the U.S. population this fall and winter, hospitalizing up to 1.8 million people and causing as many as 90,000 deaths --
Swine Flu Could Infect Half of U.S., Panel Estimates - washingtonpost.com

WHO flu chief: World still 'relatively early' in swine flu pandemic
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/51565562.html?elr=KArks7PYDi...
Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment, told The Associated Press that given the size of the world's population, the new H1N1 virus is likely to spread for some time.
WHO earlier estimated that as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years.
"Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases ... we're relatively early in the pandemic," Fukuda said in an interview at WHO's headquarters in Geneva.
Authorities in Britain say there were over 100,000 infections in England alone last week, while U.S. health officials estimate the United States has passed the 1 million case mark. Those figures dwarf WHO's tally of 130,000 confirmed cases worldwide since the start of the outbreak last spring.
"We know that the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases is really only a subset of the total number of cases," Fukuda said.

* In the U.S., a federal advisory panel said the FDA should move ahead to approve or license the new H1N1 vaccine without waiting to receive data from clinical trials to test its safety and efficacy.

* recent analysis of the H1N1 strain of the Great Spanish Influenza Pandemic made possible by advances in molecular technology revealed that the 1917/18 strain was, in fact, a spontaneous mutation of a
pure avian strain and not a result of reassortment. The implication of which is that history might again, at some point repeat itself.
http://www.worldscibooks.com/medsci/etextbook/6108/6108_chap1.pdf

Swine flu has infected 94,512 people worldwide and been blamed for 429 deaths since it was first detected in April, the World Health Organisation said Monday.
The A(H1N1) virus has now spread to 136 countries and territories, the WHO said in its latest update, which shows 4,591 new cases and 47 more deaths since the last numbers released on Friday.
Argentina reported 34 more deaths -- the largest increase among all countries -- bringing its death toll to 60. The Argentine government has come under fire for what critics call a slow response to the virus's spread.

* Argentina's health minister has resigned amid the growing swine flu epidemic, reportedly after failing to persuade the government to declare a health emergency.

* Brazilian Health Minister José Gomes Temporao recommended Brazilians not to travel to Argentina and Chile to prevent contracting H1N1 influenza, after thousands of cases were reported in both countries of the Southern cone.

* "It's absolutely surprising that a virus this contagious in both humans and swine, and which has been reported in humans in 116 countries, has only been reported in one swine farm in Canada," said Jimmy Smith, head of livestock affairs at the World Bank in Washington DC, and a member of the organization's flu task force. "It is highly likely that more pigs are infected in more places," he added.

* June 15, 2009, 76 countries have officially reported 35, 928 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 163 deaths.

* June 05, 2009 -- 69 countries have officially reported 21,940 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 125 deaths.
http://www.who.int/csr/don/Map_20090605_1000.png

* May 08 2009 -- 24 countries have officially reported 2384 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection.
Mexico has reported 1112 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 42 deaths. The United States has reported 896 laboratory confirmed human cases, including two deaths.

* May 1, 2009 -- WHO changes swine flu name to 'influenza A (H1N1)'


"Arnie Weissmann, Editor in Chief, Travel Weekly says that governments are doing stupid things that fuel hysteria."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxORkcqtQlQ

Category:

News & Politics

[MrYouBill]

Mar 26, 2010 (CIDRAP News) Flu indicators are showing signs of increased and sustained pandemic flu activity in some Southeastern states, though rates remain steady at the national level, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

[MrYouBill]

The CDC estimates that 55 million Americans became sick with H1N1 swine flu between April and mid-December 2009 and roughly 11,000 people died of the disease.

These numbers represent a middle range in CDC estimates. The actual number of swine flu cases could be as low as 39 million and as high as 80 million cases during this time period, government officials say.

[MrYouBill]

Federal health officials now say nearly 4,000 Americans have died from the H1N1 virus since it first emerged in April.

The CDC estimates that 22 million Americans have gotten the virus and close to 100,000 have been hospitalized.

Last week, the World Health Organization announced that more than 6,000 people worldwide have died from H1N1 flu. The WHO says that, as of November 1, some 200 countries and territories have reported close to a half-million confirmed cases.

[MrYouBill]

As of 25 October 2009, worldwide there have been more than 440,000 laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 and over 5700 deaths reported to WHO.

[MrYouBill]

Great, now pets w/H1N1:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that a 13-year-old cat whose owners had experienced flu-like symptoms contracted H1N1 (swine) flu.

"This may be the first instance where we have documentation that transmission occurred involving cats or dogs," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told the Associated Press.

[MrYouBill]

Nearly 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday (October 23, 2009).

[MrWalshy93]

lmfao :)

biggest hype ever.

2 Billion infected? It was under 20,000 deaths.

[MrYouBill]

"We are still in the acceleration phase of H1N1 influenza, the percent of people with influenza-like symptoms seen in doctors' offices increasing from less than 1 percent on July 25 to almost 8 percent on Aug. 29.

and there has been almost logarithmic growth in its incidence," said Dr. Donald Williamson

. "Looking at our schools, three weeks ago 20 percent of schools had more than 5 percent absenteeism, and now 54 percent of schools have absenteeism rates of this level.

[MrYouBill]

The Independent Florida Alligator: Opinion - Lawmakers overzealous in fighting H1N1

The state of Massachusetts, however, is taking the idea of encouraging people to stay home and stay hygienic a little too far. Currently making its way through the state legislature is the Pandemic Response Bill. If passed, the bill will allow the governor to declare a health emergency and allow law enforcement officials to forcibly enter the homes of citizens and quarantine or vaccinate them.

[MrYouBill]

Researchers expect the high incidence of infections because the new flu is dramatically different from strains that have been circulating in recent years, so that the bulk of the population has no residual immunity.

"This isn't the flu that we are used to," said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, at a news conference at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. "We won't know until we are in the middle of the flu season how serious the threat will be."