[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]
Fort Worth Shutters All Schools; WHO Warns of Likely Pandemic
6 Possible Cases Investigated in Md. as Global Alert Is Raised
By Rob Stein and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 30, 2009; 8:29 AM
The city of Fort Worth is shutting down its school system for 10 days in an effort to stop the spread of swine flu, officials said last night, even as top U.S. leaders warned parents not to take children from closed schools to daycare, and global health authorities raised the alert level for the outbreak to one notch below a full-scale pandemic.
Appearing on television news shows this morning, Vice President Biden said he hoped employers "will be generous" in allowing parents to take time off to keep their children home if there has been a confirmed case of flu in their school, since sending them to a daycare center with lots of other children, or bringing them to the workplace, would offer the same potential for the virus to spread.
Biden also seemed to recommend against using mass transit, answering a question about whether he would advise his own family against flying to Mexico, the disease's epicenter, by saying: "I would tell members of my family -- and I have -- that I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not just going into Mexico. If you're any place in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."
President Obama, in a nationally televised news conference last night, took a more cautious approach, saying people should avoid mass transit, schools, workplaces and other confined spaces if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Both Obama and Biden continued to rule out closing the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it was an overly drastic step that would not be effective in stopping the spread of a virus that clearly has already crossed the border. They emphasized that hand-washing and other basic precautions remain the best ways to fight the disease.
The 27-nation European Union today will consider a request from the government of France, where 30 possible cases of the virus are under investigation, to suspend all flights from member countries to Mexico. New cases of the virus were reported in Switzerland and Peru overnight, bringing the number of countries with known cases of the flu to nine.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization agency raised the alert level for the second time in three days, elevating it to one notch below a full-scale pandemic, after concluding that the virus was causing sustained outbreaks in the United States and Mexico.
The heightened alert -- issued to convey the message that the world is probably on the verge of a pandemic -- is intended to prompt every nation to activate an emergency response plan, to spur pharmaceutical companies to increase production of antiviral drugs and help speed development of a vaccine, and to prod bankers to help poor countries afford measures to fight the virus, officials said.
In the Washington area, officials in Maryland announced yesterday that they were investigating six probable cases of the disease -- three each in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties -- and as at least 10 more were under investigation at the University of Delaware.
The first death from the disease in the United States came when a 22-month-old boy from Mexico City succumbed Monday at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The child, who had unspecified "underlying health problems," according to U.S. health officials, had taken a flight with his parents from Mexico City to Matamoros, Mexico, on April 4 to visit family in Brownsville, Tex.
After developing a fever April 8, the child was hospitalized in Brownsville and then, with his condition worsening, was transferred the next day to Houston.
State health officials were trying to determine when and where the boy became infected and how many people came into contact with him and his family, but they said no other relatives or anyone else had fallen ill.
"Texans need to know there is no cause for panic, and Texans can be assured that the state will take every necessary precaution to protect the lives of our citizens," said Gov. Rick Perry (R), as he issued a "disaster declaration" in response to the outbreak.
Officials suspended high school sports events statewide until May 11 and shut hundred of schools, sending tens of thousands of students home for at least two weeks. In Fort Worth, officials said they would close the entire 80,000-student district after confirmation of one case of swine flu at one campus the announcement that there are probable cases at three other schools.
Fort Worth officials urged parents not to send their children to day care or "any venue where groups of children may gather" and pleaded with the employers and the general population to make it possible for parents to accommodate this request.
"This is indeed an example of how the community can rally to support the health and well-being of students, their families and the District," schools superintendent Melody Johnson told reporters.
U.S. public health authorities have been worried that the virus would start producing the severe pneumonia and deaths that so far have been limited to Mexico, where the epidemic began. "The clinical picture in the United States is looking a bit more like the Mexican situation," said Nancy Cox, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of known cases in the United States hit at least 91, with infections confirmed in at least six new states -- Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana and Nevada -- more than doubling the number of states with confirmed cases. A Marine stationed in California also has a suspected case of swine flu.
The WHO's action came after the agency convened an unusual "global virtual science meeting" involving several hundred experts and officials to help assess the situation. The agency raised the alert from "phase 4" to "phase 5" two days after elevating it for the first time because the never-before-seen virus was spreading in Mexico.
Saying influenza viruses are "notorious for their rapid mutation and their unpredictable behavior," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told reporters: "This is an opportunity for global solidarity as we look for responses and solutions that benefit all countries, all of humanity. After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."
The new alert level could prompt a variety of measures, including more intensive efforts to identify cases and stricter measures to prevent the illness's spread, such as discouraging or banning public gatherings.
With the virus now clearly being transmitted person-to-person in the United States, WHO officials said the outbreak appeared to be on a trajectory toward the highest alert level -- "phase 6" -- which is marked by sustained transmission in at least two regions of the world. That would mark the beginning of a pandemic -- a global spread of the virus.
"It's clear the virus is spreading, and we don't see any evidence of this slowing down at this point," said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's interim assistant director general for health security and environment.
While there is a chance that the epidemic could stop on its own, officials said that such an outcome is impossible to predict and that governments around the world should plan for the worst.
"There may be a possibility that the virus will die out and stop, and that would be the best for us. But it can turn the other way. So the important point for us is to continue to maintain our vigilance and track its movement," Chan said. "Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world."
Asked whether the higher alert level will change the U.S. government's posture, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said: "We have been preparing all along as if this is going to be a stage six. Our efforts have been to stay ahead of whatever number the WHO assigns."
So far, U.S. officials have referred 49 travelers with suspicious symptoms entering through border checkpoints to federal, state or local health officials. Eight cases remain under investigation, and the other 41 were negative, Napolitano said.
Fort Worth Shutters All Schools; WHO Warns of Likely Pandemic
6 Possible Cases Investigated in Md. as Global Alert Is Raised
By Rob Stein and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 30, 2009; 8:29 AM
The city of Fort Worth is shutting down its school system for 10 days in an effort to stop the spread of swine flu, officials said last night, even as top U.S. leaders warned parents not to take children from closed schools to daycare, and global health authorities raised the alert level for the outbreak to one notch below a full-scale pandemic.
Appearing on television news shows this morning, Vice President Biden said he hoped employers "will be generous" in allowing parents to take time off to keep their children home if there has been a confirmed case of flu in their school, since sending them to a daycare center with lots of other children, or bringing them to the workplace, would offer the same potential for the virus to spread.
Biden also seemed to recommend against using mass transit, answering a question about whether he would advise his own family against flying to Mexico, the disease's epicenter, by saying: "I would tell members of my family -- and I have -- that I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not just going into Mexico. If you're any place in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft."
President Obama, in a nationally televised news conference last night, took a more cautious approach, saying people should avoid mass transit, schools, workplaces and other confined spaces if they are experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Both Obama and Biden continued to rule out closing the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it was an overly drastic step that would not be effective in stopping the spread of a virus that clearly has already crossed the border. They emphasized that hand-washing and other basic precautions remain the best ways to fight the disease.
The 27-nation European Union today will consider a request from the government of France, where 30 possible cases of the virus are under investigation, to suspend all flights from member countries to Mexico. New cases of the virus were reported in Switzerland and Peru overnight, bringing the number of countries with known cases of the flu to nine.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization agency raised the alert level for the second time in three days, elevating it to one notch below a full-scale pandemic, after concluding that the virus was causing sustained outbreaks in the United States and Mexico.
The heightened alert -- issued to convey the message that the world is probably on the verge of a pandemic -- is intended to prompt every nation to activate an emergency response plan, to spur pharmaceutical companies to increase production of antiviral drugs and help speed development of a vaccine, and to prod bankers to help poor countries afford measures to fight the virus, officials said.
In the Washington area, officials in Maryland announced yesterday that they were investigating six probable cases of the disease -- three each in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties -- and as at least 10 more were under investigation at the University of Delaware.
The first death from the disease in the United States came when a 22-month-old boy from Mexico City succumbed Monday at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The child, who had unspecified "underlying health problems," according to U.S. health officials, had taken a flight with his parents from Mexico City to Matamoros, Mexico, on April 4 to visit family in Brownsville, Tex.
After developing a fever April 8, the child was hospitalized in Brownsville and then, with his condition worsening, was transferred the next day to Houston.
State health officials were trying to determine when and where the boy became infected and how many people came into contact with him and his family, but they said no other relatives or anyone else had fallen ill.
"Texans need to know there is no cause for panic, and Texans can be assured that the state will take every necessary precaution to protect the lives of our citizens," said Gov. Rick Perry (R), as he issued a "disaster declaration" in response to the outbreak.
Officials suspended high school sports events statewide until May 11 and shut hundred of schools, sending tens of thousands of students home for at least two weeks. In Fort Worth, officials said they would close the entire 80,000-student district after confirmation of one case of swine flu at one campus the announcement that there are probable cases at three other schools.
Fort Worth officials urged parents not to send their children to day care or "any venue where groups of children may gather" and pleaded with the employers and the general population to make it possible for parents to accommodate this request.
"This is indeed an example of how the community can rally to support the health and well-being of students, their families and the District," schools superintendent Melody Johnson told reporters.
U.S. public health authorities have been worried that the virus would start producing the severe pneumonia and deaths that so far have been limited to Mexico, where the epidemic began. "The clinical picture in the United States is looking a bit more like the Mexican situation," said Nancy Cox, a flu expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of known cases in the United States hit at least 91, with infections confirmed in at least six new states -- Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana and Nevada -- more than doubling the number of states with confirmed cases. A Marine stationed in California also has a suspected case of swine flu.
The WHO's action came after the agency convened an unusual "global virtual science meeting" involving several hundred experts and officials to help assess the situation. The agency raised the alert from "phase 4" to "phase 5" two days after elevating it for the first time because the never-before-seen virus was spreading in Mexico.
Saying influenza viruses are "notorious for their rapid mutation and their unpredictable behavior," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told reporters: "This is an opportunity for global solidarity as we look for responses and solutions that benefit all countries, all of humanity. After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."
The new alert level could prompt a variety of measures, including more intensive efforts to identify cases and stricter measures to prevent the illness's spread, such as discouraging or banning public gatherings.
With the virus now clearly being transmitted person-to-person in the United States, WHO officials said the outbreak appeared to be on a trajectory toward the highest alert level -- "phase 6" -- which is marked by sustained transmission in at least two regions of the world. That would mark the beginning of a pandemic -- a global spread of the virus.
"It's clear the virus is spreading, and we don't see any evidence of this slowing down at this point," said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's interim assistant director general for health security and environment.
While there is a chance that the epidemic could stop on its own, officials said that such an outcome is impossible to predict and that governments around the world should plan for the worst.
"There may be a possibility that the virus will die out and stop, and that would be the best for us. But it can turn the other way. So the important point for us is to continue to maintain our vigilance and track its movement," Chan said. "Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world."
Asked whether the higher alert level will change the U.S. government's posture, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said: "We have been preparing all along as if this is going to be a stage six. Our efforts have been to stay ahead of whatever number the WHO assigns."
So far, U.S. officials have referred 49 travelers with suspicious symptoms entering through border checkpoints to federal, state or local health officials. Eight cases remain under investigation, and the other 41 were negative, Napolitano said.
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