[Health] from [abcNEWS]
First U.S. Death From Swine Flu in Texas the CDC Confirms
A 23-Month-Old Child Is the First American to Die From Swine Flu, the CDC Reports
By AMMU KANNAMPILLY
April 29, 2009
A 23-month-old child from Texas has become the first American to die in the swine flu outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed today. The CDC has also confirmed that the baby had recently traveled to Mexico.
"This is obviously a serious situation," said President Obama of the developments Wednesday. He further urged local health departments to watch for new cases -- and for schools to "strongly consider" closing their doors if the virus is suspected or detected among students or staff.
There are now 71 confirmed cases in the U.S., the CDC reports.
In Chicago, officials closed a school on the city's North Side after a "probable" swine flu infection was reported Tuesday. Blood samples are being sent to the CDC for analysis. If confirmed, Illinois would become the sixth state to report an outbreak.
Germany and Austria today became the latest countries to confirm swine flu infections. The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease control center, has confirmed three cases, including two women -- a 37-year-old in Bavaria and a 22-year-old in Hamburg -- and one man. All three are undergoing treatment at German hospitals.
And the Egyptian government has begun slaughtering all 300,000 pigs in the country, according to local reports. No swine flu cases have yet been confirmed on the country, though its neighbor Israel has reported two.
Governments around the world are struggling to contain the disease, but no one is ready yet to call the outbreak a full fledged pandemic.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the World Health organization flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told reporters today.
Swine Flu Death Reinforces CDC's Prior Warnings
The death comes as public fears over swine flu continue to grow. Before this fatality, health officials confirmed Tuesday that five patients in the United States have been hospitalized with swine flu; all have recovered.
And last night, a flight from Baltimore to Mexico was, for a time, suspected of carrying a passenger with swine flu. The airport had prepared to quarantine the plane before authorities said the concern was unwarranted.
Both the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been warning for days that American deaths should be expected from swine flu.
"I think what the American people need to be confident of is that President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are being very aggressive in tackling the problem," Valerie Jarrett, senior White House adviser, told "Good Morning America" today.
"We were unfortunately expecting that there would be deaths, but we're working really hard to educate the American people so that we take reasonable precautions."
The White House has already requested a billion and a half dollars to fight the growing outbreak.
Meanwhile, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Tuesday night that more than 1,300 people were in hospitals, some of them "seriously" ill, out of a total of around 2,500 suspected cases of the virus.
"In the last few days there has been a decline (in cases)," Cordova told a news conference. "The death figures have remained more or less stable."
Cordova said the victims ranged from children through young adults and middle-aged people to the elderly, a different pattern to the common seasonal flu that mainly kills the elderly and already unwell people.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today three more cases of the flu have been confirmed, for a total of five known cases.
After Mexico, U.S. Is Hardest Hit
In the U.S., the outbreak has escalated, with the total number of cases confirmed in the United States jumping to 71 and spreading to two more states, health officials said. Experts expect that figure to keep rising.
"I do expect more cases and expect more states to be affected," Rear Admiral Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's science and public health program, told a Senate hearing today. "I think we need to be prepared that even if it starts to look a little better, it may get a little worse."
The CDC has been working to distribute test kits for the virus, identified only last week in the country. Without the kits, confirming infection can take days. To fight the epidemic, the Obama administration is asking Congress for $1.5 billion. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president was requesting the funds "out of an abundance of caution" to "enhance our nation's capability to respond to the potential spread of this outbreak."
The government's request underscores how seriously U.S. officials are treating the threat. Alarmed by the growing number of swine flu cases and the possibility that a California man may have died from the disease, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency today to help deal with the outbreak.
California has confirmed 15 cases of swine flu, and Tuesday it was investigating whether one man may have died as a result of the virus. According to Los Angeles County public health official Jonathan Fielding, the case is still being investigated. If it is confirmed, it would be the second death in the U.S. attributed to the illness.
Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, declined to comment on the California investigation, but said, "I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection."
Florida has reported an incidence of swine flu today, and Indiana health officials confirmed this afternoon that a student at Notre Dame has swine flu. These developments bring to seven the number of states where the infections are being investigated.
In Orlando, Fla., the chief medical officer at Florida Hospital Loran Hauck indicated the flu has spread to a tourist who visiting the crowded Disney World.
"A case was diagnosed here in Orlando today on a tourist from Mexico who came to Disney attractions two days ago to visit," Hauck wrote in the email. Florida health officials have not confirmed that the tourist was stricken with swine flu.
Indiana joins Ohio, New York, Texas, Kansas and California as states with confirmed cases.
The outbreak is expected to keep growing because the CDC said today the new count includes "a number of hospitalizations."
The CDC in Atlanta has become the center for the swine flu investigation. It is one of only four laboratories in the world that have the expertise to unravel a novel flu strain.
"What we're trying to do is to identify how bad, how good, the swine flu is currently operating -- is it expanding, is it contracting, is it maintaining a steady state," said Phillip Navin, director of the Division of Emergency Operations at the CDC.
With the uptick in cases, the CDC shipped out more anti-virals and sent additional teams into the field.
"I think at the moment we need to be looking forward and making sure that we're doing everything that we can to keep people from getting sick," said Dr. Steve Reed, director of the CDC's Influeza Coordination Unit.
New York City Sees Big Jump in Swine Flu Cases
The biggest increase occurred in New York City where the number of cases leaped from 28 to 45, the CDC said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the cases were confined to a "single cluster," students of St. Francis Preparatory School and their relatives. Several of the students had spent spring break in Cancun, Mexico, which health officials suspect is the origin of the outbreak.
But Bloomberg said Tuesday that it appears to have spread to at least one other school, Public School 177, a school for autistic children. Of PS 177's 380 students, 82 called in sick today and at least a dozen have fevers. One of those students has two siblings at St. Francis Prep, Bloomberg said. Both of the those schools are located in the borough of Queens.
The mayor also said there are six possible cases of the flu in a Manattan school, Ascension parochial school.
And New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said today that "many hundreds" of students and teachers at St. Francis are sick -- though most of those cases appear mild so far.
"It is here and it is spreading," Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."
At one point the Ernst and Young corporation said it had confirmed a case at its Manhattan headquarters, but later retracted the statement.
In addition, there were four more cases in Texas and three additional cases in California.
Leaders in Congress raced each other to hold hearings on the outbreak. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that deals with pandemic preparedness, called an emergency hearing to address funding for states and federal government
CONTINUED ON news/notes20090429g
First U.S. Death From Swine Flu in Texas the CDC Confirms
A 23-Month-Old Child Is the First American to Die From Swine Flu, the CDC Reports
By AMMU KANNAMPILLY
April 29, 2009
A 23-month-old child from Texas has become the first American to die in the swine flu outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed today. The CDC has also confirmed that the baby had recently traveled to Mexico.
"This is obviously a serious situation," said President Obama of the developments Wednesday. He further urged local health departments to watch for new cases -- and for schools to "strongly consider" closing their doors if the virus is suspected or detected among students or staff.
There are now 71 confirmed cases in the U.S., the CDC reports.
In Chicago, officials closed a school on the city's North Side after a "probable" swine flu infection was reported Tuesday. Blood samples are being sent to the CDC for analysis. If confirmed, Illinois would become the sixth state to report an outbreak.
Germany and Austria today became the latest countries to confirm swine flu infections. The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease control center, has confirmed three cases, including two women -- a 37-year-old in Bavaria and a 22-year-old in Hamburg -- and one man. All three are undergoing treatment at German hospitals.
And the Egyptian government has begun slaughtering all 300,000 pigs in the country, according to local reports. No swine flu cases have yet been confirmed on the country, though its neighbor Israel has reported two.
Governments around the world are struggling to contain the disease, but no one is ready yet to call the outbreak a full fledged pandemic.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the World Health organization flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told reporters today.
Swine Flu Death Reinforces CDC's Prior Warnings
The death comes as public fears over swine flu continue to grow. Before this fatality, health officials confirmed Tuesday that five patients in the United States have been hospitalized with swine flu; all have recovered.
And last night, a flight from Baltimore to Mexico was, for a time, suspected of carrying a passenger with swine flu. The airport had prepared to quarantine the plane before authorities said the concern was unwarranted.
Both the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been warning for days that American deaths should be expected from swine flu.
"I think what the American people need to be confident of is that President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are being very aggressive in tackling the problem," Valerie Jarrett, senior White House adviser, told "Good Morning America" today.
"We were unfortunately expecting that there would be deaths, but we're working really hard to educate the American people so that we take reasonable precautions."
The White House has already requested a billion and a half dollars to fight the growing outbreak.
Meanwhile, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Tuesday night that more than 1,300 people were in hospitals, some of them "seriously" ill, out of a total of around 2,500 suspected cases of the virus.
"In the last few days there has been a decline (in cases)," Cordova told a news conference. "The death figures have remained more or less stable."
Cordova said the victims ranged from children through young adults and middle-aged people to the elderly, a different pattern to the common seasonal flu that mainly kills the elderly and already unwell people.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today three more cases of the flu have been confirmed, for a total of five known cases.
After Mexico, U.S. Is Hardest Hit
In the U.S., the outbreak has escalated, with the total number of cases confirmed in the United States jumping to 71 and spreading to two more states, health officials said. Experts expect that figure to keep rising.
"I do expect more cases and expect more states to be affected," Rear Admiral Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's science and public health program, told a Senate hearing today. "I think we need to be prepared that even if it starts to look a little better, it may get a little worse."
The CDC has been working to distribute test kits for the virus, identified only last week in the country. Without the kits, confirming infection can take days. To fight the epidemic, the Obama administration is asking Congress for $1.5 billion. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president was requesting the funds "out of an abundance of caution" to "enhance our nation's capability to respond to the potential spread of this outbreak."
The government's request underscores how seriously U.S. officials are treating the threat. Alarmed by the growing number of swine flu cases and the possibility that a California man may have died from the disease, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency today to help deal with the outbreak.
California has confirmed 15 cases of swine flu, and Tuesday it was investigating whether one man may have died as a result of the virus. According to Los Angeles County public health official Jonathan Fielding, the case is still being investigated. If it is confirmed, it would be the second death in the U.S. attributed to the illness.
Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, declined to comment on the California investigation, but said, "I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection."
Florida has reported an incidence of swine flu today, and Indiana health officials confirmed this afternoon that a student at Notre Dame has swine flu. These developments bring to seven the number of states where the infections are being investigated.
In Orlando, Fla., the chief medical officer at Florida Hospital Loran Hauck indicated the flu has spread to a tourist who visiting the crowded Disney World.
"A case was diagnosed here in Orlando today on a tourist from Mexico who came to Disney attractions two days ago to visit," Hauck wrote in the email. Florida health officials have not confirmed that the tourist was stricken with swine flu.
Indiana joins Ohio, New York, Texas, Kansas and California as states with confirmed cases.
The outbreak is expected to keep growing because the CDC said today the new count includes "a number of hospitalizations."
The CDC in Atlanta has become the center for the swine flu investigation. It is one of only four laboratories in the world that have the expertise to unravel a novel flu strain.
"What we're trying to do is to identify how bad, how good, the swine flu is currently operating -- is it expanding, is it contracting, is it maintaining a steady state," said Phillip Navin, director of the Division of Emergency Operations at the CDC.
With the uptick in cases, the CDC shipped out more anti-virals and sent additional teams into the field.
"I think at the moment we need to be looking forward and making sure that we're doing everything that we can to keep people from getting sick," said Dr. Steve Reed, director of the CDC's Influeza Coordination Unit.
New York City Sees Big Jump in Swine Flu Cases
The biggest increase occurred in New York City where the number of cases leaped from 28 to 45, the CDC said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the cases were confined to a "single cluster," students of St. Francis Preparatory School and their relatives. Several of the students had spent spring break in Cancun, Mexico, which health officials suspect is the origin of the outbreak.
But Bloomberg said Tuesday that it appears to have spread to at least one other school, Public School 177, a school for autistic children. Of PS 177's 380 students, 82 called in sick today and at least a dozen have fevers. One of those students has two siblings at St. Francis Prep, Bloomberg said. Both of the those schools are located in the borough of Queens.
The mayor also said there are six possible cases of the flu in a Manattan school, Ascension parochial school.
And New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said today that "many hundreds" of students and teachers at St. Francis are sick -- though most of those cases appear mild so far.
"It is here and it is spreading," Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."
At one point the Ernst and Young corporation said it had confirmed a case at its Manhattan headquarters, but later retracted the statement.
In addition, there were four more cases in Texas and three additional cases in California.
Leaders in Congress raced each other to hold hearings on the outbreak. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that deals with pandemic preparedness, called an emergency hearing to address funding for states and federal government
CONTINUED ON news/notes20090429g
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