SECOND U.S.
DEATH LINKED TO SWINE FLU
A Texas
woman who had swine flu has died, officials said Tuesday, marking the second
death in the United States
linked to the virus and the first of a U.S. resident.
The news came as
officials in the United States
and Mexico,
where the outbreak of the H1N1 virus started, were voicing hope that the
worst of the new flu strain may be over.
The woman, who died
earlier this week, was from Cameron County on the edge of the Gulf
of Mexico. The Texas Department of State Health Services said
the woman had "chronic underlying health conditions," but did not
provide more details.
Dr. Brian Smith,
regional director for the department, confirmed the virus was linked to the
woman's death and told one CNN affiliate there was "one death confirmed
in Cameron County from H1N1 influenza." But
speaking with CNN affiliate KRGV-TV, he stopped short of saying it killed
her.
"It's certainly
part of the clinical picture," Smith said.
The Texas medical examiner's office told CNN
the woman had been sick for about a month.
The United States' first death from swine flu came
last week: a toddler whose family was visiting Houston,
Texas, from Mexico.
By Tuesday afternoon,
the number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus stood at 1,490 in 22
countries, according to the World Health Organization and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. That number includes 822 confirmed cases in Mexico.
WHO has confirmed 30
deaths worldwide from the virus, including 29 in Mexico. The count did not include
the most recently reported death in the United States.
There were 403
confirmed cases of the swine flu in the United States, according to the
CDC, and another 693 suspected cases counted by various state agencies.
The 403 confirmed U.S. cases are in 38 states, most of them in New York (90), Illinois
(82), California (49) and Texas (42), the CDC said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, U.S.
officials now recommend that schools stop closing when a case of swine flu is
confirmed at a school, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
said Tuesday.
Scientists believe the
H1N1 virus epidemic is no more dangerous than seasonal flu, and schools
should act accordingly, Sebelius said.
"This virus does
not seem to be as severe as we once thought it would be," she said at
the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sick students should be
kept home for seven days, she said, "but the schools should feel
comfortable about opening."
Schools that have been
closed can reopen, Sebelius said.
Dr. Richard Besser, the
CDC's acting director, said that closing schools in a pandemic has a definite
benefit. But closing during a general flu outbreak is not required, he said.
"When you get to
situations that are approaching general flu, then the downside of closing
schools outweighs the benefits," Besser said.
And federal officials
have been hearing from local officials "how incredibly difficult and
burdensome school closure is," he said.
In Mexico,
officials announced plans to reopen government offices and restaurants
Wednesday and museums, libraries and churches the following day, citing
improvement in the battle against the virus.
U.S. Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged claims by Mexican authorities who
believe that their cases have peaked.
"I have no reason
to think that is inaccurate," Napolitano said.
"What the
epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of H1N1 is that
the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get --
is not stronger than regular seasonal flu."
Health officials have
begun using the virus's clinical name, H1N1, to reflect that it's a
combination of several different types of flu and to reduce confusion about
whether eating pork can spread the virus, which it cannot.
Officials from WHO and
the CDC plan to monitor developments in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu
season arrives over the next few months as winter begins there.
Those results will help
determine whether a stronger strain of the virus will return to the United States
and the Northern Hemisphere during the fall flu season.
In Mexico City, about 35,000 public venues
were shut down, transforming the bustling metropolis of 20 million people
into a ghost town overnight.
Soccer games were
postponed, restaurants served only takeout orders, and Sunday Mass -- which
usually draws millions of worshippers -- was canceled.
"It's surreal to
say the least. And the masks add to that," said Cristiano Oliveira, a
Brazilian living in Mexico City
for the past year and a half. "There was, to me, at least the impression
that Mexico City
would never slow down. And now it's halted."
In the city's Condesa
neighborhood, Alfredo Sono Dillman whiled away the days watching movies on a
home computer.
"We all live
inside our houses, because the schools have been canceled until May 11,"
the 15-year-old said. "I'm not scared like last week. This week has been
easier. Now we know much better what is going on."
Early Tuesday, the
Mexican and Chinese government sent chartered flights to each other's
countries to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined
because of the global swine flu outbreak.
An Aeromexico flight
made several stops Tuesday throughout China to collect nearly 70
Mexican citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist
nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures.
At least two Mexicans
remained in quarantine in Beijing.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said four Americans are or were
quarantined in China: two
in Beijing and two in southern Guangdong province.
China suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who
arrived Thursday in Shanghai from Mexico City became the
Asian country's first confirmed case of the virus.
As a result, 200
Chinese citizens were stranded in Mexico City
and Tijuana.
A China Southern Airlines flight was expected to fetch them Tuesday, state
media said.
Also Tuesday, the U.S.
Navy said it has canceled the deployment of one of its ships because of a
number of possible cases of swine flu.
The USS Dubuque, an
amphibious transport dock ship, was due to deploy June 1 to the South Pacific
on a humanitarian mission, according to Cmdr. Joseph Surette, a Navy
spokesman.
He said there was one
confirmed case of H1N1 virus and 49 possible other cases among crew members
over the past several days. The 50 crew members are off the ship recovering
and being given Tamiflu medication, Surette said.
The ship is being
scrubbed and disinfected, and the remaining 370 crew members are being given
Tamiflu as a precaution, according to Surette.
WHO
officials said there were no immediate plans to raise its pandemic alert to
the highest level, 6.
WHO RENAMES “SWINE FLU” TO “INLUENZA A (H1N1)”
Influenza A (H1N1) contains avian, human and swine
influenza strains
The situation continues to evolve rapidly. As of 18:00 GMT+1, 2 May
2009, 16 countries have officially reported 658 cases of influenza A (H1N1)
infection.
Mexico has
reported 397 confirmed human cases of infection, including 16 deaths. The
higher number of cases from Mexico
in the past 48 hours reflects ongoing testing of previously collected
specimens. The United States Government has reported 160 laboratory confirmed
human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with
no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (51), China,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa
Rica (1), Denmark
(1), France (2), Germany (6), Israel
(3), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic
of Korea (1), Spain (13), Switzerland
(1) and the United Kingdom
(15).
Further information on the situation will be available on the WHO
website on a regular basis.
WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is
considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and
for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical
attention, in line with guidance from national authorities.
There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of
well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands
thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical
attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.
The UN's World Health
Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five - one short
of a full-blown global epidemic, or pandemic.
A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two
countries.
The move comes after a 23-month-old Mexican child died in Texas - the first death from swine flu outside Mexico, where
the outbreak originated.
In Spain, officials
confirmed the first case of swine flu in a person who had not travelled to Mexico.
Mexico's
President Felipe Calderon addressed the nation late on Wednesday, announcing
the partial suspension of non-essential work and services from 1 May to 5
May.
The efforts of the government were concentrated on containing the
virus, Mr Calderon said, urging people to stay at home with their families
during the shutdown.
He said he was
"proud" of the response of Mexicans to the crisis, and assured
people Mexico
was well-stocked with anti-viral medicines.
Announcing the latest
alert level after an emergency WHO meeting in Geneva, Director General Margaret Chan
urged all countries to activate their pandemic plans, including heightened
surveillance and infection-control measures.
She said action should
be undertaken with "increased urgency". She added: "It really
is the whole of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic."
But she also said the
world was "better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in
history". Ms Chan said that for the first time, the pandemic could be
tracked in real time.
This was necessary, she
added, because the virus could mutate at any time into a more dangerous
strain - or a milder one.
Border controls?
The Mexican boy who
died in the US fell ill
during a visit to relatives in southern Texas earlier this month. He was
transferred to a hospital in Houston,
where he died on Monday night.
Speaking in Washington, President
Barack Obama offered his condolences and said the federal government was
doing the utmost to contain the virus.
He also urged local
public-health bodies to be vigilant and said schools with confirmed cases
"should consider closing".
Officials put the
number of suspected deaths from swine flu in Mexico at 159, although just
seven deaths have been confirmed, with 26 infections positively tested.
Texas Governor Rick
Perry said closing the US
border with Mexico
was an option, but added that taking that step now would be "a little
premature".
Giving a televised news
conference on Wednesday evening, US President Barack Obama said health
officials were not recommending closing the border.
"The key now is to
just make sure we are maintaining great vigilance, that everybody responds
appropriately when cases do come up," Mr. Obama said.
Since the virus emerged
last week, it has also spread to Canada,
Europe, Israel, and New Zealand.
Peru became the latest country to
confirm it was treating a patient suffering from swine flu. An Argentine
woman who had recently travelled to Mexico
was Peru's
first case of the virus, the country's health minister said late on
Wednesday.
Several countries have
restricted travel to Mexico
and many tour operators have cancelled holidays.
France will ask the European Union on Thursday to suspend all
flights going to Mexico
because of the flu outbreak, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said.
The WHO, however, says measures
like travel bans are unlikely to prove effective.
'Social distancing'
In Spain, the government said the first person to
contract swine flu without having travelled to Mexico was the boyfriend of a
young woman who had recently returned from there.
Spanish Health Minister
Trinidad Jimenez said such cases were to be expected.
In total, the number of
confirmed cases in Spain
rose from two to 10 on Wednesday. None of the patients is seriously ill.
In Mexico, the
search for the source of the outbreak continues, with the focus on the
vicinity of a pig farm in the eastern part of the country.
The Mexican government
is urging against jumping to conclusions and is suggesting the possibility
remains that the virus originated outside the country.
Schools across Mexico have
closed, public gatherings are restricted and archaeological sites have been
placed off-limits.
Mexico City's chamber of commerce estimated
restrictions in the city were costing businesses there at least 777 million
pesos ($57m, £39m) per day.
WHO official Keiji
Fukuda said other countries also needed to consider "social
distancing" measures such as closing schools and delaying public
meetings.
Meanwhile, Ghana has
become the latest country to ban pork imports as a precaution against swine
flu, though no cases have been found in the West African country.
Ms Chan, the WHO
director, stressed on Wednesday that there was no danger from eating
properly-cooked pork. She advised hygiene measures such as hand-washing to
prevent infection and said it was important "to maintain a level of
calm". /.
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