CDC: Swine flu viruses in U.S. and Mexico match

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CDC: Swine flu viruses in U.S. and Mexico match


(CNN) -- U.S. health officials expressed concern Friday that a swine flu virus that has infected eight people in the United States matches samples of a virus that has killed at least 68 people in Mexico.


Swine flu is usually diagnosed only in pigs or people in regular contact with them.

U.S. health experts also are concerned because more than 1,000 people have fallen ill in Mexico City in a short period of time.

"This situation has been developing quickly," said acting CDC director Richard Besser. "This is something we are worried about."

New York health officials announced Friday they are testing about 75 students at a Queens school for swine flu after the students exhibited flu-like symptoms this week.

A team of state health department doctors and staff went to the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens on Thursday after the students reported cough, fever, sore throat, aches and pains.

There have been no confirmed cases of swine flu there. The tests results are expected as early as Saturday.

Of the 14 Mexican samples tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven were identical to the swine flu virus found in Texas and Southern California, Besser said at a news conference.

An eighth U.S. case was reported Friday. All of the eight U.S. patients have recovered, Besser said. Video Watch for more on the U.S. cases »

As a precaution to avoid further contamination, schools and universities in Mexico City and the state of Mexico were closed Friday, said the national health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos. He said the schools may remain closed for a while.

Sixty-eight people have died in Mexico City, Cordova said at a news conference. More than 1,000 other people have gotten sick, he said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon canceled a trip Friday to northern Mexico so he could remain in Mexico City to monitor the situation, the state-run Notimex news agency reported. Calderon met with his Cabinet on Thursday night to discuss the outbreak.


Six of the U.S. cases were found in California, and two in Texas, near San Antonio, CDC officials said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada issued a respiratory alert for Mexico on Wednesday, recommending that health providers "actively look for cases" in Canada, particularly in people who've returned from Mexico within the last two weeks.

An alert issued Friday by the International SOS medical and consulting company said more than 130 cases of a severe respiratory illness have been detected in south and central Mexico, some of which are due to influenza.

"Public health officials in Mexico began actively looking for cases of respiratory illness upon noticing that the seasonal peak of influenza extended into April, when cases usually decline in number," the medical alert said. "They found two outbreaks of illness -- one centered around Distrito Federal (Mexico City), involving about 120 cases with 13 deaths. The other is in San Luis Potosi, with 14 cases and four deaths."

Authorities also detected one death in Oaxaca, in the south, and two in Baja California Norte, near San Diego, California.

There was no indication why the International SOS tallies did not match the Mexican health secretary's figures.

The majority of cases are occurring in adults between 25 and 44 years of age.

The CDC first reported Tuesday that two California children in the San Diego area were infected with a virus called swine influenza A H1N1, whose combination of genes had not been seen before in flu viruses in humans or pigs.

The first two cases were picked up through an influenza monitoring program, with stations in San Diego and El Paso, Texas. The program monitors strains and tries to detect new ones before they spread, the CDC said. Other cases emerged through routine and expanded surveillance.

The human influenza vaccine's ability to protect against the new swine flu strain is unknown, and studies are ongoing, Schuchat said. There is no danger of contracting the virus from eating pork products, she said.

The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza, human influenza, and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.

The new strain of swine flu has resisted some antiviral drugs.

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World Health Organization: Swine flu could spread globally
updated 41 minutes ago

(CNN) -- The presence of swine flu in Mexico and the United States is "a serious situation" that could develop into a pandemic, the World Health Organization's director-general said Saturday.


"This is an animal strain of the H1N1 virus and it has pandemic potential because it is infecting people," Dr. Margaret Chan said Saturday speaking to reporters by phone.

In Mexico, 68 people have died from swine flu, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

Eight people were confirmed to have swine flu in the United States; six in California and two in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All eight have recovered, according to CDC's acting Director Richard Besser.

CDC has tested 14 samples of the virus from Mexico and found seven were identical to the virus found in the U.S. cases, Besser said.

"This situation has been developing quickly," he said. "This is something we are worried about."

Chan said the World Health Organization was convening an emergency committee Saturday to advise her on appropriate action.

Asked whether the committee would address raising the agency's alert concerning the virus to 6, a pandemic alert and the highest level on WHO's scale, Chan said, "Yes, indeed."

The alert stands at 3, meaning "No or very limited human-to-human transmission."

Chan said Saturday that WHO does not have indications of similar outbreaks elsewhere.

However, she said, "The situation is evolving quickly. A new disease is by definition poorly understood."

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities until further notice because of the virus, and on Saturday, the country's National Health Council said all soccer games would be played Saturday without public audiences.

More than 1,000 people have been sickened in the country, and officials are trying to determine how many of those patients had swine flu, the country's health minister, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, said.

In the United States, New York health officials announced Friday they are testing about 75 students at a Queens school for swine flu after the students exhibited flu-like symptoms this week.

A team of state health department doctors and staff went to the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens on Thursday after the students reported cough, fever, sore throat, aches and pains.

No cases of swine flu were confirmed there. The test results are expected as early as Saturday.

None of the U.S. patients had direct contact with pigs, though a patient who lives in San Diego had traveled to Mexico, the CDC said

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Mexico’s Calderon Declares Emergency Amid Swine Flu Outbreak
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By Thomas Black

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.

Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.

“The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic,” Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.

At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

Obama’s Visit

The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

The Mexican government is distributing breathing masks to curtail the disease’s spread. There is no vaccine against the new strain of swine flu, health authorities said.

Museums, theaters and other venues in the Mexico City area, where large crowds gather, have shut down voluntarily and concerts and other events canceled to help contain the disease. Two professional soccer games will be played tomorrow in different Mexico City stadiums without any fans, El Universal newspaper reported. Catholic masses will be held, the newspaper said, although church officials urged worshipers to wear breath masks and to avoid contact.

Schools will likely remain closed next week, Calderon said in the Oaxaca speech. The decree allows Calderon to regulate transportation, enter any home or building for inspection, order quarantines and assign any task to all federal, state and local authorities as well as health professionals to combat the disease.

“The health of Mexicans is a cause that we’re defending with unity and responsibility,” Calderon said. “I know that although it’s a grave problem, a serious problem, we’re going to overcome it.”

Normal Airport Operations

Mexico City’s international airport, which handles about 70,000 passengers each day, is operating normally, said Victor Mejia, a spokesman. Passengers are given a questionnaire asking if they have flu symptoms and recommending they cancel their trip and see a doctor if they do. The measures are voluntary, Mejia said, and no case of swine flu in airport passengers, workers or visitors has been confirmed.

Authorities throughout Central America have issued alerts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Guatemala ordered tighter control yesterday of its northern border with Mexico, according to EFE. Gerberth Morales, who’s heading the Guatemala government’s response, said no cases of swine flu have been reported in his country, the Spanish news agency reported.

Brazil is intensifying vigilance in ports, airports and borders to check travelers’ health, luggage, aircrafts and ships in a preventive action against the outbreak in Mexico, the Agency for Sanitary Vigilance said on its Web site.

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NEW YORK – At least five people were in U.S. hospitals with swine flu as the number of cases nationwide rose to 68 on Tuesday and a federal health official warned that deaths were likely.
Most of the nation's confirmed cases were in New York City, where the health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill with what was "most likely swine flu." The city announced 45 confirmed cases, all affiliated with a Catholic high school.
Richard Besser, acting director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that although ordinary human flu accounts for 36,000 deaths every year, he was concerned by this strain.
"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Besser said at an Atlanta news conference.
New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said that hundreds of students at St. Francis Preparatory in Queens had developed symptoms consistent with swine flu, although many hadn't been tested to confirm it. Some students there recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico.
There were indications that the outbreak may have spread beyond St. Francis, with officials closing a school for autistic children down the road. Two suspected cases were hospitalized in New York, one has been released and the other is doing well, officials said.
"It is here and it is spreading," Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that 82 of 380 students at P.S. 177, a school for autistic children, have called in sick. A third school in Manhattan is being evaluated because students there are sick, Frieden said.
The CDC said the country has 68 confirmed cases across six states, with 45 in New York, 13 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, according to the CDC and states.
At least five people have been hospitalized in the U.S., including three in California and two in Texas, Besser said.
The increase is not surprising. For days, CDC officials have said they expected to see more confirmed cases — and more severe illnesses. Health officials across the country have stepped up efforts to look for cases, especially among people with flu-like illness who had traveled to Mexico.
CDC officials also had warned that updates in the number of confirmed cases would at time be disjointed, as different states announce new information before the CDC's national count is updated.
A handful of schools around the country have closed over swine flu fears and some people are wearing masks, but it's mostly business as usual in the U.S., even at border crossings into Mexico.
(This version CORRECTS that five confirmed swine flu cases are hospitalized.)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/he...tml?ref=health


A Mexican toddler who came to the United States with his family on a visit has died in Texas of the swine flu, Texas officials said, as President Obama recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of the disease “strongly consider temporarily closing.”

“This is obviously a serious situation, serious enough to take the utmost precautions,” Mr. Obama said.

Dr. David Persse, Houston’s director of Emergency Medical Services, said the 23-month-old child had traveled with his family from Mexico to Brownsville in south Texas. On April 13, the child was admitted to the hospital and then transferred the next day to a hospital in Houston, where he died on Monday. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the child was “in fact infected with the swine virus,” on Wednesday, Dr. Persse said.

The president’s remarks, his most extensive on the outbreak of the H1N1 virus since it began, came as fears of the spread of the disease around the world deepened on Wednesday.

Mexico has been the epicenter of the outbreak, with more than 150 suspected deaths and at least 2,400 suspected to have been infected with the virus.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- The swine flu outbreak is unleashing a side effect the global economy is in no condition to handle: fear.
Travelers are canceling or delaying trips to Mexico, Cuba banned all flights to its neighbor and Argentina announced Tuesday a five-day ban on flights arriving from Mexico. China, Russia and South Korea have banned imports of some North American pork, despite assurances that the flu is not spread through meat. Investors just starting to regain their nerve have again caught the jitters.
The threat of a pandemic comes just as the world economy is showing the barest glimmerings of what analysts say might be the light at the end of what remains a long, dark tunnel. And now this.
"This is just another negative shock when the economy can least afford another negative shock," said Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia Corp.
So far, fear of the flu is at least as responsible for the economic disruption as the disease itself.
The number of confirmed cases in the United States climbed to 66, and federal officials warned that deaths were likely. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.
President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the disease.
Economists remember well the financial damage the SARS outbreak inflicted in 2003. An epidemic of that scale or greater could inflict severe damage on a global economy already badly listing.
"On top of a synchronized global financial and economic crisis, an outbreak of swine fever is the last thing we need just now," Neil MacKinnon, chief economist at The ECU Group PLC, based in London, wrote this week.
There are already early signs that swine flu fear is taking an economic toll.
In Mexico City, canceled events and closed movie theaters, night clubs, museums and other establishments are costing at least $57 million a day, according to city's Chamber of Trade, Services and Tourism.
That's a 36 percent drop in revenue generated by tourism and services in the Mexican capital, chamber president Arturo Mendicuti said.
Royal Caribbean Cruises suspended stops at Mexican ports indefinitely, and Carnival Cruise Lines canceled Mexico port calls through May 4. Norwegian Cruise Line canceled the Norwegian Pearl's final two calls in Mexico this week and said its schedules do not include any other ports in Mexico until the end of September 2009.
In Chicago, traders bid down the price of pork futures Tuesday for a second straight day, reflecting what analysts say are consumer worries about catching the virus from meat. The drop in prices came even as China -- the third-biggest market for exports of U.S. pork -- banned shipments of the meat from California, Texas and Kansas, along with those from Mexico. Russia and South Korea have announced similar measures.
The bans caused consternation for U.S. pork farmers, despite assurances from public health agencies that the flu isn't spread by eating meat.
"We have everybody ... all saying pork is safe to eat and that this isn't in the swine herd, definitely not in the U.S. swine herd," said Dave Warner, of the National Pork Producers Council. "I think the economics right now is being driven by fear of what could happen, rather that what really is happening."
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack even pushed to change the name of swine flu to protect the hog market.
The danger of economic fallout helps explain the cautious stance of the World Health Organization, which has not recommended travel restrictions as it has in previous outbreaks.
WHO, accountable to its member countries, is a health agency, but its policies are driven at least partly by financial considerations. In recent years, the agency has shied away from actions that might upset member nations. Dr. Margaret Chan, the agency's head, has repeatedly said that her priority is to serve her countries.
That is in direct contrast to the strong action WHO took to contain the SARS epidemic in 2003, when it issued travel advisories that recommended postponing nonessential travel to cities including Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto.
The economic impact was devastating as air traffic slowed to a crawl. Canada was so incensed it sent a delegation to WHO's Geneva headquarters to protest. But WHO's leader at the time, Gro Harlem-Brundtland of Norway, insisted the advisories were necessary to contain SARS.
Ultimately, world health experts say the travel advisories sharply cut the spread of SARS.
"There really is a careful balance between scaring people and downplaying it too much. And the reason why that's so important is that the various interventions that are available to public health authorities all have a cost associated with them," said Ross Hammond, part of a group at the Brookings Institution that builds computer models to study how pandemics and public fears interact.
On Monday, WHO increased its alert level from 3 to 4 -- out of 6. Its influenza chief, Keiji Fukuda, warned that "at this time containment is not a feasible option," rejecting calls for a travel ban or other restrictions on Mexico or the United States.
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. "There was much more economic disruption caused by these measures than there was public health benefit."
The SARS virus -- which killed nearly 800 people -- wreaked most of its damage in Asia. In Hong Kong, businesses shut and the number of tourists plunged by 70 percent. The local economy contracted by about 9 percent in the second quarter of 2003, when the epidemic was at its peak.
But the damage also sent wide ripples. In Canada, particularly greater Toronto, the outbreak sharply reduced tourism, and kept even residents home rather than out shopping. The city's economy lost about $950 million, a contraction of about 0.5 percent, according to The Conference Board of Canada.
The SARS outbreak was short-lived and came at a time of relative economic stability. Today's economy can ill afford such a setback. But the worry reflected in stock markets is about the possibility, still remote, that a new outbreak could erupt into something far more serious.
A report by the World Bank, updated last year, estimated that a severe pandemic -- like the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 that killed between 40 million and 100 million people -- would cause a nearly 5 percent drop in global economic activity, costing the world about $3.1 trillion.
"Even a mild pandemic has significant consequences for global economic output," a pair of Australian researchers wrote in a 2006 report cited by the World Bank.
In a global recession, a pandemic could present a greater threat. On Friday, the World Bank warned developing nations that slashing public health budgets could put their citizens' health at risk.
Meanwhile, economic markets are waiting to see the fallout.
Fear of a pandemic has to make people wonder. In the U.S., where unemployment is expected to top 10 percent before the end of the year, could the shock of a flu outbreak make it 12 percent instead? Think what that would mean to retailers, to people's ability to pay their mortgages, to companies' ability to get work done.
"When you're steaming full speed ahead and are hit by a torpedo, you can just keep going," Wachovia's Bryson said. "But you take a torpedo after four or five torpedoes which you've already taken, and this could be the thing that sinks the ship."

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By CHARMAINE NORONHA, Associated Press Writer Charmaine Noronha, Associated Press Writer – 15 mins ago


OTTAWA – Pigs in the Canadian province of Alberta have been infected with the new swine flu virus and are under quarantine, officials said Saturday. It is the first known case of pigs having the virus.
But officials quickly urged caution. Swine flu regularly causes outbreaks in pigs, and the pigs do not pose a food safety risk, Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told a news conference.
The officials said the pigs were thought to be infected by a Canadian farm worker who recently visited Mexico and got sick after returning to Canada.
The traveler has recovered, and the estimated 200 sickened pigs are recovering as well, officials said. No pigs have died, and officials said they don't think the flu has spread beyond the farm.
Normally, detecting influenza in pigs would not generate a response from food safety officials, but the current circumstances are different with the international flu outbreak, Evans said.
"The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote," he said, adding that he would have no issue eating pork from the infected pigs.
The World Health Organization has insisted there is no evidence that pigs are passing the virus to humans, or that eating pork products poses an infection risk.
And the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture and World Health Organization, along with the WTO and the World Organization for Animal Health, issued a joint statement Saturday saying there's no justification for any anti-pork trade measures as a result of the swine flu epidemic since there is no evidence the virus is spread by food.
The statement was the most emphatic yet from the United Nations and other agencies on the issue.
The statement came after major American pork importers like RussiaIndonesia, Ukraine and the Philippines and Serbia and China banned pork products from certain U.S. states as the new swine flu spread. have banned certain pork products from the entire country.
Canadian officials called such measures unwarranted.
The pigs in Alberta were thought to be infected by a farm worker who returned from Mexico on April 12 and began working on the farm two days later. Officials noticed the pigs had flu-like symptoms April 24, Evans said.
Approximately 10 percent of the 2,200 pigs on the farm have been infected, Evans said.
Officials said the pigs were likely infected in the same manner as humans worldwide, and that the virus is acting no differently in the pigs than other swine flu viruses.
"Whatever virus these pigs were exposed to is behaving in that exact manner as those we regularly see circulating in North America and in swine herds in virtually every nation around the world," Evans said.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studies have shown that swine flu is common throughout pig populations worldwide, with 25 percent of animals showing antibody evidence of infection.
The new virus has shown no signs of mutation when passing from human to pig, Evans said.