VERY IMPORTANT : U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency

Noway · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:45 am Post subject:

WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

33 minutes ago

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of swine flu has begun. The decision was made after the U.N. health agency held an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization held an emergency swine flu meeting Thursday and was likely to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

Health officials from Scotland, Indonesia and Thailand said the agency would declare a swine flu pandemic — a global epidemic — on Thursday after a teleconference with leading flu experts. Officials at U.N. missions in Geneva also said they expected the imminent announcement of a pandemic.

WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said only that the emergency meeting began at noon in Geneva and WHO member nations would be informed of the result. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan was holding a press conference at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT, noon EDT).

"It is likely in light of sustained community transmission in countries outside of North America — most notably in Australia — that level 6 will be declared," Scotland's Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon told Scottish lawmakers, adding it would be Thursday.

Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari said she had been notified by WHO that "today will be declared to be phase 6."

Phase 6 is WHO's highest alert level and means that a swine flu pandemic is under way. The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.

Since the new flu strain — dubbed A(H1N1) — first emerged in Mexico and the United States in April, it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. On Wednesday, WHO reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths. The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities — especially in poorer countries.

The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. It will trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money to containing the virus.

In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would spark mass panic.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where so many people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week that emergency health services in the capital have collapsed. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.

In Hong Kong, the government on Thursday ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu.

In Australia, swine flu cases jumped to more than 1,000 on Monday and reached 1,260 by late Wednesday.

WHO says its pandemic announcement would not mean the situation was worsening, since no mutations have been detected in the virus to show it is getting more deadly.

In Edinburgh, Sturgeon told lawmakers that a WHO announcement means countries should immediately activate their pandemic plans.

"A move to level 6 is not a verdict on the severity of the virus," she said. "It simply means that the extent of global spread now fulfills the definition of a pandemic."

Associated Press writers Maria Cheng and Jill Lawless in London, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong, Vincente L. Panetta in Buenos Aires and Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTkkEKE5LtPih_5Jcc-3MpD0gOYQD98OH0U00

Noway · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:59 pm Post subject:

Don't worry, it's just a pandemic

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090611/hl_afp/healthflupandemic

AFP/File – A traveller wears a face mask on arrival at the airport in Beijing on June 9, 2009. Health experts are keen to defuse any "we're all going to die" reflex after the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday announced a flu pandemic was underway.(AFP/File/Frederic J. Brown)

by Richard Ingham Richard Ingham – Thu Jun 11, 2:09 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Now it's official: We have a flu pandemic. But what does it mean?

For many, the term may be tinged with fear. It evokes folk memories of three influenza pandemics that erupted last century and claimed tens of millions of lives.

The worst was the 1918-19 "Spanish flu."

The greatest plague of the 20th century killed as many as 50 million people, particularly the young and healthy, who could be dispatched to their grave in just a few days, their ravaged lungs filled with blood.

But health experts are keen to defuse any "we're all going to die" reflex after the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday announced a flu pandemic was underway.

For one thing, "pandemic" is only a technical term that indicates the geographical spread of a disease.

Despite its scary connotations, the word is no indication as to how contagious or lethal the disease is.

"Your (sic) can have serious pandemics, and you can have wimpy pandemics," notes Albert Osterhaus, a well known virologist at the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Nor does the term apply only to influenza: the world already has pandemics of AIDS and malaria.

Together, they kill around three million people a year and infect millions more. They may cause grief and fear, but not panic.

The reason is that these pandemics have been established for decades, which means people deem them quantifiable risks, rather than a new, apparently random and thus terrifying peril.

Adam Kamradt-Scott, research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London, says keeping a sense of proportion is essential as the world confronts the new flu virus.

"Even in the worst-case scenario, if this turns out to be a particularly nasty strain with around 25 percent of the population affected, the bulk of people are going to recover and lead normal lives healthwise," Kamradt-Scott told AFP.

"There is a risk that some people could die, but ultimately the majority of people who contract it will recover. So people need to be cautious and take precautions, and act on scientific evidence and not panic."

How lethal the new flu is, or could become, is a question for virologists and epidemiologists -- specialists in analysing a pathogen's genetic ID and how it propagates.

Pandemic viruses are microbes that have acquired new genetic material while mixing in an animal host -- usually a pig, which is able to harbour bird, flu and swine viruses simultaneously -- and then leap the species barrier.

The new genes mean people have no immunity to the virus, as they have not been exposed to it before. And as the virus spreads among humans, the strain is likely to further mutate.

"After emerging into a population it may acquire sudden virulence," explained Patrick Berche, professor of microbiology at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris.

"Then, when more and more of the population build up immunity to it, the virus starts to lose its virulence."

The pandemics of so-called Asian flu in 1957-58 and of "Hong Kong" flu in 1968-69 killed up to four million people and around a million respectively, according to varying estimates.

Their case fatality rate was around 0.1 percent. By contrast, mortality for "Spanish flu" was 25 times higher -- "The Mother of All Pandemics" is how US virologists Jeffery Taubenberger and David Morens describe it.

By resurrecting the virus, recovered in scraps among frozen corpses in Alaska, and then testing it on lab animals, Taubenberger and colleagues found it had a unique combination of genes that caused the immune system to run amok.

There is a host of factors other than genes that determine the toll from a pandemic.

These include the speed at which it travels geographically, the proximity of people, the season (winter is more favourable to the virus than summer), and, of course, medical preparedness and precautions taken by individuals and governments.

What makes the world more vulnerable in 2009 as compared to 1918 is the advent of jet travel, which means a virus can travel continents in just hours, and a population that has surged from two billion to six billion.

"But the advantages are that we have antivirals and antibiotics," said Berche. "In 1918, many deaths were due to secondary bacterial pneumonia following viral infection."

"In developed countries, we're no longer in 1918," said Joseph Ajjar, an epidemiologist who is head of the French Society of Hospital Hygiene. "On the other hand, I fear the ones who will pay a heavy price are developing countries."

Copyright © 2009 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

With the slew of missing children of late, this has been the last thing on my mind. lol. I thank you for the article. I've swung your way...by default of course. Wink

_________________
"The most important question to ask about any work is "how does this serve the world?"" ~ by Marianne Williamson

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

Swine flu kills 22 yro pregnant mom #TAMPA Baby in hospital http://xrl.us/bfiqua

and

Swine flu #OH kills new mom, 20. Baby fine http://xrl.us/bfiqts
_________________
"The most important question to ask about any work is "how does this serve the world?"" ~ by Marianne Williamson

Noway · Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:37 am Post subject:

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

yes, it's very sad. very. also, I guess we were kind of warned that the outbreak would be in the fall and I've a feeling we haven't seen the least of it yet:( Prayers that it won't hit as hard as they're forecasting.
_________________
"The most important question to ask about any work is "how does this serve the world?"" ~ by Marianne Williamson

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

AND THIS WAS THE REGULAR FLU SHOT, NOT THE H1N1 SHOT!!!
Get kleenex. I cried watching this.

Jump to Youtube

_________________
"The most important question to ask about any work is "how does this serve the world?"" ~ by Marianne Williamson

Noway · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:12 pm Post subject:

This is what pisses me off about the swine flu ... and why I think the numbers are inflated.

My hairdresser went to the doctor with cough, fever (101.9) and back ache. Without running any tests, he told her she had swine flu and there was nothing he could do for her. She asked about Tamiflu and was told it would lessen the symptoms by a day, was very expensive and he would not recommend it.

Two coworkers of my sister's called the hotline at the hospital. They were both diagnosed over the phone ... no tests run at all.

My other sister who is trying to encourage me to get H1N1 vax for my kids esp. says they are able to do this because they "know" there is no other flu type here.

I nearly LMAO because how would they know ... when there are people they are not testing.

My son's friend has an adult cousin that died of complications due to swine flu (had heart condition we were told). I can only assume he was really tested.

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

chiefgirl · Sr. Member Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 229

I have a friend in Indiana who's 3 year old is sick and they told her she has H1N1. I doubt it because every time she goes back to her pediatrician with the same symptoms they give her a different diagnosis.
I keep trying to get her to go to my pediatrician, but she doesn't.
I used to babysit this little girl and she was barely sick. She had a runny nose once. She's been in a small, old chuch daycare and ever since she's been sick.
My friend's boss is getting ticked because she thinks it's her doing something to the child to get out of work..NOT THE CASE!!
I think there's a possibility she's allergic to something in the building. I'm no doctor so I guess it's h1n1. Rolling Eyes

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

chiefgirl · Sr. Member Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 229

Lavanda Dolce · ADMINISTRATOR/SITE CREATOR Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 4237

Ok. So here is our experience.
My Jeff woke this morn at 4:30 am with a fever of 101.9
bad headache, runny nose, nauseous and achy. Went to bed completly normal. Nothing wrong.
At 8:00 am he had 102.4
At 9:00 am was able to get him to Urgent Care. Temp now 102.9 when they tested it at urgen care (almost 103)
Said it's viral and that State of NH does not test for H1N1 because the treatment is the same as any other flu.

Said take the tylenol and motrim, fluids, bedrest, etc. Unless trouble breathing then
If difficulty breathing or gets worse (as in pneumonia) take to hospital. Also to follow up with doctor in 3 days.

They gave him first dose of tylenol/codiene and motrim.

I asked if this is the case, then why are people running around standing in 20 mile long lines to get vaccinated if it technically is no different than a regular flu..and he chuckles and tells me it's cuz of the media hype. He said more people get sicker in numbers with any kind of flu.

So I then say..then why is Govt all up in an uproar getting this vaccine from 5 diff pharmaceutical companies...rush rush rush...when we all know when a job is rushed that stuff happens...such as mistakes...etc. Not too mention...NOBODY knows for sure IF there could be any problems with that vaccine down the road...or with the offspring of those who take it now. NOBODY KNOWS.

I had to insist he do the nose swab. He said...it's not going to make a difference in his treatment if I do the nose swab or not.

I said "it's going to make a difference in MY treatment. Cuz by golly if he for sure has Swine Flu...then he FOR SURE is not having a vaccine because his body will build it's own immunity to it so a vaccine wont be needed." ...so he agreed. He got the nose swab and it came back NEG for Type B. (They can't test for Type A ...H1N1 in any clinics..only state labs do that and he already said ours won't in NH...and he says he can't swear he doesnt have Swine Flu..that his symptoms are all the same as the Swine Flu and that he has no ear infection, no sinus infection, no urine/bladder infection so that means he has a viral illness not of Type B which means Type A.

So that explains why all these numbers are all over the place in the media. They are just tagging anyone with a flu that comes neg for Type B as Swine Flu/Type A.

So why doesn't my state of NH do the test to be sure it's H1N1? How is the CDC allowed to report that H1n1 is rampant and the numbers if in fact testing is not performed....it's just "guess work" or "assumed". Again..why the rush and the mandatory requirement for healthcare workers to be vaccinated? (Which the doc was vaccinated as I asked him. He then chuckles some more and tells me..."yes, I had the vaccine...and nothing happened to me."...........and I said...."YET"...then he chuckles again.

Unreal. Jeff feels better as fever is lower since the medicine...but is in bed (of course) and with his gatorade and bottled water.
_________________
"The most important question to ask about any work is "how does this serve the world?"" ~ by Marianne Williamson