US decl. pub. health emer'cy 4 swine flu
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| Sun, 04-26-2009 - 6:34pm |
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1151ap_us_swine_flu_emergency.html
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.
Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York. Unlike in Mexico where the same strain appears to be killing dozens of people, cases in the United State have been mild - and U.S. health authorities can't yet explain why.
"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," predicted Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."
At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.
Top among those is declaring the public health emergency. As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.
Remainder of article at above link.








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First U.S. Death From Swine Flu Is Confirmed
Complete article at link......
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/health/30flu.html?ref=health
President Obama confirmed the first death outside of Mexico from swine flu on Wednesday, and 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.
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.
The number of confirmed cases of the illness continued to rise in Europe. In France, the health minister took the extraordinary step of calling for a suspension of all flights from the European Union to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, even as a Mexican health official said that the death toll appeared to be stabilizing.
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday in an interview with CNN that the first American death of the disease was a 23-month-old child in Texas. He gave no other details about the child. President Obama said his “thoughts and prayers” were with the child’s family.
Mr. Obama spoke a day after he had asked Congress to provide $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the disease, and his comments appeared to reflect a deepening sense of the risk the still ill-understood flu might pose.
There's still no 'vaccine'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza
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