Saturday, 18 July, 2009 00:58 Written by admin
The pandemic H1N1 influenza virus is unexpectedly continuing to spread easily through the United States during the summer months, and health authorities expect a bump in transmission in about six weeks, when school goes back into session — perhaps two or three months earlier than is normally seen with seasonal flu.
"Every year, there is an increase in flu when children go back to school" and viruses are being shared in close quarters, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday in a telephone news conference. "This year, it is already circulating in summer camps, military units and so forth, so we are expecting when school opens we will see [a bigger than normal] increase."
Thursday, 07 May, 2009 23:52 Written by admin
Asian countries will increase stockpiles of medicine to fight the H1N1 flu virus and look at ways to share essential supplies in the event of an emergency, according to a statement drafted for a meeting Friday.
Health ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea will intensify cross-border cooperation and establish joint response teams to fight the spread of the virus, also known as swine flu.
According to the statement, the ministers were concerned that most of the production capacity for vaccines was located in North America and Europe and it was inadequate for a global pandemic.
Monday, 04 May, 2009 20:35 Written by admin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico will resume normal business activity this week after its swine flu emergency eased, but the global flu alert triggered a trade dispute on Monday over bans on Mexican, U.S. and Canadian pork.
International tensions triggered by the new H1N1 virus, which contains mostly swine components with bits of human and avian influenzas, emerged after about 20 nations banned imports of pork, pigs and other meat from the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three most flu-affected countries.
Mexico, the epicentre of the new flu outbreak which has surfaced in 21 countries, declared it was winning the battle against the flu, which has killed 26 people in the Latin American oil producer nation.
Sunday, 03 May, 2009 16:36 Written by admin
The new H1N1 flu virus appears to be fairly widespread in the United States and seems to be hitting mostly younger people, with very few cases reported in people over 50, U.S. health officials said on Sunday.
“We think very few of the cases we have confirmed are in people over 50,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr Anne Schuchat told reporters in a telephone briefing. “Whether this will pan out over the weeks ahead we don’t know.”
The CDC reported 226 cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus and one death in 30 states. The CDC previously had confirmed 160 cases in 21 states.