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Swine Flu - Is history repeating itself?
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ticklish8
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28-Apr-2009 16:19
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As suspected it is human to human transmission Swine Flu Has Been Transmitted Between People in U.S., WHO Says c.2009 Bloomberg News By Joshua Fellman April 28 (Bloomberg) – There has been confirmed human-to- human transmission of swine flu in the U.S., Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organization’s chief representative, told reporters in Beijing today. | ||
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nickyng
Supreme |
28-Apr-2009 16:19
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dun scare ppl lah.....u wanna TALK DOWN MKT har? :P anyway already in DEEP RED in MOST if not ALL stock mkts now...hee :D
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ticklish8
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28-Apr-2009 16:16
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Another scientist make doomsday prediction Russian scientist warns of “very high risk” of global swine flu pandemic ml-njc/cb/rom ALERT-¥ AFP 280814 GMT APR 09 |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 16:12
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HK market kena flu virus: HONG KONG, April 28, 2009 (AFP) - Hong Kong share prices closed 1.92 percent lower on Tuesday, as worries over swine flu continued to knock investor confidence, dealers said. The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed down 285.31 points at 14,555.11. Turnover was 56.24 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.21 billion US). |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 16:06
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Alamak Thailand also "kena"... getting nearer.... phew... April 28 (Bloomberg) – A 42-year-old Thai woman is under observation for possible swine flu at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn Hospital, said Thirapong Charoenvit, deputy director. |
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nickyng
Supreme |
28-Apr-2009 16:02
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china authority to investigate?? u mean COVERUP? haha...given it's track record...likely coverup few mth back? :D
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 15:58
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Outbreak in Shaanxi, China? April 28 (Bloomberg) – The World Health Organization can’t rule out swine flu as the cause of an outbreak of disease in Shaanxi province, Hans Troedsson, the global health agency’s chief representative, told reporters in Beijing today. While there are no confirmed or probable cases of swine flu in China, there are a wide range of suspected cases of people with flu-like symptoms, Troedsson said. China is taking steps to investigate, he said. |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 15:51
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Australia... now probable 45.... SYDNEY, April 28, 2009 (AFP) - Australian authorities said Tuesday they were investigating 45 possible cases of swine flu and cautioned against travel to Mexico, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of a possible pandemic. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed to devote “all necessary resources” to the evolving flu threat, as possible cases of the disease more than doubled, covering all but one of the country’s states and territories. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said it was “at least possible, if not likely” that cases of the virus would be confirmed in coming days, and Australia’s health officials were on high alert. |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 15:43
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In South Korea also SEOUL, April 28, 2009 (AFP) - A South Korea woman just back from a trip to Mexico has a “probable” case of swine flu, a health agency said Tuesday without officially confirming the infection. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the 51-year-old woman returned home on April 26 after travelling through Mexico. It said she has been isolated in a state-designated hospital for treatment and surveillance. The centre said all 315 others who travelled on the same flight are being traced and tested, while 40 people who work with the woman have been given injections of anti-viral treatments. |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 15:42
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Spread to China... BEIJING, April 28, 2009 (AFP) - Authorities are investigating several suspected human cases of swine flu in China, the World Health Organization’s representative in the country said Tuesday. “There are several suspected cases under investigation,” Hans Troedsson told reporters. ph-kma/sst/cc |
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keepnosecrets
Master |
28-Apr-2009 12:42
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It was timely that health authorities took the "pre-emptive" steps against the pig flu virus. Had there been any neglect, I think there would be tremendous disaster that the world would ever have seen given the fact that the virus is more deadly than the initially unknown SAR. Pig flu was a known virus that our first generation Singaporeans would have come to apprehension during those days. Of course it was contained just as the chicken flu was contained. My hope is that those responsible for public health work harder for the interest of health itself. | ||
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 12:29
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US now 50 cases: The number of U.S. cases rose to 50, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal. Other U.S. cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 79 confirmed cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland. |
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ticklish8
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28-Apr-2009 12:28
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Latest: Death toll increase "Probable” swine flu death toll in Mexico up to 152: minister |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 12:20
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Source of the infection? If you read the article from Los Angeles Times, look eerily similar with China with Sars, slow to come clean about the infection.... By Tracy Wilkinson and Cecilia Sanchez= (c) 2009, Los Angeles Times= MEXICO CITY – With the death toll climbing, Mexican authorities at the center of a global flu epidemic struggled Monday to piece together its lethal march as attention focused on a 4-year-old boy and a pig farm. The boy, who survived, has emerged as the earliest known victim in Mexico of the never-before-seen virus, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Monday. The boy’s case provides an important clue of the strain’s path. The boy lived near a pig farm run by a U.S.-Mexican company, Granjas Carroll, in the municipality of Perote, in Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico coast. He contracted the disease April 2, Cordova said, and was part of a group of residents who came down with what at the time was labeled a particularly bad case of the flu. Only one sample from the group, that belonging to the boy, was preserved and re-tested – only after other cases of the new strain were later confirmed elsewhere, Cordova said. The boy had the same disease. It is unknown how many more of the hundreds of people who fell sick around April 2 in Perote also were infected by the more virulent strain. In another ominous disclosure, officials said the first confirmed fatality of the disease, from an impoverished state neighboring Veracruz, worked as a door-to-door census-taker and might have had contact with scores of people. Residents in the Perote hamlet known as La Gloria, since mid-March, have complained that contamination from the pig farm was tainting their water and giving them respiratory infections. In one demonstration in early April, they carried signs with pictures of pigs crossed out with an X and the word: Peligro – Danger. Residents told reporters at the time that more than half of the town’s 3,000 inhabitants were sick and that three children under 2 years old had died. Local health officials mobilized when the outbreak was first reported, but they gave a different account: The infection might have started with a migrant farmer who returned from work in the U.S. and gave the disease to his wife, who in turn proved contagious to other women in the community. Granjas Carroll, which claims to be Mexico’s leading pig producer at a million heads a year, issued a statement Monday saying none of its employees have shown signs of illness and noting that the sick are people who had no contact with its pigs. It is but one of numerous farms in the region. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization announced Monday it is sending a team of experts to inspect pig farms in Mexico. The FAO’s chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, said the teams would attempt to determine whether the new strain is circulating among pigs and then trace linkage to human populations. The first fatality from the disease that the government has confirmed occurred April 13. A 39-year-old woman, Maria Adela Gutierrez, died in the southern city of Oaxaca, capital of the state bordering Veracruz. Gutierrez was a census-taker for the government’s tax board, suggesting she could have had contact with many people at her most contagious point, before being hospitalized. But Martin Vazquez Villanueva, the regional health secretary in Oaxaca, denied local news reports that said she had infected 20 people, plus her husband and children. The Mexican government has parsed out information about the outbreak and its victims only in bits and pieces, refusing to detail who the dead are and where and when they died. For the second consecutive day, the government was on the defensive against criticisms that it acted too slowly to contain the virus and to alert the public to the dangers. “We never had this type of epidemic, this type of virus in the world,” Cordova, the health secretary, said at a news conference Monday. “We don’t know how many days this will go on because it’s the first time in the world this virus has appeared.” The government took the extraordinary step of ordering all schools in the nation closed until May 6. Separately, the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level, and the U.S. and Europe advised against travel to Mexico. Cordova said every state in Mexico is now reporting suspected cases of the virus, a major expansion of the spread of the disease. Just Thursday, the government reported the disease in Mexico City, the adjacent state of Mexico and nearby San Luis Potosi. Cordova said this new form of swine flu is now suspected in the deaths of 149 people and that 1,995 possible cases have been reported at Mexican hospitals, all patients suffering serious pneumonia; of those, 172 have been confirmed as the new strain, he said. “We are at the most critical moment of the epidemic,” he said, adding that the number of cases would continue to rise |
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Galileo
Member |
28-Apr-2009 12:03
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With Singapore such a travel hub its bound to land here soon, just an example in the beginning of May there is the biggest oil show in the world @ Houston (OTC) there are always loads of people from here going over, & thousands from everywhere else in the world all converging there, the potentials are huge. Travel with care. |
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nickyng
Supreme |
28-Apr-2009 11:39
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Swine-Flu Warning Raised as Virus Crosses Continents April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization, acknowledging the growing threat of swine flu, raised its global pandemic alert, saying the disease is no longer containable. The alarm level, raised to 4 from 3, is at its highest since the warning system was adopted in 2005, and the virus has been confirmed in the U.K., Mexico, the U.S., Canada and Spain. The emphasis for health officials worldwide should be treating patients and strengthening preparations for outbreaks, said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security and environment. The Geneva-based WHO isn’t recommending travel restrictions. Swine flu cases in the U.S. doubled to 40, and Mexico’s toll of flu-related deaths reached 149. Fears among global health officials about other outbreaks spurred an emergency meeting of the WHO. U.S. officials yesterday recommended that nonessential travel to Mexico be avoided, the European Union has told travelers to avoid outbreak areas, and Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are screening air passengers. The increased threat level “signifies that we have taken a step closer” to pandemic, Fukuda said in a conference call with reporters yesterday. “It is also possible that as the situation evolves over the next few days we could move into Stage 5.” A pandemic is an unexpected outbreak of disease that spreads from person to person across borders. Pandemics occur when a new influenza A-type virus, to which almost no one has natural immunity, emerges and spreads internationally. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that a moderate pandemic would kill 209,000, and a flu as severe as the 1918 outbreak would kill 1.9 million. Not Inevitable The raised level indicates health officials need to prepare for a pandemic, though it’s not inevitable, Fukuda said. This is the first time risk has risen above level 3 on the WHO’s six- step alert system since the current scale was adopted. “The situation is very fluid, very dynamic, and it is rapidly evolving,” said Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist in the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s flu division. “The cases in the U.S. don’t have any links to contact with pigs. This appears to be ongoing human-to-human transmission.” Production of influenza vaccine for seasonal outbreaks, which U.S. health officials have said is ineffective against the new flu, should continue, Fukuda said. WHO is working with companies to prepare for a swine-flu vaccine, and would help produce such a vaccine if the outbreak becomes a pandemic, he said. “We don’t think that any of the existing vaccines are effective,” said Richard Besser, the acting head of the CDC. No Vaccine The U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed emergency authorizations yesterday that will permit the CDC to use an unapproved lab test for swine flu and more dosing options than currently recommended for influenza treatments Tamiflu and Relenza. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of “courses of treatments” of drugs, known as antivirals, were being released from U.S. stockpiles. In all, there are 50 million courses, she said. Among those are Tamiflu, sold by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, and Relenza, from London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc. There are enough stockpiles of Tamiflu to meet current demand, said Roche spokesman Terence Hurley. Roche has the capacity to manufacture, over one year, enough courses of treatment for 400 million people, Hurley said in a telephone interview. A fifth of those treatments would be made in the U.S. Available Treatments The WHO has told Roche that it appears Tamiflu would work against this strain of the virus, Hurley said yesterday. Glaxo has increased production of its antiviral Relenza and is in contact with the WHO and CDC, spokeswoman Sarah Alspach said yesterday. President Barack Obama said yesterday the emergence and spread of swine flu in the U.S. merits heightened concern “but it’s not a cause for alarm.” He declared a public emergency after 40 U.S. cases were confirmed in California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas, according to the CDC. New Jersey has identified five probable cases, the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. All five cases are awaiting confirmation by the CDC, the department said. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency declaration as a “precautionary tool” to free resources to monitor and respond to the spread of the virus, Obama said yesterday in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. New York Outbreak New York City has 28 confirmed cases of swine flu, all from St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday at a news conference. All the cases were mild and as many as 100 may ultimately be found at the school, the mayor said. The number of confirmed cases in Mexico is 26, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said yesterday on a conference call. Testing has been limited, and U.S. and international experts are being sent to help track the disease, WHO and CDC said. Mexico’s Health Minister Jose Cordova said as many as 149 people may have died in Mexico from an outbreak of swine flu, though the cause of the deaths hasn’t been confirmed. Eight people in Canada contracted swine flu, said Margaret Chan, World Health Organization chief. New Zealand officials are monitoring 56 people, South Korea has a suspected case and the U.K. confirmed two people contracted the disease. Travel restrictions are unnecessary and based on political, not medical considerations, Chan said. Economic Standstill? “By definition, pandemic influenza will move around the world,” Chan said on the call yesterday. “Does that mean we are going to close every country? Does that mean we are going to bring the world’s economy to a standstill? “We know from past experience that transmission of influenza or the spread of new influenza disease would not be stopped by closing borders and would not be stopped by restricting movement of people or goods,” Chan said. The Mexican government requested that bars, movie theaters and churches be closed in Mexico City. It also extended its school closure to May 6 and may shut down more activities, Mexico’s Cordova said. Swine flu results in symptoms similar to regular human influenza such as fever, lethargy and cough, and may also cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the CDC. Swine-flu viruses aren’t transmitted by food, and eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe, according to the CDC. There’s no evidence the disease is spread by exposure to “pork or pigs,” WHO’s Fukada said. Scientists are trying to determine why the virus has been more severe in Mexico. In the U.S. only one person has required hospitalization, said Besser of the CDC. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aCek5dag8gwA&refer=asia |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 11:32
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MEXICO CITY, April 27 (Reuters) - A new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and world health experts moved closer on Monday to declaring it the first flu pandemic in 40 years as more people were infected in the United States and Europe. The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for the new flu strain to phase 4, indicating a significantly increased risk of a global outbreak of a serious disease. The last such outbreak, a “Hong Kong” flu pandemic in 1968, killed about 1 million people. Although deaths have only occurred in Mexico, the new flu virus has infected more than 40 people in five states in the United States, including 20 at a New York City school. Reeling from a crisis that is threatening to slash tourism and trade, Mexico said it would not order a mass closure of businesses to try to contain the infection. “Economic activity must continue,” Labor Minister Javier Lozano told reporters. The streets of Mexico City, which is bearing the brunt of the crisis, were a sea of blue surgical face masks as most residents preferred to cover up against infection than stay home from work. Cafes, bars, gyms and even law courts were closed, however, and the city was eerily quiet. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard stopped short of closing the packed subway system, saying: “We have to exhaust every avenue before we resort to a complete economic paralysis of the city.” The virus is not caught from eating pig meat products but several countries banned U.S. pork imports. Airline stocks were hit as investors worried about the impact on travel. Spain became the first country in Europe to confirm a case of swine flu when a man who returned from a trip to Mexico last week was found to have the virus. Texas confirmed six cases of the flu and California has 11 people infected. Canada has six cases, all of them mild. Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the first case that alerted authorities to a possible rogue flu strain appeared in the southern state of Oaxaca but he said it was too early to identify the cause or geographical source of the virus. Mexican media has speculated the flu may have originated at a pig farm in the tropical southeastern state of Veracruz. CAPITAL HUSHED As the death toll in Mexico rose to up to 149, and Cordova warned the figure would keep rising, Britain, France, Germany and the United States urged against non-essential travel to Mexico, which relies on its huge tourism industry as its No. 3 source of foreign currency. Airlines, which fly more than 1 million passenger seats in and out of Mexico’s international airport every week, checked passengers for flu symptoms, and many wore masks on board. Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year. The new strain is worrying as it spreads rapidly between humans and there is no vaccine for it. Most of the flu fatalities were aged between 20 and 50, an ominous sign because a hallmark of past pandemics has been the high rate of fatalities among young adults. Fearful Christians paraded a centuries-old statue of Jesus through Mexico City on Sunday to ask for protection as life in the normally hectic capital of 20 million people wound down to a murmur. Cinemas were shut and a premiere of the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” superhero movie, where brawny Australian actor Hugh Jackman was due to walk the red carpet, was scrapped. Nationwide, 33 million schoolchildren will stay home as Mexico cancels classes until May 6 to contain the outbreak. Analysts say the flu crisis could shave more than half a percentage point off Mexico’s already recession-bound economy this year from the dent to retail and tourism. Globally, oil prices fell more than 2 percent as investors feared a new blow to an already fragile global economy. The MSCI world equity index fell 0.8 percent and U.S. stocks, especially in the airline and leisure sector, slipped. Shares in makers of drugs and vaccines, such as Roche, were higher. A string of countries including Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Israel, Guatemala, Costa Rica and South Korea were testing suspected cases of the Mexican flu. Spain had 26 suspected cases under observation and a New Zealand teacher and a dozen students who recently traveled to Mexico were being treated as likely mild cases. In the first confirmed cases in Britain, Scotland’s health minister said two people tested positive for swine flu and were being treated under isolation near Glasgow. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Lynn and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Maggie Fox in Washington, Catherine Bremer, Helen Popper, Robin Emmott and Mica Rosenberg in Mexico City; Editing by Bill Trott) |
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ticklish8
Senior |
28-Apr-2009 11:28
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HK Market report HONG KONG, April 28 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares fell back into negative territory in late morning trade on Tuesday as caution over a possible spread of a swine flu outbreak triggered fresh selling, wiping out the market’s initial gains. In response to the raising of the alert level on swine flu by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Hong Kong health secretary York Chow said early on Tuesday that the city had activated its serious level of response and was “geared towards managing escalating risk”. The benchmark Hang Seng Index slipped 0.07 percent or 12.67 points to 14,829.92. It opened 1.5 percent firmer when ICBC rebounded from a sharp fall after the world’s biggest lender by market value said Allianz and American Express sold shares in the Chinese bank when the lock-up on a portion of its shares expired on Tuesday. The China Enterprises Index of top mainland companies eased 0.40 percent to 8,606.74, off a high of 8,820.07. (Reporting by Nerilyn Tenorio; Editing by Chris Lewis) | ||
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ticklish8
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28-Apr-2009 11:25
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NZ update: WELLINGTON, April 28, 2009 (AFP) - The New Zealand government said Tuesday it was investigating a further possible 56 cases of swine flu among people who recently returned from Mexico or the United States. It follows a weekend announcement that nine high school students and a teacher who had returned from Mexico had tested positive for influenza A and were likely to have contracted swine flu. Minister of Health Tony Ryall said Tuesday a further 56 people who had recently returned to New Zealand and had flu-like symptoms were being tested for influenza A, which is linked to swine flu. “These are people who have been in Mexico or the United States in the last two weeks,” Ryall told a press conference. “It’s a time for caution and concern, but not alarm,” he said. Earlier Tuesday, the ministry said three people from a separate New Zealand school group which visited Mexico had tested negative for influenza A. |
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ticklish8
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28-Apr-2009 10:56
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WHO Raises Global Threat Level as Swine Flu Cases Increase WASHINGTON – With the number of swine flu cases and deaths continuing to mount, the World Health Organization Monday raised its pandemic threat level one notch, saying the dangerous new virus was clearly causing sustained community-wide outbreaks. The decision came amid another day of rapid, sometimes confusing developments from around the world, including a rise in the suspected death toll in Mexico to 149, the confirmation of the first case in Europe and a doubling of the number of confirmed cases in the United States. In the first signs that the outbreak could be taking a toll on the staggering global economy, oil prices, the Mexican peso and airline stocks all plunged. The WHO decision marks the first time the international body has elevated its official estimation of the threat of an influenza pandemic using the system, which was revised in the wake of the 2003 SARS outbreak. The assessment is just two notches below the highest alert level, which marks a full-scale pandemic. “We are not there yet. We have taken a step in that direction. But a pandemic is not considered inevitable at this time,” said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director general for health security and environment. “The situation is fluid and the situation continues to evolve.” The level 4 alert could in some circumstances prompt health authorities to launch massive efforts to contain an outbreak, but Fukuda said the virus had already spread too widely to make that realistic. “This virus has already spread quite far,” Fukuda said. Instead, the move was designed to prompt countries to intensify efforts to try to minimize the spread of the virus by identifying new cases and clusters as quickly as possible and taking other measures. “Given the current situation, the current focus of efforts should be on mitigation efforts,” he said. Based on the recommendations of a 15-member expert panel it convened for an emergency meeting in Geneva, the WHO also decided against seeking to close any international borders, saying that would be too disruptive. But Fukuda urged people who are sick not to travel and said travelers who become ill should seek medical attention. The agency also said it would work to develop a swine flu vaccine as quickly as possible, but it rejected proposals to try to deploy a swine flu vaccine instead of the vaccine already in development for the next regular flu season. The moves came as officials at the epicenter of the outbreak in Mexico outlined a deteriorating situation. Although the number of confirmed deaths remained at 20, the suspected death toll rose to 149, and at least 1,995 people had been hospitalized with pneumonia. The news prompted officials to shut down schools nationwide. The capital, Mexico City, where most of the cases have been reported, had already been brought to a virtual standstill by measures intended to contain the outbreak. U.S. and state health officials, meanwhile, reported that the number of confirmed cases had more than doubled to 41 and recommended that Americans put off unnecessary travel to Mexico. “This is out of an abundance of caution,” said Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “We want to be aggressive and take bold action to minimize the impact on people’s health from this infection,” Besser said during a briefing with reporters. All but one of the new U.S. cases were tied to an outbreak at a Catholic high school in New York where more than 100 students got sick last week after several returned from a spring break trip to Mexico. Eight students were confirmed to have swine flu on Sunday, and at least 17 more probably have the virus as well, New York officials said. The new cases are the result of additional testing and not a sign that the infection is still spreading there, Besser said. He added that all the cases were mild, except for one that required hospitalization, and that all the students had recovered. New Jersey officials reportedly identified five new suspected cases. Eight have been confirmed in California, including two that required hospitalization, along with two in Kansas, one in Ohio and two in Texas. Confirmed or suspected cases have prompted officials in New York, Texas, California, South Carolina and Ohio to close schools. President Obama said his administration was monitoring the situation closely. “This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert,” he said at an appearance at the National Academy of Sciences. “But it is not a cause for alarm.” U.S. border officials began screening people entering the country for signs of the disease and handing out cards to everyone arriving from affected areas, advising them to be on the lookout for signs of the illness. Officials also started shipping millions of doses of antiviral drugs from the federal government’s strategic stockpile to California, New York, Texas and other states in case they are needed – action made possible Sunday when the federal government declared an official “public health emergency.” The Department of Health and Human Services also announced that the Food and Drug Administration is working with the CDC to distribute diagnostic tests to state and local public health laboratories by midweek. And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the government will allow the FDA to permit the distribution of drugs such as Tamiflu to populations, such as very young children, who normally are not encouraged to take them. In addition to the government measures, Besser urged businesses to begin making contingency plans for workers calling in sick and said individuals should help reduce the chances that the virus will spread by taking common-sense steps, such as staying home from work or school if they are sick, washing hands frequently and covering mouths if they sneeze or cough. “Hopefully this outbreak would not progress, but leaning forward and thinking about what you would do is one of the most important things individuals and communities can undertake right now,” he said. The day started with a warning by the European Union’s health commissioner against unnecessary travel from Europe to parts of the United States and Mexico where the disease is circulating. The warning followed Spain’s confirmation of its first case, fueling fears that the virus was spreading to Europe. An additional 20 cases were being investigated in Spain, along with 17 potential cases in Britain, 13 cases in New Zealand and at least one each in France, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and Israel. “Personally, I would try to avoid nonessential travel to the areas that are reported to be in the center of the cluster in order to minimize the personal risk and to reduce the potential risk to spread the infection,” said Androulla Vassiliou, the E.U. commissioner of health. Vassiliou later said she was simply advising Europeans to avoid “unnecessary travel” to affected areas in North America. The White House, meanwhile, said Mexican authorities did not notify U.S. officials about the swine flu issue in advance of the president’s April 16-17 visit, “but we have no reason to believe they withheld any information they had at the time,” and U.S. officials praised the Mexican response. “To date, Mexican authorities have been exceptionally cooperative and forthcoming,” White House homeland security adviser John Brennan said. “There’s been very strong cooperation.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that he is confident that the administration is ready to handle the crisis even though dozens of key public health and emergency response jobs in the administration remain vacant. “Our response is in no way hindered or hampered by not having a permanent secretary at HHS right now,” Gibbs said. “Dr. Besser and thousands of people both at CDC and throughout HHS are responding to this. ... We feel confident with the team that is there now.” Correspondent Joshua Partlow in Mexico and staff writers Anthony Faiola, Spencer S. Hsu, Michael D. Shear and Ashley Halsey III in Washington contributed to this report. |
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