H1N1 (Swine Flu) spreads worldwide= Is declared a Pandemic

[Stephanie]

Hi Stephanie- this is in Bergen County. I see you live in NJ too.

Yep, I'm in Gloucester County.

How's your nephew?

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

It's now in my town and my underpopulated province (population just over a million....land mass a bit smaller than Texas). Quebec is now recording 3 deaths (people with underlying health problems).

I also heard that the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) training academy in Regina has a number of soon-to-be graduating recruits in quarantine.

edited the above.......my husband heard wrong re which province the newest death had occurred in.

[Category 5]

Hi Stephanie- this is in Bergen County. I see you live in NJ too.

hey another Jersey storm2ker.

[weathermom]

I am also in Jersy, Bergen County and my daughter's school had over 100 kids out last week with the flu or flu-like symptoms. Some tested positive for type A. They will not be tested for swine (H1N1). New Jersey sends them for further testing only if they are hospitalized or a confirmed cluster. The school systerm seems to be in denial about the cluster thing. Kept sending home letters that it was not H1N1. However kids who get a yearly flu shot were getting it and testing positive for type A. Starts with a cough, then fever, then extreme lethargy/tiredness, some with vomiting or diarrhea. Takes a good week to ten days without tamiflu. With tamiflu it seems to take about a week. Then there is still the residual tiredness that always comes after the flu, as well as a lingering cough.

[angelwing]

I work in Wrightstown and they are giving out N-45 masks in the clinic and we do have confirmed cases

[WeatherLovingDoc]

I am also in Jersy, Bergen County and my daughter's school had over 100 kids out last week with the flu or flu-like symptoms. Some tested positive for type A. They will not be tested for swine (H1N1). New Jersey sends them for further testing only if they are hospitalized or a confirmed cluster. The school systerm seems to be in denial about the cluster thing. Kept sending home letters that it was not H1N1. However kids who get a yearly flu shot were getting it and testing positive for type A. Starts with a cough, then fever, then extreme lethargy/tiredness, some with vomiting or diarrhea. Takes a good week to ten days without tamiflu. With tamiflu it seems to take about a week. Then there is still the residual tiredness that always comes after the flu, as well as a lingering cough.

Wow, thanks for that weathermom, and for asking about my nephew Stephanie. He's still having 101 F fever (three days now initially 104 F, two days into Tamiflu) and cough. Hmmm, give it another day and if still with fever, I'd begin to wonder about resistance to Tamiflu. My sister says yes, they were Type A positive, and that no she's know told they would NOT be further testing for H1N1. I don't get this, as you'd think the state and CDC would want to know how many cases of H1N1 were confirmed before next Fall (flu season) and how the kids did with the infection. Now my BIL has it too. I'm concerned. Sure does sound like a cluster!

Hey Catagory 5: sure do like your posts. What is it about weather loving and New Jerseyians? Must have been our trips to the NJ shore when kids. I recall after one hurricane in the '60's the entire beach topography changed (rocks, loss of beach front etc). Of course there was always Atlantic City and other boardwalks for the cotton candy and the rides.
WLD

[Stephanie]

I would bet $$$ that they aren't testing further because of $$$. I would write your local officials, state reps and congressmen. Even write the local paper. If ONE person dies in this non-declared cluster, there will be blood on the official's hands!

As far as NJ and weather goes, we experience just about every weather phenomenon that can occur, though some are rarer than others. I love the fact that we do experience all four seasons in their glory.

[HurricaneBill]

The area I'm concerned about is Africa. This could be a disaster there if/when swine flu spreads to countries like Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia. Africa has been hit hard by the AIDS pandemic, so there are many people with weakened immune systems.

[gtalum]

I would bet $$$ that they aren't testing further because of $$$. I would write your local officials, state reps and congressmen. Even write the local paper. If ONE person dies in this non-declared cluster, there will be blood on the official's hands!

Why should they test for swine flu, though? It's less serious than the usual Type A strain.

[Cookiely]

I wonder why Utah is getting hit so hard and having so many deaths. Temperature? Humidity?

[WeatherLovingDoc]

I would bet $$$ that they aren't testing further because of $$$. I would write your local officials, state reps and congressmen. Even write the local paper. If ONE person dies in this non-declared cluster, there will be blood on the official's hands!

Why should they test for swine flu, though? It's less serious than the usual Type A strain.

This is from one of the infectious disease i-list I receive, commenting on US choice not to tests:

"Other countries, including the U.S., in an effort to conserve laboratory resources, encourage testing only severe cases. Focusing surveillance efforts on severe cases would likely miss the majority of 2009 H1N1 cases that experience mild symptoms and make a full recovery, often without seeking medical attention."

The above seems to me in some contradiction to the following (also from the same paper discussing 2009 pandemic):

"in April 2009, WHO revised its pandemic plan and alert scale to reflect “advances in many areas of preparedness and response planning” that have occurred since 2005, including “ncreased understanding of past pandemics, strengthened outbreak communications, greater insight on disease spread and approaches to control, and increasingly sophisticated statistical modeling of various aspects of influenza.”

Well, I guess I still like medicine the old fashioned way: know what diagnosis you are dealing with as accurately as possible. I find it difficult to believe the CDC and NJ State Health Dept are not interested in tracking defined case outbreaks, even if too help establish if some immunity in summer infection is offered against winter infection or not,or if it is isn't H1N1, is the general flu vaccine/mist offering any or no cross-immunity to H1N1.

As of this morning, my nephew remains febrile at 100.4F with cough and contact with pediatrician is being made.

WLD.

[Stephanie]

I agree WLD. Also, what happens if the H1N1 virus and another Influenza Type A strain merge during the flu season? Wouldn't you want to know how they BOTH worked and the course that they ran?

gtalum - regardless if this is considered "mild" by some, it wasn't mild to those that did die. I think that the goal of medicine is to understand the virus or germ to know how to treat it and with what.

[lurkey]

I agree WLD. Also, what happens if the H1N1 virus and another Influenza Type A strain merge during the flu season? Wouldn't you want to know how they BOTH worked and the course that they ran?

gtalum - regardless if this is considered "mild" by some, it wasn't mild to those that did die. I think that the goal of medicine is to understand the virus or germ to know how to treat it and with what.

it's considered mild because last season's bug so far has killed more .. Right now, the H1N1 ("Swine" Flu) doesn't have the particular genetic sequence that made another H1N1 flu (Spanish flu of 1918) and other pandemic flus so deadly..

Regarding HurricaneBill's question about Africa and effect of the Swine flu: I'm more concerned about high-density countries, such as India, China, Hong Kong. . . areas where a lot of people are crammed in a small space. During the 1918 flu, the virus spread like wildfire through India and China. . .

three interesting facts of the day about the 'flu:

1. The Swine flu was already in the human population several months before Mexican health authorities raised the alarm.

2.The 'flu can mutate into more lethal virus or it can mutate into less lethal virus. . . no one knows how or which form a particular virus will turn it into. . . a lethal virus always eventually mutates to less lethal version, i.e. it burns itself out, because of it's inability to make perfect copies of itself . . .

3. The 1918 flu still lives among us . . . in swine. .. .


and on that note: Brazil finds new strain of H1N1 virus

[Cookiely]

http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/
Let us all say a prayer for these beautiful babies.

[vbhoutex]

Definitely praying that they all remain healthy and unaffected.

[funster]

Note: The swine flu is not considered mild. The WHO has categorized its severity as moderate.

"At this time, WHO considers the overall severity of the influenza pandemic to be moderate. This assessment is based on scientific evidence available to WHO, as well as input from its Member States on the pandemic's impact on their health systems, and their social and economic functioning.

The moderate assessment reflects that:

* Most people recover from infection without the need for hospitalization or medical care.
* Overall, national levels of severe illness from influenza A(H1N1) appear similar to levels seen during local seasonal influenza periods, although high levels of disease have occurred in some local areas and institutions.
* Overall, hospitals and health care systems in most countries have been able to cope with the numbers of people seeking care, although some facilities and systems have been stressed in some localities."

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu ... index.html

Hopefully, the president is keeping on top of this developing situation.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Statistical Information

According to data reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as of 11 AM (ET) on June 18, 2009, there are 21,449 confirmed and probable cases of H1N1 influenza in 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The U.S. death count attributable to H1N1 has now reach 87. Specific reported data is as follows:

Alabama -- 172 cases

Alaska -- 23 cases

Arkansas -- 18 cases

Arizona -- 645 cases and 7 deaths

California -- 1,245 cases and 8 deaths

Colorado -- 103 cases

Connecticut -- 767 cases and 3 deaths

Delaware -- 223 cases

Florida -- 562 cases and 1 death

Georgia -- 51 cases

Hawaii -- 279 cases

Idaho -- 47 cases

Illinois -- 2,526 cases and 8 deaths

Indiana -- 223 cases

Iowa -- 92 cases

Kansas -- 97 cases

Kentucky -- 108 cases

Louisiana -- 134 cases

Maine -- 42 cases

Maryland -- 263 cases

Massachusetts -- 1,270 cases and 1 death

Michigan -- 442 cases and 2 deaths

Minnesota -- 365 cases and 1 death

Mississippi -- 81 cases

Missouri -- 46 cases and 1 death

Montana -- 44 cases

Nebraska -- 81 cases

Nevada -- 198 cases

New Hampshire -- 187 cases

New Jersey -- 603 cases and 2 deaths

New Mexico -- 155 cases

New York -- 1,300 cases and 24 deaths

North Carolina -- 125 cases

North Dakota -- 41 cases

Ohio -- 63 cases

Oklahoma -- 112 cases and 1 death

Oregon -- 219 cases and 1 death

Pennsylvania -- 942 cases and 3 deaths

Rhode Island -- 94 cases and 1 death

South Carolina -- 83 cases

South Dakota -- 17 cases

Tennessee -- 121 cases

Texas -- 2,519 cases and 10 deaths

Utah -- 755 cases and 8 deaths

Vermont -- 43 cases

Virginia -- 135 cases and 1 death

Washington -- 588 cases and 3 deaths

Washington, D.C. -- 33 cases

West Virginia -- 77 cases

Wisconsin -- 3,008 cases and 1 death

Wyoming -- 63 cases

Puerto Rico -- 18 cases

Virgin Islands -- 1 case.

http://tiny.cc/to00y

Edit: Nephew and BIL are doing much better, backed to school and work.

[angelwing]

943 cases in PA, if you add my supervisor's daughter, she call a call at work today, her daughter been diagnosed with Swine FLu and her daughter also has asthma..she's 10...I don't like this....

[GoGoGop]

h1n1 is a lot more dangerous and will kill many more Americans than 911 and Katrina combined (which both got much press attention). h1n1 is also killing people in the prime of their lives. yet h1n1 gets downplayed by the media. go figure :/

[OpieStorm]

h1n1 is a lot more dangerous and will kill many more Americans than 911 and Katrina combined (which both got much press attention). h1n1 is also killing people in the prime of their lives. yet h1n1 gets downplayed by the media. go figure :/

H1N1 is really no different from the normal flu and is killing FAR FAR less people daily than the normal flu too. I don't see your view.