Swine Flu - Update

(CNN) -- Mexican officials are asking citizens to avoid large crowds, refrain from kissing as a greeting and maintain a distance of at least 1.8 meters (six feet) from each other amid growing concern in the country and elsewhere over new cases of suspected and confirmed swine flu infection.







Women wearing masks wait at a health clinic Saturday in Mexico City.















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Several countries issued travel notices and tightened restrictions to brace against the virus the World Health Organization is calling "a public health emergency of international concern."

By Sunday, 81 deaths had been deemed "likely linked" to a deadly new strain of the virus by health authorities in Mexico. Viral testing has confirmed 20 cases, said Dr. Jose A. Cordova Villalobos, Mexico's health secretary. In the United States, the number of confirmed swine flu cases stood at 11.

In New Zealand, officials said 22 students and three teachers, who returned from a three-week-long language trip to Mexico, may have been infected with the virus.

The 25 students and teachers at Auckland's Rangitoto College returned to New Zealand via Los Angeles on Saturday.

Fourteen have shown flu-like symptoms, with four "more unwell than others," said Dr. Julia Peters, clinical director of Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said 10 students tested positive for influenza A. The specimens will be sent to WHO to determine whether it is H1N1 swine influenza. H1N1 influenza is a subset of influenza A.

The WHO results are expected back by midweek. The group remains quarantined at home.

"It's certainly has not been confirmed that they have swine flu," said Dr. Craig Thoinley, medical officer of health in influenza. "We already have provisional information that some of the group have influenza A. We won't know if they have the type of influenza A that is swine flu."

In England, authorities stressed that a crew member who developed flu-like symptoms during a flight from Mexico City to Heathrow did not test positive for swine flu.

"I can confirm that the patient doesn't have swine flu," said Jonathan Street, a spokesman for Northwick Park Hospital in London.

"We have done all test, and they all came back negative."

In Israel, doctors are running tests on a man who recently returned from Mexico with light flu symptoms.

U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus in the United States matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus. All the patients have recovered or are expected to.

The panic over the virus prompted Canada to issue a travel health notice, saying the public health agency was "tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico." Watch CBC report on Canadian microbiologists' concerns »

South Korea said it will test airline passengers arriving from the United States. And Japan will convene a Cabinet meeting Monday to come up with measures to block the entry of the virus into the country.

The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines.

But US Airways said Saturday night it would allow passengers to change plans if they wanted to because of the outbreak.

Airline spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said it was not asking people not to travel to Mexico, but wanted to "give them that flexibility" if "they don't feel comfortable."




Gregory Hartl, of the World Health Organization, said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains. Watch how public health officials grade phases of pandemic alerts »

"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus," Hartl said.

He said that, in Mexico, otherwise young, healthy people have been hit by the virus -- "one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us," he said.

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities until further notice because of the virus. Watch efforts in Mexico to prevent spread of the virus »

Health Library




More than 1,300 people with flu-like symptoms have been admitted to hospitals in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of them have swine flu, said Jose Cordova Villalobos, the country's health minister.

The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually associated with pigs. When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off.

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said (from CNN)

Scary!!!
Better go for my Flu injection and refuse to kiss any of the Mags!

Two people have been admitted to a Scottish hospital after returning from Mexico,
The Scottish Government said it was closely monitoring the situation.
It is understood the two travellers were admitted to Monklands hospital in Airdrie

Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

I'm doomed I tell you ........those symptoms have been going on for 10 days now and Razz has taken to his sick bed I trhink Mother Nature is trying to tell us not to eat Pork :-)

No No No SHE is saying overpopulation

The pigs and I definitely heard her say NO to eating Pork :-)

A 23-year-old man who returned from a trip to Mexico last week was found to have the virus, according to a statement released by Spain's Health Ministry on Monday morning.

The man was put under observation on Saturday after complaining of chest problems, the minister of health, Trinidad Jimenez, told a hastily convened news conference.

I am in favour of the precautions that are being put in place but think the media is being irrisposible with their coverage of it.

With the exception of the original outbreak in Mexico wher treatment was slow in coming there has not been any deaths or it seem serious even illness, most seem to be quite mild.

Yet its being covered as if we are all doomed.

people who are not treated die from even regular flu every year, so at the moment we should just all be careful if we get symptoms other than that I dont see a problem, obviously there is a shiortage of news at the moment.

bug1 wrote:Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

I think Mother Nature is telling us... There is too many of us!

karma wrote:I'm doomed I tell you ........those symptoms have been going on for 10 days now and Razz has taken to his sick bed I trhink Mother Nature is trying to tell us not to eat Pork :-)

Why, Karma?????
You do not eat pork...it is the "sinners" that will perish"... :-) and I am feeling just fine... :-)

bug1 wrote:Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

My statement relates to the above - courtesy of Bug :-) I never realised that eating pork was considered a sin (except by some religions)


karma wrote:I'm doomed I tell you ........those symptoms have been going on for 10 days now and Razz has taken to his sick bed I think Mother Nature is trying to tell us not to eat Pork :-)


Why, Karma?????
You do not eat pork...it is the "sinners" that will perish"... :-) and I am feeling just fine... :-)

Jersey ’s health authorities are monitoring the outbreak of a new flu strain - swine H1N1 - which has been noted in Mexico and the USA (primarily California , Texas and Kansas ). A meeting was held this morning for staff from the relevant departments to review the information available and to plan their response to any developments.


There have been no confirmed cases in the UK or Jersey , and the World Health Organisation pandemic alert level remains unchanged at 3.

Jersey ’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr Rosemary Geller , says:
“It is, as yet, unclear whether this outbreak will merely run its course or develop into something more serious. We are therefore keeping a close eye on developments, monitoring communications from the Health Protection Agency and the World Health Organisation, and from the UK ’s Chief Medical Officer.
We are recommending that anyone who develops a flu-like illness* within seven days of returning from Mexico or the USA should contact their GP to arrange an urgent home visit.”

There are no current travel restrictions on those who are planning to visit the affected areas of Mexico and/or the United States, but it is always good practice to follow respiratory and hand hygiene, such as: -
· Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible.
· Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
· Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to your face or to other people.
· Cleaning hard surfaces (eg door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.
· Making sure your children follow this advice.

The antiviral agent Tamiflu is effective against this strain of influenza, and Jersey has enough Tamiflu stored to treat the island’s population, should it become necessary.


*A flu-like illness is sudden onset of fever with a cough or sore throat.





More information about the Swine influenza in Mexico & US can be found on the Questions & Answers Page

(from gov.je)

Mexico: 149 dead - 26 confirmed cases United States: 40 confirmed cases of swine flu Canada: 6 confirmed cases UK: 2 confirmed cases Spain: 1 confirmed case UK, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand: suspected cases being tested

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

Two people admitted to a Scottish
hospital after returning from a holiday in Mexico have been confirmed
as the UK's first swine flu cases.

Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said both individuals
were recovering well in a Lanarkshire hospital from mild cases of the
virus.

It comes after Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the Commons 25 possible cases had been reported in the UK.

Nine of those have proved negative, while 14 are still being investigated.

Those 14 individuals were well enough to be managed in the community, Mr Johnson told MPs.

The pair receiving treatment in Scotland are from Polmont, Falkirk.

Announcing the results of the Scottish cases, Ms Sturgeon said: "I would reiterate that the threat to the public remains low.

"The precautionary actions we have taken over the last two days have
been important in allowing us to respond appropriately and give us the
best prospect of disrupting the spread of the virus."

Meanwhile, UK tourists have been warned against travel to Mexico and
other directly affected areas by the EU Health Commissioner.
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Monday that 149 people had died after contracting suspected swine flu.

However, there have been no deaths elsewhere.

See map showing confirmed and suspected cases


The Department of Health (DoH) has said surveillance arrangements are being "stepped up" in the UK.

Among the UK cases that were reported were the two people in
Airdrie, Lanarkshire, and a 62-year-old female Canadian visitor to
Sale, Greater Manchester, who was taken to hospital as a precaution
after showing flu-like symptoms.

NHS Northwest say the tests on the woman in Manchester have proved
negative, and her case has been downgraded to being an unspecified
viral infection.

Facemask advice

Mr Johnson also said the government proposed to use its stockpile of
anti-viral drugs to treat patients showing symptoms of the disease,
should the virus start spreading in the UK.

He added: "People will wish to know whether they should wear facemasks.

"Although we are aware that facemasks are being given out to the
public in Mexico, the available scientific evidence does not support
the general wearing of facemasks by those who are not ill, whilst going
about their normal activities."

And Mr Johnson said preparations had been going on to cope with a flu pandemic for the last five years.

"We have established a stockpile of enough anti-virals to treat more
than 33m people, that is to say half of the UK population," he said.

There are fears that the virus has begun to spread around the world:

• There are 40 laboratory-confirmed cases of
  swine flu in the US, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada and one in Spain, the
  World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday
  
• Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New
  Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Britain and Israel who fell ill following
  travel to Mexico
  
• The United States and the European Union have urged travellers to Mexico to exercise caution
  
• WHO experts have raised the global pandemic alert level from three to four on a six-point scale
  

EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said: "I'd try to avoid
non-essential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the
centre of the cluster in order to minimise the personal risk and to
reduce the potential risk to spread the infection to other people."

England's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said a potential
pandemic would mean "many many more people becoming ill than occur
every winter with the normal seasonal flu".

He added: "If a new pandemic does start as a result of this outbreak
in Mexico and the United States, we can't make it go away, but what we
can do through our plans, particularly our stockpiles of anti-virals,
is mitigate its effect."

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was "right that we put
the issue of swine fever on the foreign ministers' agenda" because
there needed to be "maximum European co-ordination" on the issue.

Agency procedures



The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has a procedure for confirming whether or not a patient has swine flu.

If a patient rings their GP or NHS Direct to report symptoms, they
will be told to stay at home, not to visit a surgery or hospital.

The HPA has prepared an "algorithm" - in essence, a flow chart - for
suspected cases. On the phone, or possibly even face to face depending
on the circumstances, the patient's GP or NHS Direct will take the
patient through the algorithm.

If the answers to the algorithm lead the questioner to believe the
patient may have swine flu, a sample will be taken that will then be
sent to one of the HPA's network of regional labs for testing.

If the sample is confirmed as influenza type A, it will then be sent
to the HPA's Reference Lab at the Centre for Infections in Colindale,
where they will carry out genetic typing on it and establish whether it
is a confirmed case of swine flu.

There have also been cases of swine flu reported in Canada and a suspected case in France.
However, no-one outside of Mexico has yet died, leading to
suggestions that the severity of the cases there may be due to the
strain mixing with a second unrelated virus circulating in the
community.

UK-based pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline said it had supplied
100,000 packs of flu drug Relenza and 170,000 additional doses of its
seasonal flu vaccine to the Mexican authorities, at their request,
since the outbreak began.

Swine flu is usually found in pigs and contracted only by people in contact with the animals.

Contingency plans

The DoH said they could not yet give details of what the "stepped
up" surveillance arrangements were and that meetings were ongoing,
adding that the outbreak was "unusual and of concern".

Professor Steve Field is the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, which heads research into flu in the UK.

He says the coming days will be crucial in assessing the scale of the threat to the UK if people do contract swine flu.

He said: "We'll know a lot more... tomorrow and by the end of the week.

"What we've got to try and do is stop people who've come in from
Mexico, places where this is prevalent, going to their GPs and
spreading it amongst vulnerable people. That's what's really important
this week."

In trading on the London stock market, shares in British Airways
were down 7.4% and Thomas Cook fell 4.3% on fears over the economic
impact of the swine flu outbreak.





Mexico: 149 dead - 26 confirmed cases


United States: 40 confirmed cases of swine flu


Canada: 6 confirmed cases


UK: 2 confirmed cases


Spain: 1 confirmed case


UK, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand: suspected cases being tested






















A bit close for my liking.

further north than us digs xx

Who's been on holiday to Mexico recently?







.

I no nuffing I come for Barthelona

A A A A A A A TISHOO

Oh dear :-)

oooh Bug!!! How could you... :help:
now you have infected us all...

Oh dear.................






.

Maybe it will infect some of the Dodgy States Members so of them need killing off

A family of three in Jersey are being tested for swine flu. They've been quarantined in their home.

They've been told they mustn't leave the house until Tuesday. Their names have not been released.

The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over the spread of swine flu to level five - one short of a full-blown pandemic.
A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.
The move comes after a 23-month-old Mexican child died in Texas - the first death from swine flu outside Mexico, where the outbreak originated.