"Germ" like Swine flu is really hard to handle

2009-05-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

(My opinion)

Mexico feels relief as flu epidemic seen declining

May 4, 2009, 08:19

Mexico breathed easier on Monday in its fight against a deadly flu epidemic that may be retreating after a 10-day scare that has brought much of public life to a standstill.

But new cases of the H1N1 virus, which mixes swine, avian and human flu strains, still appeared across the world, keeping alive fears of a possible pandemic. Priests pray during a mass celebrated without the presence of faithful at the Guadalupe Basilic in Mexico City, on May 3, 2009.

The influenza A (H1N1 or swine flu) virus epidemic in Mexico is "in phase of decline" but caution was still needed, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said Sunday. (Absolutely yes! It still needed which means no one can totally confirm or know that what tomorrow will be going on.)

The Mexican health ministry announced on Sunday the flu epidemic had passed the worst and experts said the virus might be no more severe than normal flu, although it could still have an impact on world health.

"The virus has entered into a stabilization phase. The cases are starting to decrease,“ Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, referring to the illness in his country.

He said Mexico would begin to get back on its feet again this week after shutting restaurants, offices, cinemas and even churches to try to stop the spread of the disease. "Our objective is to return to normality as soon as possible but what I want is to do that in secure conditions,“ Calderon said in a televised interview late on Sunday.

After days of alarm that had kept streets eerily quiet, Mexico City appeared more relaxed on Sunday, with some people venturing out on bikes or running. Many no longer wore the surgical masks that have been almost obligatory in the city in the last week as residents feared infection. (Can they really ease and not wear the surgical masks while the epidemic across the world still increase and appear, especially United States where is a border with Maxico.)

Laboratory tests have shown 590 firm cases of the virus so far in Mexico, out of which 22 people were confirmed to have died.

The World Health Organization said its laboratories had identified a total of 898 H1N1 flu infections in 18 countries. Its toll lags national reports but is considered more scientifically secure.

Source:http://www.welt.de/english-news/article3670057/Mexico-feels-relief-as-flu-epidemic-seen-declining.html

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Mexico City waits to reopen as officials calm H1N1 fears

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Residents in Mexico City restlessly waited for life to return to normal as officials from both Mexico and the United States said the worst may be over in the swine flu outbreak.

By Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus stood at 1,085 in 21 countries, according to the World Health Organization. The count includes 25 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.

Mexican officials, citing improvement in the battle against the virus, announced plans to reopen government offices and restaurants on Wednesday -- and museums, libraries and churches the following day.

In the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged claims by Mexican authorities who believe their cases have peaked and said, "I have no reason to think that is inaccurate."

"What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of H1N1 is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu," she said.

But officials from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan to monitor developments in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season arrives over the next few months. (Which mean the swine flu could return and will be the second wave of flu in which would be worse than the first wave swine flu outbreak.) Results there will help determine whether a stronger strain of the virus will return to the United States and the Northern Hemisphere during the fall flu season. Mexican officials ordered a wide-ranging shutdown of Mexico City last week.

The week-long closure encompasses the Cinco de Mayo holiday Tuesday. University and secondary school students can return to class Thursday while younger students will wait until May 11. Other public venues in the city such as bars, nightclubs, theaters and sports stadiums will remain closed indefinitely.

In all, about 35,000 public venues were shut down, transforming this bustling metropolis of 20 million people into a ghost town overnight. Soccer games were postponed, restaurants only served take-out, and Sunday Mass -- which normally draws millions of worshippers -- was canceled.

"It's surreal to say the least. And the masks add to that," said Cristiano Oliveira, a Brazilian living in Mexico City for the last year and a half. "There was, to me, at least the impression that Mexico City would never slow down. And now it's halted." In the Condesa neighborhood of the city, Alfredo Sono Dillman whiled away the days watching movies on a home computer.

"We all live inside our houses because the schools have been canceled until May 11," Dillman, 15, said. "I'm not scared like last week. This week has been easier. Now we know much better what is going on." (It supposed to be that way) Doctors at the

Mexico City Naval Hospital offered up similar optimism. The hospital has examined more than 2,000 patients since Wednesday. None of them tested positive for swine flu, said Dr. Manuel Velasco.

"That may mean the virus is stabilizing and then can be totally controlled," he said. "But we have to wait for the new week to begin." (Agreed)

Early Tuesday, the Mexican and Chinese government sent chartered flights to each other's countries to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined because of the global swine flu outbreak.

An Aeromexico flight was making several stops throughout China to collect nearly 70 citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said four Americans are or were quarantined in China: two in Beijing; two in the southern Guangdong province.

China suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived in Shanghai from Mexico City on Thursday became the country's first confirmed case of the virus.

As a result, 200 Chinese citizens were stranded in Mexico City and Tijuana. A China Southern Airlines flight was expected to fetch them Tuesday, state media said.

WHO officials said there were no immediate plans to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level, from 5 to 6. And in the United States, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said she was "heartened" by the reports in Mexico.

But because U.S. cases began later than those in Mexico, the peak here will likely come later. By early Tuesday, 279 cases have tested positive in 36 U.S. states, according to the CDC's latest count.

Several states have announced additional confirmed cases, but those were not included in the CDC total. New York has the most U.S. cases, with 73 confirmed by the CDC and another 17 confirmed by state health officials.

The St. Francis Preparatory School in New York -- which had the first confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu -- reopened Monday with a "completely sanitized" interior for students, school officials said.

More than 530 schools have been closed nationwide because of the outbreak, affecting about 330,000 students in 24 states, (it showed that U.S. is facing the peak time of swine flu outbreak after Mexico where had passed the peak time already.) the U.S. Department of Education said Monday. Source:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/05/swine.flu.main/index.html iref=mpstoryview

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WHO warns against flu complacency

May 5 2009

The World Health Organization says countries must not lower their guard in the response to the swine flu outbreak. (Totally agreed.)

Almost 900 cases had been confirmed across five continents, the WHO said, and authorities had to remain vigilant. Viruses increased and decreased in activity, it said, and it was too early to tell whether the outbreak had peaked where it emerged in Mexico.

The warning came after health officials in Mexico said that cases of the virus appeared to be declining. In Mexico, just over 100 people are thought to have died from the swine flu strain, although only 22 cases have been confirmed.

But on Sunday Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said that the virus appeared to have peaked between 23-28 April. "The evolution of the epidemic is now in its declining phase," he told a news conference.

The WHO said authorities should remain on alert. The current "round of activity" might have peaked, WHO official Gregory Hartl said, but that did not mean it was over. "There is a high possibility that this virus will come back, especially in colder periods, (Oh yes! Everything can come back)" he said.

Health experts in the US, meanwhile, say swine flu could soon be present throughout their country, as cases have been confirmed in more than half of all states.

Outside Mexico, the effects of the virus do not appear to be severe. In other developments: • Mexican President Felipe Calderon accused unspecified countries of "taking discriminatory measures because of ignorance", amid a row with China over the quarantine of 70 Mexicans in three Chinese cities

• El Salvador says it has confirmed its first two cases of the virus, AFP reports, citing the country's health minister

• Egypt says it will continue slaughtering pigs as a precaution against swine flu, following clashes on Sunday with farmers that left 12 people injured (It’s stupid thing and not necessary to continue kill the pig because no matter how many the pigs is killed or if all the pigs were killed, it can’t be sure that the disease would disappear though and there also has a research in which confirmed that the cooked pork will safe from that virus as well as the pig is actually not the main carrier.)

'Widespread'

Late on Sunday - before the apparent confirmation from El Salvador - the WHO said it had found 898 cases of the virus across 18 countries. Person-to-person transmission has been confirmed in six countries. In the US, the number of confirmed cases rose from 160 to 244. Officials said this was because the results of lab tests were now coming through, rather than because of a new surge in cases.

But an expert from America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus was fairly widespread. "Virtually all of the United States probably has this virus circulating now," Dr Anne Schuchat said.

"That doesn't mean that everybody's infected, but within the communities, the virus has arrived." She said she expected cases to become more severe and to lead to deaths. She stressed that this in itself would not be unusual as every year 36,000 people die in the US after contracting seasonal flu.

WHO food safety scientist Peter Ben Embarek, meanwhile, said increased surveillance was necessary after the virus was found to have infected pigs in Canada. But he said there was no recommendation to cull animals, and pork remained safe to eat. "From a consumer point of view there is no risk from consuming cooked pork products," he said.

CONFIRMED CASES

Mexico: 101 suspected deaths - 22 confirmed

US: One death, 226 confirmed cases

New Zealand: 4 confirmed cases

Canada: 85 confirmed cases

Spain: 40 confirmed cases

UK: 16 confirmed cases

Germany: 6 confirmed cases

Israel: 3 confirmed cases

France: 2 confirmed cases

Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Irish Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia: 1 confirmed case Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8032094.stm

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Flu-hit Mexico awaits return to business as usual

By: AFP Published: 5/05/2009 at 04:56 PM

Mexico was on Tuesday eagerly awaiting the resumption of normal business at the end of a five-day nationwide shutdown over swine flu and launched an operation to fly home its nationals quarantined in China. As President Felipe Calderon said

Mexico's response to the epidemic had saved "thousands of lives," the UN's top health official said the number of people to have contracted the virus in 21 countries had topped 1,000. (It seemed that the situation is not relief at all and the countries where have H1N1 also can’t handle the situation in their country so well which make H1N1 spread around the world like a domino effect.)

And the third case of infection in Asia was confirmed when a patient tested positive in South Korea.

Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, has been eerily quiet since Friday after Calderon urged everyone to stay at home over a five-day holiday weekend. However, in a televised address on Monday night, the president said it was coming to the point where the country could start returning to normal. Mexico "has taken the lead in the global battles against the virus ... thousands of lives have been saved not only in Mexico but in the world" as a result of his government's containment measures, he said. (Every country in the global should be the lead in order to battles against the virus not only Maxico)

Starting on Wednesday, Mexico would progressively return to normal activities (It’s a good sign) by reopening its businesses, schools, museums and other venues closed for a week or more in its clampdown on the A(H1N1) outbreak, Calderon explained. "At last," said Ana Maria Rodriguez, a teacher from Mexico City.

"We live in the capital, we're not used to being cooped up at home." Calderon warned against complacency as "this virus is still circulating", and urged people to take precautions such as regular hand-washing. (Agreed)

That note of caution was repeated in Washington, where White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters: "It's still out there."

The WHO has reported a total of 1,085 cases worldwide and 26 deaths -- 25 of them in Mexico and one in the United States. Mexico puts its death toll at 26. Keiji Fukuda, acting director-general of the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO), said:

"In this situation, it's critical that we continue to maintain and strengthen our alert and surveillance." (Because it have to)

"We don't know how long we have till we move to phase six. Six indicates we are in a pandemic. We are not there yet," she told UN officials in New York.

Chan has said the end of the flu season in the northern hemisphere means that while the initial outbreak may be relatively mild, a second wave could be more lethal, as with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million.

China, the centre of the 2003 SARS outbreak, has come under diplomatic pressure over its hardline efforts to halt the disease in its tracks.

Although no cases have been recorded on the Chinese mainland, dozens of Mexicans have been quarantined across the country but are now set to fly home as part of a repatriation deal between the two governments.

A chartered AeroMexico airliner landed at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport and reports said the flight would also pick up other stranded Mexicans from Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, the scene of Asia's first confirmed swine flu case, chief executive Donald Tsang apologised to guests quarantined in a city hotel for seven days, while defending the decision to isolate them. Hong Kong's Metropark hotel, and the 300 staff and guests inside, has been sealed off since last Friday following the discovery that a Mexican visitor had tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus. (It’s a warning for Asia continent to well prepare for this outbreak.)

Beijing meanwhile has sent a chartered plane to Mexico to fetch 200 of its own citizens stranded by the flu crisis there, China Southern Airlines said. Mexican travelers held at a Beijing hotel said they were told by their embassy to be ready to leave Tuesday, ending an enforced isolation that Mexico charged was unfairly targeting its citizens.

"We were told to be ready to go. We are just awaiting word," Gustavo Carrillo, a Mexican businessman, told AFP.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/health/142412/flu-hit-mexico-awaits-return-to-business-as-us _____________________________________________________________________________________

My reaction: Swine flu is not easily control and become a major affected on global economy.

1. H1N1 virus, which mixes swine, avian and human flu strains is person to person transmission.

2. Swine flu still appeared across the world and it is more increasingly every day as well as Swine flu still found in new country.

3. Swine flu epidemic across to Asia continent already which have been confirmed in the South Korea and Hong Kong.

4. Not more than ten days, there are 1,490 people who have swine influenza (H1N1) in twenty-one countries.

5. Many Mexicans no longer wore a surgical mask while the virus is still circulating.

6. According to United States where is a big country and have many populations, more than half of all states have been found Swine influenza.

7. From this month to September the Southern hemisphere countries will face the flu season. 8. It will have a second wave of swine flu in which more severe than before and also be the greatest pandemic in twenty-one century like Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.

9. Soon, WHO will raise the level influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6.

10. It still doesn’t have any vaccine or medicine that can definitely cure swine flu and the vaccine and medicine that already have also are not sufficient for the demands.

11. Swine influenza pandemic will cost $3 trillion and cause a 5% drop in global GDP.

12. Swine flu pandemic makes the airline industry slowdown dramatically including hospitality industry that proximately cost even billion dollars (People still panic that they may contract the virus, so they choose to stay in their country in order to watch out.)

Conclusion: Swine flu outbreak is a domino affect which spread very fast and very hard to control or stop and impact on everything not more or less.

The world for this age is globalization which make the world is smaller and each country has a border with other countries which make the virus easily go back and forth.

Swine flu pandemic will come back and this time is more server than first wave and the global economy will be worse in double which will make the economic will growth slowly than it has to be.

I’m bet not more than a decade, there will be a dog virus, horse virus or even goat virus come to shake our planet again as well as the movie that people created like “I am a legend or “28 weeks Later” it will come true and then turn to a virus war.

This is the trailer movie that i'm talking about

Something Cool

"Germ" like Swine flu is really hard to handle