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PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
World Health Organization
Update 22
10 May 2009 -- As of 16:00 GMT, 10 May 2009:
The Director-General of WHO recommends not closing borders or restricting travel. However, it is prudent for people who are sick to delay travel. Moreover, returning travelers who have become sick should seek medical attention in line with guidance from national authorities.
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In Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the flu virus was on the wane. The last death on May 4 had not been from a new infection, he said. Life there has slowly been returning to normal with the reopening of tourist sites, Mexico City eateries, theaters and cinemas. Universities and high schools reopened on Thursday and primary schools were opened on Monday.
There are now more confirmed cases in the U.S. than in Mexico.
"The government is taking all due precautions", President Obama said the day after his vice president suggested that people should avoid airplanes and subway trains to which the White House replied, ".... no, only ill people should stay away".
"I just want everyone to be sure that this is why this is a cause for concern -- not alarm,'' said Obama, repeating the words that he had first voiced Monday morning."
May 01, 2009
Center for Disease Control Travel Health Warning: Swine Influenza and Severe Cases of Respiratory Illness in Mexico — Avoid Nonessential Travel to Mexico
This information is current as of April 30, 2009 at 17:44 EDT
At this time, CDC recommends that U.S. travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico. Changes to this recommendation will be posted at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/.
CDC has confirmed that seven of 14 respiratory specimens sent to CDC by the Mexican National Influenza Center are positive for swine influenza virus and are similar to the swine influenza viruses recently identified in the United States.
The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens of the health risks of travel to Mexico at this time due to an outbreak of H1N1 “swine flu.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an April 27 notice recommending that American citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico at this time. CDC’s notice also suggests precautions that travelers and U.S. citizen residents in Mexico can take to reduce their risk of infection while in Mexico. CDC provides recommendations for those who must travel to an area that has reported cases of swine flu, and recommends measures to take following return from an area that has reported cases of swine flu. The complete CDC notice can be found at the following link: http://www.cdc.gov/travel/. Please check this site frequently for updates.
On April 25, the Government of Mexico announced that as a precautionary measure, all schools from kindergarten through university level will remain closed until May 6 in the Federal District, State of Mexico, and San Luis Potosi. All government-sponsored events involving large crowds have also been canceled, and museums and most tourist attractions are closed.
May 07, 2009
The situation changes from day to day.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (214), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Denmark (1), France (5), Germany (10), Ireland (1), Israel (6), Italy (5), Netherlands (2), New Zealand (5), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (81), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (32).
According to Mexico’s Health Minister, José Angel Córdova, of the 159 deaths reported during the flu outbreak in the country, only 16 were confirmed to be associated with the swine flu.
The majority of the probable cases of influenza with severe pneumonia were in the Federal District, Mexico and San Luis de Potosi States.
Up till now only 25 Mexican cases (out of the suspected 1455) of swine influenza have been confirmed in research laboratories located in Canada and in the United States. Of the 5 deaths and 25 confirmed cases, 4 are from the Federal District and one from the State of Mexico.
The United States has declared its own public health emergency. Twenty cases of swine flu have been confirmed (8 in New York, 7 in California, 2 in Texas, 2 in Kansas and 1 in Ohio), as yet with no deaths.
Oddly, all the cases in the United States have been identified in young people, in contrast to Mexico, where the virus has infected almost exclusively the 20-40 year-old age group. No one has died in the United States, where the effects of the virus seem to be less aggressive.
The WHO's pandemic alert level is currently at Level 3, meaning very limited spread of virus from person to person.
Today, countries worldwide are better prepared because of past achievements in preparedness for pandemic influenza. All of these efforts are being put to good use; the rapid response of countries worldwide is evidence of this.
World Health Organization: Travel restrictions, border closures ineffective for swine flu
The Director-General of the World Health Organization recommended not to close borders and not to restrict international travel. It was considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention.
Apr 28, 2009 - 09:58 -
WAM GENEVA, Apr. 28th, 2009: The World Health Organization has downplayed travel restrictions and border closures as ineffective to counter a swine flue pandemic.
Despite urging people to think carefully before traveling to or from areas known to be affected by the flu virus, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartel said it considers formal travel restrictions and border closures ineffective because people who would be screened could be infected but not yet showing symptoms.
Yesterday, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the organization doesn't recommend closing borders or restricting the movement of people or goods.
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Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild
Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.
In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
"We expect to see more cases, more hospitalizations, and, unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths from the outbreak," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Wednesday on her first day at work.
But certainly nothing that would dwarf a typical flu season. In the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die -- a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%.
Dirk Brockmann, a professor of engineering and applied mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., used a computer model of human travel patterns to predict how this swine flu virus would spread in the worst-case scenario, in which nothing is done to contain the disease.
After four weeks, almost 1,700 people in the U.S. would have symptoms, including 198 in Los Angeles, according to his model. That's just a fraction of the county's thousands of yearly flu victims.
Just because the virus is being identified in a growing number of places -- including Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and Britain -- doesn't mean it's spreading particularly quickly, Olsen said.
Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also rejected calls to close the borders, which several lawmakers reiterated Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
"We are making all of our decisions based on the science and the epidemiology," Napolitano said. "The CDC, the public health community and the World Health Organization all have said that closing out nation's borders is not merited here."
... in the United States more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and more than 20,000* people die from the flu and its complications every year. (Source: excerpt from The Flu, NIAID Fact Sheet: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
*20,000 a year, equals to 2.283 per hour, or one death every 26 minute 17 second.
"How serious is swine flu infection?"
Like seasonal flu, swine flu in humans can vary in severity from mild to severe. Between 2005 until January 2009, 12 human cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. with no deaths occurring. However, swine flu infection can be serious. In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman in Wisconsin was hospitalized for pneumonia after being infected with swine flu and died 8 days later.
– Swine Influenza and You,
CDC, April 29, 2009, 10:55 PM ET
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