Your swin(dl)e flu update

[The Irish Doggy]

Run for your lives. Its.... just another flu.

 

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

Roberto Arcuate arrives Tuesday at the Mexican Embassy in Beijing as Mexico starts to pick up dozens of nationals.

 

The number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide stands at 1,117 Tuesday with 26 deaths, according to figures from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The WHO's number of cases is seven higher than the CDC figure.

 

Twenty-five people died of the virus in Mexico and one in the United States. The world body said the virus, scientifically known as the Influenza A (H1N1), has been confirmed in 21 countries.

 

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.

 

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

 

"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."

 

But officials from WHO and the CDC plan to monitor developments in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season arrives over the next few months as winter begins there.

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Those results 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 weeklong closure encompasses the Cinco de Mayo holiday Tuesday.

 

University and secondary school students can return to class Thursday, while younger students will wait until Monday.

 

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 the bustling metropolis of 20 million people into a ghost town overnight.

 

Soccer games were postponed, restaurants only served takeout, and Sunday Mass -- which usually draws millions of worshippers -- was canceled. Video Watch as Mexicans put faith in cure »

 

"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 city's Condesa neighborhood, 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," Alfredo, 15, said. "I'm not scared like last week. This week has been easier. Now we know much better what is going on."

 

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

 

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

 

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 Mexican 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 and two in the southern Guangdong province.

 

China suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived Thursday in Shanghai from Mexico City became the Asian 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. 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 likely will come later in the United States.

 

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.

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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, the U.S. Department of Education said Monday.

[whomper]

Its coming back in the winter. The Swine Flu II Electric Bugaloo

[theprofessor]

I have my first ever trip to Cabo planned for my birthday on June 1st. Two weeks ago I was thinking I might have to cancel. I'm glad this thing was overblown and about to end.

[Avernus]

hoax

[theprofessor]

hoax

 

Smokescreen by Obama's crew so that we won't focus on the incredible amount of coin that this administration is spending.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Just remember the flu of 1918 was also mild in the spring...hopefully it doesn't mutate and repeat the results of that one in the fall.

[Avernus]

Smokescreen by Obama's crew so that we won't focus on the incredible amount of coin that this administration is spending.

 

 

I don't want the coin that he has...I might get the flu...

[bpwallace49]

After FEMA's bungling of the Katrina situation and the real/imagined threat of bioweapons, this was actually a surprisingly effective response to a possible "pandemic".

 

When they finally find the WMD and bioweapons Iraq had, at least we will know how to respond if they get loose!

 

[NAUgrad]

Just remember the flu of 1918 was also mild in the spring...hopefully it doesn't mutate and repeat the results of that one in the fall.

Yes because most things are very similar today as they were in 1918 so it's most likely that it will follow the same path. Good point.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Yes because most things are very similar today as they were in 1918 so it's most likely that it will follow the same path. Good point.

 

Obviously not. I'm not being alarmist, just saying that we shouldn't just assume we are out of the woods yet on this one.

 

We have much better medical care with antivirals etc (no vaccine yet for this one though), but viruses mutate and are unpredictable regardless of anything mankind does. I'm not saying that this will absolutely wreck havoc, just that the possibility is still there. What the so called experts have said is this disease seems to be passing pretty readily from human-to-human but the strain is no more deadly than the common flu. Take that transmission rate and mutate the virus slightly and we could have a big problem on our hands. I've said it before that unlike 1918 we also live in a global community now with world travel moving lots of people around the globe everyday. We could spread something very quickly.

 

I'm of the belief that it's something like a plague that has a better chance of wiping out large populations in the coming years than man-made wars. Yes, even the jihadists H8.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Another death in Texas...to someone with chronic health problems.

[The Irish Doggy]

Obviously not. I'm not being alarmist, just saying that we shouldn't just assume we are out of the woods yet on this one.

 

We have much better medical care with antivirals etc (no vaccine yet for this one though), but viruses mutate and are unpredictable regardless of anything mankind does. I'm not saying that this will absolutely wreck havoc, just that the possibility is still there. What the so called experts have said is this disease seems to be passing pretty readily from human-to-human but the strain is no more deadly than the common flu. Take that transmission rate and mutate the virus slightly and we could have a big problem on our hands. I've said it before that unlike 1918 we also live in a global community now with world travel moving lots of people around the globe everyday. We could spread something very quickly.

 

I'm of the belief that it's something like a plague that has a better chance of wiping out large populations in the coming years than man-made wars. Yes, even the jihadists H8.

 

There is no doubt that a new flu strain could hit a significant percentage of the world population. However, these alerts seem more like a bureaucratic CYA than a public service.