Swine Flu

[AFS]

Mexico flu 'a potential pandemic'

A new flu virus suspected of killing at least 60 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, the World Health Organization's chief says.

Margaret Chan said the outbreak was a "health emergency of international concern" and must be closely monitored.

Health experts say tests so far seem to link the illnesses in Mexico with a swine flu virus in the southern US.

Several people have also fallen ill in the US, and the authorities there are watching the situation.

A top US health official said the strain of swine flu had spread widely and could not be contained.

Ms Chan cut short a visit to the US and returned to Geneva where the WHO's emergency committee met.

The committee can recommend declaring an international public health emergency and raise the global pandemic alert level - a move that could lead to travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.

The WHO says it does not know the full risk yet but it quoted Mrs Chan as saying that "the current events constitute a public health emergency of international concern".

It is advising all member states to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults.

Officials said most of those killed so far in Mexico were young adults - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly.

US cases

Schools, museums and libraries have been closed across the Mexican capital's region and people are being urged to avoid shaking hands or sharing crockery.

All public events have been suspended, an official said. Two previously sold-out soccer matches were played in empty stadiums to avoid potentially spreading the virus.

The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has recommended measures to avoid further contagion at Mass this Sunday.

Priests have been told to place communion wafers in the hands of worshippers rather than in their mouths and to suggest to the congregation that kissing or shaking hands be avoided during the service.

In the US, the authorities say about 200 children were absent from a school in the New York borough of Queens on Friday, presumed ill.

Eight of the nine specimens taken from children were determined to be probable cases of swine fever, said city health commissioner Dr Thomas Frieden.

Those samples are now being examined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

None of the 200 children had required hospital treatment and many had fully recovered, said Dr Frieden, but the school could remain closed out of "an abundance of caution".

He urged people to maintain basic hygiene, such and covering their mouths when coughing and sneezing, washing hands regularly and keeping surfaces clean.

Six people fell have also fallen ill in California and two in Texas - only one was treated in hospital and all have since recovered.

Health officials in Kansas have also confirmed two cases of swine flu.

CDC officials have said that with cases arising in so many communities, containment is unlikely to be feasible.

"Now that we are looking more widely, I really expect us to find more," said Anne Schuchat of the CDC.

Hopeful sign

The CDC plans to send experts to Mexico to help investigate the virus which has infected more than 1,000 people in the country.

The BBC science editor Susan Watts says the new strain is a classic "re-assortment" - a combination feared most by those watching for the flu pandemic.

But she says possibly one hopeful sign is that, of the eight cases in the US, there has been only one requiring hospital treatment, and no deaths.

So it may turn out there is some other kind of infection at work in Mexico, as well as the new flu virus.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease which infects pigs. It does not normally infect humans, although sporadic cases do occur usually in people who have had close contact with pigs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8018356.stm

[FermGael]

Confimed cases in the US now and also suspected cases in New Zealand.

[clarshack]

did anyone watch survivors on bbc before christmas? always wondered if something like that could happen.

[youngfella]

did anyone watch survivors on bbc before christmas? always wondered if something like that could happen.

happened before, give google a for spainish flu

[ziggysego]

Two people suspected of having it from Scotland. They're just back from a holiday in Mexico.

[ziggysego]

Two people suspected of having it from Scotland. They're just back from a holiday in Mexico.

What? Bird flu? Must have caught it on the plane.

Swine.

















The flu that is, not you.

[AFS]

[Doogie Browser]

China for my next holiday then

[ziggysego]

[muppet]

I'm still waiting to get bird flu.

If you had foot in mouth you are immune.

Now where did I put that SARS pamphlet?

[Tony Baloney]

I'm still waiting to get bird flu.

If you had foot in mouth you are immune.

Now where did I put that SARS pamphlet?

I wouldn't be getting too worried about it. They have these scare fests every few years and they amount to very little. There was global panic about sars and less than a thousand died. You can be assured many more people died from common or garden flu in the same period.

[muppet]

Israel: Swine Flu name offensive to Jews and Muslims and should be renamed.

Why stop with Swine Flu? Let's wipe out pigs and and all their derivatives such as sausages, rashers and black pudding as they are clearly offensive. Maybe we should make pigs extinct altogether?

[Tony Baloney]

Israel: Swine Flu name offensive to Jews and Muslims and should be renamed.

Why stop with Swine Flu? Let's wipe out pigs and and all their derivatives such as sausages, rashers and black pudding as they are clearly offensive. Maybe we should make pigs extinct altogether?

That would be some fry!

[Minder]

Bacon tastes good, pork chops taste good.......

[AFS]

I'm still waiting to get bird flu.

If you had foot in mouth you are immune.

Now where did I put that SARS pamphlet?

I wouldn't be getting too worried about it. They have these scare fests every few years and they amount to very little. There was global panic about sars and less than a thousand died. You can be assured many more people died from common or garden flu in the same period.

It'll probably amount to very little alright, but not because these things just go away. There'll have to be a widespread, well coordinated control effort. There have been billions pumped into research and the development of prevention and control strategies of potential pandemics.

Just because a few of the scares in recent years didn't result in much loss of life doesn't mean that future flu pandemics are out of the question. In the past 100 years alone Spanish flu, Asian flu and Hong Kong flu all have killed in excess of a million people globally over short spaces of time.

Also, this variant of the flu virus is incomparable to avian flu. There were very few cases of human to human transmission of bird flu, which went a long way to prevent it from becoming a pandemic. This strain of swine flu can pass from human to human, which makes controlling it a lot trickier.