My fear as well

Scientists dig for lessons from past pandemics

If there's a blessing in the current swine flu epidemic, it's how benign the illness seems to be outside the central disease cluster in Mexico. But history offers a dark warning to anyone ready to write off the 2009 H1N1 virus.

In each of the four major pandemics since 1889, a spring wave of relatively mild illness was followed by a second wave, a few months later, of a much more virulent disease. This was true in 1889, 1957, 1968 and in the catastrophic flu outbreak of 1918, which sickened an estimated third of the world's population and killed, conservatively, 50 million people.

Swine flu comes to Kentucky

One Confirmed, One Probable Case Of Swine Flu In KY

Gov. Steve Beshear announced that the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) will report one confirmed case and one probable case of swine flu to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday.

"Like the rest of the nation, we are concerned about the spread of this new strain of swine flu," said Beshear. "I want to assure Kentuckians that health officials here are responding aggressively to detect possible cases of swine flu and respond with the appropriate preventive measures. Individuals should continue to monitor this situation as it develops and practice basic measures to stay healthy, such as hand washing and staying home when sick."

The confirmed case involves a woman from Warren County who had recently traveled to Mexico. The patient is currently hospitalized in Georgia, and samples were submitted to CDC for confirmation by Georgia health officials. Officials from the Barren River Health District are actively investigating the circumstances of this case to determine whether any contacts of the patient may be ill or need preventive treatment.

The probable case that is being reported involves an infant from another area within the Barren River Health District who had been in close contact with an individual who recently traveled to Mexico. It is unrelated to the confirmed case. The child's family and other close contacts are being evaluated for illness and possible preventive treatment. The child has not been hospitalized. A sample from the patient has been sent to the CDC for further testing to determine whether swine flu is the cause of illness. The name of the county in which the patient resides will be released if the case is confirmed.

Whats in a name?

WHO to stop using term 'swine flu' to protect pigs

GENEVA – The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said.

Why not just call Egypt on its stupidity. Certainly there would be many broken relationships if it were sheep flu instead.

Advance team member for Obama Mexico trip sick

White House aide's family likely has swine flu

WASHINGTON (AP) - A member of the U.S. delegation that helped prepare Energy Secretary Steven Chu's trip to Mexico City has demonstrated flu-like symptoms and his family members have tested probable for swine flu.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that three members of an aide's family are being tested to see if they have the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. The aide worked in presidential advance, which is responsible for planning and preparing trips.

Gibbs said that Secretary Chu has not experienced any symptoms. The spokesman also said that President Barack Obama also has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health.

Bad PR for Disney

South Carolina students report flu-like symptoms after Disney trip

Officials in South Carolina shut down a school today and are disinfecting the building after 16 to 18 students in their marching band reported flu-like symptoms after visiting Walt Disney World.

Reports from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control show lab results released today indicate that 10 students from a different school probably have the swine flu virus after a recent school trip to Mexico.

Those lab results have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for final confirmation, which can take up to 48 hours.

Meanwhile, Orange County Health Department officials said test results on a tourist who had visited Disney earlier this week and also displayed flu-like symptoms are expected sometime today.

WHO Pandemic Phase 5 (of 6)

WHO raises flu threat level, warning pandemic imminent

Its on now Skippy.

In the Obama Administration 1+1=3

Napolitano: Closing border not the answer to flu

"We're already doing passive surveillance at the border," Napolitano said. "You would close the border if you thought you could contain the spread of disease, but the disease already is in a number of states within the United States."

Mexicans take swine flu lightly on U.S. border

TIJUANA, Mexico, April 27 (Reuters) - Many Mexicans crossing into the United States on Monday at one of the busiest crossings on the border shunned advice to wear surgical face mask to curb the spread of a deadly new flu.

Most Mexican immigration officials at the Tijuana-San Diego crossing were using masks and surgical gloves, but Mexicans crossing by car and foot seemed unconcerned by the influenza scare and only a handful wore masks.

"I don't think anything will happen to me, it's old people and children we need to look after," said Gloria, a 35-year-old woman waiting to cross by car into California who declined to give her last name.

Many of the up to 149 people who have died of the new virus in Mexico have actually been aged between 25 and 45, a worrying sign as pandemics tend to target healthy young adults.

As Insty says we are in the very best of hands.

Marijuana for Swine Flu?

One interesting thing about the avian flu H5N1 was that the Cytokine Storm as seen in severe sepsis was responsible for many of the deaths. It may have also played a large role in the 1918 Pandemic and in the SARS deaths. Research has shown those on statin therapy for cholesterol can reduce mortality from the avian flu and presumable the swine flu as well.

So in researching that last night on line I ran across another intersting study on reducing the effects of the cytokine storm and cytokine production.

Marijuana and Cocaine Impair Alveolar Macrophage Function and Cytokine Production

So we all just need to get some Tamiflu, take some Zocor and smoke some pot while we watch it spread across the google map?

Pandemic outbreak in Mexico City? 61 dead

Deadly new flu breaks out in Mexico, U.S.

A deadly strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where several people were reported ill.

Mexico's government said on Friday that at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.

The World Health Organization said genetic tests of the virus in 12 of the Mexican victims had the same genetic structure as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in seven people in California and Texas. [nLO274836]

Because there is clearly human-to-human spread of the new virus, raising fears of a major outbreak, Mexico's government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said.

It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [nN24420522].

Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people.

Preparations to me made.

Maybe some stimulus money needs to go for pandemic preparedness?

China reports 4th bird flu death in 2009

A woman in China's far west has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Saturday, the country's fourth death from the virus this year as the biggest festive season approaches.

The victim, a 31-year-old woman from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, had been to a live poultry market before she fell ill on Jan. 10, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Wang Xiaoyan, a deputy director of the regional health department. She died Friday.

A woman in eastern China, a teenage boy in southwest China and a woman in Beijing have also died from the disease this month.

A 2-year-old girl was also sickened with H5N1 but recovered. The Health Ministry said her mother, who like the toddler went to a live poultry market, had died of pneumonia in early January. Doctors said they could not confirm the cause of death.

I am glad China is being more open about this.

Meanwhile to our north:

Bird flu confirmed on Canada turkey farm

Tests have confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a turkey farm near Vancouver, but it appeared to be a less virulent strain and posed little risk to humans, officials said on Saturday.

More than 50,000 birds on the Abbotsford, British Columbia, farm will be destroyed to ensure the avian influenza virus does not spread to other farms, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said.

More bird flu death in Asia

China confirms woman died of bird flu in Beijing

A 19-year-old woman has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Beijing after coming into contact with poultry, health authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong said on Tuesday.

This human H5N1 case would be China's first in almost a year. Experts said while the case was not unexpected as the virus is more active during the cooler months between October and March, it points to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against bird flu.

When it makes the jump will we realize it before it gets out of control?

Avian flu the return

Just when you thought you could scratch bird flu off your list of things to worry about in 2009, the deadly H5N1 virus has resurfaced in poultry in Hong Kong for the first time in six years, reinforcing warnings that the threat of a human pandemic isn't over.

India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks in December. During the same period, four new human cases -- in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia -- were reported to the World Health Organization. A 16-year-old girl in Egypt and a 2-year-old girl in Indonesia have died.

I would worry more about killer chickens than killer asteroids at this point.