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CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

JimO

JimO

Well-known member
CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising
By Caitlin Hagan, CNN
updated 3:17 PM EDT, Thu August 9, 2012

(CNN) -- A new strain of swine flu in humans continues to spread, health officials said Thursday, with more than 100 cases reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 145 cases of the influenza A (H3N2) variant have been found in four states since mid-July: 113 in Indiana, 30 in Ohio, one in Illinois and one in Hawaii.

The CDC says it expects the case count to increase. Two people were hospitalized, but both have been released, officials said.

The agency's numbers did not include seven new cases reported in Indiana. Dr. Gregory Larkin, Indiana state health commissioner, said the number of cases has risen to 120 as of Thursday.

"Surprisingly, the greatest, overwhelming percentage (of cases) is in people 16 years and younger," Larkin said. "As our investigation continues, we're seeing transmission from ill or infected swine, or hogs, to their handlers, which in most of these cases are kids."

snip...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/09/health/swine-flu-cases/index.html
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

I don't think that infections in people under <16 year of age are 'surprisingly' as it was demonstrated that in this age group cross-protective antibodies are not present.

H3N2v has surface proteins from human viruses and older people have encoutered similar strains during their life, making them perhaps less susceptible to the variant strain.

I don't see the need of a partial exposition of the facts.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

Table. Case Count: Detected U.S. Human Infections with H3N2v by State since August 2011

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 400px" border=1 cellSpacing=0 summary="This chart indicates the number of CDC-reported human infections with variant influenza A viruses since August 2011." cellPadding=5><TBODY><TR><TH scope=col>States Reporting H3N2v Cases</TH><TH scope=col>Cases in
2011
</TH><TH scope=col>Cases in
2012
</TH></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Hawaii
​
</TD><TD></TD><TD vAlign=top>1

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Indiana
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>2
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>113

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Illinois
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top></TD><TD vAlign=top>1

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Iowa
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>3

</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Maine
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>2

</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Ohio
​
</TD><TD></TD><TD vAlign=top>30

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Pennsylvania
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>3

</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Utah
​
</TD><TD></TD><TD vAlign=top>1*

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>West Virginia
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>2

</TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Total
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>12
​
</TD><TD vAlign=top>146

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
* Case in Utah occurred in April 2012 and is not part of the ongoing outbreaks.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swineflu/influenza-variant-viruses-h3n2v.htm
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

Hey y'all. Long time lurker but finally registered. Thought I'd start here. :)

CDC held a media teleconference briefing yesterday with Dr. Joseph Bresee. See transcript here.

They announced that they've authorized testing at the state level, so new case counts will be announced by state health departments, with the CDC giving a weekly cumulative number in the MMWR or on the web page for H3N2v.

Not a lot of specifics in the briefing except that there have been 2 hospitalizations, with both patients now discharged, and that over 90% of the cases have been in children.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

Catbird said:
Hey y'all. Long time lurker but finally registered. Thought I'd start here. :)

CDC held a media teleconference briefing yesterday with Dr. Joseph Bresee. See transcript here.

They announced that they've authorized testing at the state level, so new case counts will be announced by state health departments, with the CDC giving a weekly cumulative number in the MMWR or on the web page for H3N2v.

Not a lot of specifics in the briefing except that there have been 2 hospitalizations, with both patients now discharged, and that over 90% of the cases have been in children.
Click to expand...

Welcome, Catbird, and thanks for posting the teleconference link. :)

The number of hospitalized patients is no higher than last year, (though more cases may be discovered), and both patients were high risk.

Joe Bresee: No, July 2011, we had three last year among the early cases with this virus. And the additional two. I think it's important to say that we counted two this year among confirmed cases. As the investigation proceeds, we fully expect to see more hospitalizations. And we fully expect that those hospitalizations will be principally among patients with high-risk conditions. So we really want to get the message out that folks with high-risk conditions try to avoid pig exposure in these settings.
Click to expand...

At this point affected age range is suspected to be from a combination of the age range's exposure via their avocation raising show pigs and immune status.

Joe Bresee: That information is being collected as we speak. That's one of the pieces of information that we determine in these outbreak investigations. You're right, though, the predominance of kids in the early cases we're seeing probably does reflect at least to some extent the immune background of the population, where adults, because they've been exposed to H3 human viruses a lot and potentially vaccines in their lifetime, may have some cross-protective antibodies. We don?t think that most adults have it but we think some adults might have it. And the predominance of kids also relates to the exposures at the fairs. There?s lots of kids at these fairs, they take care of the pigs, bring the pigs, and so we think that the predominance of the kids is probably a combination of who's been exposed to these piss most closely, but also the background immunue levels in the population by age group.
Click to expand...

So I don't see anything remarkable about this virus itself in the context of history over the last few years. The new One Health model of looking at this would include asking the question of USDA, "Is the virus is simply more prevalent in swine than last year, and why if so?"
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

Thanks y'all. :)

I agree that there's some questions for the USDA. I've been doing some digging but I'm not finding a lot of answers. But there's always tomorrow.

I suspect that Ohio might be announcing new numbers in a few days.

"62 Sickened In Gallia Co. After Contact With Pigs"
"Four cases of H3N2v have been confirmed in Gallia County after "individuals had direct contact with swine at fairs."

Seven Gallia County residents have been hospitalized.

All but the one most recently admitted have been discharged.

Twenty-five more people have come down with the flu in Gallia County, bringing the total number to 62.

The Gallia County Health Department says the people they've been able to interview so far have had contact with pigs.

Health Commissioner Gerald Vallee said Tuesday that the original 37 tested positive for the flu after all but one had been at the fair.

He said officials are "presuming" they caught the H3N2v influenza virus through contact with pigs, but no cases have been confirmed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ohio Department of Health are doing further testing.

Results are expected next week."
Click to expand...
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

Current count of suspected and confirmed H3N2v human cases in recent outbreak based or FluTrackers posts, August 10, 2012

Hawaii Total 1

Illinois Total 1

Ohio Total 95

  • Butler County 16
  • Clark County 3
  • Greene County 4
  • Hamilton County 3
  • Gallia County 69
Indiana Total 120


Grand Total 217
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

I know there is a lot of hype about this strain of flu. I think we to watch and wait. But apparently, at this time, it is not fatal to people who are in general good health.

So what to do?

Follow CDC guidelines for prevention of seasonal and H3N2v flu.

Use 2 sources for news.

Look around your community. Are people getting sick? Do the emergency rooms seem unusually crowded? Do the schools in your area report many flu or flu like illnesses?

Talk to your healthcare provider about the flu and your health condition.

And, of course, watch FluTrackers. We have no corporate or government sponsors. We do not sell anything.

This site is operated by parents.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

I will tell you that I work in a hospital in California and the hospital census is low and ER not busy, except from heat related illness. Urgent cares have little or no wait. So for Northern California, nothing yet..
I will tell you that my grandchildren did to go to our Fair and about 5 days later did get a unexplained fever about 101 for about 3 days, headache and aches. I do not know if they went by the animals. But I did think that was odd. But there are summertime illness's, too. Many of my daughters friends and none of them got ill so who knows.
Also, Sharon thank you posting good common sense here, I think this is getting out of control and I do think we have to watch, but right now today, it is not a fatal one.
Lets hope it stays that way.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

I agree that we need to be factual and level-headed while providing the most current information available. If I remember correctly, with the exception of the Mexican child who died in Texas from pH1N1 in the Spring of 2009, most early cases of pH1N1 in the U.S. were not very severe. Overall, the CFR was about the same as seasonal flu, with the main difference being the demographics of those who had severe illness and died. Pregnant women and children were particularly hard hit. The number of pediatric deaths from pH1N1 (which straddled two flu seasons) was at least an order of magnitude higher than from seasonal strains.

It appears that the demographics of H3N2v could be similar to pH1N1. If so, then we could see many cases when school starts. One way to help folks is to remind them of the danger signs indicating a potential cytokine storm or other severe complications and when to seek emergency medical help. I don't remember them all, but a few things to look our for include:

  1. Cyanosis - blue hue to the skin, starting with the fingernails and lips; indicating low blood oxygen levels.
  2. Difficulty breathing
  3. Symptoms that improve and then suddenly get worse
  4. Confusion or delirium
  5. Chest pains with sustained high fever
Hopefully this strain will be mild, but if children are particularly vulnerable and the CFR is similar to seasonal flu, then we will likely see deaths of 1 to 2 per thousand cases in children.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

JimO said:
. . . Hopefully this strain will be mild, but if children are particularly vulnerable and the CFR is similar to seasonal flu, then we will likely see deaths of 1 to 2 per thousand cases in children.
Click to expand...

It is not yet clear whether this is spreading human to human (H2H) or simply jumping directly from pigs to children at local fairs. We will know soon enough once the fairs end. If it continues to spread, then it will most certainly be H2H.
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

From Laidback Al:

"It is not yet clear whether this is spreading human to human (H2H) or simply jumping directly from pigs to children at local fairs..."

Interim Information for Clinicians about Human Infections with H3N2v Virus

Posted August 10, 2012
Excerpt:

Clinical Diagnosis

H3N2v virus infection cannot be distinguished by clinical features from seasonal influenza A or B virus infection, or from infection with other respiratory viruses that can cause influenza-like illness (fever and either cough or sore throat). Therefore, the key to suspecting H3N2v virus infection in an ill patient at this time is to elicit an epidemiological link to recent swine exposure in the week prior to illness onset:
  • Direct contact (raising pigs, feeding pigs, cleaning pig waste) or indirect exposure to pigs ? visiting a pig farm, walking through a swine barn at a county fair, etc.), especially if pigs were known to be ill; or
  • Close contact (within 2 meters or approximately 6 feet) to an ill person who had recent swine exposure.
A patient with influenza-like illness and an epidemiological link to recent swine exposure should be considered a probable H3N2v case.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swineflu/h3n2v-clinician.htm


"Close contact (within 2 meters or approximately 6 feet) to an ill person who had recent swine exposure."

Meaning that the virus could be transmissable person to person?
 
Re: CDC: Cases of new swine flu strain rising

No one has yet made the most obvious point about this H3N2v outbreak.

With so many cases spread over large geographic areas we can only conclude that there are a HUGE number of sick pigs out there. No wonder the pork industry is starting to worry.

Swine flu hurting pork producers

Updated: Friday, 17 Aug 2012, 8:14 AM EDT
Published : Friday, 17 Aug 2012, 8:10 AM EDT

RUSHVILLE, Ind. (WISH) - The recent rise in the number of people diagnosed with swine flu over the last week has cause pork sales to tumble, and is causing pork producers to worry. . . . .
Click to expand...
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/east_central/swine-flu-hurting-pork-producers
 
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