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Swine Flu Spurs U.S. Health ‘Emergency’ as Cases Grow (Update2)
2009-04-26 21:48:29.237 GMT
(Adds to CDC comments in fourth, antivirals in 13th
paragraph, comments on travel in 14th-15th.)
By Hans Nichols and Shannon Pettypiece
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- A growing number of swine flu cases
in the U.S. and Mexico led the Obama administration to declare a
public health emergency and release stockpiles of medicine.
New illnesses also were confirmed in Canada today, and
suspected in Brazil, Europe and New Zealand. In the U.S., 20
people have contracted the disease in five states, and the
number is likely to expand, said Dr. Richard Besser, acting
chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a
White House briefing today. While those instances were mild and
no one died, the disease may become “more severe,” he said.
In Mexico, where authorities say more than 80 people have
died, the government requested that bars, movie theaters and
churches be closed in the capital, Mexico City. In New York,
where eight cases were confirmed at a private school, Mayor
Michael Bloomberg is keeping city schools open and urging
residents to wash their hands frequently, stay home if ill and
avoid the hospital unless very sick.
“We do think that this will continue to spread, but we are
taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people’s
health,” Besser said at the White House briefing. “We expect
that we’re going to be changing our recommendations over time
based on what we learn.”
Six people in Canada contracted the disease, governments in
the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia said, meaning
all of North America has reported cases.
Same Level of Alert
The World Health Organization, an agency of the United
Nations, declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of
international concern” yesterday. The organization also
concluded that more evidence is needed to determine whether the
level of pandemic alert should be increased.
An emergency committee will meet again April 28 to consider
raising the alert, said Keiji Fukuda, the Geneva-based agency’s
assistant director-general for health security and environment,
in a call with reporters today.
The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is
currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a
new virus would move it to level 4, according to the WHO Web
site.
Scientists are trying to determine why the virus, normally
transmitted among pigs, has been more severe in Mexico. In the
U.S. only one person has required hospitalization, Besser said.
More Tamiflu Orders
There is no vaccine for the virus, he said. Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of “courses
of treatments” of drugs, known as antivirals, were being
released from U.S. stockpiles. In all, there are 50 million
courses, she said. Among those are Tamiflu, sold by Roche
Holding AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Relenza, from
GlaxoSmithKline Plc of London.
“This significantly increases the chances the U.S.
government, and perhaps other governments, will restock Tamiflu
supplies,” said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with Deutsche Bank
Securities in New York, in a note to clients today. “In
addition, we believe retail prescriptions could increase.”
If the U.S. government bought 13 million doses of Tamiflu
to replenish stockpiles, and the public bought an additional 1
million, Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences Inc.
could see its 2009 earnings rise 4 percent, or about 10 cents,
Schoenebaum said. Gilead invented the drug and gets royalties.
The Defense Department “has procured and strategically
positioned 7 million treatment courses of Tamiflu,” Napolitano
said.
Like a Hurricane, Flood
The U.S. government is issuing a health emergency
declaration to devote more resources to blocking the virus.
Napolitano compared their preparation to what the department
does when it knows a hurricane is approaching. The move “frees
up money” to buy medicines, and allows the use of “medication
and diagnostic tests that we might not otherwise be able to
use.”
For now, she said, the monitoring of travelers will remain
“passive” and no restrictions on travel with Mexico have been
issued. People entering the U.S. will be asked if they’re sick
or have been, and those with apparent symptoms will be
“isolated per established rules,” Napolitano said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was “far
too early to determine” whether there will be an economic
impact from the outbreak. Russia suspended imports of all meat
from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, California and Kansas
shipped after April 21 on concern about the spread of swine flu,
the country’s veterinary watchdog said. Fukuda, of the World
Health Organization, said there’s no evidence the disease is
spread by exposure to “pork or pigs.”
Obama’s Mexico Visit
The World Bank promised Mexico $205 million in loans to
help fight the disease, said Mexico’s finance minister, Agustin
Carstens.
President Barack Obama was in Mexico City April 16 for
meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Gibbs said the
incubation period for an infection is long past and “the
president’s health was never in danger.”
John Brennan, a special assistant to the president for
homeland security, said the government is putting in place
systems to allow “rapid identification” of any new cases and
efforts to “mitigate a broader outbreak” in the U.S.
He said there is “no evidence whatsoever” of a connection
to bioterrorism. Besser said all investigations so far point to
a naturally occurring virus.
The U.S. cases have been confirmed in California, Kansas,
New York, Ohio and Texas.
New Zealand, France
France is investigating four possible cases of swine flu,
including three in one family in the north of the country and
one woman in the Paris region, officials said. Test results
should be available within 24 hours, Francoise Weber, director
general of the Sanitary Surveillance Institute, said at a news
conference in Paris today.
Ten New Zealand high school students who returned from
Mexico are “highly likely” to have swine flu, Health Minister
Tony Ryall said today in a phone interview. The students don’t
have “severe” symptoms and most already appear to be
recovering, Ryall said.
In Brazil, the Sao Paulo state hospital Emilio Ribas has
isolated a potential case, said Doctor Edenilson Eduardo Calore,
head of weekend duty. The patient had been in Mexico, Calore
said.
The latest U.S. tally includes eight students at the St.
Francis Preparatory School in Queens.
“There is an outbreak at St. Francis school and we are
monitoring that outbreak very carefully,” New York Mayor
Bloomberg said today at a news conference. “We’re also looking
for outbreaks elsewhere in the city. So far there does not seem
to be any.”
Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg
LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Mutation Fears
Fears of a lethal pandemic lie in the nature of flu germs,
which mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes
with related influenza viruses. While the H5N1 bird virus that
spread across Asia in the last few years, killing millions of
fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread
easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has, said
Malik Peiris, a microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong.
“The concern is that this virus has the ability to
transmit from humans to humans because a number of the cases who
got infection have had no direct exposure to swine,” said
Peiris, who has studied the SARS and avian flu viruses. “That
is certainly a cause for concern.”
Swine Flu Spurs U.S. Health ‘Emergency’ as Cases Grow (Update2)
2009-04-26 21:48:29.237 GMT
(Adds to CDC comments in fourth, antivirals in 13th
paragraph, comments on travel in 14th-15th.)
By Hans Nichols and Shannon Pettypiece
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- A growing number of swine flu cases
in the U.S. and Mexico led the Obama administration to declare a
public health emergency and release stockpiles of medicine.
New illnesses also were confirmed in Canada today, and
suspected in Brazil, Europe and New Zealand. In the U.S., 20
people have contracted the disease in five states, and the
number is likely to expand, said Dr. Richard Besser, acting
chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a
White House briefing today. While those instances were mild and
no one died, the disease may become “more severe,” he said.
In Mexico, where authorities say more than 80 people have
died, the government requested that bars, movie theaters and
churches be closed in the capital, Mexico City. In New York,
where eight cases were confirmed at a private school, Mayor
Michael Bloomberg is keeping city schools open and urging
residents to wash their hands frequently, stay home if ill and
avoid the hospital unless very sick.
“We do think that this will continue to spread, but we are
taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people’s
health,” Besser said at the White House briefing. “We expect
that we’re going to be changing our recommendations over time
based on what we learn.”
Six people in Canada contracted the disease, governments in
the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia said, meaning
all of North America has reported cases.
Same Level of Alert
The World Health Organization, an agency of the United
Nations, declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of
international concern” yesterday. The organization also
concluded that more evidence is needed to determine whether the
level of pandemic alert should be increased.
An emergency committee will meet again April 28 to consider
raising the alert, said Keiji Fukuda, the Geneva-based agency’s
assistant director-general for health security and environment,
in a call with reporters today.
The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is
currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a
new virus would move it to level 4, according to the WHO Web
site.
Scientists are trying to determine why the virus, normally
transmitted among pigs, has been more severe in Mexico. In the
U.S. only one person has required hospitalization, Besser said.
More Tamiflu Orders
There is no vaccine for the virus, he said. Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of “courses
of treatments” of drugs, known as antivirals, were being
released from U.S. stockpiles. In all, there are 50 million
courses, she said. Among those are Tamiflu, sold by Roche
Holding AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Relenza, from
GlaxoSmithKline Plc of London.
“This significantly increases the chances the U.S.
government, and perhaps other governments, will restock Tamiflu
supplies,” said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with Deutsche Bank
Securities in New York, in a note to clients today. “In
addition, we believe retail prescriptions could increase.”
If the U.S. government bought 13 million doses of Tamiflu
to replenish stockpiles, and the public bought an additional 1
million, Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences Inc.
could see its 2009 earnings rise 4 percent, or about 10 cents,
Schoenebaum said. Gilead invented the drug and gets royalties.
The Defense Department “has procured and strategically
positioned 7 million treatment courses of Tamiflu,” Napolitano
said.
Like a Hurricane, Flood
The U.S. government is issuing a health emergency
declaration to devote more resources to blocking the virus.
Napolitano compared their preparation to what the department
does when it knows a hurricane is approaching. The move “frees
up money” to buy medicines, and allows the use of “medication
and diagnostic tests that we might not otherwise be able to
use.”
For now, she said, the monitoring of travelers will remain
“passive” and no restrictions on travel with Mexico have been
issued. People entering the U.S. will be asked if they’re sick
or have been, and those with apparent symptoms will be
“isolated per established rules,” Napolitano said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was “far
too early to determine” whether there will be an economic
impact from the outbreak. Russia suspended imports of all meat
from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, California and Kansas
shipped after April 21 on concern about the spread of swine flu,
the country’s veterinary watchdog said. Fukuda, of the World
Health Organization, said there’s no evidence the disease is
spread by exposure to “pork or pigs.”
Obama’s Mexico Visit
The World Bank promised Mexico $205 million in loans to
help fight the disease, said Mexico’s finance minister, Agustin
Carstens.
President Barack Obama was in Mexico City April 16 for
meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Gibbs said the
incubation period for an infection is long past and “the
president’s health was never in danger.”
John Brennan, a special assistant to the president for
homeland security, said the government is putting in place
systems to allow “rapid identification” of any new cases and
efforts to “mitigate a broader outbreak” in the U.S.
He said there is “no evidence whatsoever” of a connection
to bioterrorism. Besser said all investigations so far point to
a naturally occurring virus.
The U.S. cases have been confirmed in California, Kansas,
New York, Ohio and Texas.
New Zealand, France
France is investigating four possible cases of swine flu,
including three in one family in the north of the country and
one woman in the Paris region, officials said. Test results
should be available within 24 hours, Francoise Weber, director
general of the Sanitary Surveillance Institute, said at a news
conference in Paris today.
Ten New Zealand high school students who returned from
Mexico are “highly likely” to have swine flu, Health Minister
Tony Ryall said today in a phone interview. The students don’t
have “severe” symptoms and most already appear to be
recovering, Ryall said.
In Brazil, the Sao Paulo state hospital Emilio Ribas has
isolated a potential case, said Doctor Edenilson Eduardo Calore,
head of weekend duty. The patient had been in Mexico, Calore
said.
The latest U.S. tally includes eight students at the St.
Francis Preparatory School in Queens.
“There is an outbreak at St. Francis school and we are
monitoring that outbreak very carefully,” New York Mayor
Bloomberg said today at a news conference. “We’re also looking
for outbreaks elsewhere in the city. So far there does not seem
to be any.”
Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg
LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Mutation Fears
Fears of a lethal pandemic lie in the nature of flu germs,
which mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes
with related influenza viruses. While the H5N1 bird virus that
spread across Asia in the last few years, killing millions of
fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread
easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has, said
Malik Peiris, a microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong.
“The concern is that this virus has the ability to
transmit from humans to humans because a number of the cases who
got infection have had no direct exposure to swine,” said
Peiris, who has studied the SARS and avian flu viruses. “That
is certainly a cause for concern.”