WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

[pablomorgan]

The World Health Organization confirmed 2,500 cases of swine flu in 25 countries on Friday, announcing that 44 people had died. Of those 44 confirmed flu deaths, two occurred in the United States, while Mexico suffered the remaining 42 deaths on 1,100 confirmed cases--the highest concentration of H1N1 cases worldwide.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday that the total number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 swine flu had risen to 1,639 cases in 43 states. That figure is nearly double the figure reported just the day before.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy announced that 12 cases of swine flu have been confirmed among crew members serving aboard the USS Dubuque, an amphibious transport dock ship that had been preparing for a June 1 humanitarian mission to the South Pacific. According to Navy spokesman Cmdr. Joseph Surette, the ship was being scrubbed and disinfected, and its remaining 370 crew members had received Tamiflu as a precaution.

Navy officials explained that the ship would remain in port, ready for emergency deployment, until commanders assess that conditions are suitable for standard deployment.

Dr. Sylvie Briand, acting director of WHOs Global Influenza Program for
announced that the group will remain at pandemic alert level 5 -- one step below a full pandemic alert. This was due, she said, to the fact that, though the number of cases has risen quickly, the outbreak has shown no evidence of the community transmission outside North America that would push the alert to level 6.
http://www.examiner.com/x-8543-SF-H...O-braces-for-possible-pandemic-US-cases-surge

 

[tropical]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

...
Dr. Sylvie Briand, acting director of WHOs Global Influenza Program for
announced that the group will remain at pandemic alert level 5 -- one step below a full pandemic alert. This was due, she said, to the fact that, though the number of cases has risen quickly, the outbreak has shown no evidence of the community transmission outside North America that would push the alert to level 6.
...

The same negation was present 10 days ago about the community transmission inside USA ...

:yinyang:

The real problem is not the delay of widening the bad news to general audience,
but the delay of some countries inner wide stronger preparedness, which is supporting itself by this lower WHO pandemic flag stage of "mild" and "no sustained".

 

[Rocky]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(As of May 9, 2009, 11:00 AM ET) States* Laboratory
confirmed
cases Deaths
Alabama 4
Arizona 182
California 171
Colorado 41
Connecticut 14
Delaware 44
Florida 43
Georgia 3
Hawaii 6
Idaho 1
Illinois 421
Indiana 39
Iowa 43
Kansas 12
Kentucky** 3
Louisiana 9
Maine 4
Maryland 23
Massachusetts 89
Michigan 103
Minnesota 1
Missouri 10
Nebraska 13
Nevada 9
New Hampshire 4
New Jersey 7
New Mexico 30
New York 190
North Carolina 7
Ohio 12
Oklahoma 4
Oregon 15
Pennsylvania 10
Rhode Island 7
South Carolina 42
South Dakota 1
Tennessee 46
Texas 110 2
Utah 60
Vermont 1
Virginia 16
Washington 83
Washington, D.C. 4
Wisconsin 317
TOTAL*(44) 2254 cases 2 deaths

Arkansas 5

http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm#statetable

 

[Extrapolation]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

Swine flu: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge
http://www.examiner.com/x-8543-SF-H...WHO-braces-for-possible-pandemic-US-cases-sur

___________________
This thread's name taken from the article is misleading - not you Pablo - the article title - although it is de facto correct in the minds of many of us here at FT - it is NOT what WHO says and has been saying - WHO says the opposite - that we are static at 5.

Poor choice of verbiage, sort of like:

JIMMY HOFFA NOT DEAD just 42 years late for work

 

[pablomorgan]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

It seems to be spreading faster in the USA than anywere else.Any thoughts?

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

Some lights in this recent Hong Kong press conference:

(...)
Secretary for Food and Health:
What I mean for success is so far, after seven days of confining the index patient, we have not found a case as related to him. I think this is what we term as success for this index patient. It does not mean that it is successful for every subsequent case. But we learn a lot from this case. We also learn a lot from other countries on this particular virus in the last week. So, this gives us more time to understand this virus and this infection. I am sure with this time, we are able to have a new strategy for subsequent handling of this infection in the days to come. As far as the alert level goes, I have mentioned time and again that our emergency level is linked to two elements. One is a reported case in Hong Kong and second is the WHO's warning on the imminent pandemic.

As WHO will be reviewing their level of alert in the next couple of days, so it is not appropriate for us to lower our emergency level at this moment. We will see what is happening and also the world figure seems to be still climbing.

So, it is important we should know what the rest of the world is facing and not just what we are facing. It is important to know that this level of alert is important and is also an alert to signify that everyone, including everyone in our community, need to be on alert about this situation and we should not relax yet.

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=230170&postcount=47
-

 

[Shannon Bennett]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

I think it is spreading more quickly in the US because we had a far greater number of 'seeds' coming in from Mexico. The borders are very porous and this bug had already been circulating before the Mexicans figured out they had a problem.

 

[The Mountains Voice]

Re: WHO braces for possible pandemic, U.S. cases surge

It seems to be spreading faster in the USA than anywere else.Any thoughts?

As Shannon replied above - we got more "seeds". We're also further along in the exponential growth curve. It may be that because we have the CDC here - we're just getting quicker confirmations (more testing resources basically). My guess is that by the end of the coming week, we'll see the exponential case growth beginning elsewhere.