Posted on 04/27/2009 6:35:09 PM PDT by Lady GOP
TRENTON, N.J. New Jersey health officials say they've identified five probable cases of swine flu in people who recently traveled to Mexico and California.
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services said Monday that all have mild forms of the flu and none has been hospitalized.
The department says it's arranging for confirmatory testing at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results are expected within two days.
The patients include residents of several counties. Four of the five recently traveled to Mexico; the fifth had traveled to California.
The cases were identified through preliminary tests conducted at the New Jersey Public Health and Environmental Laboratories.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
NZealand checks 56 possible swine flu cases
WELLINGTON (AFP) – The New Zealand government is investigating a further possible 56 cases of swine flu among people who recently returned from Mexico or the United States.
It follows a weekend announcement that nine high school students and a teacher who had returned from Mexico had tested positive for influenza A and were likely to have contracted swine flu.
Minister of Health Tony Ryall said Tuesday a further 56 people who had recently returned to New Zealand and had flu-like symptoms were being tested for influenza A, a type of virus to which swine flu belongs.
“These are people who have been in Mexico or the United States in the last two weeks,” Ryall told a press conference.
Up to 45 swine flu cases connected to NYC school
The number of confirmed cases in New York rose from eight to 28 on Monday. The city said it has an additional 17 probable cases. All of the cases involved students, their relatives and at least one teacher from the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, city officials said.
More than 160 sick students were treated at the school nurse’s office Thursday and Friday, and Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said he expected more cases from the community to be confirmed. Some students received doses of Tamiflu, the medication that can help alleviate symptoms of the flu.
The rising number of cases put the city on edge. People were showing up at hospitals asking to be tested for swine flu when they had light flu symptoms. New Yorkers had depleted some pharmacies’ stockpile of paper face masks by Monday morning.
South Korea suspects first human swine flu case: Yonhap
1 hr 54 mins ago
SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea has spotted a suspected case of swine flu in a citizen just back from a trip to Mexico, Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying Tuesday.
“A South Korean citizen who recently returned from a trip to Mexico has been classified as a possible swine flu patient,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
No further details were immediately available.
Does anyone know how many confirmed cases we have where the individual did not travel into Mexico?
Texas raises confirmed swine flu cases to six
Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:39pm EDT By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas state health authorities on Monday confirmed four more cases of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic, bringing the state’s total to six.
To contain the outbreak, Texas officials closed 14 schools near San Antonio and one in Dallas.
In North Texas, Dallas health officials are tracking three more “probable” swine flu infections that could be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in coming days.
In Guadalupe County near San Antonio, all three confirmed cases involve students at Byron Steele High School, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.
The cases in Dallas affect a wider age group — a 24-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 3-month-old, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services officials.
The new virus has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and there were 40 confirmed U.S. cases, though there are no confirmed U.S. deaths from the virus that spreads quickly between humans.
The World Health Organization on Monday raised its pandemic alert level to phase 4, indicating a significant increased risk of a pandemic, a global outbreak of a serious disease. It would be the world’s first flu pandemic since 1968.
Elsewhere in Texas, local officials said they were tracking four possible cases in Nueces County near Corpus Christi.
In Schertz, Texas, two high school students have recovered and the third is recovering under voluntary isolation at his home, officials said.
In the middle class suburb outside San Antonio where the three confirmed swine flu cases live, residents did not show any alarm.
Swine flu case reported in Michigan
LDN Staff -
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) announced today that one probable swine flu case has been reported in Livingston County. State laboratory results showed that a 34-year-old woman has a probable case of the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus.
No one in the regional health department area has been reported as having the virus yet.
Anyone with the specific flu symptoms the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking out for is asked to go to their family physician to determine whether testing is necessary.
Memorial Medical Center of Ludington reported no cases of flu of any kind over the weekend.
The symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. In the past, severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and deaths have been reported with swine flu infection in people. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.
Fevers of more than 100 degrees are those the District Health Department are saying need attention.
The state laboratory results of the Livingston County woman will be sent to the CDC today to determine if the case is positive. The woman, who recently traveled to the Texas and Mexico border, is recovering at home.
The UK Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel to Mexico.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8021916.stm
Lowell kids tested for swine flu after Mexico trip
BOSTON — Two young siblings in Lowell are being tested for swine flu after they got sick during a vacation to Mexico.
Health officials say they are awaiting results as to whether the children — whose names and ages have not been released — in fact have the swine flu.
There have been no confirmed cases yet in Massachusetts.
About two dozen people have been tested in the state, in accordance with protocol from the national Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
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