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CDC is now estimating that the H1N1 virus will be a category 2. Case fatality ratio of 0.1 percent to less than 0.5 percent. Between 90,000 and 450,000 deaths in the US. Illness rate between 20 and 40 percent. Similar to 1957

The Obama administration has relied on a Bush-era public health strategy aimed at coordinating its response across an array of government agencies in the week since the first reports of a swine flu outbreak emerged, officials say, as it attempts to balance safety concerns with a desire to prevent a panic. While Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the public face of the administration's effort to manage the outbreak, President Obama has been briefed three times a day on his administration's first public-health crisis. Behind the scenes, Deputy National Security Adviser John O. Brennan is coordinating the response to...

The flu epidemic has finally reached America and already we have our first casualty, a toddler in Texas. The flu epidemic will no doubt have an effect on these and other vulnerable groups with weak immune systems including the elderly and Aids patients. I decided to write about this after listening to Michael Savage discuss it. His take was as you can very well imagine controversial as is some of his other remarks. Savage noted also that the government has done nothing useful to prevent the spread of this new influenza strain despite the fact that it may have as...

Official U.S. government PSAs warning people to get Swine Flu shots

The suspected death toll from the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico rose Monday to 149 people as health authorities cancelled all schools across the country until May 6. Mexican cabinet officials led by Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova gave a press conference today in Mexico City with the latest information they have gathered about the outbreak of a deadly new strain of swine flu that has halted many aspects of public life here and appears to continue to be spreading. Since the first case of swine flu was reported, 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia,...

CHICAGO – Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die. Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia. The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control...

Doctors in America are advising worried patients to buy painters’ masks as a precaution against the global outbreak of swine flu that appears to have spread from Mexico to the United States, New Zealand and possibly Europe. With the worldwide death toll standing at about 81 and with about 1,300 people infected, authorities across the globe are torn between the desire to slow down a potential flu pandemic and the need to avoid bringing major cities on every continent to an economic standstill. As of today, the US was still allowing people to cross the border from Mexico – where...

group of Queens high school students likely brought Mexico's deadly swine flu epidemic to the city after they went on a wild spring-break party to Cancun earlier this month. Some seniors from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows took the trip over Easter hiatus two weeks ago. Days later, an outbreak of flu-like symptoms erupted at the school, leaving about 200 kids complaining of being ill. Yesterday, city health officials confirmed that eight students "have probable human swine influenza" after testing positive for Influenza A, which officials say causes the swine strain of disease. "We're very concerned about what may...

As Mexico hunkers down, 2 cases found in Kansas and 8 likely in NYC Worries that the new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential” increased with the announcement that the virus has spread to Kansas and likely to New York City. On Saturday, two new cases were confirmed in Kansas — the first U.S. cases outside of California or Texas. And New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said tests showed that eight New York schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus that was...

Continued Rise of Bed Bug Populations is Highlighted Nationally in New Research Study & with Upcoming Federal Summit Posted : Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:40:28 GMT Author : National Pest Management Association (NPMA) Category : Press Release News Alerts by Email ( click here ) Press Release News | Home FAIRFAX, Va. - (Business Wire) According to a new study from the Journal of American Medical Association, bed bugs do not transmit disease to their victims, but infestations continue to increase worldwide. The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has reported a 71% increase in bed bug infestations in the states...

For the first time in more than a decade, the rate at which residents in Singapore are contracting tuberculosis is on the rise. And more younger people aged below 30 are being hit - a worrying trend that hints at greater spread of the infectious respiratory disease in the community. Last year, 39.8 in every 100,000 Singaporeans and permanent residents contracted it, up from 35.1 in 2007. The number of TB patients grew by 15 per cent to 1,451 last year, up from 1,256 in the previous year. The last time the tuberculosis rate grew was in 1998, when it...

The Dutch Hill Campground at Steamboat Lake State Park once was densely packed with lodgepole pine. But blue marks on bark now dominate the landscape, identifying the beetle-killed trees awaiting removal. The mountain pine beetle epidemic sweeping Colorado forests has taken a heavy toll on Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake state parks, whose campgrounds were closed in October after being deemed unsafe after trees starting falling much earlier than expected... The epidemic will have a drastic impact on camping availability in the summer. Crews will begin cutting down beetle-killed and beetle-infected trees in Steamboat Lake State Park later this month,...

Obama's hopes DaschledHis ties to the former senator may have blinded him to potential ethics problems -- but in the end, the president takes the blame. By Mike Madden Feb. 4, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- Things would probably have gone a lot more smoothly for Tom Daschle if the whole country worked the way Washington does, at least at its most stratified levels. You serve in a high government post for a while, then you lose an election, and your friends step in to support you with helpful things like, say, a $1 million-a-year job in private equity, and a...

Ohio has taken the lead in race to have the most cases of salmonella. As of 9PM EDT, Wednesday, January 22, 2009, 491 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (10), Arkansas (4), California (62), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Georgia (6), Hawaii (3), Idaho (11), Illinois (6), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (8), Massachusetts (42), Michigan (25), Minnesota (35), Missouri (9), Mississippi (3), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (19),...

Dear Editor: A new article in World Magazine discussed the disturbing financial relationship between the breast cancer group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and an organization that is the primary cause of the breast cancer epidemic in the U.S. - Planned Parenthood. The author, Alisa Harris, correctly reported that basic medical textbooks acknowledge that full term pregnancies offer women a considerable reduction in breast cancer risk. Logically, that means that the woman who chooses not to have a baby (i.e. by having an abortion) has a higher breast cancer risk than does the one who has a baby. The...

OTHER BUGS ACTING BADLY _______________________________________________________ International experts to study ebola reston INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC and animal health experts arrived on Tuesday to start a joint risk assessment on the ebola reston contamination of local hogs, officials of the Agriculture department said yesterday. Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III (R), flanked by international experts, addresses a press conference in Manila for an update on the outbreak of ebola reston at two pig farms north of the capital. The experts are (L to R) Kate Glynn of World Organization for Animal Health, Juan Lubroth and Kazuyuki Tsurumi of the Food and Agriculture Organization,...

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the...

A deadly Ebola outbreak in the central Democratic Republic of Congo has killed nine and infected 21, the UN-sponsored radio Okapi quoted the health minister as saying Thursday.

Zim cholera death toll tops 1 100HARARE, ZIMBABWE Dec 18 2008 13:03The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has soared to 1,111, the United Nations said on Thursday, adding to pressure for a quick solution to the crisis in the Southern African country. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma backed a diplomatic push as the way to end political deadlock and rejected any suggestion of sending troops. The latest cholera figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva included a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban in Mashonaland West, west of Harare, where...

ZIMBABWE has cut water supplies to the nation's capital Harare, state media reported today, leaving most of the city dry as authorities struggle to contain a cholera epidemic. "Most parts of Harare - including the city centre - did not get water yesterday amid claims by Zinwa staff that the authority had stopped pumping after it ran out of one of the essential chemicals,"