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The AH1N1 flu virus has left a total of 135 people dead in Mexico so far this year, with the number of fatalities up 67 percent in just one week, according to figures released by the authorities. The total number of deaths from AH1N1 flu reported by Mexico’s Health Secretariat up to Feb. 9 was 81, with another 54 the following week. The secretariat said Friday that deaths from the AH1N1 strain of flu from Jan. 1 to Feb. 16 represents 91 percent of the 149 fatalities from the different types of flu now active in the country. At the...

An outbreak of A(H1N1) swine flu claimed the lives of two people -- 19 and 21 years old -- in Mexico's capital in the first weeks of the year, health authorities said Saturday. The health secretary of Mexico's Federal District, Armando Ahued, said there were 138 confirmed cases of the flu, including 110 cases of A(H1N1), a novel strain of the swine flu that was first detected in 2009. Nationwide, 333 cases of the virus have been confirmed, the federal government's health secretary said earlier in the week, without saying how many deaths had been attributed to it. The latest...

Bird influenza viruses have a variety of strategies to cross the species barrier and spreadThe 2009 H1N1 influenza virus used a new strategy to cross from birds into humans, a warning that it has more than one trick up its sleeve to jump the species barrier and become virulent. In a report in this week's early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, researchers show that the H1N1, or swine flu, virus adopted a new mutation in one of its genes distinct from the mutations found in previous flu viruses, including...

Results from 34 swine flu victims in New York were released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a December 7 bulletin. The swine flu symptoms and effects on the lungs of the victims were similar to the effects of the 1918 Spanish flu, which had an extremely high mortality rate around the world. Other reports of H1N1 infections deep in the lungs have been reported around the world, including Ukraine, China, Brazil, Norway, and the United States, in Iowa and Utah. These infections have been linked to a change in the receptor binding domain of the virus. Swine...

Swine flu has hit an isolated tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle, with seven dying in the last two weeks, Survival International said on Wednesday. A further 1,000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela are believed to have caught the flu, the indigenous peoples rights group said. It is feared the flu could sweep through the area and kill many more Yanomami as the Indians have little resistance to introduced diseases. About 32,000 Yanomami live in the Venezuela-Brazil border region and form the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon. Survival director Stephen Corry said the situation was...

Obama declares swine flu emergency 9 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency," the White House said Saturday, as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths.

HEALTH - Blood oxygenation appears to be the key to surviving swine flu for patients suffering respiratory failure, new research shows. The observational study, carried out by New Zealand and Australian flu investigators between June 1 and August 31 this year, showed most patients who experienced respiratory failure after contracting swine flu survived if they were treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a type of life support that adds oxygen to the blood. The study focused on 68 patients with severe swine flu associated acute respiratory distress, who received ECMO in 15 intensive care units across New Zealand and Australia....

Three agencies are teaming up with Sesame Street to prepare school children for the new threat of the H1N1 virus. The White House announced Tuesday morning that the Homeland Security, Education, and Health and Human Services departments are enlisting the help of Elmo and Gordon from the long-running educational show to teach children how to avoid H1N1, also know as the swine flu. President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with the secretaries of those three agencies and other administration officials later Tuesday afternoon to discuss the threat. Elmo, Gordon, the Sesame Workshop and the federal agencies will try to...

As of today, the World Health Organization reports 1799 deaths due to the novel H1N1 swine-flu virus among a global total of more than 182,166 cases. By using these numbers, the overall mortality rate is 0.98% (although the actual rate is somewhat lower). The death rate as of August 6th was 0.82%. Again most of the deaths (~87%) have occurred in the Americas

PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will be the site of a National Guard riot control drill Thursday morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine flu. The school on Route 26 at the Paris-Norway town line has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it. On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to...

More of this H1N1 pandemic keeps getting into the news. How should a couple of older folks prepare (66 & 65).

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA-The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found. Joshua Hamilton, the MBL's Chief Academic and Scientific Officer and a senior scientist in the MBL's Bay Paul Center; graduate student Courtney Kozul of Dartmouth Medical School, where the work was conducted; and their colleagues report their findings this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. "When a normal person or mouse is infected...

Source: Reuters * Pattern different from seasonal flu * U.S. flu season running unusually long * Average flu victim is teenager (Updates throughout with news conferences) By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The new influenza strain circulating around most of the United States is putting a worrying number of young adults and children into the hospital and hitting more schools than usual, U.S. health officials said on Monday. The H1N1 swine flu virus killed a vice principal at a New York City school over the weekend and has spread to 48 states. While it...

May 18, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Swine Flu HotwashReviewing the course of the recent outbreak can help us fight the next one. By Tevi Troy After a significant event, government officials often undertake a formal review of how they reacted. These exercises, called hotwashes, produce “lessons learned” documents that governments use to prepare for the next event. With the swine-flu episode apparently receding, government and public-health officials are probably preparing such hotwashes right now, and there is plenty to be learned. A lot of things went right in the recent outbreak, but not everything, and it is worth taking a...

Beginning in March 2009, an outbreak of influenza in North America was found to be caused by a new strain of influenza virus, designated Influenza H1N1 2009, which is a reassortant of swine, avian and human influenza viruses. However, there are significant changes in both the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins of the new virus, 27.2% and 18.2% of the amino acid sequence, from prior H1N1 isolates in 2008 and the current vaccine. Such a degree of change qualifies as an "antigenic shift", even while the virus remains in the H1N1 family of influenza viruses, and may give influenza H1N1 2009...

This week, concerns about swine flu have dominated the media and many government officials. While the American people should be made aware of infectious diseases and common sense preventative measures, much of the hysterical reaction from government only serves to remind us how detrimental to your health it can be when government plays doctor. As a physician, I have yet to see any evidence that justifies the current level of alarm. Influenza typically kills around 36,000 people every year in this country and hospitalizes a couple hundred thousand. So far there are only a handful of confirmed deaths attributable to...

Major cruise operators said yesterday that they will temporarily suspend stops at ports in Mexico because of escalating concerns over the swine flu crisis. Three ships operated by Carnival Corp. – including one that departed San Diego on Sunday and was to visit Ensenada – abruptly skipped scheduled stops in Mexico yesterday. Later in the day, the Miami-based cruise operator announced that it will expand the Mexican port ban for all voyages departing tomorrow through Monday. Within hours of Carnival's move, rival Royal Caribbean International said it will suspend port calls in Mexico for four ships. Norwegian Cruise Line also...

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY -- Responding to the spread of swine flu to the United States, university officials have temporarily evicted residents of one of Georgetown’s two university-designated quarantine houses to make space for any students who may contract the virus. Wednesday morning, residents of 3517 Prospect St. were told that they have 24 hours to vacate their residence. According to Mark Valtierra (SFS ’10), one of three residents at 3517 Prospect, Patrick Lukingbeal, hall director of Alumni Square and university townhouses, notified Valtierra of the eviction at 10:30 a.m. Valtierra and his housemates were given several boxes and told they must...

Janet Napolitano strikes again! Time to call for her resignation. Our Border patrol agents are NOT permitted to protect their health because DHS doesn't like how it looks to the public and does not want commerce to be effected at the risk of American lives. "We are now calling for Janet Napolitano's immediate resignation!" William Gheen, President of ALIPAC Agents want to wear the N-95 respirator masks.

A member of the U.S. delegation that traveled to Mexico City as part of the advance security team for Energy Secretary Steven Chu exhibited swine flu-like symptoms upon his return, and three members of his family have tested positive for the A H1N1 virus, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced on Thursday. The unnamed staffer tested negative himself, but Gibbs attributed that to the amount of time that had elapsed since the onset of his own symptoms. The staffer felt ill three days after his arrival in Mexico City, which was April 13th. On the following day (April 17th),...