The Swine Flu

BY Porprom SilPipat ID:4907640884

Influenza is a world problem

The slow and uncoordinated response to the alarming outbreak of swine flu in North America has been an unpleasant surprise. Government authorities from the prime minister to senior civil servants issued conflicting statements on the influenza problem believed to have originated in Mexico. For several days, the public has been in an official information limbo.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva now says that relevant agencies have completed the first of a three-day meeting to discuss the dangers and response. Let us hope this produces a more credible result than the obviously off-handed weekend statements that "there is no reason for alarm".

There is not just reason for alarm, but an actual alarm. The World Health Organisation last week elevated its International Pandemic Alert to Phase 3 of six. The WHO said their experts and colleagues believe the world is closer to a deadly worldwide killer flu than at any time since 1968, the latest of three such pandemics. These WHO alerts are meant to inform the world of the seriousness of a threat, in order to urge governments everywhere to step up their preparedness.

It is unclear how Thailand has responded to these alerts. Across Asia, many countries stepped up high-profile monitoring of arrivals at airports and land borders, but such measures were not obvious at Thai airports. There has been no mention of Mexico, a growing trade partner and source of tourists.

In that country, dozens of flu victims have already died and hundreds are suspected of carrying the disease. Travellers from Mexico, and from North and Central America in general, should have been receiving careful vetting at border crossings for many days.

One should not think, as Disease Control Department director-general Somchai Jakkraphan said on Sunday, that a flu outbreak can be contained inside one country. The Mexican swine flu has already sickened people in the US. The bird flu and Sars outbreaks proved they have no borders.

The lack of information and spread of misinformation has been most troubling. Mr Abhisit spoke of deaths in Mexico, the US and China, although swine flu had not been detected in China or elsewhere in Asia. On Sunday, the premier advised against eating semi-cooked pork - perfectly good advice, but not relevant to the flu outbreak. As Permanent Secretary for Public Health, Prat Boonyawongvirot, contradicted the premier hours later on Sunday, eating pork can neither cause nor contribute to swine flu.

When both the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raise the alarm about an outbreak, so should all the world. Medical workers nationwide must now be put on alert and provided with up-to-date information about the symptoms and treatment of swine flu. Fortunately, like bird flu, it responds to Tamiflu.

Entry points to the country must screen arrivals, and all hospitals should step up preparations to receive infected patients. There has been bad advice from the Public Health Ministry, calling on people with high fever, body aches, coughing, and runny nose to wear protective masks. They should seek medical attention, and on the double if they have been in North America.

Full and fast disclosure of information to the public is the best guard against a worldwide pandemic. Misinformation or, worse, withholding important news, is the enemy of public health. The government and medical authorities must bring themselves up to speed and act swiftly to protect the nation from swine flu.

From: www.Bangkokpost.com

WHO ups flu alert level, warns no region safe

World health officials stepped up warnings of a possible pandemic of swine flu as governments released millions of antiviral drugs and the number of cases rose, spreading into Europe.

With the likely death toll in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, now standing at 152, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its flu pandemic alert level from three to four.

While the increase marked a "significant step towards pandemic influenza, it's also a phase which says we are not there yet," said Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant-general for health, security and the environment.

Fukuda warned "that in this age of global travel where people move around in airplanes so quickly, there is no region to which this virus could not spread."

Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the number of probable deaths from swine flu rose Monday to 152 from 149.
Cordova also signaled for the first time that the epidemic may be abating: the number of suspected flu deaths had gone from six on Saturday to five on Sunday and to three on Monday, he said.
"We received reports of three more (deaths) today," he said in an interview with Mexico's Televisa.

Cordova cautioned that the cause of the latest deaths had not been confirmed, but that they could be taken as a reference point.
Officials have confirmed 20 people died from the disease, while the number of cases under observation in Mexico has reached 1,614.
Faster and more effective laboratory tests for the flu were to begin Tuesday, Cordova said.
"We're in the decisive moment of the crisis. The number (of deaths) will continue rising," Cordova said earlier.

Despite measures to contain the virus and increasing warnings for visitors to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico, Cordova later insisted that Mexico could maintain business and tourist relations with the rest of the world.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States more than doubled on Monday to 44 and Britain and Spain both said they had registered patients sick with swine flu, the first cases in Europe.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the new multi-strain virus, which is believed to be a mix of a human flu virus and an avian flu that first came from swine, risked triggering a global pandemic.

Europe's first confirmed case was reported in Spain, where 26 suspected cases were being probed, while two people were found to have the disease in Britain and dozens more potential cases were being checked in seven European Union member states.

Fears the disease could further strain the already-embattled global economy gave stock markets the jitters, leading to falls in Europe and Asia, while trading on Wall Street was muted.
And oil prices fell sharply on fears the escalating outbreak could further dampen economic activity and impact energy demand.

Although the US government has declared a public health emergency with 44 cases in five states, President Barack Obama urged calm.
The swine flu outbreak "requires a heightened state of alert, but it is not a cause for alarm," he told a gathering of the National Academy of Sciences.

Richard Besser, acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the affected states of New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California and others were receiving 11 million courses of antiviral drugs.

Besser stressed that of so far most people in the US had only been mildly ill.The European Union called emergency talks of health ministers and advised against non-essential travel to areas where the virus has surfaced.The United States issued a travel alert warning against "non-essential travel" to Mexico.

There have been six confirmed cases in Canada and in the Middle East, a 26-year-old Israeli was also hospitalized.
Asia tightened its already strict measures to keep swine flu from spreading across the region Tuesday.

The number of suspected cases across the region jumped, with New Zealand investigating 56 possible new infections, Australia 17 and South Korea a single case among people who had recently returned from Mexico or the United States.

Nine New Zealand high school students and their teacher had already tested positive for influenza A and were thought likely to have contracted swine flu. Tests results were expected later this week.
"It's a time for caution and concern, but not alarm," said New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall. Three suspected cases from a separate New Zealand school group that visited Mexico had tested negative.

In neighbouring Australia, health authorities said they were investigating 17 possible cases and health officials were put on high alert.Most countries in the region have already increased airport checks to screen passengers arriving from affected areas and advised against non-essential travel to Mexico.
Thermal scanners have been a common feature in many Asian airports since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003.

Japan went one step further, saying it would temporarily tighten visa restrictions for Mexican nationals as part of efforts to stop the virus entering the country and urged Japanese citizens in Mexico to return home.

It also booked 500 hotel rooms near Tokyo's Narita International Airport in case it needs them to quarantine infected travellers, Jiji Press reported.Hong Kong, which was at the forefront of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and has since been on alert for bird flu, has already issued similar guidelines allowing for arrivals to be detained, as has Australia.

The first suspected case of the virus in East Asia was reported in a woman in South Korea just back from a trip to Mexico, health officials said.

Local authorities were looking for any clusters of flu-like illness in India which, along with Thailand, said it was trying to track down an unknown number of people who had recently arrived from Mexico and the United States.

From: www.Bangkokpost.com

Obama asks Congress for 1.5 billion dollars for flu

Washington - US President Barack Obama is asking Congress for an extra 1.5 billion dollars to fight the swine flu outbreak that has spread to five US states, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The money will be used to "enhance the nation's capability to stop the spread," including stockpiling anti-viral drugs and develop and "ramp up production" of a vaccine, said Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs dismissed the suggestion that the funding request indicated a new level of concern by the White House. "In our opinion, this is about prudent planning," he said.

The number of US human swine influenza cases in the United States increased to 64 in five states, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday.
The worst-affected was New York City, with 45 cases, while California reported 10 cases. There were 6 cases in Texas, 2 in Kansas and 1 in Ohio.

Those who've fallen ill in the US range in age from 7-54 years, with a median age of 16 years. Five people have so far been hospitalized - three in California and two in Texas. There have been no deaths in the US.

"As this moves forward we will see deaths from this infection ... in this country," CDC acting director Richard Besser warned.
"This is a situation that is rapidly changing ... as we continue to look for cases, as this flu virus infects individuals, we will be seeing a broader spectrum of disease." There is still no vaccine to treat this strain of swine flu in what Besser called a "pre-pandemic" period, and current seasonal flu vaccines don't have protective value for this new strain.

But the White House spokesman said that 12 million doses of anti- viral drugs were being distributed to the states affected. Some of the additional funds will also be used in assisting international outbreaks of the swine flu, Gibbs said.

There are few confirmed reports of serious illness in the US, and the infections have been self-resolving, with the disease running its course and the patients recovering. However, on Tuesday, a California newspaper quoted a medical examiner as saying one, possibly two, people had died of the illness.

Mexico is experiencing the worst outbreak, with 152 deaths from an influenza-type illness, but only seven deaths have been attributed to swine flu. Small numbers of non-fatal cases have also been confirmed in a number of other countries.

In response to the intensifying outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 4, which means they have determined that the virus is spread through sustained person-to-person contact.

The CDC and State Department issued an advisory late Monday urging against non-essential travel to Mexico, in effect through July. Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security, said the US embassy in Mexico City had suspended all non-essential activitities.

Health experts were struggling to understand swine flu, which has genetic elements that come from three species - pigs, birds and humans - and has never been seen before. They were still looking for the origins of the virus.
Swine flu has proved to be transmissible and no one has a natural immunity to it. WHO cautioned that while raising the alert to Phase 4 indicated the likelihood of a pandemic, it didn't mean that a pandemic was inevitable.

People suffering from swine flu display the same symptoms as seasonal flu. The latter is also a major public health concern in the United States.

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, each year seasonal influenza kills more than 36,000 people and hospitalizes 200,000 others in the US.
Worldwide, annual epidemics cause about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths. These viruses change quickly, creating new strains that require new vaccines each year and threaten the emergence of a pandemic form.//dpa

From : www.nationmultimedia.com

I believe that now almost everyone often hear about the Swine Flu as it is a new dangerous flu that causes lots of people die within a short time.
Because of its danger, we should concern more about it in order to protect our lives as much as possible.

What is H1N1 Flu, Swine Flu, Swine Influenza?
From: http://www.squidoo.com/preventing-swine-flu

According to the CDC, H1N1 (swine flu) is a type of influenza or flu virus (type A influenza) that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in people. This new strain can spread between people.Most people infected with this virus in the United States have had mild disease, but some have had more severe illness, and there has been at least one death.Young children, pregnant women, and people with chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, or heart disease may be at higher risk for complications from this infection.The classical swine flu virus (an influenza type A H1N1 virus) was first isolated from a pig in 1930.Image: C. S. Goldsmith and A. Balish, CDC. Swine Flu Virus. Public Domain.

Swine Flu’s Medication and Vaccine
By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY

As new swine flu cases continue to mount, the question of developing a vaccine is a growing concern.
World Health Organization officials say we are more prepared for a potential flu pandemic than we were five years ago. Yet, if the decision is made to create one for this flu strain, it will still likely take months before it's available.

The current vaccine-making processes are multi-step recipes that begin in the molecular biology labs of international and national health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to infectious-disease specialist P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

"To have vaccines ready, you really have to be preparing six to eight months in advance," Brennan says.
Once a virus is identified, one of two FDA-approved methods is used.

In the first, called the attenuated method, drug companies grow the new strain of virus in chicken eggs. Even though vaccine is more efficiently produced than in the past, say WHO officials, some infectious-disease experts say eggs can be unreliable. "They can go bad, the strain might not grow fast enough, or at all," says Brian Currie, medical director for research at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Brennan says it can take months to harvest the virus.
The second method of vaccine manufacturing uses part of the virus's DNA. Basically, you inject a protein, found on the surface of the virus, into a patient. In doing so, the person develops antibodies and becomes immune to the virus, says Wayne Marasco, associate professor of medicine in the department of cancer immunology and AIDS at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard.

Marasco agrees with health officials that making a vaccine for this entirely new strain of flu could take months.
"You can't pull an old virus off the shelf and say it's 95% similar and hope to get cross-protection," he says.
Currie says there are other, more efficient ways to develop flu vaccines. "The medical literature is full of them." But, he says, "you'd have to retool entire production plants to develop these" newer methods.

Swine Flu Protection

Swine Flu Prevention Kits: What You Really Need?

By Kelli B. Grant (Author Archive) Deal of the Day

All of the headlines about the spread of swine flu beyond Mexico's border are enough to make anyone want to live in a protective bubble.

But with just one confirmed swine flu death in the U.S. -- a 23-month-old Mexican child brought to Texas for treatment -- it’s important to keep in mind that the scare is, well, just that. (The remaining seven laboratory-confirmed swine flu deaths have occurred in Mexico, where outbreaks began in March.) An estimated 36,000 Americans die annually from complications related to regular seasonal flu strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, the World Health Organization’s tally of confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu stands at 91 since it was first identified as a new strain April 24. On Wednesday, the WHO raised the pandemic alert level to 5 -- just one level below a full pandemic.

While your odds of contracting swine flu may be slim, it’s never a bad idea to have a few preventative emergency supplies on hand, says Lesly Simmons, a spokeswoman for The American Red Cross. But you don't need to go overboard. Plenty of enterprising salespeople and entrepreneurs are hawking swine flu- and pandemic-readiness kits on web sites like Craigslist.org and Amazon.com that are overpriced or offer items that you don't need, she says.

For example, Quake Kare’s $40 Swine Flu Pandemic Kit on Amazon.com includes a full-body Tyvek suit, safety goggles and plastic sheeting to “shelter in place.” Sherry Heitz, Quake Kare's CEO says that the plastic sheeting and the Tyvek suit aren't really necessary at this point, but the items may well be recommended by the government should the outbreaks worsen. The truth is you probably already have most of what you need in the drawers, closets and cabinets of your home, says Claire Pospisil, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Health. The emergency kit checklist she and Simmons recommend: soap, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and, for more worried consumers, gloves and a particulate mask. “It’s basically the same protocol people should take for seasonal flu,” she says. “A lot of it is just common sense.”

Smartmoney.com went shopping at CVS in New York to see how much it would cost to put together our own flu-prevention kit (assuming someone didn’t have any of the suggested items already on hand). Our total tab: $31. (See chart below for the breakdown of items and their cost.)

Our final tally is a bit pricey compared to the Red Cross’s Germ Guard Personal Protection Pack, which, for just $10, includes all the recommended gear, but you get much less for the money. The Red Cross's kit includes one N95 mask (instead of our two-pack), an ounce of hand sanitizer (we got a 15-ounce bottle), 10 cleansing wipes (our wipes came in a 24-pack), a pair of vinyl gloves (we got 25 pairs) and a pack of tissues (we passed on the tissues). Simmons says the kit is meant as a basic or travel pack.

On the other end of the spectrum, Preparedness.com charges $119 for a Personal Pandemic Defense Kit containing 20 N95 masks (18 more than we got), 25 pairs of non-latex disposable gloves (our list includes the same amount), 100 hand-cleansing towelettes, 50 disinfecting wipes (compared to our 75), six 20-count tissue packs, two waste disposal bags marked with the bio-hazard symbol and a pair of protective goggles, all of which are contained in a nylon carry bag. We didn't buy the tissues, disposal bags, protective goggles or the nylon carry bag because neither Simmons nor Pospisil, from the New York State Department of Health recommended buying them. When asked why the Personal Pandemic Defense Kit was so expensive compared to the other kits we had seen, a Preparedness.com spokesman (who wouldn't divulge his full name) said: “We don’t have to justify anything.”

Effects from Swine Flu

Swine Flu Affects Global Economy

From: http://en.chinagate.cn/features/swineflu

A pandemic triggered by swine flu is expected to negatively impact the already fragile global economy. Analysts say the widespread outbreak could further deepen the recession worldwide. And only a few drug makers are poised to receive any benefits.

The world economy is struggling to recover from the financial crisis. But it is now facing a formidable new threat -- swine flu. A World Bank study in 2008 estimated that a severe pandemic such as the 1918 to 1919 Spanish flu could cost up to 3 trillion yuan in lost output. That's nearly 5 percent of the global GDP.

Travel and transportation-related industries are expected to be hardest hit. Analysts say if the new flu strain continues to spread, people will travel less due to concerns over infection. This will in turn greatly affect tourism and transportation industries around the globe.

The swine flu is also sending a chill through the farm sector, resulting in sinking pork prices. Authorities have been trying to reassure consumers that it's safe to eat pork. But analysts say shoppers might lose their appetite for pork until the situation becomes clearer. In the United States, hog prices have slumped to record lows over the past two months.

Swine flu worries have also pushed down crude oil prices. Oil prices dipped to around US$50 a barrel on Monday on fears that the swine flu outbreak could hurt the global economy. Analysts say talk of a pandemic will continue to weigh on prices.

But analysts also say the threat of a pandemic will provide a windfall for drug makers, due to sharply increasing demand in drugs and vaccines. But they remain concerned that the swine flu outbreak may reverse recent progress made in easing the global economic downturn.
(CCTV April 28, 2009)

My Reaction

1.People are panicking about the swine flu as they follow the mass media. So, it is quick to spread the awareness and fear all over the globe which brings both positive and negative sides.

2.As everywhere in this world tries to alert with the swine flu, it is faster to protect the mankind than the last time that we face a bird flu problem. We are better at controlling this flu in shorter time.

3.The perfect at transportation makes the swine flu travel so fast at the same time that spread the flu all over the world within short period of time.

4.Fear created economic downturn, especially travel industries because many people don’t trust their health safety. So, the government should care more about the preventing process in order to recall travelers’ confidence back again.

5.A basic strategy like washing hands is one of the most effective methods to prevent people from the swine flu. It is much needed for everybody to learn the right way to help cleaning hands to stop the growing of this virus.

6.The swine flu can transmit from human to human, so wearing masks and avoid kissing can be other choice to protect ourselves from the flu.

7.Buying an expensive swine flu expensive kit doesn’t mean that it will be the best choice. We should concern what we need to use to protect ourselves from the flu because there are many useless kits that are launched to gain customers’ money in the right time.

8.Because we have no effective vaccine to fight with this flu yet, we better take care of ourselves the best before it is too late.

9.H1N1 is a new virus that develop itself to be stronger until being able to kill human, so we should pay more attention to avoid doing anything that will create a chance to get this decease; for example, skip the plan to go visit Mexico around this period of time.

10.As far as all kinds of news from everywhere come to us to consume. We should pick the trustable sources in order to get correct knowledge. Don’t let the media misunderstand ourselves. We should be wise to consume for protect ourselves from the flu as best as we can.

11.The government is an essential factor to protect the citizens. Therefore, the government should create strong policies to be able to handle with the swine flu and always be ready to fix every problem that can happen in the future with their citizens’ health and countries’ reputation for in case that there is a swine flu happen within our countries.



Conclusion

The 2009 Swine Influenza causes lots of people death within a short period of time. The origin of the flu is Mexico; however, it disseminates quickly all over the world because of the high performance of transportations. About a month now that many organizations have tried to find real cause of the swine flu by assuming many scientific methods, but no one can prove how the flu happened yet.

Because of the swine flu’s danger, people in everywhere work so hard to find vaccines and medication for curing the flu. Unfortunately, we cannot find the exact method. Only Thamiflu medicine now that can heal in a short time and safe clients’ lives after catch the flu. So, we should protect ourselves away from the swine flu. Don’t let it happens. We can do it by washing our hands often and wearing masks when we have to be in the crowded areas.

Apparently, we try so hard to protect ourselves from virus and bacteria, of cause, including the swine flu, by creating all kinds of vaccines. In contrast, people should realize what we do to the animals and nature. Human is the only living thing that creates plenty of chemical to the environment.

We add different kinds of chemicals to animals and plants that will be our food. So, the chemical affects those meats and vegetable which are our foods finally. The antibiotic and chemical that we use in our food surely affects human body and health directly. Finally, we get sick or even died from many deceases referring to chemical that we create by our hands.

Therefore, people should stop using antibiotic or chemical in our food. We should concern more about advantage and disadvantage of using them. We can find many safe ways to grow our animals and plants that are good for ourselves and the world such as using the organic process to plant vegetable. This solution doesn’t only protect us from dangerous virus and decease, but it also makes us healthier and better for the global environment.