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Wow, this is really scaring me now.
Hopefully all you guys will be okay lol.
Just giving heads up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-swine-flu12-2009jun12,0,2158258.story
The World Health Organization this morning acknowledged what many health experts have been saying for weeks: The outbreak of novel H1N1 virus is now a pandemic.
"The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic," Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said at a Geneva teleconference. "This virus is now unstoppable."
In a letter sent to its member countries, Chan said she is officially raising the agency's infectious disease alert to Phase 6, its highest level, in recognition of the fact that the virus is now undergoing communitywide transmission in Australia as well as in North America. Such spread in two distinct regions of the world is the primary criterion for raising the alert level.
But the agency said that the pandemic is only "moderate in severity" and cautioned against overreactions to the increased alert level.
The announcement marks the advent of the first global influenza epidemic in 41 years. The last one was the Hong Kong flu epidemic of 1968, which killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide.
So far, the H1N1, or so-called swine flu, pandemic this year has accounted for 28,774 laboratory-confirmed cases and 144 deaths in 74 countries, although health officials believe many times that number of people have been infected but have not been tested because their illnesses have been mild.
A normal seasonal flu outbreak kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide.
In most industrialized countries, the rise in the alert level will have little practical effect because health authorities were already behaving as though a pandemic had been declared. In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases, more than 1,000 hospitalizations and at least 27 deaths, "We have been reacting as though it were a pandemic already," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease.
But it will accelerate the production of a vaccine against the new virus. Several nations have signed contracts with manufacturers that call for vaccine production if a pandemic is declared. Most of the manufacturers have received so-called seed stock viruses from the CDC in the past two weeks, allowing them to begin the lengthy process of growing the virus in eggs and producing vaccines. But vaccines will not be available until September, at the earliest, and even then the supply will be limited.
But Schuchat cautioned that use of the vaccine is not a foregone conclusion.
"The decision on whether or not to use a vaccine is a separate decision from whether or not to make it," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who became CDC director Monday.
The announcement will have more impact on Third World countries, freeing up additional funds for treatment and prevention and helping to make stocks of antiviral drugs more readily available.
Chan said the agency had already distributed more than 5 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to 121 developing nations, which will stockpile the medicine for use "should the virus arrive at their doorstep." The agency will now begin distributing another 5.65 million doses that have been donated by Tamiflu's manufacturer, Roche Holding of Geneva.
The World Health Organization had hesitated to raise the alert level out of concern that such an announcement would be misconstrued as an indication that the virus has become more pathogenic. The declaration "does not mean that there is any difference in the level of severity" of the virus, Frieden said. "This is not at this point a flu that is anywhere near as severe as the 1918 Spanish flu. There is no change in the behavior of the virus, only that it is spreading in more parts of the world.
In fact, all evidence to date is overwhelming that the virus is mild in its effects. About 2% of victims have been hospitalized, Chan said. Most infections have been in people under the age of 25, which is a marked difference from the seasonal flu, which has its greatest impact in the elderly and frail. About one-half to two-thirds of deaths have occurred in people with chronic underlying conditions, such as respiratory problems like asthma, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disease. Those who are obese or pregnant are also at increased risk.
Experts fear, however, that as it passes through populations, it could mutate to become more lethal and return with increased force in the winter influenza season. That may have been what happened with the Spanish flu.
"The virus writes the rules and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules, without rhyme or reason, at any time," Chan said.
Officials had previously said they feared that the announcement would lead frightened people who are not seriously ill to overrun hospital emergency rooms, impairing the healthcare system's ability to treat the truly sick. That has happened in past outbreaks, and there is already some evidence that it is happening in South America, particularly in Argentina, where the numbers of infected have been growing.
Chan and United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon also urged member countries to avoid the imposition of travel restrictions, border closings and bans on imported food import -- all of which have already happened in the earlier stages of the outbreak.
"We must guard against rash and discriminatory actions such as travel bans or trade restrictions," Ban told a news conference at U.N. headquarters. "Our response to any pandemic must be grounded in science."
Hopefully all you guys will be okay lol.
Just giving heads up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-swine-flu12-2009jun12,0,2158258.story
The World Health Organization this morning acknowledged what many health experts have been saying for weeks: The outbreak of novel H1N1 virus is now a pandemic.
"The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic," Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said at a Geneva teleconference. "This virus is now unstoppable."
In a letter sent to its member countries, Chan said she is officially raising the agency's infectious disease alert to Phase 6, its highest level, in recognition of the fact that the virus is now undergoing communitywide transmission in Australia as well as in North America. Such spread in two distinct regions of the world is the primary criterion for raising the alert level.
But the agency said that the pandemic is only "moderate in severity" and cautioned against overreactions to the increased alert level.
The announcement marks the advent of the first global influenza epidemic in 41 years. The last one was the Hong Kong flu epidemic of 1968, which killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide.
So far, the H1N1, or so-called swine flu, pandemic this year has accounted for 28,774 laboratory-confirmed cases and 144 deaths in 74 countries, although health officials believe many times that number of people have been infected but have not been tested because their illnesses have been mild.
A normal seasonal flu outbreak kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide.
In most industrialized countries, the rise in the alert level will have little practical effect because health authorities were already behaving as though a pandemic had been declared. In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases, more than 1,000 hospitalizations and at least 27 deaths, "We have been reacting as though it were a pandemic already," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease.
But it will accelerate the production of a vaccine against the new virus. Several nations have signed contracts with manufacturers that call for vaccine production if a pandemic is declared. Most of the manufacturers have received so-called seed stock viruses from the CDC in the past two weeks, allowing them to begin the lengthy process of growing the virus in eggs and producing vaccines. But vaccines will not be available until September, at the earliest, and even then the supply will be limited.
But Schuchat cautioned that use of the vaccine is not a foregone conclusion.
"The decision on whether or not to use a vaccine is a separate decision from whether or not to make it," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who became CDC director Monday.
The announcement will have more impact on Third World countries, freeing up additional funds for treatment and prevention and helping to make stocks of antiviral drugs more readily available.
Chan said the agency had already distributed more than 5 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to 121 developing nations, which will stockpile the medicine for use "should the virus arrive at their doorstep." The agency will now begin distributing another 5.65 million doses that have been donated by Tamiflu's manufacturer, Roche Holding of Geneva.
The World Health Organization had hesitated to raise the alert level out of concern that such an announcement would be misconstrued as an indication that the virus has become more pathogenic. The declaration "does not mean that there is any difference in the level of severity" of the virus, Frieden said. "This is not at this point a flu that is anywhere near as severe as the 1918 Spanish flu. There is no change in the behavior of the virus, only that it is spreading in more parts of the world.
In fact, all evidence to date is overwhelming that the virus is mild in its effects. About 2% of victims have been hospitalized, Chan said. Most infections have been in people under the age of 25, which is a marked difference from the seasonal flu, which has its greatest impact in the elderly and frail. About one-half to two-thirds of deaths have occurred in people with chronic underlying conditions, such as respiratory problems like asthma, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disease. Those who are obese or pregnant are also at increased risk.
Experts fear, however, that as it passes through populations, it could mutate to become more lethal and return with increased force in the winter influenza season. That may have been what happened with the Spanish flu.
"The virus writes the rules and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules, without rhyme or reason, at any time," Chan said.
Officials had previously said they feared that the announcement would lead frightened people who are not seriously ill to overrun hospital emergency rooms, impairing the healthcare system's ability to treat the truly sick. That has happened in past outbreaks, and there is already some evidence that it is happening in South America, particularly in Argentina, where the numbers of infected have been growing.
Chan and United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon also urged member countries to avoid the imposition of travel restrictions, border closings and bans on imported food import -- all of which have already happened in the earlier stages of the outbreak.
"We must guard against rash and discriminatory actions such as travel bans or trade restrictions," Ban told a news conference at U.N. headquarters. "Our response to any pandemic must be grounded in science."
