[infoshare] U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu - NYTimes.com

  • From: "Luis Guerra" <jerseypalisades@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "current events" <peeps-current-events@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:42:17 -0400

April 27, 2009

U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu

By
KEITH BRADSHER
 and
JACK HEALY

American health officials on Sunday declared a publichealth emergency over 
increasing cases of swine
flu,
saying that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States 
and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of
the outbreak.

Although officials said most of the cases have been mild and urged Americans 
not to panic, the emergency declaration frees government resources to be 
used
toward diagnosing or preventing additional cases, and releases money for 
more antiviral drugs.

"We are seeing more cases of swine flu," said Richard Besser, acting 
director of the
Centers for Disease Control,
in a news conference in Washington. "We expect to see more cases of swine 
flu. As we continue to look for cases, I expect we're going to find them." 
Homeland
Security Secretary
Janet Napolitano,
speaking at the same news conference called the emergency declaration 
"standard operating procedure," and said it should be considered a 
"declaration of
emergency preparedness."

"Really that's what we're doing right now," she said. "We're preparing in an 
environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size of 
seriousness
of this outbreak is going to be."

Officials said they had confirmed eight cases in New York, seven in 
California, two in Kansas, two in Texas and one in Ohio, and that the cases 
looked to
be similar to the deadly strain of swine flu that has killed more than 80 
people in
Mexico
 and infected 1,300 more.

So far, there have been no deaths from swine flu in the United States, and 
only one of the people who tested positive for the disease has been 
hospitalized,
officials said.

Still, officials said they expect more severe cases.

Other governments around the world stepped up their response to the 
incipient outbreak, racing to contain the infection amid reports of 
potential new cases
from
New Zealand
 to
Hong Kong
 to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic.

Canada also confirmed four cases of
the flu.
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, said on Sunday 
that four students who attend the same school in that province had what he
describes as "very mild" cases of the flu, according to The Associated 
Press.

The United States said it would use "passive surveillance" in screening 
travelers from Mexico who would enter the country, isolating them only if 
they were
ill. But other governments issued travel advisories urging people not to 
visit Mexico, the apparent origin of the outbreak, where 81 people have died 
and
some 1,300 have been infected. China, Russia and others set up quarantines 
for anyone possibly infected. Some countries banned pork imports from 
Mexico,
even though there is no link between food products and the flu, and others 
were screening air travelers for signs of the disease.

The
World Health Organization
 reiterated that it considered the outbreak "a public health emergency of 
international concern" but said it would put off until Tuesday a decision on 
whether
to raise the pandemic alert level.

Raising it to level 4 "would be a very serious signal that countries ought 
to be dusting off pandemic plans," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director 
general
of the W.H.O. The W.H.O. is historically reluctant to declare pandemics in 
sensitive member countries.

In the United States, the C.D.C. confirmed that eight students of a high 
school in Queens had been infected with swine flu, the first confirmed cases 
in
New York City, Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
 said at a news conference on Sunday. Mr. Bloomberg said that all of the 
cases had been mild and
hospitals
 in the city had not seen more patients with severe lung infections.

"So far there does not seem to be any outbreak," Mr. Bloomberg said. "We don't 
know if the spread will be sustained. What's heartening is the people who
tested positive have only mild illnesses."

About 100 students at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, 
Queens, became sick in the last few days, and some family members have also 
taken
ill. Mr. Bloomberg said the school would be closed on Monday, and that 
officials would then reassess whether to reopen the school.

Other New York City schools will be open as usual on Monday, Mr. Bloomberg 
said.

Other cases of possible infection in New York turned about to be false 
alarms. Five of six children at a day-care center in the Tremont section of 
the Bronx
who had shown some flu-like symptoms tested negative for swine flu, said 
Thomas Frieden, the city's health commissioner.

On Sunday, the government of Hong Kong announced some of the toughest 
measures yet of any jurisdiction in response to the swine flu outbreak.

Officials urged residents not to travel to Mexico and ordered the immediate 
detention at a hospital of anyone who arrives with a
fever
 and symptoms of a respiratory illness after traveling in the previous seven 
days through a city with a laboratory-confirmed outbreak.

The new policy, shaped by Hong Kong's lasting scars as an epicenter of a 
SARS outbreak six years ago, has the potential to dampen air travel across 
the
Pacific. Hong Kong has Asia's busiest airport hub for international air 
travel, with Boeing 747s arriving around the clock from cities all over the 
United
States and Canada, but not Mexico.

Ever since the 2003 outbreak of
severe acute respiratory syndrome,
Hong Kong has used infrared scanners to measure the facial temperature of 
all arrivals at its airport and border crossings with mainland China. 
Visitors
are required to remove any hats to ensure accurate measurement, and children 
are checked with ear thermometers because the scanners are less reliable in
measuring their faces.

Dr. Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Hong Kong government's Center for 
Health Protection, said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon that any 
traveler
who has passed through a city with laboratory-confirmed cases and who 
arrives in Hong Kong with a fever and respiratory symptoms will be 
intercepted by
officials and sent to a hospital to await testing.

"Until that test is negative, we won't allow him out," he said.

An aide later said that the cut-off for having a fever would be 38 degrees 
Celsius, or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it would take two or three 
days
to obtain test results.

Dr. York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for health and food, asked residents to 
watch the news for reports of which states in the United States have 
outbreaks
and discouraged travel to these states, but reserved his strongest warning 
for travel to Mexico.

"Do not travel to Mexico unless it is absolutely necessary," he said.

The Hong Kong government will also amend its health regulations in the next 
couple days to make it mandatory for any health professional to alert the 
government
of any suspected cases of swine flu, he said.

Hong Kong should "prepare for the worst" if the swine flu virus develops a 
clear ability to pass from person to person, Dr. Chow said, while adding 
that
the risk from the virus was low if this did not happen.

One legacy of SARS is that Hong Kong may now be better prepared for a flu 
pandemic than practically anywhere else on the world. Fearing that SARS 
might
recur each winter, the city embarked on a building program to enlarge its 
capacity to isolate and treat those infected with communicable
respiratory diseases.

Hong Kong now has 1,400 beds for this purpose each equipped with mechanical 
ventilators for treating those with severe
pneumonia
 or other respiratory difficulties. But only 80 to 100 of these beds are 
needed on any given day, so they have been used until now for patients with 
other
medical problems, Dr. Chow said.

The city has also expanded its flu research labs, already among the best in 
the world and leaders in tracking the H5N1 avian flu influenza virus. The 
so-called

bird flu
 virus, which kills an unusually high share of its victims, has periodically 
triggered fears over the past decade about a possible pandemic but is 
different
from the H1N1 swine flu influenza virus now causing illnesses in Mexico and 
the United States.

Keith Bradsher reported from Hong Kong and Jack Healy from New York. Donald 
McNeil contributed reporting from New York.

Copyright 2009
The New York Times Company


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