COULD BE 200 DEAD FROM SWINE FLU IN MEXICO

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

ALEX JONES THINKS HE SMELLS A GOVERNMENT SETUP OF THIS SWINE FLU PANDEMIC TO TAKE MARTIAL LAW OF THE STATES.A SWINE,BIRD AND HUMAN IS A 3 MIXTURE IT COULD HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURED BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. NOT SAYING IT IS BUT IT SMELLS LIKE THE WAY THE GOVERNMENT WORKS TO GET CONTROL. I WILL UPDATE ON THIS.
The BBC has selected some emails they are receiving - the first one is from a doctor in Mexico City,who says: The official number of deaths is 20, nevertheless, the true number of victims are more than 200.Another person in Mexico City writes: The local news is reporting 200 fatalities.

11:20PM APR 25
REPORTS THAT CALDERON CAME ON THE THE AIR IN MEXICO AND SAID THERES A VACCINE MADE ALREADY THAT CURES THE SWINE FLU.IF THATS THE CASE IT IS A GOVERNMENT SETUP BECAUSE NO ONE WOULD HAVE A CURE FOR SOMETHING THATS JUST CAME INTO BEING.

11:46PM APR 25
ALSO REPORTS THAT FREE VACCINES WERE GIVEN TO MEMBERS OF MEXICO AND NOW SOME OF THEM HAVE THIS SWINE FLU SICKNESS.

12:45PM SUN APR 26,09 81 CONFIRMED DEAD IN MEXICO,1,300 SICK,8 CASES CONFIRMED IN NY AND 11 IN CALIFORNIA,TEXAS,KANSAS,2 IN B.C AND 4 MILD CASES IN NOVA SCOTIA SO FAR.

FLU EPEDEMIC GROWS VIDEO
http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=102656&newsChannel=UKNews1

TO LISTEN TO ALEXS SPECIAL SWINE FLU REPORTS FROM LAST NIGHT,CLICK ON TITLE OF MY STORY GO DOWN RIGHT SIDE OF ALEXS SHOW TILL YOU COME TO PLAYER OF ALEXS SPECIAL ON SWINE FLU.12:45 AM APR 26,09

OBAMA DECEPTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=player_embedded

OPERATION DARK WINTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFPXgC-Ib0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational_and_howto/watch/v18136085xyrjDdQA#

4 cases of swine flu confirmed in Nova Scotia, 2 in B.C.
Global vigilance grows amid Mexico's outbreak
Last Updated: Sunday, April 26, 2009 | 2:02 PM ET
CBC News

Women wearing surgical masks pray in the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City on Sunday. (Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press)Nova Scotia and British Columbia have confirmed cases of swine flu, while new cases of the infection have been found in New York City, as health officials around the world test for a virus linked to a more serious outbreak in Mexico.Nova Scotia's chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said Sunday the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg confirmed late Saturday that four young people in the province are recovering from relatively mild cases of the disease.Strang said the four are between the ages of 12 and 18 and all attend a private school in the Windsor area of Nova Scotia.They had been part of a group of students who were on a school trip to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in early April, Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, medical officer of health for Capital Health, told reporters
B.C.'s Centre for Disease Control on Sunday confirmed cases of swine flu involving two people from the province who recently returned from Mexico.

NYC students with swine flu after Mexico trip
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed Sunday that eight students attending St. Frances Preparatory School in Queens have swine flu. Tests returning positive results were carried out by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.More than 100 students at the private high school have been suffering from fever, sore throat and muscle ache since Thursday. Bloomberg stressed that their symptoms of influenza were mild.Some of the students had recently travelled to Mexico, the New York Times and New York Post reported.There have been 12 confirmed cases elsewhere in the United States this month: seven in California, two in Kansas, two in Texas and one in Ohio.All of these infections have been relatively mild, with only one person staying in hospital for a brief time, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization's director-general for health security and environment.In Mexico, a new type of swine flu virus is thought to have killed 86 people since April 13. More than 1,300 others have become ill with suspected cases of the infection.President Felipe Calderon on Saturday invoked new powers that give his government special powers to run tests on sick people and order them isolated, a day after all public events in Mexico City were ordered suspended until further notice.

Churches deserted in Mexican capital
In Mexico City, church services were cancelled on Sunday. Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral was broadcast over the radio.The latest measures come one day after experts advising the World Health Organization on the outbreak met at WHO headquarters in Geneva. The UN health agency declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern.The panel will convene on Tuesday to advise the WHO whether to raise the global pandemic alert level. The current alert level is 3 on a scale of 1 (low risk of human cases) to 6 (efficient, sustained transmission between humans).

New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall confirmed on Sunday a group of Auckland college students who returned from a three-week visit to Mexico on Saturday likely have swine flu.Ten of the 13 students who had flu-like symptoms have proven positive for influenza A and the swine flu is a subset of influenza A, he said. So we're going to send the swabs to Melbourne for further analysis. We should have that information in a matter of days, but our officials here think it's highly likely they have.French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are under investigation, including a family of three in the Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico.Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.

The makings of a pandemic
Dr. Donald Low, the chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto who played a key role in battling the SARS crisis in 2003, says while there haven't been any confirmed cases in Canada yet, it could be just a matter of time before they appear.Considering that we see about 600,000 people travel from Mexico to Canada each year and that we've just come through the March break period, it wouldn't be surprising at all for us to recognize cases in Canada, and we're preparing for that, as we have been preparing for a pandemic in the last five years,he told CBC News.

What you're seeing here is the makings of a pandemic,Low said.You're seeing a new virus that we have no natural immunity to. You're seeing a virus that can cause disease, and in causing disease, can transmit from person to person.All it needs to complete that equation is the recognition that it's spreading over a wide geographical area. And I think that's what we're hearing this weekend, that it's actually happening,he said.

Expert: China capable of detecting swine flu
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-27 00:30:51

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China has the technologies to detect the Swine Influenza A/H1N1 and is taking measures to prevent the deadly virus from entering the country, an inspection and quarantine expert said here on Sunday. Li Huailin, director with the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine affiliated to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said the academy was currently assisting relevant authorities to taken necessary measures to prevent the entrance of the swine flu found in the United States and Mexico. The new flu strain, a mixture of swine, human and avian flu viruses, has killed at least 62 people among about 900 cases in the two countries by Thursday. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, no cases of the swine flu had been so far reported in China as of Sunday. Although there is no vaccine to fight the virus so far, the center said the swine flu was preventable, controllable, and treatable.On Saturday, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued an emergency notice requiring people to report flu-like symptoms at the point of entry when coming from the deadly swine flu affected places.

People who developed flu-like symptoms after returning from the disease affected regions within two weeks should also report to the local entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities.These people reporting flu-like symptoms must be scrutinized and the those who have been infected or are suspected to be infected by the virus should be isolated and treated, the administration said.Editor: Mu Xuequan

H5N1 Originates From Alaska in 1997
Robert S. Finnegan Infowars April 26, 2009

In 1997, freelance investigative reporter Robert S. Finnegan, then living and based in Alaska was present when Dr. John Hultin managed to con the Natives of Brevig Mission Alaska into allowing him to exhume the bodies of several Native Alaskans against the almost violent protests of the Natives. Plying the Natives with lies and money, Hultin managed to find two corpses that appeared still viable for extraction of the H5N1 DNA buried in the permafrost. One corpse retained the viral DNA in its desiccated lungs. He then returned to the lower 48 with enough DNA to resurrect this killer virus that had been eradicated in the early 1900’s.Hultin turned virus samples over to the CDC and the U.S. Army (Jeffery Taubenberger) who then proceeded to weaponize the virus H5N1, baptizing his new doomsday creation with the name Bird Flu. This virus that had long been eradicated has now been released once more to kill again, this time possibly billions of human beings across the planet, by combining with the brand new killer H1N1 that has the capability to cross barriers in pigs, birds and humans becoming a Super-Super virus.Dr. Death,Today, on this date the world is seeing the results of this evil research as a new pandemic roars out of Mexico into the United States. I was in Alaska when this travesty occurred. Unfortunately, the Alaska Native Federation was unable to stop this theft.Doctor Hulin, the CDC, and the United States Army are guilty of crimes against humanity – especially the CDC - who are now in the business of killing rather than curing, and probably have been for some time now under the Bush/Cheney crime regime. The blame for this pandemic, if it indeed becomes one, can be laid squarely at their feet. I have been waiting for this to occur since 1997. Martial Law, forced vaccinations and mass death will follow shortly if this comes to pass.

Perhaps we slept too long.Robert S. Finnegan Jakarta, Indonesia April 26, 2009

Origin of Virus

One theory is that the virus strain originated at Fort Riley, Kansas, by two genetic mechanisms — genetic drift and antigenic shift — in viruses in poultry and swine which the fort bred for local consumption. Though initial data from a recent reconstruction of the virus suggested that it jumped directly from birds to humans, without traveling through swine [1], this has since been cast into doubt. One researcher argues that the disease was found in Haskell County, Kansas as early as January 1918. [2]

Discovery of viral genomes

In February 1997, Johan Hultin recovered samples of the 1918 influenza from the frozen corpse of a Native Alaskan woman buried for nearly eight decades in permafrost near Brevig Mission, Alaska [3]. He brought the samples to a team led by Jeffery Taubenberger of the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). Brevig Mission lost approximately 85% of its population to the 1918 flu in November 1918. One of the four recovered samples contained viable genetic material of the virus. This sample provided scientists a first-hand opportunity to study the virus, which was inactivated with guanidinium thiocyanate before transport. This sample and others found in AFIP archives allowed researchers to completely analyze the critical gene structures of the 1918 virus. We have now identified three cases: the Brevig Mission case and two archival cases that represent the only known sources of genetic material of the 1918 influenza virus, said Taubenberger, chief of AFIP’s molecular pathology division and principal investigator on the project. [4] [5]The February 6, 2004 edition of Science magazine reported that two research teams, one led by Sir John Skehel, director of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, another by Professor Ian Wilson of The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, had managed to synthesize the hemagglutinin protein responsible for the 1918 flu outbreak of 1918. They did this by piecing together DNA from a lung sample from an Inuit woman buried in the Alaskan tundra and a number of preserved samples from American soldiers of the First World War. The teams had analyzed the structure of the gene and discovered how subtle alterations to the shape of a protein molecule had allowed it to move from birds to humans with such devastating effects.On October 5, 2005, researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York announced that the genetic sequence of the 1918 flu strain, a subtype of avian strain H1N1, had been reconstructed using historic tissue samples. [6] [7] [8]

Characteristics of virus

Influenza viruses have a relatively high mutation rate that is characteristic of RNA viruses. The H5N1 virus has mutated into a variety of types with differing pathogenic profiles; some pathogenic to one species but not others, some pathogenic to multiple species. [9] The ability of various influenza strains to show species-selectivity is largely due to variation in the hemagglutinin genes. Genetic mutations in the hemagglutinin gene that cause single amino acid substitutions can significantly alter the ability of viral hemagglutinin proteins to bind to receptors on the surface of host cells. Such mutations in avian H5N1 viruses can change virus strains from being inefficient at infecting human cells to being as efficient in causing human infections as more common human influenza virus types. [10] This doesn’t mean one amino acid substitution can cause a pandemic but it does mean one amino acid substitution can cause an avian flu virus that is not pathogenic in humans to become pathogenic in humans.In July 2004, researchers led by H. Deng of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Harbin, China and Robert Webster of the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, reported results of experiments in which mice had been exposed to 21 isolates of confirmed H5N1 strains obtained from ducks in China between 1999 and 2002. They found a clear temporal pattern of progressively increasing pathogenicity. [11] Results reported by Webster in July 2005 reveal further progression toward pathogenicity in mice and longer virus shedding by ducks.In December, 2008, research by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of University of Wisconsin linked the presence of the three specific genes (termed PA, PB1, and PB2) and a nucleoprotein derived from the 1918 flu samples was enough to trigger similar symptoms in animal testing. [12]

Research of viral pathogenesis

Recent research of Taubenberger et al has suggested that the 1918 virus, like H5N1, could have arisen directly from an avian influenza virus. [13] However, researchers at University of Virginia and Australian National University have suggested that there may be an alternative interpretation of the data used in the Taubenberger et al. paper. [14] [15] Taubenberger et al responded to these letters and defended their original interpretation. [16]Other research by Tumpey and colleagues who reconstructed the H1N1 virus of 1918 came to the conclusion that it is was most notably the polymerase genes and the HA and NA genes that caused the extreme virulence of this virus. [17] The sequences of the polymerase proteins (PA, PB1, and PB2) of the 1918 virus and subsequent human viruses differ by only 10 amino acids from the avian influenza viruses. Viruses with seven of the ten amino acids in the human influenza locations have already been identified in currently circulating H5N1. This has led some researchers to suggest that other mutations may surface and make the H5N1 virus capable of human-to-human transmission. Another important factor is the change of the HA protein to a binding preference for alpha 2,6 sialic acid (the major form in the human respiratory tract). In avian virus the HA protein preferentially binds to alpha 2,3 sialic acid, which is the major form in the avian enteric tract. It has been shown that only a single amino acid change can result in the change of this binding preference. Altogether, only a handful of mutations may need to take place in order for H5N1 avian flu to become a pandemic virus like the one of 1918. However it is important to note that likelihood of mutation does not indicate the likelihood for the evolution of such a strain; since some of the necessary mutations may be constrained by stabilizing selection.On 18 January 2007, Kobasa et al reported that infected monkeys ( Macaca fascicularis) exhibited classic symptoms of the 1918 pandemic and died from a cytokine storm. [18]

Blood plasma as an effective treatment

In the event of another pandemic, US military researchers have proposed reusing a treatment from the deadly pandemic of 1918 in order to blunt the effects of the flu. Some military doctors injected severely afflicted patients with blood or blood plasma from people who had recovered from the flu. Data collected during that time indicates that the blood-injection treatment reduced mortality rates by as much as 50 percent. Navy researchers have launched a test to see if the 1918 treatment will work against deadly Asian bird flu. Results thus far have been inconclusive. Human H5N1 plasma may be an effective, timely, and widely available treatment for the next flu pandemic. A new international study using modern data collection methods, would be a difficult, slow process. But many flu experts, citing the months-long wait for a vaccine for the next pandemic, are of the opinion that the 1918 method is something to consider. [19]In the world wide 1918 flu pandemic, physicians tried everything they knew, everything they had ever heard of, from the ancient art of bleeding patients, to administering oxygen, to developing new vaccines and sera (chiefly against what we now call Hemophilus influenzae—a name derived from the fact that it was originally considered the etiological agent—and several types of pneumococci). Only one therapeutic measure, transfusing blood from recovered patients to new victims, showed any hint of success.[20]

Sources and notes

1. Sometimes a virus contains both avian adapted genes and human adapted genes. Both the H2N2 and H3N2 pandemic strains contained avian flu virus RNA segments. While the pandemic human influenza viruses of 1957 (H2N2) and 1968 (H3N2) clearly arose through reassortment between human and avian viruses, the influenza virus causing the 1918 flu in 1918 appears to be entirely derived from an avian source (Belshe 2005). (from Chapter Two : Avian Influenza by Timm C. Harder and Ortrud Werner, an excellent free on-line Book called Influenza Report 2006 which is a medical textbook that provides a comprehensive overview of epidemic and pandemic influenza.)

2. The site of origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications

3. Washington Post article

4. Lethal secrets of 1918 flu virus; BBC

5. According to Gina Kolata’s 1999 account of the pandemic, Flu, pp. 255-65 : Johan Hultin first attempted to recover samples from Brevig in 1951, but he was unsuccessful. In 1997, by then a seventy-two year old retired pathologist, he decided that science had advanced enough to make another attempt worthwhile. Taubenberger had already recovered RNA of limited quality from samples of two servicemen who had died in the pandemic, and Hultin wrote offering offering his services to try to get better quality samples from Brevig permafrost. Taubenberger accepted, and Hultin went alone to Brevig in August 1997, and recovered the sample from the Alaskan woman, which Taubenberger and his team then analysed.

6. Special report at Nature News: The 1918 flu virus is resurrected, Published online: 5 October 2005; doi:10.1038/437794a

7. Taubenberger, Jeffery K.; Ann H. Reid, Raina M. Lourens, Ruixue Wang, Guozhong Jin and Thomas G. Fanning (2005). "Characterization of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase genes". Nature 437: 889–893. doi:10.1038/nature04230.

8. Also: Tumpey, Terrence M.; Christopher F. Basler, Patricia V. Aguilar, Hui Zeng, Alicia Solórzano, David E. Swayne, Nancy J. Cox, Jacqueline M. Katz, Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Peter Palese and Adolfo García-Sastre (2005). Characterization of the Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus. Science 310: 77–80. doi:10.1126/science.1119392. PMID 16210530.

9. Kou, Z.; F. M. Lei, J. Yu, Z. J. Fan, Z. H. Yin, C. X. Jia, K. J. Xiong, Y. H. Sun, X. W. Zhang, X. M. Wu, X. B. Gao and T. X. Li (2005). New genotype of avian influenza H5N1 viruses isolated from tree sparrows in China. Journal of Virology 79: 15460–15466. doi:10.1128/JVI.79.24.15460-15466.2005. PMID 16306617.

10. Evolution of the receptor binding phenotype of influenza A (H5) viruses by A. Gambaryan, A. Tuzikov, G. Pazynina, N. Bovin, A. Balish and A. Klimov in Virology (2005) electronic release on October 11 ahead of print publication.

11. The evolution of H5N1 influenza viruses in ducks in southern China by H. Chen, G. Deng, Z. Li, G. Tian, Y. Li, P. Jiao, L. Zhang, Z. Liu, R. G. Webster and K. Yu in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2004) volume 101, pages 10452-10457.

12. Reuters

13. Recent research of Taubenberger et al has suggested that the 1918 virus, like H5N1, could have arisen directly from an avian influenza virus in: Taubenberger JK, Reid AH, Lourens RM, Wang R, Jin G, Fanning TG. Characterization of the 1918 influenza virus polymerase genes. Nature. October 6, 2005;437(7060):889-893

14. Was the 1918 pandemic caused by a bird flu? - Gibbs and Gibbs Nature. April 27, 2006;440:E8

15.Was the 1918 flu avian in origin? - Antonovics et al. Nature. April 27, 2006;440:E9

16. Molecular virology: Was the 1918 pandemic caused by a bird flu? Was the 1918 flu avian in origin? (Reply)

17. Tumpey TM, Basler CF, Aguilar PV, Zeng H, Solorzano A, Swayne DE, Cox NJ, Katz JM, Taubenberger JK, Palese P, Garcia-Sastre A. Characterization of the reconstructed 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic virus. Science. October 7, 2005;310(5745):77-80

18. Aberrant innate immune response in lethal infection of macaques with the 1918 influenza virus Nature. 18 January 2007;445:319

19. npr.org history.navy.mil

20. The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? Workshop Summary (2005) (free online book) page 62

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu_research
Categories: Influenza pandemic.

Swine flu confirmed in NYC high school students
By KAREN MATTHEWS – APR 26,09

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that students at a city high school were infected with swine flu.New York officials previously had said they were eight probable cases, but tests later confirmed that it was indeed swine flu. Bloomberg stressed that the cases were mild and many are recovering.The city is awaiting the tests of additional samples to see if more St. Francis Preparatory School students were infected.About 100 students complained of flu-like symptoms at the school. Some students went to Cancun on a spring break trip two weeks ago.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Students at a New York City high school could learn as early as Sunday if the flu that sickened them was the same strain of the human swine influenza that has killed people in Mexico.Preliminary tests of samples taken from sick students' noses and throats confirmed that at least eight had a non-human strain of influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, city health officials said. The exact subtypes were still unknown, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was conducting further tests.So far, there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of swine flu in California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.New York health officials said more than 100 students at the St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, recently began suffering a fever, sore throat and aches and pains. Some of their relatives also have been ill.Some St. Francis students had recently traveled to Mexico, The New York Times and New York Post reported Sunday.

Workers were sanitizing the school as a precaution. But a class reunion featuring cocktails, dinner and dancing for hundreds of alumni from as far back as 1939 went on as scheduled Saturday.Symptoms in the New York cases have been mild, said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. But the illnesses have caused concern because of the outbreak in Mexico, where health officials say a strain of swine flu has killed up to 81 people and sickened more than 1,000.Parent Jackie Casola said Sunday that her son Robert Arifo, a St. Francis sophomore, told her on Thursday that a number of children had been sent home because of illness. On Friday, he said hardly anyone was in school.Casola said she expected to keep him home from school on Monday, even if it was open. He hasn't shown any symptoms, but some of his friends have, she said, and she has been extra vigilant about his health.I must have drove him crazy, I kept taking his temperature in the middle of the night, she said.The World Health Organization chief said Saturday that the strain has pandemic potential, and it might be too late to contain a sudden outbreak.If the CDC confirms that the New York students have swine flu, Frieden said he likely will recommend that the school remain closed Monday "out of an abundance of caution.State infectious-diseases, epidemiology and disaster preparedness workers have been dispatched to monitor and respond to possible cases of the flu. Gov. David Paterson said 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu had been sent to New York City.The city health department has asked doctors to be extra vigilant and test patients who have flu symptoms and have traveled recently to California, Texas or Mexico.Investigators also were testing children who fell ill at a day care center in the Bronx. Two families in Manhattan also have contacted the city, saying they had recently returned ill from Mexico with flu symptoms, Frieden said.Frieden said New Yorkers having trouble breathing due to an undiagnosed respiratory illness should seek treatment but shouldn't become overly alarmed. Medical facilities near St. Francis Prep have already been flooded with people overreacting to the outbreak, he said.

Kansas health officials said Saturday that they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico. The couple, who live in Dickinson County, weren't hospitalized, and the state described their illnesses as mild.Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves, said Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, the state health officer.Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A flu viruses, the CDC's Web site says. Human cases are uncommon but can occur in people who are around pigs. It also can be spread from person to person. Symptoms include a high fever, body aches, coughing, sore throat and respiratory congestion.At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas. The most recent California case, the state's seventh, was a 35-year-old woman from Imperial County who got sick in early April. She had no known contact with the others.

Health officials are concerned because people appear to have no immunity to the virus, a combination of bird, swine and human influenzas. The virus also presents itself like other swine flus, but none of the U.S. cases appear to involve direct contact with pigs, Eberhart-Phillips said.Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., and Deepti Hajela in New York contributed to this report.

WHO says world ready to withstand potential pandemic
Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:23pm BST

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world is better prepared than ever to withstand a potential flu pandemic after five years of gearing up for bird flu, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday.Keiji Fukuda, acting director-general for health security and environment, also said the WHO had begun preliminary work with laboratories to prepare a vaccine against swine flu if needed.I believe that the world is much, much better prepared than we have ever been for dealing with this kind of situation, Fukuda told a teleconference on the outbreaks of swine flu in Mexico and the United States.The past five years have put us in (the) best possible position to handle this kind of situation,he said.The WHO had a stockpile available of 5 million treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu, by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG which has proven effective against the virus, he said. Countries and regions also have stockpiles.If this situation escalates then I think that the demand for antivirals clearly will also escalate and then this will require both the stockpiles and probably increased production of this drug,Fukuda said.There was zero evidence that people are getting infected with the new virus from exposure to pigmeat or pigs, he said in response to reports that some countries were banning imports of meat from Mexico.(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer APR 26,09

GENEVA – Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. Nations from New Zealand to France reported new suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America.World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan held teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world but stopped short of recommending specific measures to halt the disease beyond urging governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.

Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of pandemic potential because the virus can pass from human to human.Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice.Countries are encouraged to do anything that they feel would be a precautionary measure, WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said. All countries need to enhance their monitoring.

New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico likely had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are currently under investigation, including a family of three in the northern Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico. Tests on two separate cases of suspected swine flu proved negative, they said.Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.Mexico closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak after hundreds were sickened there. In the U.S., there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of swine flu in California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.New York health officials said more than 100 students at the St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, recently began suffering a fever, sore throat and aches and pains. Some of their relatives also have been ill.Some St. Francis students had recently traveled to Mexico, The New York Times and New York Post reported Sunday.

Preliminary tests of samples taken from sick students' noses and throats confirmed that at least eight had a non-human strain of influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, city health officials said. The exact subtypes were still unknown, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was conducting further tests.Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until cause of the fever is determined.Tokyo's Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico.Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms — using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. It said it was ready to quarantine suspected victims if necessary.Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy, Poland and Venezuela also advised their citizens to postpone travel to affected areas of Mexico and the United States. Symptoms of the flu-like illness include a fever of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea. At least 81 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by the disease in Mexico, according to the WHO. The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission.

No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.Russia banned the import of meat products from Mexico, California, Texans and Kansas. South Korea said it would increase the number of its influenza virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the U.S.Serbia on Saturday banned all imports of pork from North America, despite reassurances from the FAO that pigs appear not to be the immediate source of infection.Italy's agriculture lobby, Coldiretti, warned against panic reaction, noting that farmers lost hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) because of consumers boycotts during the 2001 mad cow scare and the 2005 bird flu outbreak. Japanese Agriculture Minister Shigeru Ishiba appeared on TV to calm consumers, saying it was safe to eat pork. In Egypt, health authorities were examining about 350,000 pigs being raised in Cairo and other provinces for swine flu. The WHO's pandemic alert level is currently at to phase 3. The organization said the level could be raised to phase 4 if the virus shows sustained ability to pass from human to human. Phase 5 would be reached if the virus is found in at least two countries in the same region.

The declaration of phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short,WHO said. Phase 6 would indicate a full-scale global pandemic. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.On the Net: WHO swine flu page: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Saturday, April 25, 2009 Mexico’s Calderon Declares Emergency Amid Swine Flu Outbreak By Thomas Black

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic, Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

Obama’s Visit
The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16.Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.The Mexican government is distributing breathing masks to curtail the disease’s spread. There is no vaccine against the new strain of swine flu, health authorities said.
Museums, theaters and other venues in the Mexico City area, where large crowds gather, have shut down voluntarily and concerts and other events canceled to help contain the disease. Two professional soccer games will be played tomorrow in different Mexico City stadiums without any fans, El Universal newspaper reported. Catholic masses will be held, the newspaper said, although church officials urged worshipers to wear breath masks and to avoid contact.Schools will likely remain closed next week, Calderon said in the Oaxaca speech. The decree allows Calderon to regulate transportation, enter any home or building for inspection, order quarantines and assign any task to all federal, state and local authorities as well as health professionals to combat the disease.The health of Mexicans is a cause that we’re defending with unity and responsibility, Calderon said. I know that although it’s a grave problem, a serious problem, we’re going to overcome it.

Normal Airport Operations
Mexico City’s international airport, which handles about 70,000 passengers each day, is operating normally, said Victor Mejia, a spokesman. Passengers are given a questionnaire asking if they have flu symptoms and recommending they cancel their trip and see a doctor if they do. The measures are voluntary, Mejia said, and no case of swine flu in airport passengers, workers or visitors has been confirmed.
Authorities throughout Central America have issued alerts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Guatemala ordered tighter control yesterday of its northern border with Mexico, according to EFE. Gerberth Morales, who’s heading the Guatemala government’s response, said no cases of swine flu have been reported in his country, the Spanish news agency reported.Brazil is intensifying vigilance in ports, airports and borders to check travelers’ health, luggage, aircrafts and ships in a preventive action against the outbreak in Mexico, the Agency for Sanitary Vigilance said on its Web site.To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 25, 2009 16:45 EDT hattip KBD and Sally

Mexico flu a potential pandemic APR 25,09
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8018356.stm

Face masks are handed out, while the head of the WHO voices concern.A new flu virus suspected of killing as many as 81 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, the World Health Organization's chief says. Margaret Chan said the outbreak was a health emergency of international concern and must be closely monitored. Health experts say tests so far seem to link the illnesses in Mexico with a swine flu virus in the southern US. Several people have also fallen ill in the US, and the authorities there are watching the situation.A top US health official said the strain of swine flu had spread widely and could not be contained.Speaking after a meeting of the WHO's emergency committee, Mrs Chan said that the current events constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

Officials said most of those killed so far in Mexico were young adults - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly. The committee has not recommended declaring an international public health emergency and raising the global pandemic alert level, a move that could lead to travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.

New strain

At least some of the cases show a new version of the H1N1 swine flu sub-strain - a respiratory disease which infects pigs but only sporadically infects humans. The RC church has issued advice to its priests to help halt the spread of the flu
H1N1 is the same strain that causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans, but the newly-detected version contains genetic material from versions which usually affect pigs and birds.The virus is spread through coughs and sneezes and through direct and indirect contact between people. Mexican officials have confirmed 20 deaths from the virus and are investigating dozens more. Schools, museums and libraries have been closed across the capital's region and people are being urged to avoid shaking hands or sharing crockery.Hundreds of public events have been suspended and schools in the Mexico City area have been closed until 6 May.Two previously sold-out soccer matches were played in empty stadiums to avoid potentially spreading the virus. Health officials are isolating individuals suspected of having the virus and inspecting their homes.The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has recommended measures to avoid further contagion at Mass this Sunday.Priests have been told to place communion wafers in the hands of worshippers rather than in their mouths and to suggest to the congregation that kissing or shaking hands be avoided during the service.

Caution

In the US, 11 people are now known to have been infected with the new strain - seven people in California, two in Texas, and two in Kansas. There are also eight suspected cases in New York City after 200 students at a high school fell ill. Specimens were taken from nine students, and eight were determined to be probable cases of swine flu, said city health commissioner Dr Thomas Frieden. Those samples are now being examined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). No children had required hospital treatment and many had fully recovered, said Dr Frieden, but the school could remain closed out of an abundance of caution. He urged people to maintain basic hygiene, such and covering their mouths when coughing and sneezing, washing hands regularly and keeping surfaces clean.Dr Frieden said most people would not need to take antiviral medication if they fell ill, unless they had an underlying medical condition.

Hopeful sign

CDC officials have said that with cases arising in so many communities, containment is unlikely to be feasible.There is currently no vaccine for the new strain. Tom Skinner of the CDC told the BBC that it was too early too tell how widespread the impact would be. We don't know how well or efficiently this virus is spreading and how easily it is going to be sustained in the human population.He said it was not yet clear which side of the border the virus had originated. But the US was likely to take normal and routine steps within the next few days to screen passengers coming into the US and to distribute information, he said.The CDC plans to send experts to Mexico to help investigate the virus which has infected more than 1,000 people in the country.The BBC science editor Susan Watts says the new strain is a classic re-assortment - a combination feared most by those watching for the flu pandemic.

Swine Flu Is Deadly Mix Of Never-Before-Seen Viruses APR 25,09
Alarm spreads as human to human infection confirmed, bug is an intercontinental mix of never-before-seen human, avian and pig viruses, top globalists stand to benefit from Tamiflu stockpiling Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Saturday, April 25, 2009

Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst, and that the bug is a never-before-seen intercontinental mixture of human, avian and pig viruses from America, Europe and Asia.

Clues that the virus may be a synthetic creation are already manifesting.

According to reports, the virus is a never-before-seen form of the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses which consists of an intercontinental mix of viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before, according to an Associated Press report.This strain of swine influenza that’s been cultured in a laboratory is something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director (video clip here).

Alarming reports are now filtering in about people catching the illness who have had no contact with pigs whatsoever. These include a man and his daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old woman in Imperial County and two teenagers in San Antonio, Texas. In fact, in all U.S. cases, the victims had no contact with any pigs.Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, told KPBS We have had person-to-person spread with the father and the daughter,says Wooten, And also with the two teenagers in Texas, they were in the same school. So that also indicates person-to-person transfer.Dr. Wooten says it’s unclear how people were exposed to swine flu. She says none of the patients have had any contact with pigs,according to the report.

Although the situation in the U.S. looks under control, panic is spreading in Mexico, where 800 cases of pneumonia in the capital alone are suspected to be related to the swine flu and the virus has hit young and healthy people, which is very rare with an flu outbreak. Despite the danger of a pandemic, the U.S. border with Mexico remains open.Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections,reports Reuters.My level of concern is significant, said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the health officer for Santa Clara County. We have a novel virus, a brand-new strain that’s spreading human to human, and we are also seeing a virulent strain in Mexico that seems to be related. We certainly have concerns for this escalating.The WHO insists that the outbreak has pandemic potential and has been stockpiling supplies of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection, according to officials.As we previously highlighted, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz, Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.Indeed, Rumsfeld himself played a key role in hyping an outbreak of swine flu back in the 1976 when he urged the entire country to get vaccinated. Many batches of the vaccine were contaminated, resulting in hundreds of sick people and 52 fatalities.The fact that the properties of the strain are completely new, that the virus is spreading from people to people, and that the young and healthy are being hit worst, has disturbing parallels to the deadly 1918 pandemic that killed millions.It is unclear as to why, if the virus is a brand new strain, that public health officials are so confident programs of mass vaccination, which are already being prepared, would necessarily be effective.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that deadly flu viruses have been concocted in labs and then dispatched with the intention of creating a pandemic.When the story first broke last month, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.

However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses.

In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets, knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus. Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.In the UK, a 2007 outbreak of foot and mouth disease that put Britain on high alert has been originated from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001, which was also deliberately released.As we reported yesterday, last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Previous Swine Flu Outbreak Originated At Fort Dix ,Mass vaccination program was halted after hundreds contracted debilitating nerve disease
Steve Watson Infowars.net Friday, April 24, 2009

Given the reports of the possibility of a swine flu epidemic, is interesting to note that last time there was a significant outbreak of a new form of swine flu in the U.S. it originated at the army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.Hundreds of soldiers on the base, mostly recruits, were infected without becoming ill in 1976.President Gerald Ford immediately ordered a nationwide vaccination program.More than 40 million people were vaccinated. However, the program was stopped short after over 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe paralyzing nerve disease, were reported. 30 people died as a direct result of the vaccinations.Unanswered questions regarding the outbreak remain to this day. According to a CDC investigation, It is not known why the virus did not extend beyond basic trainees or beyond the military base. The source of the virus, the exact time of its introduction into Fort Dix, and factors limiting its spread and duration remain unknown.Previous reports of attempts to use influenza as a bio weapon, should also have us asking concerned questions.

20/04/2009 00:08:46 United States-200 Dead pigs found in a field.
Source: kimy.com UNITED STATES-200 DEAD PIGS IN FIELD.

Hampton , Iowa -- State regulators are ordering a Franklin County hog operation to take action.Recently they discovered more than 200 dead hogs. They’d been improperly disposed of, in a Amanda Johnstone says she never noticed anything unusual in the field next to her home in Franklin County . Well no, we moved in August, but it really didn’t smell that bad when we moved in, we just thought it was from the hog farms from around here, cause there’s one up the road.But Franklin County Environmental Health Specialist Earl Kalkwarf, won’t soon forget the recent hike he made into this field north of Hampton . You looked out and you could see some white and we knew it wasn’t rocks, so we walked out there and discovered roughly 215 dead hogs in a pile.An airplane pilot was the first to spot the unusual sight, a second pass at lower altitude reveled even more gruesome scene. The biggest concern for both the DNR and the county is the composting carcasses leeching into the ground and into the drinking water of home owners living nearby. There was also no fences to keep animals from getting into the pile and scavenging. We don’t need a pandemic flu of some sort of an outbreak of some serious disease,said Kalkwarf. The DNR is telling the owner of a nearby hog confinement it is against state law. Regulators told him to get the hogs moved within two days. But many believe the company should face more than a warning.They do things with city’s for discharging and other animal sites that do manure spills sometimes they get big fines,said Kalkwarf. Johnstone and others are worried about whether anything seeped into the ground. She’s just hoping her family is safe.Cause we have 4 kids and if it was contaminated gosh they would be sick so that was my biggest fear,she said. The owner of the land where the hogs were dumped sent them off to a rendering plant. Regulators are warning the operator he could face legal action if it happens again.

Operation Dark Winter Media Monarchy April 25, 2009

On June 22-23, 2001, just under 3 months before 9/11, the U.S. military held a senior-level war game at Andrews Air Force Base called Dark Winter. The scenario of this bio-terrorism drill was designed to simulate a smallpox attack in three states in which one of these states would be Pennsylvania.As a part of this war game, scripted TV news clips were made to help make this drill as realistic as possible.

Dark Winter Pretext for TOPOFF/CCMRF/CBRNE Martial Law Drills

This exercise was made possible by grant funding from The McCormick Tribune Foundation and The Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. On 22-23 June, 2001, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention Terrorism, hosted a senior-level war game examining the national security, intergovernmental, and information challenges of a biological attack on the American homeland. With tensions rising in the Taiwan Straits, and a major crisis developing in Southwest Asia, a smallpox outbreak was confirmed by the CDC in Oklahoma City. During the thirteen days of the game, the disease spread to 25 states and 15 other countries. Fourteen participants and 60 observers witnessed terrorism/warfare in slow motion. Discussions, debates (some rather heated) and decisions focused on the public health response, lack of an adequate supply of smallpox vaccine, roles and missions of federal and state governments, civil liberties associated with quarantine and isolation, the role of DoD, and potential military responses to the anonymous attack. Additionally, a predictable 24/7 news cycle quickly developed that focused the nation and the world on the attack and response. Five representatives from the national press corps (including print and broadcast) participated in the game, including a lengthy press conference with the President. Several articles and reports will be produced in the coming weeks and months. Additionally, at least one Congressional hearing will be conducted to explore the lessons learned by the key participants. The first hearing is scheduled for the week of 22 July with the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations (Congressman Shays, Chairman).

CDC: Too Late To Stop Swine Flu Outbreak
New strain has health officials worried
April 25, 2009

The Centers For Disease Control says its scientists are concerned a new outbreak of swine flu, first identified in Mexico, is being spread through human contact.At least eight cases have been confirmed in the U.S., all of them in California and Texas.

Health officials in Mexico have been trying to get the outbreak under control this week, reporting at least 1000 illnesses and dozens of deaths from the influenza.

Reuters reported Friday that the majority of the people who have died in the Mexican outbreak were adults between 25 and 45 years old, attributing that information to a Mexican health official.Swine flu is a type of flu that routinely affects pigs. People can also get the virus, but usually because of contact with the animals. Farm workers, for example, are normally the human victims of the illness.Scientists say they are worried about this particular outbreak because at least some of the human victims have not had any contact with pigs. That would suggest the illness is being transmitted through human contact. The CDC said virus samples taken from victims in Mexico and the U.S. match, indicating it is the same virus.

New strain
This strain of swine flu has been identified as A/H1N1, a previously undetected strain. Scientists say it appears to combine bird, swine and human viruses in a new way.In a press briefing late Friday, CDC officials said it was probably too late to contain the outbreak in the U.S. CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing vaccinations or quarantines would likely prove ineffective at this point.Swine flu can be lethal, but usually isn't. Its symptoms are similar to those for regular, seasonal flu — fatigue, fever and respiratory congestion. Swine flu is treated with four different drugs, with the CDC recommending Tamiflu and Relenza as being the most effective.Though the CDC seems to be more concerned about this outbreak than a typical flu outbreak, it has so far not warned Americans against travel to Mexico. However, it says people traveling to Mexico should wash their hands frequently and take other steps to avoid exposure to germs and other infectious agents.

Mexico Takes Powers to Isolate Cases of Swine Flu ,Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse.A soldier handed out face masks in Mexico City on Saturday. Many people stayed indoors to avoid contact with the flu virus. By MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN
Published: April 25, 2009

MEXICO CITY — This sprawling capital was on edge Saturday as jittery residents ventured out wearing surgical masks and President Felipe Calderón published an order that would give his government emergency powers to address a deadly flu outbreak, including isolating those who have contracted the virus, inspecting the homes of affected people and ordering the cancellation of public events that might result in further infections.8 New York Students Likely Have Strain of Swine Flu (April 26, 2009) White-coated health care workers fanned out across the international airport here to look for ailing passengers, and thousands of callers fearful they might have contracted the rare swine flu flooded government health hot lines. Of those Mexicans who did go out into public, many took the advice of the authorities and donned the masks, which are known here as tapabocas or cover-your-mouths and were being handed out for free by soldiers and health workers at subway stops and on street corners.

My government will not delay one minute to take all the necessary measures to deal with this epidemic,Mr. Calderón said in Oaxaca State during the opening of a new hospital, which he said will set aside an area for anyone who might be affected by the new swine flu strain that has already killed as many as 68 people in Mexico and sickened more than 1,000 others. Most of the cases were reported in the center of the country, but there were other cases in pockets to the north and south.Mr. Calderón pointed out that he and the other officials who attended the ceremony intentionally did not greet each other with handshakes or kisses on the cheek, which health officials have urged Mexicans to avoid.With 20 million people packed together tight, Mexico City typically bursts forth on the weekends into parks, playgrounds, cultural centers and sidewalk cafes. But things were quieter than usual on Saturday.The government encouraged people to stay at home by canceling concerts, closing museums and banning spectators from two big soccer matches on Sunday that will be played in front of television cameras, but no live crowd.At street corners on Saturday, even many of the jugglers, dancers and musicians who eke out a living collecting spare change when the traffic lights turn red were wearing bright blue surgical masks.The newspaper Reforma reported that President Obama, who recently visited Mexico, was escorted around Mexico’s City’s national anthropology museum on April 16 by Felipe Solis, an archaeologist who died the next day from flu-like symptoms. Mexican officials have not confirmed the cause of death.

White House officials said Saturday that they were aware of the news report in Mexico and that there was no reason to be concerned about the president’s health.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said Saturday that it had sent a team of experts to Mexico to assist with the investigation of the outbreak, which has already been reported in Texas and California and possibly in New York, raising fears that it could spread into a global pandemic.The possible New York cases were reported at a Queens high school, where eight students tested positive for a type of influenza that health officials suspect could be the new swine flu. Some of the school’s students had been to been to Mexico recently.The World Health Organization held a meeting in Geneva on Saturday to discuss the outbreak, but did not raise the level of global pandemic flu alert.Epidemiologists want to know exactly when the first cases occurred in Mexico. Mexican health officials said they first noticed a huge spike in flu cases in late March. In mid-April, they began noticing that otherwise healthy people were dying from the virus. But it was only on Thursday night that officials first sounded an alarm to the population by closing schools, after United States health officials announced a possible swine flu outbreak.By issuing the emergency decree Saturday, Mr. Calderón may have been trying to head off criticism that his government had been too slow to act. He had earlier called in the army to distribute four million masks throughout the capital and its surrounding suburbs. Lt. Raymundo Morales Merla, who stood outside a military transport truck parked outside a downtown subway station on Saturday, led a group of 27 soldiers who had arrived at 7 a.m. to hand out as many masks as they could.The scene at the airport was alarming, with doctors stationed at the entrances to answer questions and to keep an eye out for obviously sick people. Regular public address announcements in English and Spanish warned travelers that the country was on a flu alert and that anyone exhibiting any symptoms should cancel their flight and immediately seek medical attention.

Even Sunday Mass will likely be affected. The Roman Catholic Church gave worshipers the option to listen to Masses on the radio and told priests who decided to hold services to be brief and put Communion wafers in worshiper’s hands instead of their mouths to cut down the risk of transmission. In addition, the traditional handshake that followers give each other along with the wish of Peace be with you was to be temporarily replaced by bowing.Axel de la Macorra, 46, a physics professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, said he became worried when he learned recently that a 31-year-man who played at a tennis club he once belonged to had suddenly died. He got sick at the beginning of April and two weeks later, he was dead, said Mr. de la Macorra, who was weighing whether to attend a First Communion with 200 guests on Saturday.My mother told me to wear it so I did, said Noel Ledezma, 29, who had his mask pulled down so he could sip a coffee and eat a muffin as he walked to work. Who knows who will be next.Laura Rivera, a 22-year-old psychology student, smeared hand sanitizer on the hands of her toddler nephew as they emerged from the subway into the central square. She had come with her two sisters and their two young sons to buy clothes at the street markets nearby. All five wore surgical masks. We’re doing everything normally — just taking precautions,she said.Sarahe Gomez, who was selling jewelry at a mall in the upscale Polanco neighborhood, spoke through a mask to the few customers who visited her kiosk. I’m in the middle of all these people and one of them could have it she said.The virus could be anywhere. It could be right here.She then took a half step back.This is no joke, said Servando Peneda, 42, a lawyer who ventured out to pay a bill, but left his two sons home. There’s 20 million of us in this city and I’d say half of us have these masks on today. I know all of us will die one day, but I want to last out the week.

Students Fall Ill in New York, and Swine Flu Is Likely Cause
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: April 25, 2009

Tests show that eight students at a Queens high school are likely to have contracted the human swine flu virus that has struck Mexico and a small number of other people in the United States, health officials in New York City said yesterday.Mexico Takes Powers to Isolate Cases of Swine Flu (April 26, 2009) The students were among about 100 at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows who became sick in the last few days, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City’s health commissioner.All the cases were mild, no child was hospitalized, no child was seriously ill, Dr. Frieden said.Health officials reached their preliminary conclusion after conducting viral tests on nose or throat swabs from the eight students, which allowed them to eliminate other strains of flu. Officials were also suspicious since some St. Francis students had been to Mexico recently. The samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the only lab in the country that can positively confirm the new flu swine strain — which has been identified as H1N1 strain. Results were expected on Sunday, officials said.Outside New York, at least 11 swine flu cases have been confirmed in the United States — in California, Texas and Kansas, where two cases were reported on Saturday. There have been no deaths and officials said most of the 11 seemed to be recovering.

The outbreak has killed at least 68 people in Mexico and infected about 1,000 others.

Fearing a panic that might tax local health facilities, Dr. Frieden urged New Yorkers not to go to a hospital if they had typical mild cold or flu symptoms. If they are seriously ill, especially with lung problems, they should seek medial attention promptly, he said, because anti-flu drugs work best if taken in the first 48 hours of symptoms.Because of fears of the H5N1 avian flu, both New York City and the United States have had detailed pandemic emergency plans in place since 2005, as well as stockpiles of emergency supplies and flu drugs (the plan can be read at www.pandemicflu.gov).Dr. Frieden said that for such an emergency, the city had extra hospital ventilators, huge reserves of masks and gloves and millions of doses of Tamiflu, an anti-flu drug that thus far appears to work against the new swine strain.

In a reaction to the flu outbreak, the World Health Organization convened an emergency meeting of experts on Saturday in Geneva, while public health officials in the United States huddled on conference calls to discuss what steps, if any, to take.

Officials with the W.H.O. were discussing whether to declare an international public health emergency, a move that could involve travel advisories and the closing of borders.In Mexico, where the flu outbreak is believed to have started, the president assumed emergency powers to deal with the crisis. All public gatherings were banned, including more than 500 concerts and sporting events and the popular bicycle rides on closed boulevards. A few dozen more suspected cases were reported. In the United States, so far, most of the swine flu cases have been mild. Seven were confirmed in California’s San Diego and Imperial Counties, and two 16-year-olds and possibly a third schoolmate at the Byron Steele High School in Cibolo, Tex. Kansas said it had confirmed two on Saturday. Officials said they expect to find many more cases as they begin testing for them.The eight Queens students were positive for an A-strain flu virus but negative for all previously known A-strains. That result, called A-untypeable, led officials to suspect it was the new swine flu.Mr. Skinner said the C.D.C. would send a team to New York, as it has to California, Texas and Mexico, if it were requested.New York has one of the most sophisticated health departments in the world, but the C.D.C. can assist by releasing supplies from the National Strategic Stockpile. Huge quantities of Tamiflu, masks, gloves, purifying gel, ventilators and other goods useful in a flu crisis are kept in warehouses around the country and can be moved out in a matter of hours, Mr. Skinner said.In Texas, Byron Steele High School and all its extracurricular activities were closed to reduce the risk to students, staff and the community, said Dr. Sandra Guerra, a regional director for the state health department. She urged students not to hang out together anyway as that would defeat the purpose.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked the C.D.C. to send 37,430 doses of Tamiflu.

According to one expert involved in telephone discussions about flu preparedness Saturday, there was debate among officials about whether to move some of the stockpile closer to Texas and California. Presumably, that will be made moot by indications that a mild form of the flu may have already spread elsewhere in the nation.The C.D.C. did not raise the alert level in the United States, which is officially at zero because there have been no human cases of H5N1 avian flu here as there have in Asia and Egypt.C.D.C. scientists are working on a seed strain for a vaccine matched to the new swine flu, but warned that it would take many months before enough doses for all Americans are ready.They are also creating test kits for 140 American labs and dozens of international ones to allow them to test for the new flu. Right now most labs can only exclude other flus, not confirm the new one.In each year’s flu season, most deaths are in infants and the aged, none of the first ones in Mexico were in people over 60 or under 3 years old, a W.H.O. spokeswoman said. When a new virus emerges, deaths may occur in healthy adults who mount the strongest immune reactions. Their own defense — inflammation and leaking fluid in lung cells — can essentially drown them from inside.There are various steps under the federal pandemic plan, including putting emergency rooms and first-responders on alert, making sure they have seasonal flu shots and putting them first in line for any early batches of a swine flu vaccine.The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic came in waves — a first summertime one was mild, then a severe one hit the following winter. By some accounts, a third milder but still serious wave hit cities that had done the best jobs of protecting themselves from the second wave.However, as experts note, in 1918 there was no Tamiflu, no antibiotics to fight pneumonia, and no powered ventilators.Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York, James McKinley from Houston and Marc Lacey from Mexico City.