SWINE FLU OUTBREAK

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).

500 MILLION COULD DIE DURING 7 YR TRIBULATION FROM DISEASES
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2009/04/12-of-population-3-billion-die-in.html

Swine flu: FAQ Last Updated: Friday, April 24, 2009 | 4:57 PM ET CBC News

Human infection with swine flu viruses are most likely to occur when people are in close proximity to infected pigs, such as in pig barns and livestock exhibits at fairs. (Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press)A flu outbreak affecting more than 900 people in Mexico, including at least 16 who died, was caused by a new strain of swine influenza that can attack anyone,Mexico's health minister said Friday.It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said.The outbreak, which Mexican authorities began reporting April 18, is being investigated by public health officials throughout North America. In the United States, officials say they're studying eight cases, including the initial two children in California and Texas who had no contact with pigs or each other, suggesting that human-to-human transmission of this new swine flu virus occurred. All have since recovered.No cases of this new strain have yet been found in Canada. But the country's national laboratory in Winnipeg is analyzing 51 samples from Mexico. Results are expected within days.

In the meantime, the following is a summary of frequently asked questions about swine influenza prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Swine flu is caused by type A influenza virus and gives pigs the flu. Swine flu viruses cause regular outbreaks of flu in pigs but death is infrequent. Right now, there are four main influenza type A swine flu viruses that have been isolated in pigs: H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1. Most of the recently isolated influenza viruses from pigs have been H1N1 viruses. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs, such as children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry. In addition, there have been documented cases of one person spreading swine flu to others .The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. (Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

What is swine influenza?
Swine influenza (swine flu) is caused by type A influenza virus and gives pigs the flu. Swine flu viruses cause regular outbreaks of flu in pigs but death is infrequent. The viruses may circulate among pigs throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter months similar to outbreaks in humans. The classical swine flu virus (an influenza type A H1N1 virus) was first isolated from a pig in 1930.

How many swine flu viruses are there?
Like all flu viruses, swine flu viruses change constantly. Pigs can be infected by avian, human and swine influenza viruses. When influenza viruses from different species infect pigs, the viruses can reassort and new ones emerge that are a mix of swine, human and/or avian influenza viruses. Over the years, different variations of swine flu viruses have emerged. Right now, there are four main influenza type A virus subtypes that have been isolated in pigs: H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1. However, most of the recently isolated influenza viruses from pigs have been H1N1 viruses.

Can humans catch swine flu?
Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs, such as children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry.There have been documented cases of one person spreading swine flu to others. In 1988, an outbreak of apparent swine flu infection in pigs in Wisconsin resulted in multiple human infections, and although no community outbreak resulted, there was antibody evidence of virus transmission from the patient to health care workers who had close contact with the patient.

How common is swine flu infection in humans?
In the past, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received reports of about one human swine flu virus infection every one to two years in the U.S., but from December 2005 through February 2009, 12 cases of human infection with swine flu have been reported. Five of the 12 cases occurred in patients who had direct exposure to pigs, six in patients reported being near pigs, and the exposure in one case was unknown.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine flu viruses are not transmitted by food. You cannot get swine flu from eating pork or pork products.

How does swine flu spread?
Influenza viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs. Human infection with swine flu viruses are most likely to occur when people are in close proximity to infected pigs, such as in pig barns and livestock exhibits at fairs.Human-to-human transmission of swine flu can also occur. This is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly person-to-person transmission through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the flu virus. People may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

What is known about human-to-human spread of swine flu?
In September 1988, a healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman was hospitalized for pneumonia and died eight days later. A swine H1N1 flu virus was detected. Four days before getting sick, she had visited a county fair swine exhibition where there was widespread flu-like illness among the pigs.In follow-up studies, 76 per cent of swine exhibitors tested had antibody evidence of swine flu infection but no serious illnesses were detected among this group. Additional studies suggest that one to three health care personnel who had contact with the patient developed mild influenza-like illnesses with antibody evidence of swine flu infection.

How are human infections with swine flu diagnosed?
To diagnose swine influenza A infection, a respiratory specimen is ideally collected within the first four to five days of illness and sent to the CDC for testing.

What medications are available to treat humans with swine flu?
Four antiviral drugs are licensed for use in the United States: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. While most swine flu viruses have been susceptible to all four drugs, the most recent seven swine flu viruses isolated from humans are resistant to amantadine and rimantadine. Right now, the CDC recommends oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine flu viruses.

What other examples of swine flu outbreaks are there?
The most well known outbreak of swine flu was 1976 one among soldiers in Fort Dix, N.J. The virus caused illnesses in at least four soldiers and one death; all were previously healthy. The virus was transmitted in close contact at a basic training camp. It was thought to have circulated for a month and disappeared. The source of the virus, the exact time of its introduction into Fort Dix and factors limiting its spread and duration are unknown. The outbreak may have been caused by introduction of an animal virus into a stressed human population in close contact during the winter.
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mexico Swine Flu Epidemic Worries World,Swine Flu Deaths in Healthy Young People Raise Fears of Pandemic By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDApril 24, 2009

Mexico's deadly swine flu outbreak is caused by the same virus identified in the U.S., says CDC Acting Director Richard Besser, MD.The CDC is analyzing 14 virus samples sent from Mexico. Seven of them, the CDC learned today, are very similar to the unusual swine flu strain isolated from U.S. patients.People are concerned about this situation, Besser said at a news conference. We are worried as well. Our concern has grown since yesterday.Sixty people in Mexico have died of the flu -- and so far, 16 of the deaths are confirmed cases of swine flu, news sources quote Mexican officials as saying.World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told the Canadian news agency CBC that there have been some 800 cases in Mexico City, where schools are closed due to the outbreak.Alarmingly, the flu outbreak in Mexico is striking healthy young people -- a pattern that would be expected if a flu virus new to humans emerged.

Because these cases are not happening in the very old or the very young, which happens with seasonal influenza, this is an unusual event and a cause for heightened concern,Hartl said in a CBC interview.That's not the only eyebrow-raising feature of the swine flu outbreaks. Infections have occurred in Mexico, California, and Texas -- where warm weather should mean the end of the normal flu season, says William Schaffner, MD, president-elect of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and chair of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.Will we see this flu virus transmitted in the warm months? That would give us heartburn, Schaffner tells WebMD. And is this a harbinger of things to come during our next flu season? Another disconcerting feature of the outbreak is that it's probably too late to contain it to limited geographical areas.We are seeing cases in Texas and California with no connection between them. This makes us think there has been transmission from person to person through many cycles, Besser said.For containment we need limitation to a confined geographical area, and we have not seen that here.

The World Health Organization is convening an expert panel to determine whether to raise its pandemic flu alert level. Because of bird flu, we're at level 3. If the panel finds evidence of increased human-to-human transmission it goes to level 4. If there's evidence of significant human-to-human transmission,it goes to level 5.A pandemic will be declared only if there is "efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission of a new flu virus. That clearly has not happened yet.Whether or not this [swine flu] strain causes a widespread pandemic will depend on its transmissibility among humans. That has not yet been fully elucidated, but should be shortly,Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH, professor and dean of public health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y., tells WebMD.Should there be a pandemic -- something that is far from certain -- the CDC has already begun work on a vaccine. Would it be ready by next flu season? It would be an Olympic sprint -- a mammoth feat -- to produce a flu vaccine by October,Schaffner says.

What You Should Do Now
Infectious disease experts agree with the CDC that now is a good time to think about what you'd do if there were a widespread flu outbreak.Here's what you can do right now: Wash your hands often and well.The CDC has not yet warned travelers to avoid the San Diego or San Antonio areas, and it is not restricting travel to or from Mexico. However, travelers to or from those areas should be sure to use all normal precautions to avoid catching or spreading a cold or flu.People who live in or visit those areas and who get flu-like symptoms should see a doctor to get tested for the swine flu virus.

Eight swine flu cases identified in U.S.LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Thomas H. Maugh II 2:49 PM PDT, April 24, 2009

As Mexico City closed schools and began taking other measures to contain the spread of a swine flu outbreak that may have infected hundreds of people and killed as many as 60, U.S. officials said Friday they had found one new case in San Diego, bringing the total number in the United States cases to eight.The most recent victim, a child, has recovered, as did the other seven victims, Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in a telephone news conference. Six of the eight U.S. cases were in San Diego and Imperial counties and two in Guadeloupe County, Texas.The cases were identified during routine screening of virus samples, and federal authorities have called for intensified screening of samples from flu victims in the area and in flu victims who have recently traveled to Mexico.The outbreak has caused concern because the virus appears to be spread from human to human, which is the crucial requirement for a new virus to precipitate a large-scale outbreak.CDC researchers have so far found no links among the U.S. victims or any common behaviors, Besser said, suggesting that there has been transmission through several cycles -- that is, there were several intermediaries who passed it among themselves before the virus reached the identified victims.If that is the case, he added, many people have already been exposed to the virus and it is too late to contain a potential outbreak in the United States. But the good news is that none of the intermediaries appear to have developed serious illness, suggesting that the disease is not especially virulent.None of the American victims has had any contact with pigs and only one of them has traveled to Mexico recently, he said.

The Pan American Health Organization said Friday that there have so far been 854 cases of influenza-like illness in Mexico City, with 59 deaths. Another 24 cases with three deaths have occurred in San Luis Potosi, in central Mexico, and 24 cases with no deaths in Mexicali, near the U.S. border.Friday afternoon, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova held a news conference at which he said the rate of deaths is slowing. He also said that there are no plans to close the borders because of the outbreak.U.S. health experts noted, meanwhile, that deaths from influenza are common. In an average year in the United States, about 35,000 people die from the flu, and in bad years nearly twice that number. Such deaths are most often among the very young and the elderly. Most of the cases in Mexico, however, have been among people who were apparently young and healthy.That is potentially alarming, experts said, because the 1918 influenza epidemic also struck the young and healthy.Besser said CDC researchers had so far analyzed 14 samples from seriously ill Mexican patients, but only eight of them tested positive for swine flu. I think we are safe in saying it is the same virus in Mexico and California, he said. The six cases that did not test positive might have been caused by other strains of flu, but we can't say what they were,he said.

Canadian laboratories have confirmed 18 of the Mexican cases as swine flu and have found that 12 are genetically identical to the swine flu virus found in California, according to the Pan American Health Organization .It is really critically important that we learn more about what is going on in Mexico, Besser said. Sorting out which of the cases are caused by swine flu is an important public health question. . . . There is much uncertainty, more than anyone would like.The agency has not yet sent investigators into Mexico, but I anticipate we will have folks there very soon, he said.The World Health Organization said it is monitoring the situation closely and will probably send a research team to Mexico as well.Besser said the agency was not calling for any travel restrictions to Mexico or to the affected areas in the U.S. We're reminding travelers of our standard recommendations, such as washing your hands frequently and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. If you are sick and have the flu, you should stay home and not get on a bus or airplane.The new swine virus is unlike any that researchers have seen before. It appears to be a combination of segments from four different viruses from three continents, including a human segment, an avian segment and pig segments.Epidemiologists are typically concerned about swine flu because the animals often play a crucial role in the creation of new flu strains. While viruses from birds are rarely transmitted among humans, bird and human viruses can mix in pigs, creating hybrids that retain the virulence of bird flus while gaining the ability to pass from human to human.The U.S. suffered outbreaks of swine flu in 1976 and 1988, but both were limited in scope and spontaneously disappeared.thomas.maugh@latimes.com