A day after Patient B became sick, his brother, Patient C, also became ill. Patient B, a boy, developed a flulike illnesses two days after the Patient A became ill. Her doctor tested her as part of routine surveillance and sent a respiratory sample to the Iowa state laboratory for further analysis. One of the three Iowa children, a previously healthy girl referred to as Patient A became sick during the second week of November. As part of routine preparedness to counter pandemic threats from new flu viruses, the CDC said it had developed a “candidate vaccine virus” that could be used to make a human vaccine against S-OtrH3N2 viruses, and has sent it to vaccine manufacturers. In all of those cases, either the patients or close contacts had been recently exposed to pigs. Of the other seven cases last summer, three occurred in Pennsylvania, two in Maine and two in Indiana, the CDC reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of Nov. International health officials need to strike a delicate balance: If they warn of pandemics that don’t pan out, as when the 2009 H1N1 pandemic barely affected Europe, they risk criticism for inciting panic and look ineffectual. “We’re very aware that we don’t want to overplay or underlay,” Fukuda told the Canadian Press. Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security and environment, said in an interview with the Canadian Press that WHO wants to be prepared, but doesn’t want to cause undue alarm when global spread isn’t a certainty. We’re keeping an eye on it” as the Iowa Health Department leads the investigation.ĭr. That’s one of the vexing characteristics of the virus.”īut so far, he said, “the virus has not shown any sustained human-to-human transference.
“Flu, by its definition, is unpredictable. The new swine flu strain has drawn particular interest because none of the Iowa children sickened last month - all of whom have recovered and are doing fine - nor their families, had known contact with pigs, suggesting person-to-person transmission. WHO is currently working on a public health response should the virus continue spreading. surveillance and heed any advice from the World Health Organization, according to a statement issued Tuesday. Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection will follow ongoing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said Tuesday. “Everybody is watching,” Jeff Dimond, a spokesman for the U.S. man have been sickened by the new swine flu strain – S-OtrH3N2 - which picked up a gene from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, according to the CDC. They can pose health risks because people haven’t yet developed immunity to them. New flu strains develop when flu viruses combine in new ways. The new flu strain combines parts of a rare influenza virus - H3N2 – circulating in North American pigs, and the H1N1 virus from the 2009 worldwide flu outbreak. A new swine flu strain has infected 10 Americans since the summer, and health authorities, both here and abroad, are on the alert for more cases.
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