Influenza Virus Mashup

Via Kuwait News Agency: Egypt reports 77th bird flu case. Excerpt:

The Egyptian Health Ministry confirmed on Saturday the 77th infection case with H5N1 virus. 

A female baby, aged one year and two months, contracted the highly pathogenic virus because she got in contact with domestic birds in a village located in Daqahliya, north Cairo, the ministry’s spokesman Dr. Abdulrahman Shahin said in a press briefing. 

The baby was hospitalized five days ago, suffering from bird flu-like symptoms including high temperature, running nose, and respiratory disorder.
She was diagnosed as H5N1 positive so she has been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Dr. Shahin revealed. 

The victim is being relocated to Manshiyat Al-Bakri Hospital, Cairo, for further medication, he added.

Via The Age: Vic’s swine flu count jumps to 212. Excerpt:

Victoria’s swine flu case count has jumped by 39 to 212 on Sunday. 

Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews told reporters on Sunday the majority of new cases confirmed overnight were aged from five to 18. 

Six additional schools will close from Monday, taking the total number of Victorian schools shut to 11.

And just three hours ago, I reported Victoria state had just 173 cases.

Via the Straits Times, an AFP story: Vietnam records 1st case. Excerpt:

A 23-year-old Vietnamese man has tested positive for swine flu in what would be the the first case in the Southeast Asian nation, a doctor said on Sunday. 

An initial test conducted on Saturday at the tropical diseases hospital in southern Ho Chi Minh City was positive, Phan Van Tu, a doctor with the city’s Pasteur Institute, told AFP. 

But he said the Pasteur Institute, which specialises in testing for infectious diseases, would conduct another test on Sunday. The patient was in a stable condition with a slight fever, Dr Tu added. 

State-linked Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that the patient is a student recently returned from the United States. 

Tuoi Tre said he arrived in Ho Chi Minh City from the US Monday night and was admitted to hospital there after being checked by health authorities. 

The newspaper, which did not give a source for its report, said the student later left hospital to go home but on Friday went to the tropical diseases hospital, where he tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus.

Via the Korea Times: 4 more flu cases confirmed in Korea. Excerpt: 

The health authorities said Sunday they have confirmed four more cases of Influenza A, bringing the nation’s total to 39. 

One American infant and three Korean nationals were confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus, according to the health ministry. 

All four — a 16-year-old Korean teenager, a 38-year-old Korean woman, a 28-year-old Korean college student and an 18-month-old American infant — came from the United States this week and were quarantined and treated after showing flu-like symptoms, the ministry said. 

Korea was considered relatively insulated from the highly contagious virus until last week, with just four confirmed cases reported. 

The number, however, is growing sharply after a group of foreign English teachers was found to be infected by a fellow teacher who arrived here from the U.S. recently, raising concerns the virus might be spreading through person-to-person contact.

Meanwhile, An English Teacher Under Quarantine in South Korea says he and his colleagues expect to be out of quarantine soon.

Via The Australian: Victoria hardest hit by Swine flu. Excerpt:

Swine flu is now in every state and territory with the Northern Territory recording its first case. 

The national tally climbed to 255 overnight, 47 more cases than at the same time yesterday. In Victoria, which has been hardest hit by the virus, there are 173 confirmed cases.  

There is growing pressure to upgrade the pandemic alert from the “contain” phase to the “sustain” phase with the results of another 262 tests in that state still pending. 

One of the Federal Government’s top flu advisers, Professor Raina MacIntyre called on health authorities in Victoria to close all schools and childcare centres in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. There are ten schools closed. 

The Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon has resisted this call so far but said this morning the time would come when it became impossible to keep quarantining people. 

There are presently more than 3000 people in voluntary home quarantine.

Via the Washington Post, a long article worth reading: Swine Flu Spurs Experts to Rethink Definition of Pandemic. Excerpt:

Virtually every assumption made since planning for a pandemic began in earnest after the deadly “bird flu” outbreak of 2004 in Southeast Asia has been contradicted by the six-week history of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1). 

Although they acknowledged there might be alternative scenarios, nearly every expert assumed that the next pandemic strain would jump from birds to human beings someplace in Asia. 

They also assumed that, like the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is lethal in 60 percent of people who catch it, the new strain would be recognized immediately and would have to be fought with drastic measures. 

Instead, the virus emerged in North America, appears to have come from pigs, had spread widely by the time it was noticed, and kills less than 1 percent of the people it infects. 

The world expected a fastball pitcher throwing smoke. Instead, it got a junk-baller who is throwing everyone off balance. 

“Everyone was thinking about H5N1 and the possibility that we would be in for partial global population collapse,” said David S. Fedson, a physician, influenza expert and former drug company executive who has written extensively on pandemic planning. 

“We never addressed severity, because we knew it would be severe. And now we have this funny virus coming out of pigs.”

Via Now Lebanon.com, an AFP story: Khalifeh confirms three swine flu cases. Excerpt:

Three cases of swine flu have been diagnosed in Lebanon, the first in the country, Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh announced on Saturday. 

“One Lebanese man who was in Spain and two Canadians who arrived in Lebanon a week ago are suffering from swine flu,” Khalifeh told AFP. “We put them in quarantine and the blood samples we have taken every day have proven to be positive. 

“The Lebanese man and the two visiting Canadians - a woman and her daughter - were given the proper medical treatment in time and they are well now.” 

He told a press conference the man was part of a group of 22 Lebanese who had been attending a training seminar in Spain at an institute where the disease was later detected.

Hawaii follows the unfortunate precedent set by Indonesia’s health minister Dr. Siti Fadilah Supari, who reports H5N1 cases when she’s in the mood for it. Via mlive.com: Hawaii won’t detail swine flu’s spread.

Hawaii’s Department of Health will stop providing daily updates of new swine flu cases next week. 

Spokeswoman Janice Okubo says health officials are shifting their emphasis from reporting on the outbreak’s spread to prevention measures. 

Numbers of swine flue cases will still be provided on a weekly basis.

As of May 29, the CDC had Hawaii with 71 confirmed cases. And the CDC, like the Public Health Agency of Canada, is reporting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.