Influenza Virus Mashup

Via the Houston Chronicle: El Paso swine flu deaths push Texas total to 5. Excerpt:

Health officials in El Paso are reporting that a pregnant woman and man who died earlier this month both had swine flu. 

State health officials said Friday the deaths bring the number of swine flu victims in Texas to five. 

The El Paso Department of Public Health announced that laboratory tests confirmed the virus in a 24-year-old woman and 42-year-old man who died at a local hospital. 

The Department of State Health Services is reporting more than 1,400 cases of the virus in Texas.

Via Reuters: Estonia reports first confirmed H1N1 case. Excerpt:

The Baltic state of Estonia has its first confirmed case of the new strain of flu, H1N1, the country’s Health Protection Inspectorate said on Friday. It said in a statement the flu was confirmed for a man in capital city Tallinn, who fell ill after returning from the United States and then went for tests.

This is just one of several new cases turning up in high northern latitudes. Earlier this morning I mentioned the case in Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic, and Alaska has announced its first H1N1 case as well. Russia today announced its third case.

(Fri, 29 May 2009 17:35:00 +0000)

# 3281

While most people who contract the novel H1N1 virus experience a relatively mild illness, a small minority do see more severe symptoms.  

And as we expect with any influenza, regrettably a small percentage of those die.  So far, most of the fatalities we’ve heard about involved people with `pre-existing conditions’.

At last report, out of nearly 9,000 confirmed cases around the country, over 500 were hospitalized – most of those being in the 5 to 24 age range.  

Unlike seasonal influenza, this novel H1N1 virus seems to hit young adults and adolescents the hardest, with (thus far) very few patients over 60.

Today, we learn of two deaths that actually occurred  last week due to the H1N1 virus.   One was a woman of 24, who was pregnant, a known risk factor for influenza.   The other was a 44 year old man.

This from KVIA ABC-7 TV news.

 

OFFICIALS: 2 dead from Swine Flu in El Paso

Posted: May 29, 2009 12:53 PM

EL PASO — Two people with influenza-like illnesses have died in El Paso County, according to the city’s Department of Public Health.

 

The victims were a 24-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, officials added. Both individuals died while receiving treatment at a local hospital. Laboratory tests confirmed both had the novel H1N1 Swine Flu.

 

The woman, who was pregnant, died on May 24. The man died on May 19.

The CDC has highlighted those groups of people it believes may be at higher risk of complications from this (and other) influenzas.

Groups at Higher Risk for Severe Illness from Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Infection

Groups of people at higher risk for severe illness from novel influenza A (H1N1) infection are thought to be the same as those people at higher risk for severe illness from seasonal influenza. These groups include:

• Children younger than 5 years old
• Persons aged 65 years or older
• Children and adolescents (younger than 18 years) who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy and who might be at risk for experiencing Reye syndrome after influenza virus infection
• Pregnant women
• Adults and children who have pulmonary, including asthma, cardiovascular, hepatic, hematological, neurologic, neuromuscular, or metabolic disorders such as diabetes
• Adults and children who have immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by HIV)
• Residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities.

(Fri, 29 May 2009 17:09:00 +0000)

# 3280

More evidence today from an article in the New Scientist Magazine that indicates that overly narrow testing criteria for the H1N1 virus in Europe may be hiding community transmission of the virus.

The UK, along with many other EU countries, have recommended testing people with symptoms only if they have been to affected countries or had contact with a known or suspected case in the past seven days.

Today’s report comes on the heels of another report (see H1N1 In Europe: Hiding In Plain Sight?) last week on the artificially low numbers of positive tests, and Professor John Oxfords claims that thousands of infections are going undetected.

New swine flu cases point to invisible pandemic

13:17 29 May 2009 by Debora MacKenzie

Hospitals in Greece have identified H1N1 swine flu in two students who had no contact with known cases of the virus and had not been in countries with widespread infection. The infections were discovered even though the students should not have been tested for swine flu under European rules. The Greek authorities say this shows the rules must change.

 

Indeed, an investigation by New Scientist earlier this month showed that the EU rules would exclude exactly such cases and could make H1N1 appear much less widespread in Europe than it is.

 

Takis Panagiotopoulos of the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Athens and colleagues reported on 28 May in Eurosurveillance, a weekly bulletin published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden, that two Greek men returning home from Scotland had tested positive this week for H1N1 swine flu.

 

Chance test

 

The two go to university in Edinburgh and had attended term-end parties at the end of last week. Both developed coughs and fevers at the weekend before flying back to Greece, where one went to hospital in Athens on Tuesday.

 

“The examining physician decided to take a pharyngeal swab, which was tested at the National Influenza Reference Laboratory for Southern Greece, although the patient did not meet the European Union and national criteria for the new influenza A (H1N1) testing,” the team reports.

 

The swab was tested with a kit for H1N1 distributed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and was positive for swine flu. The student in Athens warned the second student, who was now in Thesaloniki. He also tested positive. Both cases were mild.

 

(Continue . . . )

The `useful fiction’ that community transmission of the H1N1 virus has yet to occur in Europe (or Asia, or Africa . . . .) has been bolstered by the relatively small number of positive H1N1 tests coming out of those regions.

Of course, by failing to demonstrate community transmission in another WHO region, the politically dicey decision to raise the pandemic alert level again can be postponed.

The New Scientist article is derived from this report that appeared yesterday in Eurosurveillance.

Eurosurveillance, Volume 14, Issue 21, 28 May 2009

Rapid communications

Cluster of new influenza A(H1N1) cases in travellers returning from Scotland to Greece – community transmission within the European Union?

T Panagiotopoulos ()^1,2, S Bonovas¹, K Danis^1,2, D Iliopoulos¹, X Dedoukou¹, A Pavli¹, P Smeti¹, A Mentis³, A Kossivakis³, A Melidou⁴, E Diza⁴, D Chatzidimitriou⁴, E Koratzanis⁵, S Michailides⁵, E Passalidou⁵, P Kollaras⁶, P Nikolaides⁶, S Tsiodras^1,7

Via the Hong Kong government website: 5 more human swine flu cases confirmed. Excerpt:

Five more imported human swine flu cases have been confirmed, involving two men and three women who flew in from the US, taking the total to 20.
  

The city’s 16th confirmed case involves a 21-year-old woman who arrived in from Los Angeles about 7am on May 28 on flight CX881. She went home by airbus. She developed symptoms at home and called the Centre for Health Protection’s hotline. She was sent to Princess Margaret Hospital by ambulance.
  

Another 21-year-old woman flew in from San Francisco on flight SQ1 at 6am today. She felt ill on the plane and port health officers at the airport sent her to Tuen Mun Hospital. 

The 18th swine flu patient is a 21-year-old man who flew in from New York via Seoul and arrived at 8pm on May 26. He did not have any symptoms while on flight KE607. He fell ill May 28 and took a taxi to North District Hospital.
 

The 19th and 20th cases involve a 24-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman who arrived from New York on flight CO099 at 8pm May 27.