Swine Flu Pedia

The deepening swine flu outbreak led Japan’s government to shut more than 4,000 schools and spurred the World Health Organization to urge drugmakers such as Sanofi- Aventis SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc to start preparing a vaccine.

Japan shut 4,464 schools in six prefectures, up from 4,043 the central government originally asked to close, the education ministry said by fax today. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan yesterday endorsed a panel’s recommendation that drugmakers develop batches of swine flu vaccine for testing.

The spread in Japan of swine flu may prompt the WHO to declare a pandemic, according to Hitoshi Oshitani, former head of the agency’s Western Pacific region. Japan said its case total jumped to 188 from 4 less than two weeks ago, and Taiwan today reported its first patient infected with the virus known as H1N1, which has sickened about 10,000 people in 40 countries.

“The WHO will have to take the Japanese cases into consideration when deciding whether to raise the pandemic alert,” Oshitani said in a May 18 interview. “Japan is definitely having human-to-human transmission.”

The Geneva-based organization asked drugmakers to speed production of the protective shot for seasonal influenza, which can kill up to 500,000 people a year, while scientists take a few more weeks to select the fastest-growing strain of the virus to form the basis of a pandemic vaccine.

Because Chan adopted the panel’s recommendation, the same group will meet again in a few weeks to review the speed at which pharmaceutical companies are building their seasonal vaccine stockpiles as well as the spread and severity of H1N1.

Based on that assessment, they may recommend drugmakers switch from making seasonal flu vaccines to swine flu ones. Chan will then decide whether to endorse the panel’s advice.

Source from Bloomberg

When will Mayor Bloomberg finally heed the pleas of anxious public school parents and teachers and order wholesale closings of swine flu-afflicted schools?

What will it take for Hizzoner and the Health Department to shutter at least those buildings in the Queens school districts that have become the epicenter of this new epidemic?

At Public School 21 in Flushing, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed one swine flu case earlier this month, 164 of the school’s 800 students were absent Tuesday.

An additional 20 were sent home by the school nurse with flulike symptoms, PTA President Lorraine Kosnar said.

Meanwhile, 17 teachers - nearly 25% of the staff - are out sick. Several of those teachers are said to have reported high fevers.

At Intermediate School 227 in East Elmhurst, 60 students were sent home with flulike symptoms Monday, two school system sources said.

More than 460 pupils - a third of the entire student body - didn’t show up for class yesterday.

Yet both schools remain open for business.

So are dozens of other Queens schools that have witnessed huge spikes in student absences from flulike symptoms

Parent leaders say they know of several principals who requested that their schools be closed but were ordered to keep them open.

Source from NYDailyNews

The number of cases of swine flu in the UK has passed the 100 mark as 14 more people are diagnosed with the virus.

The Health Protection Agency said six adults and eight children were among the latest cases in London, the south east and the east of England.

Eleven of the latest cases involve patients who were contacts of previously confirmed cases, while two were returning travellers.

The source of infection for the other person remains under investigation.

Tests on the virus have suggested the strain is less virulent than first feared and the World Health Organisation is not recommending any global travel restrictions.

In Mexico more than 60 people have died as a result of the H1N1 virus, with most cases reported in Mexico City.

Around the world, 39 countries have reported more than 8,400 cases of infection.

Source from SkyNews

Swine flu is spreading among high school students in Japan, with the number of confirmed cases now at 44.

Authorities have closed almost 600 schools in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.

Most of the students who have the disease have not recently travelled abroad.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the virus has spread to 39 countries.

The virus is behaving much like a seasonal influenza strain, spreading quickly and causing most people minor illness.

Seasonal flu kills 500,000 people each year.

The WHO raised its pandemic alert on April 29 to 5 on a scale of 6, meaning a pandemic is imminent.

Proof the disease was spreading in a region outside North America, where it originated, would trigger an increase to 6.

Sources from Reuters