Post by Queen of the Damned on Apr 30, 2009 19:57:59 GMT -5
Nearly 300 schools scattered around the country closed as the nation's swine flu caseload passed 120 Thursday, and U.S. authorities pledged to eventually produce enough vaccine for everyone — but said shots couldn't begin until fall at the earliest.
The Education Department's count stood at 298 on Thursday, tripling from around 100 on Wednesday. Most will be closed only for a few days. About 172,000 students are affected in 11 states, from every region of the country.
The outbreak penetrated over a dozen states and even touched the White House, which disclosed that an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently got sick helping arrange President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico but that the aide did not fly on Air Force One and never posed a risk to the president.
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An estimated 12,000 people logged onto a Webcast where the government's top emergency officials sought to cut confusion by answering questions straight from the public: Can a factory worker handling parts from Mexico catch the virus? No. Can pets get it? No.
And is washing hands or using those alcohol-based hand gels best? Washing well enough is the real issue, answered Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He keeps hand gel in his pocket for between-washings but also suggested that people sing "Happy Birthday" as they wash their hands to make sure they've washed long enough to get rid of germs.
It is safe to fly, U.S. officials found themselves stressing after Vice President Joe Biden got off message Thursday. Biden said he'd discourage family members from flying or even taking the subway. The White House insisted the vice president meant to say he was discouraging just nonessential travel to Mexico, the hardest-hit area.
"It is safe to fly. There is no reason to cancel flights," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. Not just planes but "all modes of transportation are safe in America," he added.
But anyone with flu-like symptoms shouldn't be traveling anywhere unless they need to seek medical care — the same advice that doctors give during the winter when regular flu kills 36,000 Americans each year.
"If you're ill, you shouldn't get on an airplane or any public transport to travel," CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told a congressional hearing. "If you're sick, stay home. I can't tell you how many times I've said that this week."
'Some pandemics look like a bad flu season'
So far U.S. cases are fairly mild for the most part, with one death, a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family — unlike in Mexico where more than 160 suspected deaths have been reported. In fact, Schuchat said most of the U.S. cases so far didn't need a doctor's care.
Still, the U.S. is taking extraordinary precautions, including shipping millions of doses of anti-flu drugs to states in case they're needed against what the World Health Organization has called an imminent pandemic, because scientists cannot predict what a brand-new virus might do. A key concern is whether this spring outbreak will resurge in the fall.
Remember, CDC's Besser cautioned, not every pandemic is like the disaster of 1918. "There are some pandemics that look very much like a bad flu season," he said.
Laboratory testing showed the new virus was treatable by the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. The government is shipping to states enough medication to treat 11 million people as a precaution. All states should get their share by Sunday.
The government is buying 13 million treatment courses of antiviral drugs to replenish the U.S. strategic stockpile and help fight the swine flu outbreak. The U.S. on Thursday also began sending 400,000 treatment courses of anti-viral drugs to Mexico to help fight swine flu there.
Vaccine could be ready by fall
Scientists are racing to prepare the key ingredient to make a vaccine against the never-before-seen flu strain, but it will take several months before the first pilot lots begin required human testing to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective. If all goes well, broader production could start in the fall.
"We think 600 million doses is achievable in a six-month time frame" from that fall start, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Craig Vanderwagen told lawmakers.
"I don't want anybody to have false expectations. The science is challenging here," Vanderwagen told reporters. "Production can be done, robust production capacity is there. It's a question of can we get the science worked on the specifics of this vaccine."
'Keep your young ones at home'
The number of closed schools more than doubled overnight to nearly 300 when the Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas announced it was closing its 140 schools, affecting about 80,000 students. High schools sports were suspended in Texas and Alabama.
"We do think it's very prudent to close schools when a case has been confirmed or is highly suspect," CDC's Schuchat told lawmakers Thursday.
But closing a school alone won't stop community spread.
"If a school is closed, it's not closed so kids can go out to the mall or go out to the community at large," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "Keep your young ones at home."
That means businesses will have to handle parents who miss work, Biden reiterated: "And the hope is that the employers will be generous in terms of how they treat that employee's necessary action of taking that child home and not being at work."
Schools aren't the only focus. In California, dozens of Marines were under quarantine to see if they'll develop illness after contact with a comrade confirmed to have the new flu.
Also Thursday, a medical clinic in Everett, Wash., announced that a pediatrician who may have swine flu saw 22 patients — along with their parents or other adults — before she developed serious symptoms and went to the emergency room.
Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, medical director of The Everett Clinic, told a news conference that the pediatrician's husband and two children also became sick, but were doing well on antiviral treatment. Tu says the doctor, whose name hasn't been released, came to work Monday with what she thought were just seasonal allergy symptoms. She saw patients throughout the day but developed a fever that night and went to the emergency room, where she tested positive for what is assumed to be swine flu.
It's not clear where the pediatrician contracted the flu. She had not recently traveled out of the country.
The CDC and states have confirmed more than 120 cases in the U.S. Cases now are confirmed in: New York, Texas, California, South Carolina, Kansas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota and Virginia.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/
