Bacon Won’t Close Borders

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service
Wed, April 29, 2009
The death of a 23-month-old in Texas marks the first confirmed swine flu death in the U.S.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has implemented its emergency response and has determined that the flu contains genetic pieces from four different virus sources, one of which is
swine flu. The CDC continues to evaluate information to determine the potential impact of an outbreak on an international level.

President Obama has asked for an additional $1.5 billion to combat the disease.

Today, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CO) said that “this swine flu is moving very quickly and harmfully.” Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue

On Sunday the flu was declared to be a public health emergency and the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to phase four.

United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that the U.S. has 50 million courses of anti-viral medication and 25 percent of the stockpiled courses are being released with priority given to
states with confirmed cases and border states. By May 3rd all states will ultimately get resources. Work has also begun towards developing a vaccine since the currently flu shot doesn’t protect against the
swine flu. “This will be a marathon, and not a sprint,” said Napolitano.

Warnings have been issued for non-essential travel to Mexico but closing borders “has not been merited by the facts” said Napolitano, and would have “very very little marginal benefit in terms of containing the actual outbreak of virus within our own country.”

Napolitano affirmed that although named “swine flu,” no signs of this newly identified H1N1 virus have been detected in our nation’s swine, no illnesses have been attributed to handling or consuming pork, and
that there is no evidence that one can get the virus from eating pork or pork products. The virus is actually spread from human to human, similar to a seasonal influenza.

RADM, Anne Schuchat, M.D., said that “we are dealing with a novel virus, we don’t know yet all of the characteristics of how it will behave in human populations.”

While 36,000 people die every year from regular seasonal flu, the new virus brings risk for a future pandemic since “the general population doesn’t have immunity to this virus,” said Schuchat.

According to Lieberman, in Mexico more than 2,000 people have been hospitalized and 149 people have died from the flu. In the United States there are 66 confirmed cases in six states; New York, California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana. Globally there are 39 confirmed cases in six other countries including New Zealand, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Israel.

“This is a case in which our government was prepared for the crisis, as best one can be prepared for a swine flu outbreak whose course is not clear,” said Lieberman.

A Swine Flu Primer

Coffee Brown, MD, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

Is swine flu the pandemic we know is coming? According to federal agencies and a blue-ribbon panel of experts: maybe. The situation is early enough and changing fast enough that we can reasonably hope for the best even as we plan for the worst. This primer is designed to help you do just that. We will continue to post updates. The short answer is that basic hygiene is the most important thing to concentrate on.

The swine flu is a virus, not a bacteria, therefore, antibiotics are not useful against it.
The virus is Influenza A (H1N1), meaning that not all flu is this particular swine flu, and not all respiratory viruses are this virus. This virus has elements of human, avian, and swine flu virus genetics (i.e., not human genes, or bird or pig). There is little or no current human resistance to this strain. Pork is not in any way associated with this virus at this time. raising pigs or eating pork are not thought to carry any risk whatsoever for this infection.

Well then, what can you do? For now, treat this as good practice, not just for the WHO and the CDC, but for each individual: Wash your hands frequently, cover your face when you sneeze or cough, wash your hands after doing so, and demand the same courtesy from those around. Clean doorknobs, faucet handles and similar items that are touched by many other people. Avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico, Avoid work, school, or gatherings if cases have been reported in the immediate area, or if you have any infectious symptoms. Working while ill is not the heroic thing to do.

Should you go to work or school? Yes, with these exceptions: If you have any respiratory symptoms or if swine flu has been identified in your immediate community. These are also the circumstances which would support wearing a mask or avoiding gatherings.

What symptoms should you look for? If your are worried about a contact, symptoms should begin within 7 days. Symptoms should include some combination of the following:
Respiratory symptoms, like sniffles, congestion, cough (typically not productive), or sore throat, are almost always present. Fever, muscle aches, chills, fatigue and malaise are frequent, Occasionally nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. If you believe you may have the flu, your doctor can test for it.

Currently available antivirals are effective against this strain, and a quarter of government stockpiles, totaling about 11 million doses, have been released from government stockpiles to communities for treatment and prevention. Protection lasts about 10 days. Your has physician has specific guidelines for the use of these medicines, They should NOT be used “just to be sure.”

The current flu vaccine is not effective against this strain. A new vaccine is under consideration, but will not be available over the short term. First steps, distributing a “seed virus” to pharmaceutical companies to create pilot batches of vaccine, have begun. The pilot batches need to be tested for safety and effectiveness before full-scale production is requested. By the time that decision can be made, the pattern of this disease will be much more clear. The whole process takes several months before vaccines are available to consumers, which means it will not be available during this season. The vaccine may still be important, though, because history shows that a second or even third wave may present during fall and/or winter.

Sen. Arlan Specter (D-Penn.) attended today’s hearing briefly to emphasize the need to balance fully informing the public with the need to keep the problem in perspective.

What is the government doing about this? Plans have been long since prepared for just this situation, supplies, like antivirals, masks, and respirators have been distributed by the CDC and FEMA. Daily updates are being distributed to healthcare workers all over the country. The CDC advises a regional containment strategy, varying the level of response to the local pattern of illness. Increased screening of arrivals from out of the country, or travel restrictions within the country, would not be expected to reduce the spread.

We are on Stage 4 alert, per the WHO, how bad is that?
It simply means that there definite cases of human-to-human transmission, Stage 4 does not mean that the disease has become more severe.

All the really sick people are in Mexico. It is not known why the most severe cases appear to be confined to Mexico so far, but the CDC expects some severe cases to occur here as well. How worried should you be? Think of this as similar to an orange level terrorist alert. The emergency designations allow government resources and authorities to be positioned before a disaster occurs.There is a real possibility that the outbreak will worsen, but for now, it’s a matter of being ready. Of the 40 American cases as of last night (04/27/09), one has been hospitalized, none has died, the rest have been mild.

As of 04/28/09, 64 cases had been confirmed, and five Americans hospitalized. These numbers will be outdated by the time you read them. What does that signify? This is an expected event: more cases will be discovered each day for a while, and therefore more hospitalizations. The percent who become severely ill may go up, if this turns out to be highly contagious and virulent, or may go down, as screening picks up more of the milder cases that would normally go un-noticed. The ultimate pattern is not clear this early, but all government agencies are taking the possibility of a true pandemic seriously, and individuals should do the same. States and municipalities should review their infectious disaster plans.

Because of increased attention and the need to report new developments rapidly, expect conflicting information and ongoing reappraisal.

Harkin asked the panel whether funding is adequate for their response. they responded collectively that past funding has made it possible to begin work on a vaccine, and also enabled surveillance that Schuchat said lead to the virus beginning analysis in the U.S. before Mexico sent specimens to Canada for identification. Harkin said that he was disappointed that Mexico considered American bureaucracy a stumbling block, and that he would follow up on that. The panel also told him that reduced funding undermined the states’ ability to operate existing epidemic plans, had cost PHS 12,000 employees.

This Information is from The Centers for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/ ,the World Health Organization’s http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/ Dr. Richard Besser and the Senate Appropriations Committee Chaired by Sen Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
Witnesses included: Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for Science and Public Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Paul Jarris, executive director of the Assn. of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Give me a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with no peanut butter please: Salmonella Outbreaks in the U.S.

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service



"To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is just giving it too much credit. Food safety in America has too often become a hit-or-miss gamble, and that is truly frightening... When Americans can't count on the safety of basic items like peanut butter that goes into our kids sandwiches... It's a healthy food... if that's not safe then we have to ask what is." said Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA.)

In a full hearing today, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry listened while witnesses and Senators discussed the most recent peanut butter recall. On January 16, the Connecticut Department of Public Health Laboratory discovered where an outbreak strain of Typhimurium, a serotype or a different kind of Salmonella, was coming from. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators reported that the peanut processing plant, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) in Blakely, Georgia, which produces peanut butter, peanut paste, and other peanut products was selling their products to many food companies which then was spread out and created the outbreak strain.

"As of yesterday we've had 575 persons from 43 states and one person from Canada who have been infected with this outbreak strain. Starting from September 1st of last year until January 21st of this year a total of 127 people have required hospitalization and the infection tragically contributed to the death of 8 persons." said Ali S. Khan, Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, and Enteric Diseases, at the Center for Disease Control.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) didn't like hearing that PCA had been involved in past cases of Salmonella distribution. He said, "This kind of company should have been shut down immediately. A full sign of Salmonella, you go back and clean everything out. I'm even asking for criminal prosecutions for this. If they think well we get caught, maybe a recall, maybe we'll get a fine as a cost of doing business well in this case its been people who have lost their lives. It's certainly been an enormous cost to companies who may have totally safe products but they've had to recall it... I want to see some people go to jail!"

Because an investigation is timely Khan suggested what would help speed up the process. "We need new tools at the local, state and national level to investigate these outbreaks... We need new information tools... We need new ways to standardize, analyze bring information together in real time to so right away to understand what is going on...We need better investment at the state and local level to actually make these diagnosis quickly, do the testing very quickly, do the interviews quickly... and then hand that off to FDA so they can do their timely response." he said.

According to the FDA website on January 30, 2009, the FDA confirmed that their Office of Criminal Investigations was involved in a Justice Department investigation of PCA. Consumers are urged to check FDA's web site to determine which products have been recalled and those that will be recalled in the coming days.