Word: spreads
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...swine-flu virus continued its gradual global march on Tuesday, prompting countries to strengthen efforts to stem its spread, while President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in supplementary spending to prepare for a possible swine-flu pandemic and installed the newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to help lead the fight against the disease. In the U.S., the caseload rose to 67 across five states - 45 of them in New York City, where health officials are investigating two new possible outbreaks at city schools - with more virus samples awaiting laboratory confirmation. New Zealand...
...they aren't used to prevent swine flu, can they help slow the spread of a pandemic? The most effective way of slowing a pandemic is to develop a vaccine. But doing so can take months. In the interim, antivirals may play a vital roll by making ill patients less contagious. When a person is sick with the flu, he or she "sheds" virus through coughing, sneezing and other excretions. Effective antivirals lessen the amount of virus a patient sheds (because the patient is not as severely ill) and shortens the length of time he or she sheds virus...
...Tuesday the government of Mexico City ordered gyms, discos, theaters and all sit-down restaurants (excluding those that serve only take-out) closed until at least May 6, in an effort to limit public gatherings and the spread of the virus. As epidemiologists swarm the country in an effort to trace the virus's spread, the big question remains: Why is the disease seemingly so much more deadly in Mexico than anywhere else? "This will be the object of a great deal of research and attention," said Keiji Fukuda, the interim director-general for health, safety and environment...
...There's been no evidence yet of pigs getting sick in either Mexico or the U.S. (Despite several countries' bans on pork imports, it's important to remember that the disease cannot be contracted by eating pork.) The original reservoir for flu viruses is actually wild birds, which can spread infection to domestic birds and people - as we saw with the H5N1 avian flu in Asia - and to pigs. Pigs make particularly good biological mixing bowls since they can be infected by bird-, swine- and human-flu viruses and provide a hospitable environment for the viruses to swap genes...
...that the swine-flu virus seems well established in human beings, containment is no longer an option. The public health response must be to slow the spread, which means getting a better handle on the virus. While the difference in severity between Mexico and U.S. cases would suggest that there are different viruses affecting the two countries, researchers have genetically sequenced swine-flu viruses from both Mexican and American victims, and "we see no difference in the viruses infecting sick people and less-sick people," said Fukuda. And even if there were genetic differences, it wouldn't necessarily mean much...