Sunday, April 26, 2009

U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency in Wake of Swine Flu

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of the stockpile for the swine flu anti-viral medication has been released as the U.S. declares a public health emergency.

FOXNews.com
Sunday, April 26, 20090
WASHINGTON --

The United States has activated an emergency plan to combat swine flu as the Obama administration announced measures Sunday to contain the sometimes deadly virus.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the strain of flu and has developed anti-viral medications for distribution. A quarter of the stockpile is being released around the country in places where swine flu has been located or may be expected to spread, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a briefing at the White House.

The U.S. stockpile is currently 50 million doses.

Travel advisories have not been issued by the State Department, Napolitano said, nor is the United States going to screen passengers on flights arriving from Mexico. She said funds have been freed up in case a larger response is needed.

Hand-washing, mask-wearing and other measures will help prevent the spread, Napolitano said. "If you are sick, stay home," Napolitano said, explaining how the public can help slow the spread. "Take all of those reasonable measures that will help us mitigate and contain" the illness.

People who are ill should not go on airplanes, to school or other places, added Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the CDC.

Besser said the United States is working with the World Health Organization, Canada and Mexico as well as other organizations to reduce the spread, which appears to have originated in Mexico and has resulted in up to 81 deaths there. The CDC has issued advice on its Web site on how to avoid the sickness and how to react if people think they are infected.

"Every outbreak is unique" and it's very hard to say how long it will be before it's contained. But Besser said since it's near the end of flu season right now, a decline would be likely.

However, he added, "We view this more as a marathon. We do think this will continue to spread but we are taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people's health."

"Even if this outbreak is a small one we can anticipate that we may have a subsequent of follow on outbreak in several months from now," Napolitano said.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security, said President Obama has offered his full support to the Mexican government and people. He said increased surveillance efforts have resulted in the identification of new cases over the last 24 hours. "Early identification is vitally important," Brennan said. "Communications have been robust and medical surveillance efforts are fully activated."

Brennan said early communications and quick response will be the key to combating an outbreak of the swine flu, which has had spread rapidly throughout the world. In the U.S., 20 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in California, New York, Texas, Ohio and Kansas.


Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. Besser said that all the cases have resulted in recovery and one person remains hospitalized.


The incubation period for swine flu is 24-48 hours.


White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said despite reports Obama did not have a medical exam since it's been nine days since he left Mexico.

Gibbs said earlier Sunday that now is not the time to panic.

"We are increasing the monitoring and preparedness that we would need to have in place in order to deal with any sort of emergency, but it is of concern to the White House," Gibbs said on "Meet the Press."

As the briefing was occurring, Mexico City's mayor announced that two more people died overnight in the capital of swine flu, and three other deaths are suspected to have been caused by the new strain.

Marcelo Ebrard said 73 more people have been hospitalized with influenza and authorities are investigating how many of them may have been infected with swine flu.

The deadly swine flu strain in Mexico has sickened more than 1,324 since April 13. Israel, New Zealand, Spain and other nations have reported suspected isolated cases after citizens from those countries returned home from Mexico.

The Israeli Health Ministry said the biggest concern is a spread of the disease from person to person. "The main route of contamination would be from person to person and not from pigs. There is no swine flu in pigs in Israel. There are not many pigs in Israel," said Dr. Hagai Levin.

"You can not get the swine flu from eating pork," Napolitano said.

Swine flu is dangerous because it changes its form and takes on characteristics like bird flu, and there is no vaccination, said Dr. Isador Rosenfeld, a FOX News contributor.

"It's a melange of viruses packed into one," Rosenfeld said, adding that swine flu is usually a mild infection. He suggested staying away from crowded places where people are sneezing and coughing and washing hands. He said he's a bit confounded about why so many people in Mexico have died because swine flu does respond to Tamiflu and other anti-viral medicines.

"This thing is treatable," he said.

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