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UPDATE 1-U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak

* US to release 25 percent of anti-viral stockpile

* Health chief recommends planning for school closures

* Too early to determine impact on economy (Updates to add information from CDC briefing)

By Ross Colvin

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States declared a public health emergency on Sunday because of an outbreak of swine flu that has been diagnosed in 20 people in this country -- the same strain suspected of killing 81 people in Mexico.

The outbreak is yet another distraction for President Barack Obama as he focuses on rescuing the economy from its worst crisis in decades. His administration will also be mindful of the damage to former President George W. Bush over his government's inept handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"At this point, a top priority is to ensure that communication is robust and that medical surveillance efforts are fully activated," John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security, told a White House briefing.

Dr Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a separate briefing she feared that some people would die in the United States as the virus spread.

Health and Homeland Security officials announced steps to release some of the U.S. stockpiles of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. They recommended that local authorities plan for possible school closures and that anyone with symptoms stay at home to reduce the possibility of transmission.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it was too early to say what impact the outbreak could have on efforts to get the economy back on its feet. Spiraling healthcare costs are already a huge drain on the economy.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration of the public health emergency was necessary to free federal, state and local agencies' resources and authorize the release of funds to buy more antivirals.

"This is standard operating procedure," Napolitano stressed, adding that similar declarations had been issued in the past to help states cope with flooding or hurricanes.

CASES MILD

The CDC confirmed 20 cases of swine flu in the United States and said all the patients had recovered and only one person had to be hospitalized. Officials said they were not testing air travelers from Mexico for the virus.

UPDATE 1-U.S. acts swiftly to contain swine flu outbreak

The CDC is preparing a "yellow card" for travelers explaining the flu symptoms and what precautions to take, Schuchat said. U.S. health officials are stressing frequent hand washing as the first line of defense against the virus.

Tests so far show that the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against the new H1N1 swine flu strain, Schuchat said. It could take several months to develop a vaccine for the new virus, she added.  Continued...

The virus in the U.S. cases appeared to be the same strain as the one that has killed scores in Mexico, CDC acting Director Dr Richard Besser said, although it was not yet clear why it had not proven as deadly in the United States. Health officials from the United States and Canada were now in Mexico to try to answer this "critical question," he said.

"We expect to see more cases of swine flu. As we continue to look for cases, we expect that we will find them," Besser said.

Napolitano said the United States would release 25 percent of the 50 million anti-flu drugs from the strategic national stockpile. The Department of Defense has also bought 7 million courses of Tamiflu for defense personnel, she said.

Tamiflu, a pill made by Roche AG ROG.X and Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) (GSK.N) and Biota's (BTA.AX) Relenza, an inhaled drug, can treat influenza if given quickly. They have been shown to work against this new flu strain.

Gibbs said Obama, who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, had shown no symptoms of the virus and had therefore not been tested. (Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Donna Smith and Maggie Fox; editing by Eric Beech)

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2649351120090426
178 Responses
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Avatar universal
How many stories have you read that bother to tell you Tamiflu is made from the star anise herb that's been used for over 5,000 years in Traditional Chinese Medicine? Virtually none. The powers that be don't want anybody to know they could actually grow their own medicine in a garden or a windowsill. If you can grow cilantro, you can grow medicine. If everybody figured that out, Big Pharma wouldn't be reaping the enormous profits it's making right now from Tamiflu sales, and the governments of the world wouldn't be able to scare and control people by promising to distribute Tamiflu (but only if you behave).



http://www.naturalnews.com/026185.html
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Avatar universal
Its proven the vaccines in 1918 killed more people taht the H1N1 itself
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148588 tn?1465778809
Thanks for the link.

From the above article:

"More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.
Swine flue is extremely convenient for governments that would have very soon have to dispose of billions of dollars of Tamiflu stock, which they bought to counter avian flu, or H5N1.  The US government ordered 20 million doses, costing $2 billion, in October, 2005, and around that time the UK government ordered 14.6 million doses.  Tamiflu’s manufacturer, Roche, has confirmed that the shelf life of its anti-viral is three years.

As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent -- about 12 million doses -- of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation's stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children. Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you? "




Tamiflu Loaded With Side Effects, Including Death and Can Only Reduce Symptoms by 36 Hours at BEST


Please realize that Tamiflu is NOT a safe drug  Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections  Japan actually banned Tamiflu for children in 2007.

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug.


Additionally common side effects of Tamiflu include:


Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Headache
Dizziness
Fatigue
Cough
All in all, the very symptoms you're trying to avoid.


Additionally, Tamiflu has been reported to be ineffective against seasonal flu outbreaks, and may not be sufficient to combat an epidemic or pandemic.

But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic!



But here’s the real kicker.

When Tamiflu is used as directed (twice daily for 5 days) it can ONLY reduce the duration of your influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data.



Why on earth would anyone want to take a drug that has a chance of killing you, was banned in Japan, is loaded with side effects that mimic the flu itself, costs over $100, and AT BEST can only provide 36 hours of SYMPTOM relief.  Just doesn't make any sense.

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206807 tn?1331936184
I found this interesting

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx
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Avatar universal
This may be the first time this particular swine flu virus has been found in pigs.




http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090502/090502_mexico/20090502/?hub=CP24Home
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Avatar universal
Pigs in a farm in Alberta Canada  are infected with the H1N1 virus....the guy just got back from Mexico and he infected his whole farm
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Avatar universal
TAMIFLU is exracted from spice Chinese star anise, so due to the demand for Tamiflu, Roche has had to buy up 90% of the worlds supply of spice

Its not made from the pig..as most vaccines are made from the "killer source"



http://www.3dchem.com/molecules.asp?ID=220
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Avatar universal
Guess what the swine vaccine is made from?....pigs
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Avatar universal
Hers my therory..Govts start the diseaeswith big pharma ,to make megabucks by selling the "Cure" to the blind public sheep...but herers the beauty...they set up the to make it look like its a terrorist action...just like 911....it was all set up

FREE SPEACH IN MINE
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619345 tn?1310341421
Just returned to Mexico from a business trip in Vegas on an empty plane how sad is that check this out http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-rumsfeld-makes-5m-killing-on-bird-flu-drug-469599.html   meanwhile Mexico's tourist trade has been sabatoged by yet another media hype wonder who started this BS  Yes all the schools are closed here and as everywhere else all the kids are out playing and having a vacation what next
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Avatar universal
Just by posting some info on disease makes me no bad guy alarmist...
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Avatar universal
Thank you for that video. It was SO good. Warm fuzzy to you.

Speaking of pigs, though, the sad fact is that it's not only Rocker who is panicked. Have a look at what the GOVERNMENT of Egypt decided, which the Egyptian Coptic leadership endorsed:

Egypt's call to kill pigs amid flu scare ridiculed

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer Tarek El-tablawy, Ap Business Writer
Fri May 1, 3:27 am ET

CAIRO – Egypt's government was hoping to look strong and proactive in the swine flu scare with its decision to slaughter all the country's pigs, after taking heavy criticism at home for poor planning and corruption in past crises.

But instead, some Egyptians called the move a knee-jerk overreaction that even the World Health Organization said was unnecessary.

Egypt, which has no swine flu cases, is the only country in the world to order a mass pig slaughter in response to the disease. The move mirrored Egypt's battle with bird flu, in which the government killed 25 million birds within weeks in 2006.

But international health officials said the swine flu virus that has caused worldwide fear is not transmitted by pigs, and that pig slaughters do nothing to stop its spread. The WHO on Thursday stopped using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion.

In Egypt, even the editor of a pro-government newspaper criticized the order to slaughter the estimated 300,000 pigs, which was pushed by parliament and issued by the government.

"Killing (pigs) is not a solution, otherwise, we should kill the people, because the virus spreads through them," wrote Abdullah Kamal of the daily Rose El-Youssef. "The terrified members of parliament should have concentrated on asking the government first about the preventive measures and ways of confronting the problem."

The Egyptian government has come under criticism in past years for being caught flat-footed by crises.

A rockslide that crushed a Cairo neighborhood and killed at least 100, and a series of fires — including one that burned down the upper house of parliament — highlighted how ill-prepared emergency services are. A 2005 ferry sinking that killed 1,000 raised an uproar over poor safety conditions.

Many accused the government of not taking precautions when bird flu first appeared in Asia in 2003. When the first case appeared in Egypt in 2006, the government carried out mass bird culls, but the disease has killed more than two dozen people since.

With the new flu scare, the government "took a precautionary step because they were afraid there would be a case here, and then they would face questions about why they didn't take this step," said Nader Noureddin, an agricultural resources expert at Cario University's Agricultural College.

The government likely felt confident slaughtering pigs would not spark any public backlash in predominantly Muslim Egypt, where the majority of the population does not eat pork. Pig raising and consumption is limited to the country's Christian minority, estimated at 10 percent of the population.

Still, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood was critical of the slaughter on the grounds it was not thought out.

"The problem is that the government here deals with things in emotional ways," said Essam el-Erian, a top Brotherhood leader. "It acts with the memory of what happened during the bird flu crisis."

Coptic Christian leaders — including the pope — condoned the slaughter, and two Coptic lawmakers were among the most vocal supporters.

But pig farmers — overwhelmingly Christian — were angered. Government efforts to start the slaughter Wednesday were met with farmers who hurled stones at Health Ministry trucks.

"This is the livelihood of a segment of the people," said Youssef Sidhom, an editor of the Al-Watani newspaper and prominent Coptic figure. "You can't just do something on the national level and ignore a segment of the population."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_scapegoating_pigs/print
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Avatar universal
There are many different strains of flu within the subtype H1N1. The 'swine flu'  which is in the news actually started out as an avian flu,  and is not the same strain as the Spanish flu of WWI.
ML
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Avatar universal
I love John Stewart - he ALWAYS makes me laugh.  Thanks for sharing.
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Avatar universal
hahahahahahahahaha!!!
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9648 tn?1290091207
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=225919&title=snoutbreak-09-what-to-call
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408795 tn?1324935675
This thread has been most revealing to expose the fear mongers of this forum.  thx jmjm
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Avatar universal
http://www.disabled-world.com/health/influenza/swine-flu/cases-statistics.php
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9648 tn?1290091207
You are being an alarmist. Stop it. Now.

For someone who is so concerned with nutrition and proper eating has it occurred to you that people might have been able to eat all that well and had compromised immune systems (and health) at the end of the Great War (WWI)? They also didn't have the ways of sharing information from medical community to medical community that we do now. There have been a ton of advancements and this is a different world than it was then.

Being an alarmist only compromises your own immune system, eh? So chill. It's May Day. Go and smell some flowers.
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Avatar universal
H1N1 IS SWINE
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Avatar universal
It was swine


The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak

The 1918 Swine Flu outbreak was exceptionally severe, and affected approximately one-third of the world's population, which amounted to about five-hundred million people at the time. The rate of death associated with this outbreak of SIV was estimated to be between fifty-million and one-hundred million people.
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Avatar universal
The 1918 pandemic was Spanish flu.  Medical care has come a long way since then.  Try to relax, just wash your hands a lot and don't touch your face any more than you have to.  You will be ok.
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Avatar universal
1918 flu pandemic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Two American Red Cross nurses demonstrate treatment practices during the influenza pandemic of 1918.The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.[1] Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920,[2] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide,[3] or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,[4][5][6] more than double the number killed in World War I.[7] This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms. The pandemic is estimated to have affected up to one billion people: more than half the world's population at the time.[8]

Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
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Avatar universal
The last swine pandemic to hit the in 1918 killed 500,000 million....thats 1/2 billion....there maybe cause for  some concern...dont you think?
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