Mysterious U.S. Swine Flu Probe Widens as Mexico Finds Swine Flu *updated*

reply to post by SunnyDee


Again, I went to the places that she mentioned as places it was happening in NY. It's totally false unless millions of people a day are totally missing some horrible out of place trucks. Oh and a non existent road in Glens Falls.

Edit to say I don't think this is coincidental, but that woman was misinformed or full of crap.

Things like this don't just pop up out of nowhere at the same time in multiple places. Maybe it's not engineered, but at the very least someone knew it was coming.

[edit on 4/24/09 by Magnivea]

Someone was asking if the different flu viruses could mix. I found the following.

Genetic Reassortment of Avian, Swine, and Human Influenza A Viruses in American Pigs
link

In late summer through early winter of 1998, there were several outbreaks of respiratory disease in the swine herds of North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota, and Iowa. Four viral isolates from outbreaks in different states were analyzed genetically. Genotyping and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the four swine viruses had emerged through two different pathways. The North Carolina isolate is the product of genetic reassortment between H3N2 human and classic swine H1N1 influenza viruses, while the others arose from reassortment of human H3N2, classic swine H1N1, and avian viral genes. The hemagglutinin genes of the four isolates were all derived from the human H3N2 virus circulating in 1995. It remains to be determined if either of these recently emerged viruses will become established in the pigs in North America and whether they will become an economic burden.

There has been concern for years that avian flu would either mix with swine and mutate to infect humans or with a human who had another form of flu. This was one of the selling points to get healthcare personnel to get vaccinated.

On another note...tptb may be heaving a sigh of relief that their long awaited epidemic may be on the verge of happening. Even if they come up with a vaccine, how many people want to get vaccinated after the last swine flu fiasco.

Here is the latest link that I could find on this. It states there have been 60 deaths so far.

Link to article

There are also cases reported in the US

On the positive side it's spring so that will help us.

On the negative side we could see serious flu here in the US in the fall.

Thanks to all who have posted here with updates!

I found this:

The evolving Swine Flu story

This afternoon CDC held a "media availability" on the evolving swine flu cases. Evolving is an understatement. There are now more recognized cases, although not all cases are "new," with some cases retrospectively recognized now that more intense investigation is occurring. The total is now seven cases. Two occurred in San Antonio, Texas, two sixteen year old boys in the same school. Three more were found in California (in addition to the initial two cases), including a father - daughter pair. All California cases are in San Diego and neighboring Imperial counties, the location of the initial cases. Those counties are also where there has been the most intense looking. CDC expects more cases to be recognized with the ramped up index of suspicion. They promise to update the situation daily at 3 pm on its website. None of the cases gives a history of contact with pigs, so together with the two "doubles" (the schoolmates and family pair), this strongly suggests active person to person spread. Moreover, the initial two viruses have been completely sequenced and are very similar. Partial information on some of the additional viruses from California are also similar, which reinforces the idea that the virus is in active circulation. How widely we don't yet know. But this isn't all the news.

It turns out this virus is highly unusual, a quadruple reassortant. The genes of a flu virus are packaged in eight discrete segments. When two flu viruses infect the same host cell, the segments of each are copied and repackaged, 8 at a time, in new viral particles which then bud off from the infected cell. They then may infect a new host cell. In this repackaging process the segments of the two different viruses may mix and match, so that new virus particle will have segments from two different viruses. The new virus is, in a sense, not just a swine flu virus. It does have viral segments characteristic of two different families of swine flu, one typical of North America, where swine flu is endemic, and one typical of pig flu viruses from Europe and Asia. But we learned today that it also has viral segments seen in North American birds and in human seasonal influenza. Which of the segments is a bird segment and which is humans wasn't discussed in today's briefing, but the fact that the genetic sources comprise widely different geographies and species is highly unusual -- unusual at least as far as we know. We have little systematic information on swine viruses, so how common this really is we don't know for sure, nor do we know how recent. The virus is resistant to the older adamantane antivirals but sensitive to both oseltamivir (Tamilfu) and zanamivir (Relenza).

Whatever this is, it isn't seasonal influenza. The reported cases range from 9 years old to 54 years old, 3 females, 4 males. All have recovered and only one required hospitalization. The earliest case is from late March, the most recent just days ago. Symptoms are typical for influenza-like illness except that there seems to be a greater prominence of gastrointestinal symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) along with the respiratory symptoms and fever. CDC emphasized they were in an active investigation mode and will keep sharing information as it develops. Clearly there is a lot more to learn about this.

Could this be the harbinger of an influenza pandemic? A pandemic is a global sized outbreak from a single strain of influenza...

scienceblogs.com...


And this on the same site:

Preliminary tests in Mexico were said to show that cases had influenza A/H1N1, influenza B or parainfluenza. The first two are the this years' main seasonal influenza viruses. Parainfluenza is another common cause of respiratory disease. One of the major questions is whether the H1N1 is human seasonal influenza, like the H1N1 swine flu variant just reported by CDC, or something else. Since three different viruses are mentioned, we also need to know which one is the predominant virus in the current outbreak. Several news outlets report that 51 Mexican clinical specimens have been sent to the Canadian Public Health Agency laboratory for genetic characterization.

scienceblogs.com...

I've been blowing the whistle on this one for quite some time. Look I've been traveling lately too much because of my job. I've been seen a lot of people with "colds" in the airport all over the world even at my office there's been a spread of "colds" I've been saying that it isn't normal and that it's odd that it's been more than 9 weeks that people get these colds. It's a strain mutation of the swine flu I'm sure of it. Any one else with more information? Thanks...

Btw, I'm in Mexico at the moment small town just 3 or 4 "cold" cases. Cheers...

updated every 10 miinutes

www.birdflubreakingnews.com...

Originally posted by spinkyboo
updated every 10 miinutes

www.birdflubreakingnews.com...

Spinkyboo, thanks for that link...the more accurate the information the better off we are!

Two updates here on MSM...this story is even being monitered by Obama at the White House...White House closely following U.S. swine flu outbreakwww.msnbc.msn.com...

Outbreaks in Mexico, U.S. tied to new swine flu
Source of unique virus a mystery; CDC expects more cases

The unique strain of swine flu found in seven people in California and Texas has been connected to the deadly flu that has broken out in Mexico, killing as many as 60 people, NBC News has confirmed.

The strain has never been seen before and is raising fears of a possible pandemic.

The World Health Organization said it was concerned at what it called hundreds of "influenza-like" cases in Mexico, and also about the confirmed outbreak of the new strain of swine flu in the United States.

Mexico canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding area on Friday after authorities noticed a higher number of flu-like deaths than normal in recent weeks.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the Televisa network.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Ok I have a Question

Why are they vaccinating in Mexico? 04/24/2009 UPDATE:
There is no vaccine, but doctors say some newer medications like Tamiflu have been effective so far.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

The World Health Organization said on Friday that it was convening an emergency committee to advise whether outbreaks of swine flu in the United States and Mexico constituted an international public health threat.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

White House Closely Monitering U.S. Flu Outbreak
www.msnbc.msn.com...

The White House is closely following the outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in the United States and President Barack Obama has been informed, an administration official said on Friday

If there is a reported case in Canada, then a pandemic across North America is upon us. I hear the cases in the United States have been linked with the outbreak in Mexico, a serious development.

Mexico is nearing a 1,000 reported cases so far. The poverty and deprivation will bread the virus more - a rapid contagion is highly possible. We could be talking millions by next week.

reply to post by infinite

WHO confirms 60 dead, 800 sick with flu-like illness.

www.nationalpost.com...

1 million kids out of schol today? Wow! This is big!

They are definitely tracking cases that may develop in Canada!

This virus is spreading fast and obviously highly contageous! Isn't the first step in an investigation to find out where and how it originated? I havn't heard anything about the first person that may have developed this new strain. I will be following this closely!

This is all pretty darn suspicious, the timing of it all, how fast everyone seems to be reacting to this.

Suppose the economy is about to crash .. market crash, banks close, all businesses stop because the banks are all closed .. martial law would be required and necessary, for a while at least, right? Yet, ya know people wouldn't abide by any martial law when they get hungry, there's not enough police or soldiers to keep us all locked up. Wouldn't it be convenient if there was some kind of plague floating about that kept everyone to afraid to go out and riot and burn things down? What a perfect solution to use in order to enforce martial law, eh?

reply to post by burntheships


A star for you, thanks for your work on this.

I found some good info at this site too

WHO calls emergency meeting on swine flu

tickerforum.org...

reply to post by pluckynoonez


I'm still listening in, will give report when it's over

Sorry, there's a CDC conference call going on right now - that's what I'm listening into.

What I've been getting so far:

illness onset from late march through early april

7-54 age range

affects lower respiratory tract

8 US patients all had identical virus

brand new swine, not related to any previously in N America

non had contact with pigs

2 cases were related biologically (Father & Daughter)

all others not related at all no contact with each other

suspect human to human transmission

all have recovered from the virus

Relenza (zanamivir) and Olsetamivir seems to work against it

2 doses per day for 5 days

incubation period unknown 2-7 days suspected

southern CA & San Antonio, TX cases confirmed

fatal cases in central mexico as well as other areas of mexico

Canadian lab & CDC BOTH confirm that Mexico virus is same as US virus

uncomplicated influenza like symptoms in US, in Mexico severe lower resp symptoms

Symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, headache, runny nose, Myalgia (muscle soreness), vomiting and diarrhea

clinicians are NOT to consider this a mild illness

CDC is posting guidance documents for clinicians, treatment, lab workers etc on CDC web site

so far they are basically talking like normal flu season type precautions, lots of hand washing, avoid sick people

they refuse to comment on why Mexico's outbreak has a higher mortality, they need more epidemiological study so as not to be speculation

US STILL has regular seasonal influenza also, so this presents a big diagnostic challenge

state health labs should get upper resp samples from all suspected cases

H3 is normal flu, H1 is Swine

this swine strain is resistant to some anti-virals

Question about alert levels coming in now

too early to tell, discussions are ongoing, as sit evolves they will determine whether to elevate level

reevaluations will probably occur on a daily basis

still don't know if strain is cross contaminant - humans to animals, animals to human, other animal species besides swine, etc

no reports YET from Central America other than Mexico nor South America

preliminary results show that this is antigen distinct, so no prior influenza exposure will give you protection

vaccine development is underway - talks of LIVE vaccine (dangerous - my personal comment)

no rapid diagnostics for this is available

no link to pigs, poultry or other susceptible animals in the 8 US cases - human to human transmission only so far (strange)

admit that this was literally picked up "accidentally" because it did NOT match any other H1, H3, H5 or B strain

kudos to some doc that sent it in

father daughter pair of cases is the only ones that are linked in any way

avoid contact with people who had recent travel to Mexico (duh)

RTPCR is the testing used, BUT it will show a Neg to all - WTF? then send sample into state labs

recommend throat AND nasal swabs for testing

cdc page www.cdc.gov... will have transcript of call and info on Mondays conference call

Cases are some Hispanic background, some not (US Cases)

Cleaned it up a bit

[edit on 4/24/09 by redhatty]

reply to post by Divinorumus

I see your point, with all the threads that have popped up saying this summer is the beginning of the end. I am going to sit on the fence and watch and see how this all plays out. You don't close all the schools though if this isn't some serious s@$%! This strain didn't just manifest itself overnight as it seems to be hitting the public. This was released by someone! Like I said earlier, the very first case is were the truth starts.

Guz

Originally posted by infinite

Mexico is nearing a 1,000 reported cases so far. The poverty and deprivation will bread the virus more - a rapid contagion is highly possible. We could be talking millions by next week.

Oooh, fresh doom. Millions by next week? Where is Dustin Hoffman when you need him?

I currently do not have health insurance, am I going to be okay? Can anyone answer me that, besides God?

So it beings (dejavoo). I am wondering if this is the beginning of the end and Alex Jones was right all along (population reduction).

WHO is now communicating with Canada aswell, has there been a reported case?

I'll get onto the Canadian wires now

reply to post by redhatty

A star for you sir.

Thanks for your diligence redhatty! Appreciate the update.

BBC

It seems swine flu is responsible for the source of two pandemics during the 20th Century. In fact, we are overdue a pandemic.

Originally posted by redhatty
preliminary results show that this is antigen distinct, so no prior influenza exposure will give you protection

vaccine development is underway - talks of LIVE vaccine (dangerous - my personal comment) 1:26 PM
no rapid diagnostics for this is available 1:27 PM

So redhatty...thanks! And you heard them say it...no prior influenza exposure will give you protection...

Then I have just got to wonder what in the world they are innoculating with in Mexico???


reply to post by pluckynoonez

Plucky, Thanks for your updates!




[edit on 24-4-2009 by burntheships]

Perhaps I am dating myself (hell I've dated myself enough on here ) but I remember the Swine Flu outbreak in 76 and 77. I got the shot and it made me sicker than the damned flu. I went 30 years without a flu shot because of that and only get them now because a COPD episode scares me worse than the flu.