Post by Paddy by Grace on Apr 26, 2009 8:54:09 GMT -7
Worldwide, Nations Rush to Keep Swine Flu Contained
www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/27flu.html?_r=1&hp
Officials around the world on Sunday raced to contain an outbreak of swine flu as potential new cases were reported from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic.
Governments issued travel advisories urging people not to travel to Mexico, the apparent origin of the outbreak, where 81 people have died and some 1,300 have been infected. China, Russia and others set up quarantines for anyone possibly infected. Some countries banned pork imports from Mexico, even though there is no link between food products and the flu, and others were screening air travelers for signs of the disease.
In the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and top health officials were due to speak at a news conference Sunday afternoon to address what the government was doing to control the spread of the disease. Eight students from New York City are likely to have contracted swine flu, and there have been 11 confirmed cases in California, Kansas and Texas.
No deaths from swine flu have been reported in the United States.
On Sunday, the government of Hong Kong announced some of the toughest measures yet of any jurisdiction in response to a swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States.
Officials urged residents not to travel to Mexico and ordered the immediate detention at a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever and symptoms of a respiratory illness after traveling in the previous seven days through a city with a laboratory-confirmed outbreak.
New York is not yet on the list of cities with outbreaks because the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is still testing samples from the eight students from Queens.
The new policy, shaped by Hong Kong’s lasting scars as an epicenter of a SARS outbreak six years ago, has the potential to dampen air travel across the Pacific. Hong Kong has Asia’s busiest airport hub for international air travel, with Boeing 747s arriving around the clock from cities all over the United States and Canada, but not Mexico.
Ever since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Hong Kong has used infrared scanners to measure the facial temperature of all arrivals at its airport and border crossings with mainland China. Visitors are required to remove any hats to ensure accurate measurement, and children are checked with ear thermometers because the scanners are less reliable in measuring their faces.
Dr. Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Hong Kong government’s Center for Health Protection, said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon that any traveler who has passed through a city with laboratory-confirmed cases and who arrives in Hong Kong with a fever and respiratory symptoms will be intercepted by officials and sent to a hospital to await testing.
“Until that test is negative, we won’t allow him out,” he said.
An aide later said that the cut-off for having a fever would be 38 degrees Celsius, or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it would take two or three days to obtain test results.
Dr. York Chow, Hong Kong’s secretary for health and food, asked residents to watch the news for reports of which states in the United States have outbreaks and discouraged travel to these states, but reserved his strongest warning for travel to Mexico.
“Do not travel to Mexico unless it is absolutely necessary,” he said.
The Hong Kong government will also amend its health regulations in the next couple days to make it mandatory for any health professional to alert the government of any suspected cases of swine flu, he said.
Hong Kong should “prepare for the worst” if the swine flu virus develops a clear ability to pass from person to person, Dr. Chow said, while adding that the risk from the virus was low if this did not happen.
One legacy of SARS is that Hong Kong may now be better prepared for a flu pandemic than practically anywhere else on the world. Fearing that SARS might recur each winter, the city embarked on a building program to enlarge its capacity to isolate and treat those infected with communicable respiratory diseases.
Hong Kong now has 1,400 beds for this purpose each equipped with mechanical ventilators for treating those with severe pneumonia or other respiratory difficulties. But only 80 to 100 of these beds are needed on any given day, so they have been used until now for patients with other medical problems, Dr. Chow said.
The city has also expanded its flu research labs, already among the best in the world and leaders in tracking the H5N1 avian flu influenza virus. The so-called bird flu virus, which kills an unusually high share of its victims, has periodically triggered fears over the past decade about a possible pandemic but is different from the H1N1 swine flu influenza virus now causing illnesses in Mexico and the United States.
Jack Healy contributed reporting from New York.
www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/world/27flu.html?_r=1&hp
Officials around the world on Sunday raced to contain an outbreak of swine flu as potential new cases were reported from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic.
Governments issued travel advisories urging people not to travel to Mexico, the apparent origin of the outbreak, where 81 people have died and some 1,300 have been infected. China, Russia and others set up quarantines for anyone possibly infected. Some countries banned pork imports from Mexico, even though there is no link between food products and the flu, and others were screening air travelers for signs of the disease.
In the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and top health officials were due to speak at a news conference Sunday afternoon to address what the government was doing to control the spread of the disease. Eight students from New York City are likely to have contracted swine flu, and there have been 11 confirmed cases in California, Kansas and Texas.
No deaths from swine flu have been reported in the United States.
On Sunday, the government of Hong Kong announced some of the toughest measures yet of any jurisdiction in response to a swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States.
Officials urged residents not to travel to Mexico and ordered the immediate detention at a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever and symptoms of a respiratory illness after traveling in the previous seven days through a city with a laboratory-confirmed outbreak.
New York is not yet on the list of cities with outbreaks because the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is still testing samples from the eight students from Queens.
The new policy, shaped by Hong Kong’s lasting scars as an epicenter of a SARS outbreak six years ago, has the potential to dampen air travel across the Pacific. Hong Kong has Asia’s busiest airport hub for international air travel, with Boeing 747s arriving around the clock from cities all over the United States and Canada, but not Mexico.
Ever since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, Hong Kong has used infrared scanners to measure the facial temperature of all arrivals at its airport and border crossings with mainland China. Visitors are required to remove any hats to ensure accurate measurement, and children are checked with ear thermometers because the scanners are less reliable in measuring their faces.
Dr. Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Hong Kong government’s Center for Health Protection, said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon that any traveler who has passed through a city with laboratory-confirmed cases and who arrives in Hong Kong with a fever and respiratory symptoms will be intercepted by officials and sent to a hospital to await testing.
“Until that test is negative, we won’t allow him out,” he said.
An aide later said that the cut-off for having a fever would be 38 degrees Celsius, or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it would take two or three days to obtain test results.
Dr. York Chow, Hong Kong’s secretary for health and food, asked residents to watch the news for reports of which states in the United States have outbreaks and discouraged travel to these states, but reserved his strongest warning for travel to Mexico.
“Do not travel to Mexico unless it is absolutely necessary,” he said.
The Hong Kong government will also amend its health regulations in the next couple days to make it mandatory for any health professional to alert the government of any suspected cases of swine flu, he said.
Hong Kong should “prepare for the worst” if the swine flu virus develops a clear ability to pass from person to person, Dr. Chow said, while adding that the risk from the virus was low if this did not happen.
One legacy of SARS is that Hong Kong may now be better prepared for a flu pandemic than practically anywhere else on the world. Fearing that SARS might recur each winter, the city embarked on a building program to enlarge its capacity to isolate and treat those infected with communicable respiratory diseases.
Hong Kong now has 1,400 beds for this purpose each equipped with mechanical ventilators for treating those with severe pneumonia or other respiratory difficulties. But only 80 to 100 of these beds are needed on any given day, so they have been used until now for patients with other medical problems, Dr. Chow said.
The city has also expanded its flu research labs, already among the best in the world and leaders in tracking the H5N1 avian flu influenza virus. The so-called bird flu virus, which kills an unusually high share of its victims, has periodically triggered fears over the past decade about a possible pandemic but is different from the H1N1 swine flu influenza virus now causing illnesses in Mexico and the United States.
Jack Healy contributed reporting from New York.