Swine+Flu+RB09

Amount of people infected with the swine flu-
 * __ Should We Get Vaccinated For Swine Flu?  __**


 * ~ States ||~ # of laboratory confirmed cases ||||~ Deaths ||
 * Arizona || 1 |||| ||
 * California || 14 |||| ||
 * Indiana || 1 |||| ||
 * Kansas || 2 |||| ||
 * Massachusetts || 2 |||| ||
 * Michigan || 2 |||| ||
 * Nevada || 1 |||| ||
 * New York City || 51 |||| ||
 * Ohio || 1 |||| ||
 * Texas || 16 |||| 1 ||
 * **TOTAL COUNT**S || **91 cases** |||| **1 death** ||

Unbiased Article-

Swine Flu

There are antiviral medicines you can take to prevent or treat swine flu. There is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu. You can help prevent the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses like influenza by Swine flu is a type of virus. It's named for a virus that pigs can get. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. The virus is contagious and can spread from human to human.
 * Covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
 * Washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. You can also use alcohol-based hand cleaners.
 * Avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
 * Trying to avoid close contact with sick people.
 * Staying home from work or school if you are sick.

Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

__**Current Events-**__

In a widely anticipated emergency meeting today in response to the swine flu threat, the World Health Organization announced that it is raising its pandemic alert level to Phase 4 from Phase 3-- the first time the alert level has been raised above 3 since the system was adopted in 2005. The Phase 4 designation signifies that the new swine flu virus can cause sustained outbreaks and is adapting itself to spread among humans -- significant steps toward a pandemic. To slow the spread of the virus, the State Department issued a travel alert this evening, recommending that Americans avoid any non-essential travel to Mexico. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized public health and medical officials to use influenza medications, like Relenza and Tamiflu to treat the virus and deal with the emergency situation. Bloomberg warned that there are another 17 possible cases, all in people associated with the school, St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, and as many as 100 of the students have fallen ill and will be tested for the virus. The mayor expressed optimism, however, over the fact that the disease has not yet been detected anywhere else in the city. The total number of swine flu cases throughout the U.S. rose to 50 today, The Associated Press reports. The challenge confronting public health officials around the world is how to stop a disease from spreading when it travels by human contact. Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new travel advisory for Americans visiting Mexico, according to Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the federal agency.


On February 3, 1976, the New Jersey State Health Department sent the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta isolates of virus from recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey, who had influenzalike illnesses. Two of the isolates, however, were not typeable in that laboratory. A meeting of representatives of the military, the National Institute of Health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the State of New Jersey Department of Health was quickly convened on Saturday, February 14, 1976. Plans of action included heightened surveillance in and around Fort Dix, investigation of the ill recruits to determine if contact with pigs had occurred, and serologic testing of recruits to determine if spread had occurred at Fort Dix. Surveillance activities at Fort Dix gave no indication that recruits had contact with pigs. In 1974 and 1975, 2 instances of humans infected with swine influenza viruses had been documented in the United States. Both persons involved had close contact with pigs, and no evidence for spread of the virus beyond family members with pig contact could be found.


 * __CHILD IN TEXAS DIES FROM SWINE FLU__**

A toddler in Texas has died of the new swine flu virus, the first confirmed death outside Mexico, as the World Health Organization said the outbreak showed clear signs of spreading around the world. Nearly a week after the threat first emerged in Mexico, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, underscoring the threat of person-to-person transmission. U.S. officials said that a 22-month-old boy had died in Texas -- the first confirmed U.S. swine flu death -- but they added that he was on a family visit from Mexico, where up to 159 flu fatalities have been recorded.

WHO Raises Pandemic Alert for Swine Flu

The widely anticipated emergency meeting today in response to the swine flu threat and they raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 4 from Phase 3, the first time it was raised above three sinnce it was made in 2005. The infection of the Swine Flu has already spread to the U.S. where about 64 people have been confirmed to be infected, 6 people in Canada, 2 in the U.K., 2 in Spain, 2 in Israel, 3 in New Zealand, and about 150 deaths in Mexico. Almost all of the confirmed cases of the swine flu are all in New York since many of the people touch the same things like poles that are contaminated on the stairs when coming up from the train. The symptoms of the swine flu are the same as the regular flu but they include a fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. There is no vaccine available right now to protect for the swine flu but things that you could do to try not to get it which are:

- Coverinng your nose and mouth with a tissue when youu cough or sneeze and throw the tissue away in the trash after you use it - Washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. - Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs spread that way. - Trying to avoid close contact with sick people

Vocabulary-

Pandemic- an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide.

Swine Flu- a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs.

Influenza- commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease that affects birds and mammals.

Fort Dix- a United States Army installation located in parts of New Hanover Township, Pemberton Township, and Springfield Township, in Burlington County, New Jersey, USA.