So, it's NOT out of the news yet...update post #6

[Grace&Violets]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682

 

Confirmed cases are only the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ health official says

 

updated 1:42 p.m. MT, Mon., May 11, 2009

Swine flu is spreading so far and fast in the U.S. that state health officials may soon stop counting individual cases, a federal health official said Monday.

 

The novel H1N1 virus accounted for 40 percent of flu viruses logged in the U.S. in the past week and helped propel an uptick in overall flu-like illnesses, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a deputy director with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

“I think the cases we’re confirming are the tip of the iceberg here,” Schuchat said in a press briefing Monday.

 

more at the link...MSN

[Grace&Violets]

I wanted to add...it says in the article that a good portion of the people that have died so far have had asthma, and out of 22 people that died in Mexico, 5 of them had asthma as their only health problem.

 

People with chronic illnesses are at greatest risk for severe illness from the flu, along with the elderly and young children. So far, most of those with the swine flu in the U.S. and Mexico have been young adults.

 

“We’re still learning about what patients are most at risk” from the new virus, said Dr. Fatima Dawood, a CDC epidemiologist.

 

The CDC report released by the New England Journal of Medicine also provided more detailed information on 22 people hospitalized with swine flu. Nine had chronic medical conditions, including the two who died and a 25-year-old man with Down syndrome and a congenital heart disease. Five of the patients had asthma alone.

 

This scares me, because if it's spreading so quickly, there is a good chance that someone I know will have it and that my DS who has asthma could get it.

[kappydell]

Very scary. My area has had confirmed cases, we also have migrant workers coming up to work in canning company due about now. I am glad I had N95 masks & bought some more at hardware store. Also I am avoiding crowds. Nobody want to talk about it at all, think they are afraid of anti-migrant backlash.

[mi_familia]

I wanted to add...it says in the article that a good portion of the people that have died so far have had asthma, and out of 22 people that died in Mexico, 5 of them had asthma as their only health problem.

 

That's definitely not what I wanted to hear.

[sassenach]

I have rheumatalogical/autoimmune disorders and asthma, so I prep and will be very careful to try and bolster my immune system as much as I can do, because its still out there, and as it mutates and goes into further waves, it could become much more of a problem. I do not have a problem with just staying home to prevent exposure hopefully if it picks up in strength and mortality rates.

[Grace&Violets]

So, it appears there is another person that is near death from the flu and this time his only pre-existing condition is gout. It seems to me that *any* health condition, no matter what it is, can make this flu go south.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30752930

 

NYC asst. principal with swine flu very ill

Three schools closed as hundreds of kids sent home in flare-up

NEW YORK - The sons of a critically ill New York City school official diagnosed with swine flu say their father has been on a breathing tube and is barely able to talk to his family.

 

There's more at the link

[sassenach]

Here is the article about the Asst. Principal of a NYC school, on respirator, only gout being a previous condition.... yahoo news today.

 

 

Sons: NYC asst. principal with swine flu very ill

AP

 

 

An unidentified school employee pastes a note on the door of the Susan B. AP – An unidentified school employee pastes a note on the door of the Susan B. Anthony School in the Queens …

 

* Swine Flu Slideshow:Swine Flu

* Was 'Swine Flu' Man-Made? Play Video Video:Was 'Swine Flu' Man-Made? ABC News

* 3 NYC schools close due to another flu outbreak Play Video Video:3 NYC schools close due to another flu outbreak AP

 

By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Associated Press Writer Marcus Franklin, Associated Press Writer – 41 mins ago

 

NEW YORK – Maintenance workers scrubbed desks and door handles Friday in a swine flu outbreak that shut down three New York City public schools and left an assistant principal hospitalized in critical condition on a breathing tube.

 

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said maintenance crews were thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting two middle schools and one elementary school in Queens where hundreds of students were sent home sick this week.

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the school closures Thursday evening, saying four students and the assistant principal at the Susan B. Anthony middle school in Hollis have documented cases of swine flu.

 

The mayor said the assistant principal, Mitch Wiener, may have had pre-existing health problems — but on Friday, Wiener's son Adam said his father had only suffered previously from gout, which he said was unrelated to his current condition. He said his 55-year-old father is now suffering from kidney failure, dehydration and a lung infection.

 

"I don't know where people got that," Adam Wiener, 23, said Friday morning as he prepared to return to the hospital where the family was keeping vigil.

 

"The only pre-existing condition he has is gout, which is unrelated to complications he's experienced now."

 

It isn't unusual for flu cases to ebb and surge as the virus moves through a population during flu season. The virus tends to disappear as the weather gets warmer and more humid.

 

Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, a deputy commissioner of the health department, said investigators are trying to learn more about why the disease has spread erratically.

 

Schools are a good incubator for illness in general, he said, because space is tight and youngsters often don't practice the best hygiene.

 

So far, the virus has not proved to be more infectious or deadly than the seasonal flu.

 

Adam Wiener said his father had been sick since at least last weekend with flu-like symptoms "but we didn't think anything of it." Then early Wednesday, he said, the family called 911 after his father began "hallucinating and wasn't coherent."

 

Wiener's case marks the most severe illness in the city since the city's first known cases of swine flu appeared in late April. At least five schools in the city were closed then, but all have since reopened. Officials say the students who have fallen ill in this latest surge of illness appear to be experiencing mild symptoms, similar to routine flu.

 

Bloomberg said the three schools — with more than 4,000 students altogether — would be closed for at least a week because "there are an unusually high level of flulike illnesses at those schools."

 

"There are documented cases of H1N1 flu at one of them," the mayor said, using the formal name for swine flu.

 

New York City's first outbreak occurred when hundreds of teenagers at a Roman Catholic high school in Queens began falling ill following the return of several students from vacations in Mexico, where the outbreak began.

 

An estimated 1,000 students, their relatives and staff at the St. Francis Preparatory School fell ill in a matter of days.

 

Additional sporadic cases continued to be diagnosed, but the symptoms were nearly all mild. The sick children recovered in short order and St. Francis reopened after being closed for a week.

 

The middle school with the confirmed cases is two miles from St. Francis.

 

People at the Susan B. Anthony school said students started going home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, alarming parents.

 

"I'm worried," said Dino Dilchande, whose sixth-grade son goes to the school. "The city should have taken more precautions. We should have been notified earlier."

 

At the start of the flu outbreak in the United States, government health officials recommended that schools shut down for two weeks if there were students with swine flu. But when the virus turned out to be milder than initially feared, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped that advice but urged parents to keep children with flu symptoms home for a week.

 

CDC officials said schools may decide to close if there is a cluster that's affecting attendance and staffing.

 

Adam Wiener said his father has been mostly unconscious because of sedation since Wednesday evening, breathing with the help of a ventilator.

 

One of Wiener's 18-year-old twin sons, Jordan, said his father had been awake briefly and asked him about his leg, which he had injured playing baseball.

 

"He's always about his kids first," Jordan Wiener said Friday. "He was asking me how I was feeling and how my season's going."

 

___

 

Associated Press Writer David B. Caruso contributed to this report.

 

[Jingles]

I'm really worried since my DD, DS and I are still recovering from pneumonia and my kids have a life threatening condition that can put them in crisis within hours. With this flu floating around I'm a wreck. We've already gone thru a BIG bottle of purel and we are leaving the kids home at all times now. No home school group visits (to my son's dismay. ) and no going out to the park or video rental store. I'm also cleaning everything that comes into the house from out of the area (packages in the mail.)

 

I really HATE being this way. Honestly if we didn't this pneumonia to get over I wish we could just get the horrid thing and get it over with. We would still have to spend 3 days in the hospital with each kids and deal with I.V.'s and tons of blood tests, but at least we could relax a bit once it was over!!!

 

Oh and I just had to mention Michigan no longer has a link from their front page to the flu site. I had to search for it and when I got there they had 5 more cases added from yesterday and there may be more tonight! I wonder if they are trying to down play it, by removing the link?

[Jakk]

As far as bolstering your immune system I would suggest googling "cytokine storm". The Spanish flu of 1918 wreaked havoc on those with healthy immune systems.