Two swine flu cases are confirmed

A Mexican toddler has died in Texas of swine flu in the first confirmed fatality from the virus outside Mexico.

The death comes as World Health Organisation sources said the body is set to increase its pandemic flu alert level to 5 - its second-highest level.

"Things are moving fast," one source said, while another added: "I don't think it will be 6." According to the WHO's pandemic flu response guidelines, a phase 5 alert is called when there is human-to-human spread of virus in at least two countries in one region.

The 23-month-old boy, from the northeastern city of Matamoros on the border with Texas, died in Houston from the H1N1 flu strain. Officials said he had been visiting family in southern Texas when he became ill.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has issued a disaster proclamation with 16 confirmed cases of swine flu in the state.

President Barack Obama said: "We are closely and continuously monitoring the emergent cases of this virus throughout the United States. This is obviously a serious situation. Serious enough to take the utmost precautions."

There have been 159 deaths in Mexico from the disease, according to the World Health Organisation, with 2,498 people currently infected there.

Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said cases range from children through young adults and middle-aged people to the elderly, a different pattern to common seasonal flu which mainly kills the elderly and people with other underlying conditions.

In the US, 90 people are confirmed to have caught the disease, 13 in Canada, 19 in Europe and 3 in New Zealand.

Excluding Mexico, there are more than 300 suspected cases so far worldwide, including 150 in Europe, as well as over 100 cases in New Zealand and Australia.

Reports from Spain said the first person in the country confirmed to have caught swine flu had not been to Mexico but had recently been in contact with someone who had travelled there.

WE ALL FINNA DIE!!!!

State public health officials are set to confirm at least one case of swine flu in San Bernardino County and four possible cases in Riverside County.

Officials at the Center for Disease Control have confirmed a Marine stationed in Twentynine Palms has swine flu. It is unclear if that is the only case in San Bernardino County.

One person has been hospitalized in Riverside. She is an 87-year-old woman who was visiting family. She had recently traveled to Baja California.

A5-year-old girl who is unrelated to the other Riverside patient was originally reported to have been hospitalized. Riverside County officials are now saying she has not. Her travel history is being reviewed.

A 16-year-old girl from Corona was seen at an outpatient clinic but was not hospitalized. Her travel history is being investigated.

A 17-year-old girl from Indio was seen at an outpatient clinic but was not hospitalized. Her travel history is being investigated.

--The Press-Enterprise

A couple of people have swine flu and everybody starts wearing masks .. millions have aids and nobody wears condoms.

SWINE flu has claimed its first UK victim with the death of a Glasgow mother - just days after she gave birth to a premature baby.

The 38-year-old, from Carnwadric, named locally as Jacqui Fleming, is the first person to die of the virus outside the Americas.

She had been in intensive care at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley since last month. Officials said she also had other health problems. Her baby, born around 11 weeks early, was being treated at Yorkhill hospital but is understood to have tested clear for the virus.

The death is the first in Europe, and the Glasgow and Clyde area is still one of the worst-hit places outside North and South America.

Scotland has more cases of swine flu per head of population than anywhere else in the UK, with the total likely to burst through the 500 mark today.

The UK has 1226 confirmed cases, with many more still expected. So far, most have been fairly mild.

Professor Hugh Pennington, a bacteriologist at Aberdeen University and one of Scotland's foremost experts on diseases, said Ms Fleming's underlying conditions were likely to have been a major factor in her death.

He said: "It's very sad but with the number of cases we have seen it is really something which was always going to happen sooner or later.

"Unfortunately, it is to be expected. This is what the authorities have been saying will happen for a long time."

However, he stressed that yesterday's death did not mean the virus was getting more dangerous.

He said: "It does not point to the virus getting nastier. All the evidence to date suggests the virus is not changing at all.

"This is a flu virus. It is in no way different from an ordinary winter flu virus."

The normal flu virus is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide each winter.

Neighbours in the Carnwadric area said last night that the victim had a teenage son and a younger boy, who was still in primary school.

A resident of her block of flats, who did not wish to be named, said the family wanted to be left alone to come to terms with the tragedy.

Another neighbour, who said he had known her son from a local secondary school, added that Ms Fleming had been seriously ill for some time, possibly after strokes or seizures.

The block of flats where she lived was just yards away from St Vincent's Primary School.

One pupil there has already caught swine flu and the school was closed today. It is expected to re-open on Friday.

A 23-year-old nurse who treated the woman at the Southern General has tested positive for swine flu, but is not thought to be seriously ill.

Officials had last night confirmed 35 new cases in Scotland, of which 32 were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

A further 175 cases were under investigation, the Scottish Government said.

Publication date 15/06/09

http://eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2514436.0.0.php

They reported a case up here in Santa Barbara a week or so ago.

Maybe now all them rich folks up in the hills will start dropping off finally!

Mothra wrote:They reported a case up here in Santa Barbara a week or so ago.

Maybe now all them rich folks up in the hills will start dropping off finally!

LOL...SHIT WHEN IT WAS HITING THE OC BACK WHEN IT FIRST STARTED YOU WOULDA THOUGHT IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD BUT WHEN IT WAS HERE IN SAN BERDO N RIVA COUNTY THERE WAS BEARLY A PEEP LOL.