US Swine Flu Cases May Have Hit 1 Million

ATLANTA — Swine flu has infected as many as 1 million Americans, U.S. health officials said Thursday, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban populations are infected. The estimate voiced by a government flu scientist Thursday was no surprise to the experts who have been closely watching the virus.

"We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert who was in Atlanta for the meeting of a vaccine advisory panel.

Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the 1 million estimate in a presentation to the vaccine panel. The number is from mathematical modeling, based on surveys by health officials.

Regular seasonal flu sickens anywhere from 15 million to 60 million Americans each year.

The United States has roughly half the world's swine flu cases, with nearly 28,000 reported to the CDC so far. The U.S. count includes 3,065 hospitalizations and 127 deaths.

The percentage of cases hospitalized has been growing, but that may be due to closer scrutiny of very sick patients. It takes about three days from the time symptoms appear to hospitalization, Finelli said, and the average hospital stay has been three days.

Other health problems have been a factor in most cases: About one in three of the hospitalized cases had asthma, 16 percent diabetes, 12 percent have immune system problems and 11 percent chronic heart disease.

The numbers again highlight how the young seem to be particularly at risk of catching the new virus. But data also show that the flu has been more dangerous to adults who catch it.

The average age of swine flu patients is 12, the average age for hospitalized patients is 20, and for people who died, it was 37. It seems to be deadliest to people 65 and older, with deaths in more than 2 percent of elderly people infected, Finelli said.

Also at the meeting, CDC officials made projections about flu vaccines expected to be available to protect against both seasonal and swine flu this fall.

More than 25 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine should be available by early September, CDC officials and vaccine manufacturers said.

The same five manufacturers that make the seasonal vaccine are producing swine flu vaccine as well. As many as 60 million doses of vaccine to protect against the new virus could be ready by September, said Robin Robinson, an official with the federal agency that oversees vaccine manufacture and distribution. That prediction seemed a bit optimistic, others at the meeting said.

The vaccinations might be given as two shots, spaced 21 days apart. But the vaccine has to be tested before it's made available to the public.

Comments

[opinion8d]

Well I sure hope that the seasonal flu gets this much tracking and an equal amount of fear and awe. This is crazy, Sure am glad I live in Mexico where I don't know anyone who has or had the H1N1, nor do I know anyone who knows anyone who had it. Maybe there should be a travel alert telling people not to travel to the US.

[kapalabhati]

I wouldn't dismiss this; I had. I'm regretful. Someone I know is hanging on and has been on a ventilator for several days. The docs can't even approach the virus until the pneumonia is cleared.

[pokemon]

This fall is what you have to worry about, mixing with a harder strain. it has happened before, the 1918 strain did the same thing.

I'd be prepared.. not worried

[totaldisbelief]

Prepared how? Vit C colloidal silver or first place in line for the vaccine?
Who do you trust?

[Fernando]

Why do they keep bringing up this embarrassment again?

[progressthought]

if it doesn't kill you in the first 24 hour news cycle then it obviously isn't a threat.

[LeeCalif]

Flu in late June ??

[cybersaur]

Good thing I still have plastic and duct tape left over from the days of the bush regime.

[doublethink]

shall we go back a little,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2235676/Homeless-people-die-after-bird-flu-vaccine-trial-in-Poland.html

[evilzed]

Dates already predicted of mutated swine flu and already put into CONOPS preparedness is the begining of the US Winter.

Remedies
Survive a Cytokine Storm (the key to surviving H1N1 + H5N1 predicted pandemic. http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2698
Nano Silver - Medically and scientifically proven to kill H1N1 and H5N1viruses and all other viruses and bacterias within minutes. Get some.
5 antivirals the FDA doesnot what you to know about http://www.naturalnews.com/RR-FiveBestAnti-ViralProducts.html

Seek to compolsary vaccination and aquire "self quarantine"

The White House is proposing vaccination for both seasonal flu and H1N1 flu, although the total number of US fatalities to date from H1N1 has reached a total of about 2.

State Emergency Medical Powers Acts and Federal legislation, including the Patriot Acts I, II and III, BARDA and others provide for mandatory vaccination or drugging. No exemptions (religious or otherwise) are provided. Those who refuse will be classified as felons at the State level, subject to immedate incarceration and quarantine of indefinite length in jails or other facilities reserved for such "vaccine refusers."
Those who refuse at the Federal level will be subject to immediate incarceration and quarantine of indefinite length, probably in FEMA camps set up across the US.

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2888

[pokemon]

I fins the whole do not get a vaccine thing funny. They are attempting to kept a pandemic from happening. Could we stop it by staying away from everyone for 4 weeks.. maybe, but is that possible?

[doublethink]

what a beautiful world we live in.
an excerpt from feb 2009 toronto sun

"The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses"

"While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people."

"That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created."

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html

[evilzed]

WHO + UN 19 sept 2008
Concept of Operations of the UN In a Global Influenza Pandemic

In the document called “Concept of Operations of the UN In a Global Influenza Pandemic”, the final footnote (p.10) reads

The procedures contained in this CONOPS framework will need to be tested at global, regional and country level to ensure their utility and allow for revisions where necessary. Several UN country teams have already conducted simulations to test coordination structures and other procedures outlines in their pandemic plans. Further simulation exercises at regional and global level are needed to test coordination structures and operating procedures. Such large scale simulations will require the commitment of different UN entities. It is anticipated that this CONOPS will continue to be tested through simulation exercises at global, regional and country levels during 2009

[TJCole]

It is said the Bilderberg Group wants to severely lower the world population­...this may be it...

[playon]

I think the planet wants to get rid of some humans.

[evilzed]

Winnipeg researcher charged with smuggling Ebola material into U.S.

U.S. authorities allege Konan Michel Yao had 22 vials of the substance in the trunk of his car when he tried to cross the border on May 5. He is charged with smuggling merchandise, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 US.

U.S. customs officers allegedly found the vials wrapped in aluminum foil inside a glove and packaged in a plastic bag, along with electrical wires.



http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/05/13/border-biological-agents.html

[evilzed]

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

http://www.naturalnews.com/026503_pandemic_swine_flu_bioterrorism.html

[TJCole]

Very disturbing reports, evilzed...­.

[fcsakes]

Kind of edgy, goes against everything we've been taught to believe, yet there is that touch of a feather at the back of the neck that reminds us of what we know: Big pharma is utterly without scruples.

[Sepulchre]

Wow, maybe as a scientist I am sheltered a bit to much from what the average person knows, but you all have no idea how influenza works at all. That is kinda sad.

[TJCole]

Janet Napolitano decided Commerce was more important than America lives..!

Obama agreed...!

We're expendable­...

[pokemon]

Please, they spend billions trying to inform you. The country is too big to save everyone, so they ask that you are prepared to save yourself.. is that too much to ask?

[totaldisbelief]

Prepare yourself how?
By following the government sponsored advice to let them vaccinate you.
Or to care for yourself in your own way?
It may boil down to just how much do you trust the government.
So I ask you...how much do you trust the government­...I already know how much I do.

[Indra]

If this spreads in the fall it will probably be a disaster.