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Swiss told to stock up on bird flu mask
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ppdghius
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12-Jun-2009 10:35
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SYDNEY: Australia considered raising its H1N1 flu alert level Friday after a global pandemic was declared, as the prime minister said Asia-Pacific's worst-hit country faced "challenges" from the virus. Just hours after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the first pandemic in 40 years, Australian health officials went into emergency talks on moving from the "contain" to "sustain" alert phase. The higher level gives the government power to cancel sports events, restrict travel and even shut national borders, although officials stressed extreme measures are unlikely. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia had prepared well for the outbreak but he warned the population's mobility could cause problems. The country currently has 1,307 confirmed cases including four in intensive care. "I think in terms of preparedness we're okay, but let's look at the fact that Australia is a highly mobile population and a lot of Australians travel internationally and as a result we've got some challenges to deal with," Rudd told the Seven Network. "The committee which deals with this, involving commonwealth (national) and state officials, will be meeting again (Friday) morning to look at the WHO's overnight change in the global status. "We need to work through this calmly, methodically, step by step." The H1N1 flu has exploded in Australia this month, making it the fifth most affected country worldwide by the A(H1N1) influenza virus and helping persuade the WHO to declare a pandemic. The number of cases rose rapidly after infected passengers were allowed to leave a cruise ship in Sydney before fanning out into the community. Only the United States, Mexico, Canada and Chile have more infections. The WHO's pandemic announcement will give new impetus to efforts against the disease, which first appeared in Mexico in April and has spread to 74 countries, infecting nearly 28,000 people and killing 141. In Hong Kong, which was hit hard by the 2003 SARS outbreak, authorities closed all primary schools after a group of schoolchildren became the city's first "cluster" of cases. Australia's caseload also continues to rise, with top rugby league players among those infected and numbers nearly doubling overnight to 36 in the region surrounding the capital, Canberra. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the disease strain remained mild, adding that the four people in intensive care all had pre-existing conditions. She ruled out cancelling any weekend sports fixtures. "That certainly is not part of our plans and we don't intend to do that," Roxon told Sky News. "We are going to see NRL (National Rugby League) and AFL (Australian Football League) players affected the same as other members of the community," she added. Australia is currently entering the southern hemisphere winter, easing the spread of the H1N1 flu, which health officials worry could eventually mutate into a more lethal strain. The last flu pandemic came after an outbreak of the H3N2 viral strain from 1968-69, which originated in Hong Kong, and went on to kill up to two million people. - AFP/yb |
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ShareJunky
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11-Jun-2009 17:06
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Five Australians in intensive care with H1N1By Michael Perry SYDNEY (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is poised to declare a global influenza pandemic after a spike in H1N1 cases in Australia, where five people have been admitted to intensive care and 1,263 cases of "swine flu" recorded. Australian authorities on Thursday defended their handling of the flu virus, saying the high number of cases was a result of widespread testing. "We have tested 5,500 people in the last two weeks, that is more people than we test in our whole (normal) influenza season," said Victorian state premier John Brumby. "Elsewhere around the world, in the United States and Canada, they are only testing the most serious cases," said Brumby. The WHO will hold an emergency meeting of experts on Thursday to discuss the spreading virus in a sign the U.N. agency may be poised to declare the first pandemic in more than 40 years. There have been 27,737 cases reported in 74 countries to date, including 141 deaths, according to the WHO's latest tally. PANDEMIC ALERT Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving to phase 6 -- signifying a full-blown pandemic -- from the current phase 5 on the WHO's 6-level pandemic alert scale. "We are pretty certain we are seeing that," Peter Cordingley, spokesman for WHO in the Western Pacific, told Australian radio. Australia has the fifth-highest number of H1N1 flu cases worldwide, after the United States, Mexico, Canada and Chile. Its first H1N1 case was announced on May 9, with a woman in the tropical northern state of Queensland testing positive after returning from Los Angeles. Australia's government has ordered 10 million doses of swine flu vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical company CSL Ltd. The country has implemented standard health procedures to stop the spread of H1N1, such as thermal scanning at airports, quarantining those diagnosed and issuing hygiene warnings. But some health experts say Australian authorities have failed to control the spread of H1N1 due to a lack of co-ordination between national and state health officials. "The message given to people was that this was not a serious disease and people have not complied with quarantine guidelines. People have gone to work sick. People have not taken it seriously," James Schluter, a biochemist with law firm Holding Redlich, told Reuters. (Editing by David Fox) |
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ShareJunky
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11-Jun-2009 09:43
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The H1N1 Flu: Is This a Pandemic, or Isn't It?
By Bryan Walsh Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2009
On Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO) updated the numbers on the spread of the H1N1 flu: 26,563 cases in 73 countries, including a growing outbreak in Australia, where over 1,000 cases have been recorded in the state of Victoria alone. That state also saw the disease spread in the community — outside schools and hospitals — which until now has happened most clearly in the U.S. and Mexico, the two nations that have so far been hit hardest by the H1N1 virus.
The disease is still killing people — in small numbers, with 140 deaths so far — and there have been confirmed deaths in victims who seemed perfectly healthy before the flu struck. ……
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ppdghius
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11-Jun-2009 07:25
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GENEVA: Health authorities edged towards global A(H1N1) flu pandemic status on Wednesday as the virus wreaked havoc with Australian sports scheduling and Colombia reported its first death. While critics say the alert system is in need of repair, with the virus proving milder than other flu strains, experts are watching developments in Australia, Britain, Chile and Japan especially carefully. The World Health Organisation held talks on Wednesday with those countries worst hit, seeking "undisputable" evidence of domestic human transmission, after a senior official said on Tuesday its highest, level-six alert phase was "very, very close" to being called. "I can confirm that the DG (director-general) is consulting with the ministries of health of seven or eight of the most affected countries to try to see if there is undisputable evidence of community spread," WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told AFP. Since the A(H1N1) virus was first discovered in the United States and Mexico April, some 74 countries have reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths to the health agency. According to the WHO's latest tally of flu cases published on Wednesday, Chile reported 1,283 more infections, including one new death, bringing its total caseload to 1,694. Britain added 109 new infections, bringing its total to 666, while Australia reached 1,224, including 173 new cases. Japan also reported 75 new infections, taking its total to 485. The Palestinian territories confirmed their first case in a four-year-old boy who returned to the West Bank from the United States five days ago. Fears are currently greatest in the southern hemisphere, with the onset of its winter season. Frequent flyers and people in large crowds remain particularly at risk - indeed Australian Rugby league players could be in and out of quarantine for months, authorities said. Friday's National Rugby League game between the Brisbane Broncos and the Canterbury Bulldogs is under threat awaiting test results on Broncos fullback Karmichael Hunt. Senior WHO official Ian Barr predicted all sport would eventually be hit. "It won't just be the Broncos or rugby league clubs, it will be all sporting activities that will be compromised or their sporting schedule interrupted," Barr, deputy director of WHO's influenza centre, said on Wednesday. "The players are all susceptible, especially if they are sitting next to somebody on a plane for a few hours." Swimming Australia said on Tuesday it was shelving this month's Grand Prix in Melbourne. Around the world, a 24-year-old woman became the first person in Colombia to die of swine flu. In China, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was released from quarantine in Shanghai, where he had been detained since Sunday after a fellow passenger on his flight fell ill with a suspected case of H1N1 flu. Nagin, known for being mayor of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, missed several meetings in the Chinese business hub due to the quarantine but will make it to two speaking engagements in Australia on Thursday and Friday. In a statement, Nagin thanked Shanghai medical and city officials and said he was leaving China "in the best of health and spirits." China has submitted passengers to temperature checks and at times quarantine at its airports in a bid to stop the spread of H1N1 flu. Those placed under quarantine have usually been released after a seven-day observation period, but the country's strict control measures have faced foreign criticism. Egypt, Romania, the Czech Republic and Vietnam national authorities all reported new infections on Wednesday, while health chiefs in Hong Kong and Poland each signalled their first cases of human H1N1 flu where those infected had caught the virus locally. - AFP/de |
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ohm136
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07-Jun-2009 20:28
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Most probably, Medtecs' H1 '09 results will be good. This will have positive impact on its share price. |
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fenizz
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06-Jun-2009 13:52
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Once u c plp wearing mask on the street....This counter will be in play again... Laggard n accumulating for the past wk.....  TIME TO WAKE UP!!  |
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matthewsoh
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05-Jun-2009 09:58
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Communal spread in Singapore may soon happen if we dont practice wearing mask when we are sick. People takig MRT are like 20cm from each other, maybe can we practise 1M apart inside MRT :) |
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ppdghius
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05-Jun-2009 09:21
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SYDNEY - Australia's Influenza A (H1N1) tally rocketed by more than a third on Thursday to nearly 900 as officials scrambled to contain the rapidly spreading virus. The latest official figures revealed 876 confirmed cases of A(H1N1) flu in the world's fourth most affected country -- up from 633 a day earlier and single figures just a fortnight ago. Other Australian states ordered children returning from flu hotspot Victoria to be quarantined, earning the wrath of Melbourne officials. "Swine flu (H1N1 flu) is an international and national phenomenon and that's the fact of the matter," Victoria premier John Brumby said. "Frankly I thought the statements made by particularly the New South Wales government were just silly and extreme." The island state of Tasmania on Wednesday joined Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia in ordering that children arriving from Victoria be quarantined for up to seven days to reduce the threat of H1N1 flu. "The exclusion will apply for seven days from departure from Victoria," said Tasmania's Director of Public Health Chrissie Pickin. "It applies to all children returning from Victoria and other affected areas, whether or not they have a flu-like illness," she said. Victoria, which has 752 cases or about 86 per cent of the national total, raised its alert level on Wednesday and has shuttered 14 schools. State Health Minister Daniel Andrews insisted his government's moves to limit the spread of the disease were working, despite the large number of infections. "There is no doubt, and the experts have told us, that without the things already put in place, many, many more people -- much faster -- would have had H1N1," he said. H1N1 flu has now spread to 66 countries with 19,273 people known to have been infected since the disease was first uncovered in April, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. - AFP/ir |
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ppdghius
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03-Jun-2009 08:51
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GENEVA: A H1N1 flu pandemic is looming closer with the virus showing early signs of spreading outside the Americas, a WHO official said on Tuesday, as Africa reported its first case and Australia's tally soared to nearly 500. "Globally we believe that we are at phase five but are getting closer to phase six," said Keiji Fukuda, World Health Organisation assistant director-general, referring to the agency's six-level pandemic alert system. Phase five signals that a pandemic is imminent while the world would be in a full-fledged pandemic - marking global spread - at phase six. "It is clear that the virus continues to spread internationally. We know there are a number of countries that appear to be in transition moving from travel-related cases to established, more established, community-type spread," he added. A criteria for the WHO to move the alert to phase six would be established community spread in a country outside the first region in which the disease was initially reported, in this case, outside the Americas. "However, we still are waiting for really widespread community activity in these countries. So I think it's fair to say that they are in transition and are not quite there yet, that's why we are not in phase six yet," Fukuda said. But he stressed that countries like Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia were showing larger numbers of A(H1N1) influenza infections, "with some early spread into communities." Other than geographical spread, member states have asked WHO to integrate an assessment of the disease's severity into its criteria for moving up the alert scale and declaring a pandemic. Some 18,965 cases of infections including 117 deaths have been reported to the WHO by 64 countries around the world since the virus emerged in the United States and Mexico in April. The renewed warning came as Canada reported its third H1N1 flu death; two people were hospitalised in Scotland in intensive care, and Egypt and the tiny European duchy of Luxembourg confirmed their first cases of the A(H1N1) virus. The Egyptian case, the first in Africa, involved a 12-year-old girl with joint US and Egyptian nationality who was quarantined by health workers at Cairo airport on Monday after she showed symptoms of the disease. Spain, the first European country to confirm a case of H1N1 flu, on Tuesday reported 13 new confirmed cases at three schools in the Madrid region, one of them a kindergarten, bringing to 15 the total number of children affected. The WHO said on Monday there are 178 confirmed cases of the disease in Spain. France on Tuesday reported its first locally transmitted case and said the number of confirmed infections had risen to 42. The health minister of Australia's Victoria state Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday 89 new cases had been identified overnight, taking its total to 395. The national count in Australia now stands at 496, the fourth largest worldwide and the biggest in the Asia-Pacific region. Australia had only one case of H1N1 flu just a fortnight ago but the numbers have grown exponentially since the controversial move to let infected passengers leave a luxury cruise-liner last week. On Tuesday, Carnival Australia warned that another of its vessels had been turned away from the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia because of possible flu cases among its passengers. - AFP/de |
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ppdghius
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29-May-2009 12:15
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Death toll at 113 as H1N1 flu spreads to Venezuela, Paraguay CARACAS: Venezuela and Paraguay reported their first cases of the H1N1 flu on Thursday, as the number of A(H1N1) infections rose across South America, including in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. Experts have said they expect the number of cases to increase in South America as the region enters the fall and winter seasons. Mexico, where the H1N1 flu death toll reached 95 on Thursday, remains the epicenter of the outbreak. The number of cases there is currently at 4,879, the health ministry said. The United States has 15 H1N1 flu deaths, Canada two and Costa Rica one, but no fatalities have been reported in the southern hemisphere. The confirmed Venezuelan case was that of a 22 year-old man who recently travelled to Panama, Health Minister Jesus Mantilla said. "This citizen was initially isolated at the health centre he visited" after showing flu-like symptoms, said Mantilla, speaking on VTV state television. Since "this is an imported case, there is no cause for alarm in the general population," he said. The patient has since been quarantined at home and the rest of the 80 passengers aboard the flight have been tested, Mantilla said. In Paraguay, the health ministry confirmed five A(H1N1) cases, all in people who came into contact with a woman who had returned from a trip to New York. The patients are now all healthy, officials said. China on Friday reported its first suspected domestic infection of the H1N1 flu, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, citing a case in the southern province of Guangdong. Two countries - Uruguay and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean - each reported their first two confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Chile remains the South American country with the highest number of confirmed cases, at 199. Yet of those "only two are gravely ill," the health ministry said in a statement. Since the virus is already well established, Chilean officials said there was no need to continue sanitary checks at ports of entry, or scan people entering at Santiago's international airport for fever. In Argentina, officials said that the number of confirmed H1N1 flu cases reached 70. The largest group of cases was school children in Buenos Aires, authorities said. In Colombia, the National Institute of Health raised the number of cases to 17, the most recent being a woman who recently visited the Mexican resort town of Cancun. And in Brazil, the health ministry said four new cases were detected, raising the country's total to 14, including eight who have already recovered. The new cases were linked to four people who had travelled to the United States, officials said. Both Peru and Ecuador reported Thursday that the number of cases reached 35 in each country, with Ecuador adding that some 500 suspected cases were being investigated. In Central America, Honduras reported a second H1N1 flu case, Health Minister Carlos Aguilar said. The person had visited the United States, Aguilar said. - AFP/yb |
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share_newbie
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29-May-2009 00:10
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seems like this counter is going to make a big move soon swine flu coming to asia pacific |
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terencefok
Master |
28-May-2009 22:47
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total 4 cases already. check the news. |
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ppdghius
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27-May-2009 20:49
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SINGAPORE: Singapore has confirmed its first case of Influenza A (H1N1). The patient, a 22-year-old Singapore Management University student, is currently being treated at the Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and is in stable condition. The Singaporean woman was in New York from May 14-24. She arrived back in Singapore from New York on SQ25 on 26 May at 6.30am. She was seated at Row 55. She began to develop a cough while onboard. She passed the thermal scanner uneventfully as she did not have fever then. Later in the morning, she consulted a GP who decided to send her to TTSH via a 993 ambulance, given her travel history. She was immediately admitted for testing. Laboratory confirmation of her infection was made by midnight of 26 May. The patient has been vigilant in monitoring her own condition and had sought immediate medical attention once she realized that she was unwell. Her attending GP, through his quick response in activating the 993 ambulance for the patient, had also helped to minimize the spread of infection from this case. The Health Ministry says it has initiated contact tracing of her close contacts. They will be quarantined and provided with antiviral prophylaxis. Passengers who had travelled in the same flight and were seated in rows 52 to 58 are urged to call the hotline at 1800-333 9999 to enable the MOH to check on their health condition. The MOH adds that all medical practitioners and healthcare institutions should continue to be vigilant to suspect cases. Singapore will continue with temperature screening for passengers entering Singapore at all checkpoints (land, sea and air). All passengers passing through or entering Singapore are given Health Alert Notices on board their flights, advising them to monitor their own health if they have been to affected areas and to seek medical attention immediately if they are not well. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said: "We know that sooner or later we will have our first case (of H1N1 flu) and now we do. I suppose we have been lucky -- we have now five weeks since the alert to prepare ourselves, as well as Singaporeans for this eventuality. So there should really be no cause for alarm. “Especially in this case the patient has been most responsible… and the GP is highly commendable. (The GP) made the right judgement -- calling 993 so that within six hours of (the patient’s) touchdown in Singapore, she was isolated in the hospital, so the risk of her causing a spread in Singapore should be very low." Speaking at a labour event on Wednesday, NTUC Chief Mr Lim Swee Say said Singapore is prepared for its first case of the H1N1 virus. He said: "All of us are psychologically prepared for this but the issue here is not so much on when, now that it has happened. I think what we have to focus on is the speed of spreading. What we have to do is ensure that the entire community plays their part." Singaporeans are reminded to maintain high standards of personal hygiene. This means covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough, and washing your hand frequently with soap and water, especially after contact with respiratory secretions, for example, after sneezing and coughing. Everyone also needs to be socially responsible. This means staying home and avoiding crowded places (including trains, buses, offices), putting on a surgical mask and seeing a doctor if you have flu symptoms. MOH advises those who travelled to affected areas to closely monitor their health and seek treatment as soon as possible should they develop symptoms. Members of the public are also advised to exercise caution over travel to affected areas. In the event that travel is unavoidable, the public is advised to take precautionary measures such as avoiding crowded areas and maintaining high standards of personal hygiene at all times. However, if you are unwell with fever and cough but have no travel history to affected areas, you are also advised to see a doctor and stay at home. MOH is monitoring the situation closely and will update the public should there be any new developments. For more information on Influenza A (H1N1-2009), you can access MOH's website at www.moh.gov.sg, call MOH's hotline at 1800-333 9999, or visit www.flu.gov.sg. - CNA/ir |
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ppdghius
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26-May-2009 20:12
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It will be ready to move upwards once singapore get its first case |
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ohm136
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24-May-2009 00:53
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Medtecs TDR on Taiwan Stock Exchange last traded at NTD 11.00 (about S $0.50), while its ordinary share on sgx last traded at 9.5 cents. In Taiwan, Medtecs is the largest total solutions provider for hospital services. Ref FY '08, it services 27 hospitals with 13.6% of the toatal hospital beds in Taiwan (= 42% of the outsourcing mkt). With current high demand for its products relating to Flu A, I think 9.5 cts is very much below its intrinsic value. Why ? |
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ppdghius
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22-May-2009 13:28
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SYDNEY: Australia and Taiwan have confirmed their third and eleventh H1N1 flu cases respectively, as authorities urged calm and advised against overseas trips. A 23-year-old Taiwanese woman was running a fever after arriving from San Francisco early Thursday and tested positive for A (H1N1) influenza, said the Centres for Disease Control. She was the second H1N1 flu case in an overseas Taiwanese student, prompting the education ministry to suspend a school trip it sponsored to Japan and advise students against visiting places with higher levels of infection. The ministry also urged overseas students with flu symptoms to seek immediate treatment before returning home for the summer holidays. Health authorities were tracking down passengers who sat near the student on an EVA Air flight for screening. The island's first confirmed case was an Australian doctor who arrived by plane from New York via Hong Kong earlier in the week. Australian authorities were attempting Friday to trace the movements of two people confirmed to have contracted the H1N1 flu without having travelled overseas, as the number of cases hit 11. Four new cases of the virus were confirmed overnight and on Friday, including a 10-year-old girl who was a classmate of a Melbourne boy who fell ill, along with his two brothers, after returning from a US holiday last week. A 25-year-old man who flew into Melbourne from Los Angeles Tuesday had also been diagnosed with the H1N1 flu, while a 17-year-old boy, also from the southern city, was confirmed to be carrying the virus. A teenage girl from Adelaide became South Australia state's first confirmed case, and authorities were trying to ascertain how she and the Melbourne teen had contracted the disease, said national Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Neither had been overseas or had known contact with identified cases, and intensive tracing of their movements was now under way, she said. "There is no cause for alarm but we do need to treat this as a serious matter," Roxon said. Authorities have warned community transmission of the highly infectious influenza was "inevitable," and Roxon said the confirmed cases could rise on an almost hourly basis. Alan Hampson, a consultant to the World Health Organization, said there was a high probability the virus would continue to spread, but Australia's pandemic plan did not yet need to move from the "delay" to "containment" phase. Such a shift would allow for the closure of schools and other public places such as cinemas and nightclubs and cancellation of major sporting events. "Containment would be in the situation where we actually do see community-based transmission and certainly we're far from that at the moment," Hampson told state radio. "That's not to say it won't happen at some stage down the track, but right at the moment, (there is) a very small number of cases in Australia." Meanwhile, Japan on Friday eased quarantine and immigration measures aimed at controlling the spread of the H1N1 flu, saying the virus was not as virulent as first feared. The government also downgraded an earlier warning against non-essential travel to Mexico, the worst-hit nation, instead urging caution when visiting the country. The number of confirmed A(H1N1) infections in Japan has risen to 299, but there have been no fatalities and most cases have been mild, health officials said. "The new influenza has strong similarities to seasonal flu," Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told reporters. The new virus is highly contagious but many people recover without falling seriously ill and anti-flu drugs have proven effective, he said. Japan will end on-board quarantine checks for flights from Mexico and North America unless advance notice is given that some passengers appear ill. Also, people seated close to an infected passenger will no longer be quarantined. The government has scrapped tighter visa rules for Mexicans, allowing them to get visas on arrival again. In the worst-affected prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo in western Japan, people who have a fever after returning from overseas can now go to regular hospitals and not just special "fever clinics" set up to contain the new flu. More than 4,800 schools and kindergartens, mostly in western Japan, remained closed to slow the spread of the virus, the education ministry said. Japan stepped up health controls at its airports and booked 500 hotel rooms near Tokyo's Narita International Airport in late April due to fears of a pandemic. It also told its own nationals to consider leaving Mexico. The H1N1 flu virus has claimed 85 lives worldwide with more than 11,000 infectionsconfirmed, according to the World Health Organization. The latest confirmed cases in Japan include a South Korean who arrived from the United States. He had been due to continue to South Korea but is now quarantined near Narita airport, the health ministry said. |
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ppdghius
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20-May-2009 14:52
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GENEVA - Mexico's Influenza A (H1N1) death toll rose by four as the virus continued to spread through Latin America and made inroads in Asia, with the number of Japanese infections topping 200 on Wednesday. In the United States, a man who recently travelled to Mexico may have become the country's 8th casualty when he died Tuesday after contracting the A(H1N1) virus, according to health officials and local media reports. The number of people who have died of the virus in Mexico hit 74 while confirmed infections in the country, the epicentre of the outbreak, rose by almost 100 in 24 hours to 3,660, health authorities said. United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged people to remain vigilant against A(H1N1) because previous pandemics had shown flu outbreaks could start mild and worsen. "That is why the world must remain vigilant and alert to the warning signs," Ban said as he addressed the World Health Organisation's annual assembly in Geneva. The outbreak spread to a third western prefecture in Japan and experts warned it may also have reached Tokyo, which with almost 36 million people is the world's most populous urban area. Face masks have become ubiquitous on buses, commuter trains and in shopping centres of affected areas in Japan where 228 people have been infected. Many of the cases have been among school students, prompting authorities to close more than 4,400 schools, colleges and kindergartens for the rest of the week to slow the spread of the virus. Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan announced its first confirmed case, an Australian male doctor who had arrived by plane from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Australia itself reported two new cases, including a boy aged nine, raising its overall number of confirmed infections to three. The boy had returned to Melbourne city with his family on a flight from Los Angeles on May 12, and began showing flu-like symptoms this week, Victoria state health officials said. In Japan, the western commercial hub of Kobe remained the worst affected, announcing more than 20 new infections of the A (H1N1) virus among roughly three dozen new cases confirmed in the country Wednesday morning. The western prefecture of Shiga became the third locality to confirm an infection, with a man in his 20s, who returned from a weekend trip to Kobe, testing positive for the virus. Japan's first domestic cases of the virus were confirmed last weekend in Kobe and Osaka, where they spread quickly in and between two high schools that had met for a volleyball tournament. The UN health agency said Tuesday that cases across the world had soared by more than 1,000 since the previous day with 9,830 infections now reported in 40 countries, including 79 deaths. The Mexican health minister did, however, note that officials believe the A(H1N1) virus there is on the wane. Still, 12 confirmed cases in Colombia and another 10 in Chile suggested the virus was spreading across Latin America. A 14-month-old Canadian child who arrived in Cuba from Toronto became the fourth case of A(H1N1) flu on the island. The WHO has so far resisted pressure to declare a full-fledged A(H1N1) flu pandemic, but anxiety about the spread of the virus -- especially in Asia and the Americas -- is growing. Ban has been in talks with the leaders of some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies on the development of a vaccine. About 30 vaccine makers from 19 industrialised and developing countries were invited by the WHO to Tuesday's discussions, which officials said focused on the cost of the vaccine and its availability in vulnerable poor countries. Ban told the WHO's assembly afterwards that partnerships with the private sector would be "absolutely vital". "Solidarity in the face of this particular outbreak must mean that all have access to drugs and vaccines," he told the group's 193 member states. "It means that virus samples and data are shared." The WHO has been weighing the risks of halting production of the seasonal flu virus to free up production capacity for a A(H1N1) flu vaccine. |
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ppdghius
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19-May-2009 14:28
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KOBE, Japan: Japan closed more than 4,000 schools and kindergartens on Tuesday, double the previous day's number, to slow the spread of H1N1 flu which has infected 173 people in the country, officials said. Many people in the affected urban areas were wearing face masks after the western cities of Kobe and Osaka became the first in Japan to suffer domestic outbreaks of the (A)H1N1 virus which spread rapidly through two schools. A total of 4,043 schools and kindergartens were closed in and around both cities at the request of government authorities, up from some 2,000 on Monday, an education ministry official said. Japan's number of confirmed cases has risen to 173 – the fourth largest national figure on the world infection table – in the central Honshu island region since the first confirmed domestic infection was reported on Saturday. No fatalities have been reported in Japan. Experts warn the virus would likely soon spread to other regions, including the capital Tokyo, which with almost 36 million people, is the world's most populous urban area and the heart of the Japanese economy. The virus is believed to have spread between Kobe and nearby Osaka after high schools from the two cities met for a volleyball tournament, with some players and coaches feeling feverish after the games. Japan's first confirmed cases of H1N1 flu were four people who tested positive after they flew in from North America earlier this month. They were immediately quarantined along with about 50 fellow passengers |
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bsiong
Supreme |
18-May-2009 10:52
Yells: "The Greatest Wealth is Health" |
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this stock is waking up while market is going down..... worth taking a look .... |
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ppdghius
Member |
18-May-2009 09:24
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KOBE, Japan: Japan's number of confirmed H1N1 flu cases soared to 93 at the weekend, officials said on Sunday, as senior health officials gathered in Geneva for talks on containing the spread of the virus. |
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