Friday night Pandemic Watch - Swine Flu coming to you?

[Jeff]

Pandemic in the making

...

The World Health Organization started convening an expert panel to advise it about raising the pandemic alert level, which is currently at level 3 (none or very limited human-to-human transmission) in its six-rung alert ladder. One health expert expects things to move quickly in the coming days.

"In my mind, what we're talking about is moving from a pandemic alert 3 to a pandemic alert probably 5," said Michael Gardam, director of infectious diseases prevention and control at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Level 5 indicates a new strain with significant human-to-human transmission. Level 6 is a pandemic.

"They're going to need a bit of time to digest it, I understand that. That being said, being very familiar with their plans and their phases, I am assuming they will come to the conclusion once they've gone through that deliberation that they need to up the pandemic threat level."

...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... y/National

[seemslikeadream]

http://twitter.com/mpoppel

# Further.. I've been talking with the White House regarding the a newspaper report which said Obama had contact with a swine flu patient
10 minutes ago from TweetDeck

# It was the chief of a mexican museum and he was hospitalized hours after having contact with Obama
9 minutes ago from TweetDeck

# Note that this chief has now died from swine flu.
9 minutes ago from TweetDeck

[Jeff]

http://twitter.com/mpoppel

# Further.. I've been talking with the White House regarding the a newspaper report which said Obama had contact with a swine flu patient
10 minutes ago from TweetDeck

# It was the chief of a mexican museum and he was hospitalized hours after having contact with Obama
9 minutes ago from TweetDeck

# Note that this chief has now died from swine flu.
9 minutes ago from TweetDeck

I haven't seen this in the English media yet, but here's a link in Spanish that reports he died of a heart attack:

http://mx.news.yahoo.com/s/23042009/38/ ... exico.html

[nashvillebrook]

Obama seemed really sick during the G-20.

[Nordic]

So, SLAD, you're suggesting that Obama may have been an intended target?

Wow, I never would have thought of that ...........

Suddenly remembering the poisoned soup episode of that guy in the Ukraine. (shiver)

[seemslikeadream]

So, SLAD, you're suggesting that Obama may have been an intended target?

Wow, I never would have thought of that ...........

Suddenly remembering the poisoned soup episode of that guy in the Ukraine. (shiver)

I don't know

I report you decide

[seemslikeadream]

CNN: NY tests don’t rule out swine flu.


NY tests don’t rule out swine flu
Posted: 03:38 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNN) — Preliminary results from tests of students at a New York school do not rule out swine flu, the director of surveillance for the Bureau of Communicable Diseases said Saturday.

Dr. Don Weiss said the samples will now be sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the subtype of the strain. The results will likely come back either Sunday or Monday.

He said the samples, which were taken from oral and nasal swabs from nine students, came back positive for “Type A” flu and the tests will need to determine the samples’ subtype.

He said up to 100 students at the Queens school reported feeling ill.


http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/25 ... -swine-flu /

[Perelandra]

I just got this rather hysterical e-mail from Natural Solutions Foundation:

I won't quote the whole thing. It goes on and on. Weird!

They are weird. Noted as disinfo agents in the thread on H.R. 875 (the Food Safety bill).

I'm under the impression that swine flu is not normally lethal, but who knows.

[justdrew]

true, swine flu isn't normally lethal but this isn't normal swine flu. This is starting to get mildly alarming.

more cases in US, updated recently:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu/index.html

[Jeff]

This is starting to get mildly alarming.

The pace and the reach is remarkable.

UK crew member in hospital after Mexico flight

Sat Apr 25, 2009

LONDON (Reuters) - A British Airways cabin crew member was taken to a London hospital as a precaution after developing flu-like symptoms on a flight from Mexico City, the airline said on Saturday.

It was the first such reported precautionary measure in Britain since the emergence of a new flu strain that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico. It has also infected at least 11 people in the United States. The man has undergone tests, but the results are not expected back until at least Sunday. No other crew members or passengers on the BA242 flight into Heathrow airport were detained.

"He has flu-like symptoms and is responding well to treatment," a hospital spokesman said in a statement.

"The patient was admitted directly to a side room and the hospital is scrupulously following infection control procedures to ensure there is no risk to any other individual in the hospital."

...


http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/i ... SQ20090425

[professorpan]

MEXICO CITY, April 25 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued an emergency decree on Saturday giving the government special powers to run tests on sick people and order them isolated to fight the deadly flu crisis.

Mexico City has already shut schools and museums and canceled sporting and cultural events as an outbreak of a new type of swine flu killed up to 68 people in the country and spread north to infect some people in the United States.

Saturday's decree, published in Mexico's official journal, gives the government power to isolate sick people, enter homes or workplaces and regulate air, sea and land transportation to try to stop further infection.

More at link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCr ... SN25479998

[professorpan]

Mexico, U.S. West and East coasts, Kansas, and a pilot from the UK.... I'll tell you what -- if I start having dreams about an old black woman sitting on a porch in Indiana, I'm heading West.

But seriously, this is all very scary -- I've never seen public health authorities react with such rapidity. And the tone of official statements is... well... deeply disturbing.

[Alfred Joe's Boy]

Mexico, U.S. West and East coasts, Kansas, and a pilot from the UK.... I'll tell you what -- if I start having dreams about an old black woman sitting on a porch in Indiana, I'm heading West.

But seriously, this is all very scary -- I've never seen public health authorities react with such rapidity. And the tone of official statements is... well... deeply disturbing.

Just for the record, Mother Abigail was in Hemingford Home, Nebraska.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stand

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/1 ... to-take-...

Roche To Take Over Genentech For $47 Billion
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ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS | March 12, 2009 11:00 AM EST |

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The Aug. 12, 2005 file photo shows the logo of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche at the headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Roche said Thursday, March 12, 2009 it has agreed with Genentech to buy remaining shares of the U.S.-based company for US$ 46.8 billion, in a takeover described as the largest in Swiss corporate history. (AP Photo/Keystone, Steffen Schmidt)


GENEVA — Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed to pay $46.8 billion to buy the 44 percent of biotech pioneer Genentech that it doesn't already own, ending a long corporate struggle with its U.S.-based cancer drug partner.

The $95-per-share deal brings Roche all of the sales of Genentech's highly profitable cancer drugs as well as its promising research pipeline and scientific corporate culture.

The deal, approved by Genentech's board after a long corporate struggle, offers $95 per share for the 44 percent of South San Francisco, Calif.-based Genentech Inc. that Basel-based Roche Holding AG doesn't already own.

It is the latest in a burst of megadeals among drugmakers, following Merck & Co. Inc.'s announcement Monday that it would acquire Schering-Plough Corp. and Pfizer Inc.'s pending acquisition of Wyeth. A dearth of new products and push for cost savings are driving the rush to combine.

Roche expects to save $750 million to $850 million per year by eliminating duplication but did not give a figure for potential job cuts.

The agreement ends Roche's hostile bid for Genentech. Genentech's board rejected Roche's initial friendly bid of $89 per share in July. Roche then surprised the company and Wall Street with a lowered $86.50-per-share bid on Jan. 30, aimed directly at shareholders.

The Swiss drugmaker, whose best-known products include the flu treatment Tamiflu and the sedative Valium, then increased that bid to $93 per share last Friday.

Hanging over the negotiations have been study data expected to be released in April on the effectiveness of Genentech's Avastin in treating early-stage colon cancer. The drug, Genentech's best-selling product, is already approved for various types of breast, lung and colon cancers. Some analysts said a positive study could increase the value of Genentech shares.

[seemslikeadream]

Bloomberg says that Obama met with possible Swine Flu Victim


In Mexico, the day before the man died of an illness which Bloomberg says had symptoms similar to Swine Flu. Though I'm loathe to jump to conclusions, the pattern of this flu is weird --sort of a designed disease?
---
At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

Obama’s Visit:

The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

more on this at <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEsNownABJ6Q&refer=home >