CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Health officials have seen mixes of bird, pig and human virus before, but never such an intercontinental combination with more than one pig virus in the mix.

Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist.......
.........U.S. health officials are consulting with Mexican and Canadian health officials, and the CDC is beginning to receive samples from Mexico for testing, a CDC spokesman said. The ethnicity of the seven confirmed cases was not disclosed.

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
7 people got sick with the flu? This isnt NEWS. 20horses died the other day from something unknown, that barely made a headline.

So I have to ask ,why is 7 people sick, but recovered making headlines in the US and in Australia?

www.news.com.au...

SEVEN people have been diagnosed with a strange and unusual new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

This is on the front page of www.news.com.au

I cant believe its on Australian front page news.

Why are they pre-empting things like this:

"We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."

However, some experts fear this strain, or another strain, could spark a pandemic that could kill millions.

"We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring," Dr Schuchat said.

"That's unusual. We don't know yet how widely it is spreading.

"We are also working with international partners to understand what is occurring in other parts of the world."

Other parts of the world?

7 people had the flu, and got better... why are we saying this is a worldy event?

something stinks..

An urgent probe into an unusual flu outbreak that’s infected seven people in the U.S. was widened after Mexico sought assistance to investigate more than 130 cases of severe respiratory disease that may be related.

Authorities in Mexico asked the Public Health Agency of Canada to help identify the cause of the lung illness linked to 20 deaths, including two in the state of Baja California Norte, which borders California. The Mexican cases include five health- care workers, the Ottawa-based agency said in an e-mail today.

Tests in Mexico found patients were infected with H1N1 and type-B influenza strains and the parainfluenza virus, the agency said. In the U.S., doctors discovered a new strain of H1N1 swine influenza in patients in San Diego County and Imperial County, California, and in San Antonio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said today.

“It will be critical to determine whether or not the strains of H1N1 isolated from patients in Mexico are also swine flu,”

An outbreak of "influenza-like" cases in Mexico was caused by swine flu, Mexico's Health Minister Angel Cordova said Friday.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," he told the Televisa network, according to Reuters.

Mexico is canceling classes for millions of children in the heart of the country on Friday after influenza killed around 20 people in recent weeks.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said schools and universities in Mexico City and the surrounding area would be temporarily closed and advised people with flu symptoms to stay home from work.

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Disease trackers are trying to determine whether a previously unseen strain of influenza in the U.S. is related to more than 130 cases of severe respiratory illness in Mexico and may spark a pandemic.

A new variant of H1N1 swine influenza has sickened at least seven patients in California and Texas, the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. Mexico’s Health Minister Jose Cordova canceled classes in the capital, Mexico City, today and recommended citizens avoid public places after 20 fatalities from an illness possibly caused by a flu virus.

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
reply to post by Chadwickus

---

Damn right.
Beauties of being an island, and the toughest 'sons' of bitches on the face of the earth. Doubt that flu would last a week in the aussie summer anyway.