reply to post by pluckynoonez
I'm still listening in, will give report when it's over
Sorry, there's a CDC conference call going on right now - that's what I'm listening into.
What I've been getting so far:
illness onset from late march through early april
7-54 age range
affects lower respiratory tract
8 US patients all had identical virus
brand new swine, not related to any previously in N America
non had contact with pigs
2 cases were related biologically (Father & Daughter)
all others not related at all no contact with each other
suspect human to human transmission
all have recovered from the virus
Relenza (zanamivir) and Olsetamivir seems to work against it
2 doses per day for 5 days
incubation period unknown 2-7 days suspected
southern CA & San Antonio, TX cases confirmed
fatal cases in central mexico as well as other areas of mexico
Canadian lab & CDC BOTH confirm that Mexico virus is same as US virus
uncomplicated influenza like symptoms in US, in Mexico severe lower resp symptoms
Symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, headache, runny nose, Myalgia (muscle soreness), vomiting and diarrhea
clinicians are NOT to consider this a mild illness
CDC is posting guidance documents for clinicians, treatment, lab workers etc on CDC web site
so far they are basically talking like normal flu season type precautions, lots of hand washing, avoid sick people
they refuse to comment on why Mexico's outbreak has a higher mortality, they need more epidemiological study so as not to be speculation
US STILL has regular seasonal influenza also, so this presents a big diagnostic challenge
state health labs should get upper resp samples from all suspected cases
H3 is normal flu, H1 is Swine
this swine strain is resistant to some anti-virals
Question about alert levels coming in now
too early to tell, discussions are ongoing, as sit evolves they will determine whether to elevate level
reevaluations will probably occur on a daily basis
still don't know if strain is cross contaminant - humans to animals, animals to human, other animal species besides swine, etc
no reports YET from Central America other than Mexico nor South America
preliminary results show that this is antigen distinct, so no prior influenza exposure will give you protection
vaccine development is underway - talks of LIVE vaccine (dangerous - my personal comment)
no rapid diagnostics for this is available
no link to pigs, poultry or other susceptible animals in the 8 US cases - human to human transmission only so far (strange)
admit that this was literally picked up "accidentally" because it did NOT match any other H1, H3, H5 or B strain
kudos to some doc that sent it in
father daughter pair of cases is the only ones that are linked in any way
avoid contact with people who had recent travel to Mexico (duh)
RTPCR is the testing used, BUT it will show a Neg to all - WTF? then send sample into state labs
recommend throat AND nasal swabs for testing
cdc page
www.cdc.gov... will have transcript of call and info on Mondays conference call
Cases are some Hispanic background, some not (US Cases)
Cleaned it up a bit
[edit on 4/24/09 by redhatty]