The first person to die in the US was a 23 month old Mexican child, visiting from Mexico who became ill while in the US. Although this is a tragedy, it does not change the picture significantly as the transmission of this occurred in Mexico (i.e. it is still part of the Mexico epidemic, albeit spread to [...]

The CDC has just announced the first swine flu death in the US – A 23 month old Texas child. No other details as yet. Add a Comment

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. (MacDoctor definition) And just in case you think I might go soft on the Dom Post because they quoted me today, think again. Today, they bring us the first piece of swine flu spam. Now swine flu is inherently [...]

Another 2 passengers from Los Angeles detained today with symptoms of flu. The Government is now taking the same line as the World Health Organisation: The Government has now moved from trying to contain the outbreak to attempting to minimise it. This particular article contains a quote from yours truly which, I think, sums up [...]

Tony Ryall has confirmed tonight that Swine Flu is in New Zealand. Three of the 10 Students from Rangitoto college have tested positive for the virus.  Mr Ryall said the initial response had been rapid, thorough and appropriate for the level of risk at the time. * On Saturday morning, flight NZ1 arrived in Auckland [...]

It seems that the 3 students from Northcote college who were on flight NZ5 have just caught colds and don’t have Swine flu. This is great, but it does illustrate one of the major difficulties New Zealand’s health services will face if this disease turns pandemic. We are about to go into our busiest time [...]

An eminent Australian Infectious Diseases expert agrees with me that this outbreak is more worrying than the bird flu. Two New Zealand experts agree with me that a mutation could render Tamiflu ineffective. Mexico: 103 dead – 20 confirmed to have died from swine flu, 18 confirmed ill with swine flu United States: 20 confirmed cases of [...]

I saw a patient from flight NZ1 at 4pm today. She was complaining of mild sore throat and runny nose which she thought initially was due to the aircraft air conditioning. She heard the news about the swine flu and so rang Healthline who, like the clueless people they usually are, immediately sent them to [...]

The Centre for Disease Control in the US have declared a public health emergency over the swine flu potential epidemic/pandemic. They have confirmed eight cases in New York City, seven in California, two in Texas, two in Kansas, and one in Ohio, meaning this is substantially more widespread than originally thought. These are all properly confirmed [...]

The sudden outbreak of the human mutation of swine flu in Mexico is actually a cause for concern. Particularly as it may already be in New Zealand. Interestingly, given the absurd hysteria that accompanied the far less risky bird ‘flu “pandemic that wasn’t”, the authorities seem considerably more blasé about it. The Minister of Health [...]