The first death outside of the Americas occurred on Sunday when a 38 year-old mother, Jacqui Fleming, who had recently given birth to a premature son, died of swine flu. Sadly, her baby passed away the following day, from complications of prematurity. He was not positive for H1N1 virus. Although this is tragic news, it is [...]
Yes, it’s a week since I last posted on the dreaded pig disease, but the World Health Organisation is still dragging its feet over whether to declare swine flu a pandemic. Disease control by committee. Gotta love it. [WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan] says she personally believes that a pandemic is under way, but was seeking [...]
In general, I have had only one problem with the way that the various disease control agencies have reacted to the Swine Flu outbreak. It was all a bit too slow. The WHO, CDC and New Zealand’s Department of Public Health have all reacted appropriately and smoothly but several days and perhaps as much as a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
