Michael Jackson suffered from a cardiac arrest and died. CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen explains what a cardiac arrest is and how it is different than a heart attack. A cardiac arrest is when a heart stops functioning. Rescu usually only works when someone gets it within ten minutes but the outcome is usually not good if the person is not helped within three to five minutes.
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WebMD reports that Daniel Jernigan, MD, PhD, deputy director of the CDC’s influenza division says that more than 100,000 Americans probably have the flu and of these at least half probably have swine flu. This means there are probably 50,000 or more people with the H1N1 swine flu virus.
Jernigan noted that the 4,700 confirmed or probable cases of swine flu reported to CDC represent a gross underestimate. When asked how many actual cases there were, Jernigan noted that 7% to 10% of the U.S. population — up to 30 million people — get the seasonal flu each year.
“So with the amount of activity we are seeing now, it is a little hard to know what that means in terms of making an estimate now of the total number of people with flu out in the community,” Jernigan said. “But if I had to make an estimate, I would say … probably upwards of maybe 100,000.”
The WebMD article also says that flu cases are going up at a time of year when they generally decrease.
At a time when flu season should be ending or over, the CDC’s flu season indicators are going up instead of down. As of May 9, 22 states had widespread or regional flu.
WebMD says that flu/pneumonia deaths for the week ending May 9th were 7.2% of all deaths. This is just under the “epidemic threshold” of 7.4% of all deaths. WebMD also reports that 173 people been hospitalized with H1N1 so far and most of them have been very young, between 5-24 years old.
You can find links to H1N1 resources on our H1N1 resources page.
Swine flu image via CDC images
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An MSNBC.com article quotes Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC as saying the fatality rate for H1N1 swine flu appears to be slightly higher than that of seasonal flu. These contradicts what many health officials have been saying – that the H1N1 virus is no more severe than seasonal flu. Dr. Anne Schucat also says there are 200 people hospitalized with swine flu and more deaths are expected.
“We wonder whether this strain will continue during the summer and give us more of a summer influenza pattern,” said Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health program. “Unfortunately, we don’t know whether we’re going to get a break this summer with this virus.”
So far, the fatality rate for the novel virus appears to be slightly higher than for seasonal influenza, which contributes to an estimated 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, Schuchat said. More than 200 people have been hospitalized, mostly children and teens, which is also very different from seasonal infections.
Schuchat warned that the virus likely will continue to spread and to cause more hospitalizations and more deaths.
Hopefully, we will get a break this summer but even we do people have to not let down their guard this fall. The virus spreads easily because most people do not appear to have immunity to it and there is no vaccine.
A list of H1N1 web resources can be found here.
Photo: CDC
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The Contra Costa Times reports that the number of H1N1 swine flu deaths has climb to 55. 23 additional new deaths have come in a single week.
“We expect to continue to see more cases of swine flu, more serious cases and, unfortunately, more deaths,” said Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health.
Though health officials expected the spread of swine flu to slow in the hot summer months, as influenza viruses often do, the virus hasn’t gone away, August said.
“While the majority of cases have been mild so far, public health officials remain very concerned that the virus could evolve into a more serious strain of influenza,” he said.
The California Department of Health’s website has a helpful chart here that shows the case distribution by country in California. The chart also indicates there have been 441 hospitalizations in the state from H1N1 swine flu.
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Bill Gates released a bunch of mosquitoes on the unsuspecting audience at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference. Gates was trying to demonstrate how easily malaria is spread. The mosquitoes Gates released did not carry the disease.
“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes,” Gates said while opening a jar onstage at a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars.
“I brought some. Here I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.”
Gates waited a minute or so before assuring the audience the liberated insects were malaria-free.
TED curator Chris Anderson fired back at the legendary computer software maker, joking that the headline for the video of his talk to be posted online at Ted.com would be “Gates releases more bugs into the world.”
It sounds like that it was an effective demonstration. Gates’ mosquito release is getting a lot of media attention which helps focus on attention on the need to stop malaria.
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Deaths from H1N1 swine flu climbed to 47 in New York City as of July 7th. The number of deaths increased by 9 since July 1st. There have been over 900 people hospitalized in New York City because of the swine flu. Even though the numbers are increasing the cases and deaths do not garner nearly as much attention as they did when they outbreak first began. Instead of giving press conferences the data is now updated on the NYC Health Department website. New York City Health Department’s website can be found here.
Graphic: New York City Health Department
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The World Health Organization says in its latest update that 26 countries have officially reported 3440 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection. The cases include 48 confirmed deaths – 45 in Mexico, 1 in Canada and 2 in the United States.
Mexico has reported 1364 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 45 deaths. The United States has reported 1639 laboratory confirmed human cases, including two deaths. Canada has reported 242 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Argentina (1), Australia (1), Austria (1), Brazil (6), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Colombia (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (2), France (12), Germany (11), Guatemala (1), Ireland (1), Israel (7), Italy (6), Japan (3), Netherlands (3), New Zealand (5), Panama (2), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (88), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (34).
The latest WHO update can be found here. WHO also has provided a map that shows the cases as of May 9th. More h1n1 resources can be found here.
WHO’s influenza pandemic alert raised from phase 4 to 5 but they have not yet upgraded it to phase 6.
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The BBC reports that experts have discovered the first case of swine flu that is resistant to tamiflu, an antiviral drug being used to fight h1n1.
Roche Holding AG confirmed a patient with H1N1 influenza in Denmark showed resistance to the antiviral drug.
David Reddy, company executive, said it was not unexpected given that common seasonal flu could do the same.
The news comes as a nine-year-old girl has become the third to die in the UK with swine flu.
Virologist Professor John Oxford told the BBC, “I’m not surprised about this finding. The question is whether it is going to spread. We will soon know the answer.”
The CDC has categorized swine flu as a Category 2 outbreak, with the possibility of 90,000 to 450,000 deaths in the U.S. There were are record 6,300 new cases in the U.S. last week.
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The latest swine flu update (#58) from the World Health Organization (WHO) has the case total approaching 100,000 confirmed cases. Officially there have been 94,512 confirmed cases and 429 deaths. Here’s a list of the countries reporting the most swine flu deaths.
Some reports recently have indicated potentially high death tolls from h1n1 swine flu. The CDC has mentioned the possibility of 90,000 to 450,000. The British government mentioned the possibility of 40 deaths per day by late August. The death toll will depend on what percentage of the population becomes ill. If a large percentage (like 30-40%) of the population falls ill then it is reasonable to expect large death tolls even if the death rate is quite low. The lack of immunity or a vaccine makes it likely that many people will get sick from the h1n1 swine flu virus.
There was also a high-profile celebrity swine flu case – Rupert Grint from the Harry Potter films was infected and recovered. Hopefully, his illness will help raise awareness about the swine flu pandemic.
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This detailed animated heart was created by a team of doctors from the Heart Hospital in London and computer animation experts from Glassworks. The virtual heart can be manipulated using a computer mouse or keyboard. New Scientist says the computer simulated heart is the most realistic to date. Take a look:
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