Thursday, September 10, 2009 WASHINGTON: Outbreaks on college campuses are signaling swine flu hot spots as fast-spreading H1N1 swine flu gives an early start to the fall flu season.College campuses as far apart as Emory in urban Atlanta and Washington State in rural Pullman report explosive outbreaks of swine flu. The action isn't all on campus, Elementary and high schools are also seeing a lot of flu; 24 schools last week dismissed 25,000 students because of flu outbreaks.One of the CDC's main indicators of flu season is the number of people seeing a doctor for flu-like illness. That statistic last week shot sharply up. That uptick was mainly because of swine-flu hot spots in the Southeastern U.S., with flare-ups in widely separated communities across the nation. "It is time to pay attention," the CDC's disease chief, Anne Schuchat, MD, said today at a news conference.The CDC can't predict where swine flu will strike next, how long it will linger in communities, or when it will come back. Yet so far, the pandemic is developing very much as experts expected:The vast majority of swine flu cases have been mild, with people getting over the worst of it in three to five days. Swine flu spreads most quickly among children, teens, and young adults. In every nation, the pandemic appears as a series of widely separated community hot spots that flare up and die down -- not as a wave moving from east to west or north to south. Children and adults at risk for flu complications -- those with lung conditions (including asthma), neurologic conditions, heart conditions, immune suppression, pregnancy, or under 5 years old -- tend to be those with the most severe disease.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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