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Saturday, February 20, 2010 GENEVA: The global death toll from swine flu approached the 16,000 mark as the pandemic waned in much of Europe and Asia, the World Health Organisation said. "As of 14 February 2010, worldwide more than 212 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 15,921 deaths," the WHO said in its latest update. The toll recorded since the A(H1N1) pandemic virus was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States last April grew by 629 compared to the previous week. Several countries in West Africa reported increases in cases after swine flu was recently detected there, but the WHO concluded there was insufficient evidence so far that swine flu was spreading widely in local communities. "In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, overall pandemic influenza activity continued to decline in most countries," despite pockets of activity, the...

209 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 15,174 deaths," the WHO said. According to the latest bulletin from the UN health agency, the Americas have recorded the biggest number of fatalities with at least 7,261 deaths from the A(H1N1) virus, while Europe has recorded at least 3,605 fatalities. At least 3,127 people have died from the virus in the east Asia and west Pacific region, WHO said. But the spread of the virus continued to decline or remain low across most of the world -- from the temperate northern hemisphere to North Africa and Asia -- after having peaked between October and December 2009.

Friday, January 29, 2010 GENEVA: The death toll from the swine flu pandemic has risen to at least 14,711, up 569 from a week ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday. WHO said the spread of the A (H1N1) virus peaked in most of the northern hemisphere in October and November, but transmission was still active in parts of North Africa, eastern and southeastern Europe and south and east Asia. "As of 24 January 2010, worldwide more than 209 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 14,711 deaths," WHO said in its weekly bulletin on the virus. In north Africa, WHO said data suggested swine flu transmission was still "active and geographically widespread", particularly in Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt. WHO added that the virus appeared to have peaked in north Africa in December or January. Several European countries, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, ...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 MEXICO CITY: Mexico, the epicenter of last year's swine flu outbreak, has received less than half of the 30 million vaccine doses it ordered last year, the country's health secretary said Tuesday. Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Mexico has struggled to secure enough doses because there are no factories in Mexico producing the vaccine. Meanwhile, some countries have started to sell surplus swine flu vaccines. We had to wait in the second line to buy the vaccine, because obviously, the first shipments were for the countries that make the vaccine,'' he said. After the first case of the H1N1 virus in the world was confirmed in Mexico last April, drug makers began preparing vaccines to control a potential pandemic.

Saturday, December 26, 2009 GENEVA: More than 11,500 people have died from swine flu worldwide since the pandemic strain was uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data showed Wednesday.The WHO said overall A(H1N1) influenza "activity has recently peaked in much of the (northern) hemisphere," including North America and western Europe, where the disease had surged in recent months with the onset of the colder season."As of 20 December 2009, worldwide more than 208 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 11,516 deaths," the WHO said in its weekly update."There continues to be increases in influenza activity in later affected areas of central and eastern Europe, and in parts of west, central, and south Asia," it added.

Saturday, December 26, 2009 WASHINGTON: People who die of swine flu contract a "rapidly fatal" form of the disease and tend to die of lung injury, although it strikes different people in different ways, an autopsy study showed Thursday.In the first study of its kind, researchers in Brazil examined 21 patients aged one to 68 who died in Sao Paulo with confirmed (A)H1N1 infections in July and August.All 21 patients "presented a progressive and rapidly fatal form of the disease," the study, which will be published in the January 1 issue of the American Thoracic Society's "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine", found.All were found to have died of severe acute lung injury, but with three distinct patterns of damage to the lungs, the study said, indicating to the researchers that swine flu "killed in distinct ways"."All patients have a picture of acute lung injury," said the study's lead author, Thais Mauad, an...

Saturday, December 12, 2009 MOHALI: Indian cricketer S Sreesanth was admitted in a city hospital and has been tested positive for swine flu.Director of a local hospital in Mohali told reporters that the Kerala cricketer, who has been ruled out of Saturday’s Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka, is doing better now.“Sreesanth was brought here last night with cough, sore throat and fever. Various tests have been done and he is doing fine,” Banerjee said.He said samples have been taken for swine flu tests as well and the results are awaited.With the mercury going down, Chandigarh in the past 10 days has seen a sharp increase in number of swine flu cases and has already registered 10 deaths.India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni earlier said Sreesanth would miss Saturday’s match because of “viral infection”.

Friday, December 11, 2009 WASHINGTON: An estimated 10,000 people including 1,100 children died of swine flu in the United States in the seven months after the new strain of flu was first detected in April, a top US health official said Thursday."By November 14th, many times more children and younger adults unfortunately have been hospitalized or killed by H1N1 influenza than happens in a usual flu season," Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters."Specifically, we estimate there have been nearly 50 million cases, mostly in younger adults and children; more than 200,000 hospitalizations... and sadly, nearly 10,000 deaths including 1,100 among children and 7,500 among younger adults," he said.The number of hospitalizations was around the same as for an entire year when only seasonal flu is circulating, and the estimated death toll, which is based on a new methodology for calculating fatalities from (A)H1N1 flu that w...

Wednesday, December 09, 2009 WASHINGTON: Swine flu damages the entire airway, from the trachea to deep in the lungs, just as the viruses that caused the deadly 1918 and 1957 influenza pandemics did, but unlike seasonal flu, a report said Tuesday.Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and New York City's chief medical examiner's office examined microscope slides of tissue from 34 people who died of pandemic swine flu earlier this year.They found "a spectrum of damage in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts," said Jeffery Taubenberger, one of the researchers on the study.In all cases, the upper respiratory tract -- the trachea and bronchial tubes -- were inflamed and sometimes severely damaged.In 18 cases, or more than half, damage was seen lower down, in the finer branches of the bronchial tubes, and in 25 cases, or nearly three-quarters of the study sample, the researchers found damage to the small globular air sacs, or alveoli, of the lungs....

Friday, November 27, 2009 GENEVA: The number of swine flu deaths jumped by over 1,000 in a week, reaching at least 7,826 worldwide since the virus was first uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data showed Friday. The number of deaths reported to the UN health agency showed the biggest rise in the Americas, where 5,360 deaths have now been recorded compared to 4,806 a week ago. But Europe also posted a substantial increase percentage-wise with at least 650 fatalities now reported, representing a surge of 300 deaths or 85 percent from data posted a week ago.

Saturday, October 10, 2009 NEW YORK: US Health officials said that 76 children in the United States have died of swine flu since April, including 16 new reports in the past week more evidence the new virus is unusually dangerous in kids. The regular flu kills between 46 and 88 children a year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. With swine flu cases increasing throughout most of the country, more deaths are likely, Dr. Anne Schuchat said at a press conference.

Updated at: 0724 PST, Thursday, October 01, 2009 KUWAIT: A nine-month-old Kuwaiti baby boy suffering from heart infection and developmental delays died yesterday after being infected with the swine flu virus, bringing Kuwait's total death toll from the disease to eight, the Ministry of Health announced. The baby, who was taken to a number of hospitals for treatment, was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Tuesday in a critical condition, but despite being given the necessary antiviral drugs, his immune system proved too weak to fight the disease.

Friday, September 11, 2009 RIYADH: A total of 128 swine flu cases among Umrah performers and residents have been reported since the beginning of Ramadan, a Ministry of Health medical bulletin said. It said all cases had fully recovered and that no deaths among the visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque and Umrah performers have been reported so far. Ajyad Emergency Hospital has been provided with all necessary medical equipment and facilities to meet any medical contingency. Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, said the ministry has set up six health centers with trained medical personnel inside the Holy Haram. Two of the centers have recently been set up by the ministry to provide medical services to Umrah performers in Mataf and Masa’ while the rest are situated in the upper part of the Holy Haram near the King Fahd Gate.Meanwhile, Egypt decided to delay the start of classes for schools and universities as a precautionary measure.

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 communit...

Monday, August 31, 2009 DHAKA: Bangladesh has had its first swine flu-related death, a hospital spokesman said on Monday, after a 37-year-old woman died in the capital Dhaka.A woman had been admitted to the hospital just over two weeks ago and was diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus soon afterwards.'She had been in isolation for the past two days. She had been suffering from heart complications as well as other conditions,' he said.Bangladeshi health authorities have so far reported 199 swine flu cases since the virus was first detected in the impoverished nation of 144 million people on June 18.

Monday, August 31, 2009 :: BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the swine flu. Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio says the 57-year-old Uribe is not considered a high-risk patient and his case is "developing satisfactorily". He is being treated at the presidential residence. Palacio said that Uribe began feeling ill on Friday, the same day as a summit of South American leaders in Bariloche, Argentina that he attended. He was confirmed to have the swine flu on Saturday. Colombian officials are contacting leaders and officials who may have had contact with Uribe during the summit. Colombia has reported 621 confirmed cases of the swine flu with 29 deaths, according to the social protection ministry.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: Swine flu could infect as much as half of the US population this fall and winter and cause up to 90,000 deaths, President Barack Obama's science advisors warned Monday.Laying out a "plausible scenario" for the epidemic's impact in the United States, the report painted a grim picture of stress on the US health care system as it struggles to cope with a flood of flu patients. The epidemic's resurgence could "produce infection of 30-50 percent of the US population this fall and winter, with symptoms in approximately 20-40 percent of the population (60-120 million people), more than half of whom would seek medical attention," the report said.As many as 1.8 million people could be admitted to hospitals with up to 300,000 of them requiring treatment in intensive care units. "Importantly, these very ill patients could occupy 50-100 percent of all ICU beds in affected regions of the country at the peak of the epidemic an...

Saturday, August 22, 2009 WASHINGTON: Early indications are a new swine flu vaccine is safe and is on track to be made available to the public by mid-October, US health officials said Friday."There are no red flags regarding safety," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noting that a series of clinical trials were being conducted on the vaccine with results due out between mid September and late October.Adult volunteers participated in the first of five trials starting on August 7, and only reported arm swelling or redness where they received the injection. Encouraged by the results, health officials went ahead this week with vaccine trials on children aged six months to 17 years, Fauci told reporters. Additional experiments on about 120 pregnant women -- who are particularly at risk of infection from the influenza A(H1N1) virus and are high on the federal government's priority list for vaccines -- are to begin in Sep...

Monday, August 17, 2009 RIYADH: An 11-year-old Saudi girl has become one of the latest victims of swine flu after health officials announced a further three deaths in the kingdom.A total number of 14 people have died from the H1N1 virus in Saudi Arabia to date, the Ministry of Health confirmed.The child was diagnosed with swine flu and died on Friday. The same day a 28-year-old Saudi woman also died from the virus.

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...