Triad
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Reuters AlertNet - SNAP ANALYSIS-New swine flu likely widespread, experts sayWASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - A new and unusual strain of swine flu is likely widespread and impossible to contain at this point, experts agree.
The H1N1 strain has killed at least 20 people and possibly 48 more in Mexico and has been confirmed in at least eight people in the United States, all of whom had mild illness.
Probable cases also were found at a school in the New York City borough of Queens and experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they fully expect to find more cases. Here is why:
* This new strain of influenza has shown it can spread easily from person to person.
* It has been found in several places and among people who had no known contact. This suggests there is an unseen chain of infection and that the virus has been spreading quietly.
* This can happen because respiratory illnesses are very common and doctors rarely test patients for flu. People could have had the swine virus and never known it.
* At least in the United States, it has so far only been found in people who had mild illness, another factor that would have allowed it to spread undetected.
* World Health Organization director Dr. Margaret Chan has said the new strain of H1N1 has the potential to become a pandemic strain because it does spread easily and does cause serious disease.
* CDC experts note that while it is possible to contain an outbreak of disease that is in one limited area, once it is reported in widespread locations, the spread is impossible to control. (For full coverage of the flu outbreak, click on [nFLU]) (Editing by Xavier Briand)
Flu pandemic concern grows with more U.S. cases | ReutersMEXICO CITY/GENEVA (Reuters) - A new flu that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico could start a global epidemic, the World Health Organization warned on Saturday, as tests showed the strain might be spreading in the United States.
Mexico's crowded capital, where most of the deaths happened and home to some 20 million people, hunkered down in fear of the swine flu.
Tests confirmed that eight New York City schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus that was likely to be the swine flu, the city's health commissioner said. Kansas state health officials confirmed two cases of swine flu, CNN reported, adding to the original eight cases in the United States.
Officials from WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped Mexican health experts test hundreds of patients with flu symptoms for the never-before-seen virus.
In Mexico City, parents canceled kids' parties, bars were closed and residents stocked up on DVDs as people stayed home for the weekend to avoid contamination.
"I think it's worse than they're telling us," said 35-year-old Lidia Diaz, sniffling and wearing a surgical mask as she headed to a clinic in the capital.
IOW they have no control over it, they don't really know what it is, its human to human transmitable, its fatal and non-fatal , and its spreading rapidly.
Captain Trips