Flu

Investigation of Baxter Vaccine by New Zealand Minister of Health

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(NaturalNews) The New Zealand Minister of Health, Hon Tony Ryall, has asked the Ministry of Health officials to urgently advise him on issues raised about a “swine flu” vaccine produced by Baxter International Inc. This follows his receipt of a letter raising concerns about whether vaccines produced by Baxter for “swine flu” can be trusted.

In an open letter to all members of the New Zealand House of Parliament, Penny Bright, Media Spokesperson for Water Pressure Group, a judicially recognized Public Watchdog for Metrowater, water and Auckland regional governance matters, raises a series of questions and concerns about the safety of the vaccine. She demands to know whether Baxter products are currently being used in New Zealand for the “swine flu”, “bird flu” or any other type of flu.

Bright highlights the fact that Baxter is currently facing criminal charges for producing contaminated “bird flu” vaccine that date back to February of this year when it became known that the company had sent out 72 kilos of live “bird flu” virus supplied by the World Health Organization in the winter of 2009 to 16 laboratories in four countries. These charges were filed by journalist Jane Burgermeister of Austria.

Related articles:
– Baxter sent out 72 kilos of live bird flu material destined for vaccines confirmed by Austrian Health Minister Alois Stöger
– New Zealand orders 300,000 doses of untested and unapproved swine flu vaccine
– Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus

Burmeister’s allegations claim that clear evidence exists that the pharmaceutical company and international government agencies actively conspired in producing, developing, manufacturing and distributing biological agents classified as the most deadly bioweapons on earth in order to trigger a pandemic and cause mass death.

Last December, the Austrian branch of Baxter sent a batch of ordinary human H3N2 flu, altered so it could not replicate, to Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, also in Austria. In February, a lab in the Czech Republic working for Avir alerted Baxter that, unexpectedly, ferrets inoculated with a sample from the shipment had died. It was discovered that the sample contained live H5N1, which was to be used by Baxter to make vaccine. Baxter claims the two mixed by error, and called the incident a simple “accident”.

Read moreInvestigation of Baxter Vaccine by New Zealand Minister of Health

New Zealand orders 300,000 doses of untested and unapproved swine flu vaccine

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Wellington – New Zealand has ordered a stock of untested and unapproved swine flu vaccine for health workers, police and other emergency staff but it is not likely to be used until December at the earliest, Prime Minister John Key announced on Monday.

An initial supply of 300,000 doses had been ordered from the international company Baxter Healthcare Limited for delivery within the month, he told a news conference after New Zealand’s first three deaths from the disease were revealed at the weekend.

Related information:
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus:
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.
– Children may get swine flu vaccine shots first this fall; Schools might even be turned into shot clinics
– Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccination and the autism coverup
– Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918
– Dr. Russell Blaylock on 1976 Swine Flu and Current Outbreak
– Ron Paul on the Swine Flu Scare

Key said the vaccine would have to be licensed by the government’s Medsafe agency which assesses the safety and efficacy of all medicines.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said clinical trials of the vaccine would be held in Europe and the purchase was strategic given that the H1N1 influenza virus pandemic could last up to two years.

‘We want to be in the position of having the vaccine and not needing it, rather than the other way around,’ he said.

He said that when approved two doses of the vaccine would be offered to 150,000 doctors, nurses, police, firefighters and other frontline health and emergency workers.

Read moreNew Zealand orders 300,000 doses of untested and unapproved swine flu vaccine

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

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(NaturalNews) As the anticipated July release date for Baxter’s A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

Related article: Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus

Summary of claims and allegations filed with FBI in Austria on June 10, 2009

In her charges, Burgermeister presents evidence of acts of bioterrorism that is in violation of U.S. law by a group operating within the U.S. under the direction of international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, as well as WHO, UN and NATO. This bioterrorism is for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus with the intent of causing death. This group has annexed high government offices in the U.S.

Specifically, evidence is presented that the defendants, Barack Obama, President of the U.S, David Nabarro, UN System Coordinator for Influenza, Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, David de Rotschild, banker, David Rockefeller, banker, George Soros, banker, Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, and Alois Stoger, Austrian Health Minister, among others, are part of this international corporate criminal syndicate which has developed, produced, stockpiled and employed biological weapons to eliminate the population of the U.S. and other countries for financial and political gain.

Read moreJournalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

Children may get swine flu vaccine shots first this fall; Schools might even be turned into shot clinics

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If you are ‘totally’ healthy you just cannot get sick. This is in accordance with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine).

You probably haven’t heard much of the horrific studies that Adolf Hitler, Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung did in the 40ties.

Here is one study of what they did to three groups of still healthy people (translated from German):

The first group was drinking cholera water without knowing it.
The second group was told that it was cholera water, that they are drinking.
The third group was drinking clean water, but was told that it was cholera water.

The result is stunning and defies conventional thinking/doctrine/dogma and is in total accordance with what I know.

Results:
The first group: Not one died.
The second group: Almost all died.
The third group: More than 50% died!

The milieu is everything. Attitude is everything.

Healthy people that have been told that they have terminal leukemia and that chemotherapy would not work anymore (it never works anyway) died faster than people that were exposed to a deadly dose of radiation. This study was conducted to examine changes in the blood count.

If you are still afraid of swine flu consider this:
– Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

Here is what you really should be afraid of, if you still want to be afraid of something:

Government:

– New flu combines pig, bird, human virus:
Unusually, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
– CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study (2004):
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. The goal is to assess the chances that such a “reassortant” virus will emerge and how dangerous it might be.”

and Big Pharma:

– Baxter expects to soon begin work on flu vaccine:
 BOSTON, April 29 (Reuters) – Baxter International Inc said on Wednesday that it could have the first dose of its pandemic flu vaccine ready within 12 to 16 weeks of the start of the manufacturing process for the product.
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus:
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Please take a closer look at vaccinations (Here) and read some books about the subject.

Related video: Ron Paul on the Swine Flu Scare

Newsmaker Sebelius
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius answers questions about health care during an AP newsmaker interview in Washington, Tuesday June 16, 2009. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall — and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.

“If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place,” Sebelius told The Associated Press.

No decision has been made yet on whether and how to vaccinate millions of Americans against the new flu strain that the World Health Organization last week formally dubbed a pandemic, meaning it now is circulating the globe unchecked. But the U.S. is pouring money into development of a vaccine in anticipation of giving at least some people the shots.

While swine flu doesn’t yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, scientists fear it may morph into a more dangerous type. Even in its current form, the WHO says about half of the more than 160 people worldwide killed by swine flu so far were previously young and healthy.

Read moreChildren may get swine flu vaccine shots first this fall; Schools might even be turned into shot clinics

WHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic

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Related article: Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

swine-flu
A Japanese school boy wears as face mask as he leaves the Japanese International School in a suburb of the western German city of Duesseldorf June 11, 2009. (REUTERS)

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic of the 21st century on Thursday, urging countries to shore up defenses against the virus which is “not stoppable” but has proved mainly mild so far.

The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.

“This is a very important and challenging day for all of us. It is important because we will be raising our pandemic alert level to level 6,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan told reporters on a teleconference.

“At this time, the global assessment is that we are seeing a moderate pandemic.”

Acting on the recommendation of flu experts, the WHO reiterated its advice to its 193 member countries not to close borders or impose travel restrictions to halt the movement of people, goods and services.

The move to phase 6 reflects the fact that the disease, widely known as swine flu, was spreading geographically, but does not indicate how virulent it is.

Read moreWHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic

Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

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During a flu epidemic in China 1000 still healthy people were treated with acupuncture, not one of this group that was treated with acupuncture got ill. (If I remember it correctly 97% of the population got ill.)

Important information:
– Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs
– Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection

I just heard today that “Codex Alimentarius” is well on it’s way in the EU. This is the worst case scenario for alternative medicine and organic food. This would also be the end for homeopathy.

(NaturalNews) Homeopathy was successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918 and can provide answers to questions about the 2009 Swine Flu. Homeopathy can provide quick and inexpensive relief for symptoms of the flu.

A system of medicine based on the principles of “like cures like,” homeopathy uses plant, mineral and animal sources for the natural flu remedies. Homeopathy is based on ideas from ideas dating back to Egyptian medicine.

The term “homeopathy” was coined by the medical doctor and medical reformer, Samuel Hahnemann in the 1800s. Homeopathic remedies have been used to treat flu symptoms for two centuries.

Was homeopathy successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918?
Yes.
While the mortality rate of people treated with traditional medicine and drugs was 30 percent, those treated by homeopathic physicians had mortality rate of 1.05 percent.
Of the fifteen hundred cases reported at the Homeopathic Medical Society of the District of Columbia there were only fifteen deaths. Recoveries in the National Homeopathic Hospital were 100%. In Ohio, of 1,000 cases of influenza, Dr. T. A. McCann, MD, Dayton, Ohio reported NO DEATHS.

What homeopathic remedies were used to successfully treat the Spanish flu in 1918?
Gelsemium and Bryonia
According the Dr. Frank Wieland, MD, in Chicago, “(With) 8,000 workers we had only one death. Gelsemium was practically the only remedy used. We used no aspirin and no vaccines.”

Homeopathy was 98% successful in treating the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918?
Yes.
Ohio reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05% . In Connecticut, 6,602 cases were reported, with 55 deaths, less than 1%. Dr. Roberts, a physician on a troop ship during WWI, had 81 cases of flu on the way over to Europe. He reported, “All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment.

Read moreHomeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

Doctor questions value of vaccines

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The ongoing swine flu epidemic may have you wishing you had taken that flu shot this season, but some doctors say you may be better off without it.

“Since the 12th century, the most commonly used treatment for a cold or the flu is chicken soup,” said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, one of the guest speakers at the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association’s regional conference on Saturday at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill. “If you think we have anything more sophisticated now, think again.”

Related article: Swine flu pandemic? It feels like a phoney war (Guardian)

Eisenstein, who addressed conference attendees from Illinois through video conferencing, discussed the effectiveness of vaccines and their theorized connection to autism.

“The more people receive the flu vaccine, the more deaths there are,” said Eisenstein, citing various scientific studies. “Now that doesn’t mean that the two are related, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.”

Eisenstein didn’t limit his criticism to the flu shot.

“We perpetuate the myth that vaccines are the answer,” Eisenstein said.

Although vaccines have been credited with the virtual elimination of various diseases, Eisenstein said there’s no evidence to support vaccines were the cause.

Among the diseases that have virtually disappeared are measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and whooping cough and vaccines are not available to prevent any of them, Eisenstein said.

What has an impact, he said, is vitamin D and probiotics.

“We started using it at our practice this year and we got amazing results,” Eisenstein said. “I met doctor after doctor who have had the same results.”

Eisenstein said that patients who got a high dose of vitamin D for three days at the onset of a cold recovered much faster than patients who didn’t.

He cited a study in which vitamin D was administered to some of the 104 participants. About 24 of the participants in the group that had received no vitamin D reported having a cold during the winter months, Eisenstein said. Only two to three participants who had a received a lower dose of vitamin D reported having a cold and none of the participants who was given a higher dose of the vitamin became ill, he said.

Unlike vitamin A, which is readily obtained from a variety of foods, vitamin D is harder to come by, Eisenstein said.

That’s why he recommends that children get vitamin D supplements.

Exposure to the sun for 15 to 20 minutes every day, without sunblock, can give the body a much needed vitamin D boost, Eisenstein said.

“Vitamin D is clearly part of the answer, but I can tell you the complete answer is not vaccinations,” Eisenstein said.

Nancy Gualario, of Colts Neck, runs an advisory group for parents with special needs children.

“I like to come to these things and bring the information back to the parents,” Gualario said.

One of Gualario’s triplets was diagnosed with autism at age 2, she said.

“I’ve been doing some of these therapies and have had tremendous success,” she said.

Lisa McLaughlin also has a son with autism and came from Virginia to attend the conference, which concludes today.

“I read about some of these interventions online and I wanted to find out more,” McLaughlin said.

Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or [email protected]

By LAVINIA DeCASTRO • Courier-Post Staff • May 3, 2009

Source: Courier Post Online

What’s Missing From Every Media Story about H1N1 Influenza

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Don’t miss:
– DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines (CBS News):
Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
– Senator proposes free flu shots for all Americans (Reuters)
– Tamiflu drug made with cocktail of chemical ingredients, linked with bizarre behavior (Natural News)

(NaturalNews) If you read the stories on H1N1 influenza written by the mainstream media, you might incorrectly think there’s only one anti-viral drug in the world. It’s name is Tamiflu and it’s in short supply.

That’s astonishing to hear because the world is full of anti-viral medicine found in tens of thousands of different plants. Culinary herbs like thyme, sage and rosemary are anti-viral. Berries and sprouts are anti-viral. Garlic, ginger and onions are anti-viral. You can’t walk through a grocery store without walking past a hundred or more anti-viral medicines made by Mother Nature.

And yet how many does the mainstream media mention? Zero.

The totality of influenza preparedness is defined by the mainstream media as the number of doses of Tamiflu a nation has stockpiled. You see it in stories like this one at the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124…

Tamiflu comes from an herb

To live in a world that’s saturated with natural anti-viral medicine and then not even acknowledge it in the media is beyond bizarre. It’s Twilight Zone-like. It’s like we’ve been teleported to an alternate universe where anti-viral plants have disappeared… or at least everyone is pretending they have.

Where do you think Tamiflu comes from, by the way?

It’s extracted from the Traditional Chinese Medicine herb called Star Anise. It’s one of hundreds of different anti-viral herbs found in Chinese Medicine, not to even mention anti-viral herbs from South America, North America, Australia, Africa and other regions.

I find it downright comedic that Big Pharma and the world’s health authorities extract their “champion” anti-viral drug Tamiflu from a Chinese Medicine herb, and then they go out of their way to announce to people that herbs and natural remedies are useless against influenza. If that’s the case then why are they using herbs to make their own medicine?

Read moreWhat’s Missing From Every Media Story about H1N1 Influenza

Flu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO

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Inspectors for swine flu walk through a terminal at Narita International Airport in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan on April 30, 2009. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg News

May 1 (Bloomberg) — Flu reached 11 countries, as governments closed schools, planned for vaccine production and tapped emergency stockpiles of antiviral medicine.

Genetic tests have confirmed more than 331 people have the strain originally labeled swine flu, according to the World Health Organization’s Web site. Hundreds more cases are suspected in New York, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The WHO said thousands of samples from sick patients are backlogged for testing, and disease trackers are looking at whether an outbreak in Spain should trigger a declaration of a pandemic.

The Geneva-based health agency raised its six-tier alert to 5 on April 29 and said a move to the next and final level, for the world’s first influenza pandemic since 1968, may soon be made. The WHO urged countries to make final preparations against a disease that may sweep across the globe, preying on a world population that has no natural immunity to the new virus.

Read moreFlu Reaches 11 Countries, 331 Cases Confirmed by WHO

Dr. Russell Blaylock on 1976 Swine Flu and Current Outbreak

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Don’t miss:

– New flu combines pig, bird, human virus:
Unusually, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
– CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study (2004):
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. The goal is to assess the chances that such a “reassortant” virus will emerge and how dangerous it might be.”

and

– Baxter expects to soon begin work on flu vaccine:
 BOSTON, April 29 (Reuters) – Baxter International Inc said on Wednesday that it could have the first dose of its pandemic flu vaccine ready within 12 to 16 weeks of the start of the manufacturing process for the product.
– Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus:
The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.
The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Source: Socioecohistory

Dr. Russell Blaylock, is a board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. An expert on nutrition and vaccines, he is also editor of the widely distributed Blaylock Wellness Report. He comments :

I was in the military during the first swine flu scare in 1976. At the time it became policy that all soldiers would be vaccinated for swine flu. As a medical officer I refused and almost faced a court martial, but the military didn’t want the bad publicity.Despite the assurance by all the experts in virology, including Dr. Sabin, the epidemic never materialized.

What did materialize were 500 cases of Gullian-Barre paralysis, including 25 deaths-not due to the swine flu itself, but as a direct result of the vaccine. At the time President Gerald Ford, on advice from the CDC, called for vaccination of the entire population of the United States.

Related video: Ron Paul on the Swine Flu Scare

  • While it is not unknown for pigs to become infected with the H5N1 virus, the result has always been a less-lethal and less-contagious virus than avian flu by itself. Why is this epidemic so obviously contagious?
  • How would genetic code from three continents find its way into a single strain in Mexico City?
  • Is this virus an escaped experiment from a project gone awry?
  • If man-made and not accidentally released, then who released it, and why?

Today, some 33 years later, we are hearing the same cries of alarm from a similar lineup of virology experts. The pharmaceutical companies are busy designing a vaccine for the swine flu in hope that this administration will make the vaccine mandatory before another vaccine-related disaster can ruin their party.

Read moreDr. Russell Blaylock on 1976 Swine Flu and Current Outbreak

WHO Warns of Imminent World-Wide Pandemic

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U.N. Agency Raises Alert Level to Phase 5, Citing Sustained Person-to-Person Transmission in the U.S. and Mexico


Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, with deputy Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, said Wednesday that “all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans.” (AP)

The World Health Organization warned countries Wednesday that a global pandemic from a new strain of flu appeared imminent, as the number of ill continued to grow and the first death outside Mexico was reported in Texas.

The United Nations public-health agency raised its global pandemic alert level to phase 5 from phase 4, indicating the A/H1N1 virus has caused outbreaks in at least two countries in one region. “All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans” and be on “high alert” for outbreaks, said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan issues a statement on the decision to raise the influenza pandemic alert to phase 5 and urging everyone to take the alert seriously.

Read moreWHO Warns of Imminent World-Wide Pandemic

Swine Flu Container Explodes on Train

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When a container holding swine flu exploded on a Swiss train on Monday, it could have led to a nightmare scenario. Luckily the virus was not the mutated swine flu that has killed around 150 people in Mexico and that has already spread to parts of Europe.

It has all the hallmarks of a disaster movie: A container filled with the swine flu virus explodes on a busy train. But that’s exactly the scenario that briefly caused the Swiss authorities some alarm on Monday evening. In the midst of global fears of a swine flu pandemic, a container with swine flu exploded on a train carrying over 60 people.


The Intercity train is seen in Lausanne station after it had been evacuated.

Luckily, however, it was not the mutated swine flu virus that has killed around 150 people in Mexico. The police quickly reassured the public that there was no danger of any infection.

According to the police, a lab technician with the Swiss National Center for Influenza in Geneva had travelled to Zurich to collect eight ampoules, five of which were filled with the H1N1 swine flu virus. The samples were to be used to develop a test for swine flu infections.

Read moreSwine Flu Container Explodes on Train

WHO Raises Pandemic Threat Level of Swine Flu

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Level four requires sustained human-to-human transmission able to cause what the WHO calls “community-level outbreaks.”

TORONTO, April 27 — The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert system to level four — sustained human-to-human transmission — in response to the swine flu outbreak in the U.S., Mexico, and at least two other countries.

The Geneva-based WHO made the change from level three — some human-to-human transmission — on the advice of an expert panel meeting today.

Read moreWHO Raises Pandemic Threat Level of Swine Flu

Swine flu prompts EU warning on travel to US and Mexico

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A South Korean disinfection truck sprays disinfectant against a possible swine flu outbreak at a port farm in Chuncheon, South Korea, Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Sang-hack)

MADRID (AP) – The top EU health official urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to parts of the United States and Mexico because of the swine flu virus, and Spanish health officials confirmed the first case outside North America.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.

Europeans urged to avoid Mexico and US as swine flu death toll exceeds 100 (Guardian):

• Spain confirms first European case as pandemic fears grow
• 17 possible cases of swine flu are under watch in the UK

World stock markets fell as investors worried that the deadly outbreak could go global and derail any global economic recovery. Airlines took the brunt of the selling.

The virus was suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with more than 1,600 cases suspected, while 40 cases – none fatal – were confirmed in the United States and six in Canada, the World Health Organization said.

“Today we’ve seen increased number of confirmed cases in several countries,” WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told The Associated Press. “WHO is very concerned about the number of cases that are appearing, and the fact that more and more cases are appearing in different countries.”

Read moreSwine flu prompts EU warning on travel to US and Mexico

U.S. set to issue travel warning to Mexico

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government plans to issue a travel warning later on Monday urging Americans to avoid all “nonessential” trips to Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu, a U.S. official said.

Swine flu has killed 103 people in Mexico and has spread to the United States. Spain has reported one case of the virus, the first to be confirmed in Europe.

“There will be a travel warning urging Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico because of the swine flu,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named as the warning has not yet been officially announced.

Read moreU.S. set to issue travel warning to Mexico

Swine Flu Pandemic Would Cost Trillions

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This afternoon, the WHO declaredthat the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. is a health emergency of international concern.

Reuters has put together a list of estimates of the economics costs that may be incurred if swine flu becomes a full out pandemic.

  • The World Bank estimated in 2008 that a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and result in a nearly 5 percent drop in world gross domestic product. The World Bank has estimated that more than 70 million people could die worldwide in a severe pandemic.
  • Australian independent think-tank Lowy Institute for International Policy estimated in 2006 that in the worst-case scenario, a flu pandemic could wipe $4.4 trillion off global economic output.
  • Two reports in the United States in 2005 estimated that a flu pandemic could cause a serious recession of the U.S. economy, with immediate costs of between $500 billion and $675 billion.
  • One report, from the Congressional Budget Office, said hospitals would have difficulty controlling infection and might become sources for spreading the illness.
  • A second report by New Jersey-based WBB Securities LLC predicted a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy.
  • SARS in 2003 disrupted travel, trade and the workplace and cost the Asia Pacific region $40 billion. It lasted for six months, killing 775 of the 8,000 people it infected in 25 countri
  • Between the autumn of 1918 and the spring of 1919, 548,452 people died of swine flu in the US.

John Carney
Apr. 25, 2009

Source: The Business Insider

CDC: New flu cannot be contained

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WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – An unusual new flu virus has spread widely and cannot be contained, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Saturday.

“It is clear that this is widespread. And that is why we have let you know that we cannot contain the spread of this virus,” the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters on a conference call.

The strain of swine flu is suspected of killing as many as 68 people in Mexico and infecting more than 1,000 more, including eight in the United States.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Patricia Zengerle)
25 Apr 2009 17:45:00 GMT

Source: Reuters

CDC: U.S. swine flu cases now total 8; Never-before-seen form of the flu, combines pig, bird and human viruses

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Neal Van Hoeven, a post-doctoral fellow at the Centers for Disease Control, examines a culture flask as he looks for any signs of growth in a stock of influenza virus in this 2008 handout image from the CDC, released April 24, 2009. (REUTERS)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A strange new strain of flu that may have killed as many as 60 people in Mexico has also sickened eight people in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

“Our concern has grown as of yesterday,” CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing.

“We do not have enough info to fully assess the health threat posed by this new swine flu virus.” He said 7 of 14 Mexican samples had tested positive for the new and unusual strain of H1N1 swine flu.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:02am IST

Source: Reuters

Source: AP

ATLANTA – Health officials are investigating a never-before-seen form of the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses and which has infected seven people in California and Texas. All the victims recovered, but the cases are a growing medical mystery because it’s unclear how they caught the virus.

None of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, health officials said it’s not a cause for public alarm: The five in California and two in Texas have all recovered, and testing indicates some mainstream antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.

Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said officials believe it can spread human-to-human, which is unusual for a swine flu virus.

The CDC is checking people who have been in contact with the seven confirmed cases, who all became ill between late March and mid-April.

Read moreCDC: U.S. swine flu cases now total 8; Never-before-seen form of the flu, combines pig, bird and human viruses

Mexico Shuts Some Schools Amid Deadly Flu Outbreak

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MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 16 people and possibly dozens more in recent weeks, shuttered schools from kindergarten to university for millions of young people in and around the capital on Friday and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work.

“We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable,” Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told reporters late Thursday, after huddling with President Felipe Calderón and other top officials. He said the virus had mutated from pigs and had at some point been transmitted to humans.

Mexico’s flu season is usually over by now, but health officials have noticed a significant spike in flu cases. The World Health Organization reported about 800 cases of flu-like symptoms in Mexico in recent weeks, most of them among healthy young adults, with 57 deaths in Mexico City and 3 in central Mexico.

That is a worrisome pattern because seasonal flus typically cause most of their deaths among infants and old people, while pandemic flus — like the 1918 Spanish flu, and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics — often strike young, healthy people the hardest.

Read moreMexico Shuts Some Schools Amid Deadly Flu Outbreak

CDC: New H1N1 swine flu a mixture of swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia

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– CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study (2004):

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will soon launch experiments designed to combine the H5N1 virus and human flu viruses and then see how the resulting hybrids affect animals. The goal is to assess the chances that such a “reassortant” virus will emerge and how dangerous it might be.”

pigs
Pigs stick out their snouts through a fence at a farm. (REUTERS)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seven people have been diagnosed with a strange and unusual new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

“We are likely to find more cases,” the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat told a telephone briefing. “We don’t think this is time for major concern around the country.”

The CDC reported the new strain of swine flu on Tuesday in two boys from California’s two southernmost counties.

Now, five more cases have been seen — all found via normal surveillance for seasonal influenza. None of the patients, whose symptoms closely resembled seasonal flu, had any direct contact with pigs.

“We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring,” Schuchat said. “That’s unusual. We don’t know yet how widely it is spreading … We are also working with international partners to understand what is occurring in other parts of the world.”

Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio “and there’s a father-daughter pair in California,” Schuchat said. One of the boys whose cases was reported on Tuesday had flown to Dallas but the CDC has found no links to the other Texas cases.

STRANGE MIXTURE

Unusually, said the CDC’s Nancy Cox, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

“We haven’t seen this strain before, but we hadn’t been looking as intensively as we have,” Schuchat said. “It’s very possible that this is something new that hasn’t been happening before.”

Read moreCDC: New H1N1 swine flu a mixture of swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia

Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus

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The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.

And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.

“At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark.

“But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.”

The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.

“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email.

The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.

Read moreBaxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus

Flu may not have killed most in 1918 pandemic

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An emergency hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, for soldiers sickened by the 1918 flu.
REUTERS/National Museum of Health and Medicine/Armed Forces Institute of Pathology/Handout

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Strep infections and not the flu virus itself may have killed most people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which suggests some of the most dire predictions about a new pandemic may be exaggerated, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

The findings suggest that amassing antibiotics to fight bacterial infections may be at least as important as stockpiling antiviral drugs to battle flu, they said.

Keith Klugman of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues looked at what information is available about the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people globally in the space of about 18 months.

Some research has shown that on average it took a week to 11 days for people to die — which fits in more with the known pattern of a bacterial infection than a viral infection, Klugman’s group wrote in a letter to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Read moreFlu may not have killed most in 1918 pandemic