Swine flu viruses in U.S. and Mexico match

(CNN) -- U.S. health officials expressed concern Friday that a swine flu virus that has infected eight people in the United States matches samples of a virus that has killed at least 68 people in Mexico.
U.S. health experts also are concerned because more than 1,000 people have fallen ill in Mexico City in a short period of time.
"This situation has been developing quickly," said acting CDC director Richard Besser. "This is something we are worried about."
New York health officials announced Friday they are testing about 75 students at a Queens school for swine flu after the students exhibited flu-like symptoms this week.
A team of state health department doctors and staff went to the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens on Thursday after the students reported cough, fever, sore throat, aches and pains.
There have been no confirmed cases of swine flu there. The tests results are expected as early as Saturday.
Of the 14 Mexican samples tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven were identical to the swine flu virus found in Texas and Southern California, Besser said at a news conference.
An eighth U.S. case was reported Friday. All of the eight U.S. patients have recovered, Besser said. Watch for more on the U.S. cases »
As a precaution to avoid further contamination, schools and universities in Mexico City and the state of Mexico were closed Friday, said the national health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos. He said the schools may remain closed for a while.
Sixty-eight people have died in Mexico City, Cordova said at a news conference. More than 1,000 other people have gotten sick, he said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon canceled a trip Friday to northern Mexico so he could remain in Mexico City to monitor the situation, the state-run Notimex news agency reported. Calderon met with his Cabinet on Thursday night to discuss the outbreak.
Six of the U.S. cases were found in California, and two in Texas, near San Antonio, CDC officials said.
The Public Health Agency of Canada issued a respiratory alert for Mexico on Wednesday, recommending that health providers "actively look for cases" in Canada, particularly in people who've returned from Mexico within the last two weeks.
An alert issued Friday by the International SOS medical and consulting company said more than 130 cases of a severe respiratory illness have been detected in south and central Mexico, some of which are due to influenza.
"Public health officials in Mexico began actively looking for cases of respiratory illness upon noticing that the seasonal peak of influenza extended into April, when cases usually decline in number," the medical alert said. "They found two outbreaks of illness -- one centered around Distrito Federal (Mexico City), involving about 120 cases with 13 deaths. The other is in San Luis Potosi, with 14 cases and four deaths."
Authorities also detected one death in Oaxaca, in the south, and two in Baja California Norte, near San Diego, California.
There was no indication why the International SOS tallies did not match the Mexican health secretary's figures.
The majority of cases are occurring in adults between 25 and 44 years of age.
The CDC first reported Tuesday that two California children in the San Diego area were infected with a virus called swine influenza A H1N1, whose combination of genes had not been seen before in flu viruses in humans or pigs.
The first two cases were picked up through an influenza monitoring program, with stations in San Diego and El Paso, Texas. The program monitors strains and tries to detect new ones before they spread, the CDC said. Other cases emerged through routine and expanded surveillance.
The human influenza vaccine's ability to protect against the new swine flu strain is unknown, and studies are ongoing, Schuchat said. There is no danger of contracting the virus from eating pork products, she said.
The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza, human influenza, and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.
The new strain of swine flu has resisted some antiviral drugs.

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What is Swine Flu & How Dangerous Is Swine Flu? Why Have People Only Died In Mexico?

What is Swine Flu & How Dangerous Is Swine Flu? Why Have People Only Died In Mexico?
I was wondering what is this Swine influenza (also swine flu), After some research on web I found Swine Influenza (also Swine Flu) refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus.
In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.
Experts say it is difficult to say at the moment. In Mexico infected people have died, while all have recovered in other countries. There are reports that symptoms of infected people outside Mexico are milder, compared to some cases inside Mexico. Antivirals, such as Tamiflu, have been shown to be very effective in treating patients infected with swine flu. Most developed countries have large stocks of these antivirals. The UK, for example, has enough antivirals to treat 35 million people - over half the country's total population. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced the stockpile will increase so that 50 million people can be treated.
Why have people died of swine flu in Mexico but not in other countries?Nobody is sure. Any of these factors could play a part:
Mexicans who died may have sought treatment at a much later stage, compared to those in other countries.
ALL the other countries so far are highly developed industrialized countries.
General living conditions and nutritional standards of those who died in Mexico may have been lower, compared with those who survived in Mexico and abroad.
The possibility that there may be two viruses circulating - a mild one and a more virulent one - has not been discounted yet.
So Friends If you are looking for medicine to prevent swine flu for you and your family. I found a very good website which provides online medicine for Swine Flu & Symptoms of Swine Flu.
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