Saturday, April 25, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

Obama and O’Malley Partners in Health Care Progress for Md. Families (Baltimore Afro-American)

Md. Family of Five Laid to Rest (Washington Post)

NAKED TRUTH: Maryland exports measles to Missouri (Capital News Service)

Suburban, Johns Hopkins to merge health systems (Daily Record)

City pastor charged with having man killed for life insurance (Baltimore Sun)

'Helping neighbors' talks on emergencies (Baltimore Sun)

 

National / International

WHO: Mexico swine flu has 'pandemic potential' (Associated Press)

Texas family quarantined after son contracts swine flu (CNN)

Swine Flu Fears at a Private School in Queens (New York Times)

Biotechnology Company Provided Advance Warning of Mexican H1N1 "Swine Flu" Virus Outbreak (PRWeb.doc)

WHO Calls Emergency Meeting On Swine Flu (Reuters)

Bay Area health officials brace for deadly swine flu that has killed at least 20 in Mexico. (Silicon Valley Mercury News)

Mexico City closes museums to stop flu outbreak (Associated Press)

WHO ready with antivirals to combat swine flu (Reuters India)

 

Opinion

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Maryland / Regional

 

Obama and O’Malley Partners in Health Care Progress for Md. Families

 

By John M. Colmers

Baltimore Afro-American

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

 

(April 21, 2009) - A single man or woman can make a difference in this world.

 

Lives can be saved. Families and the communities where they live can be enriched. History shows us example after example of how the world can be made better by the ideas, vision or just plain hard work of the individual.

 

So, imagine the possibilities when great leaders at the highest levels of our government share a vision and join hands to improve health care for a state or, indeed, a nation.

 

That is what Maryland families are seeing now with an important new partnership between Governor Martin O’Malley and President Barack Obama. Both made great and affordable health care for everyone a priority and then went to work.

 

Before Barack Obama became our 44th president and before the needs of many American families grew as a result of our national recession, Governor O’Malley led the way in Maryland and as a result:

 

• More than 33,000 more parents and guardians have health care coverage under a new program that is assisting even more families as the national recession claims more jobs.

 

• More than 150 small businesses have been able to cover 700 more employees at a drastically reduced cost under the Governor’s Health Insurance Partnership with small business.

 

• Dental care is now available to thousands of underserved Maryland children so that we never lose another child like Deamonte Driver, the Prince George’s County 12-year-old who died when an untreated toothache infected his brain.

 

• We made prescription drugs more affordable for more seniors by closing the Medicare Part D donut hole and expanding our Medicaid Older Adults Waiver by almost 25 percent.

 

• Maryland now leads the way among all states in mental health services, childhood immunizations and is making real progress on infant mortality.

 

With President Barack Obama in the White House we are finally seeing leadership at the top that is working with Congress to:

• Expand our health care coverage for families, expand immunization programs, keep our community health clinics open and our health care workers employed and on the job with Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.

• Re-authorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

• Expand and pay for 65 percent of the cost of continuing health care insurance for bread-winners who loose their jobs due to the recession.

 

Every move made by Governor O’Malley to expand vital health services to Maryland families has fit perfectly with the vision of a president who has told us from the beginning that, “ …health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it's a fiscal imperative."

 

Among those reforms championed by the president is what is known as Health Information Technology (IT). Doctors and hospitals see it as a way to deliver better health care to their patients by making health records available at the touch of a computer keyboard. Gov. O’Malley and President Obama see it as a way to get skyrocketing health care costs under control. Patients will enjoy better health care at a reduced price.

 

Under Gov. O’Malley’s leadership, Maryland started working on a Health IT system two years ago. This year, the Maryland General Assembly made this the first state in the nation to authorize full implementation by passing the Governor’s Health IT legislation.

 

It’s not a moment too soon since President Obama gave Health IT a huge funding push within the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As a result, Maryland will enjoy the savings, the health care benefits and the jobs this will create, first.

 

Obama and O’Malley are two leaders, facing a vast ocean of health care challenges, rowing together in the same direction and picking up speed. That’s what leaders can do when they define their priorities and act like partners who put the needs and concerns of families first.

 

John M. Colmers is the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene for the state of Maryland.

 

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Afro-American.

 

Md. Family of Five Laid to Rest

Father, Beset by Financial Pressure, Killed Wife, Three Children and Himself

 

By Matt Zapotosky and Dan Morse

Washington Post

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

Three black hearses led hundreds of cars yesterday on a procession through a town in Frederick County, creeping by stop signs draped with pastel ribbons and passing within view of a pale yellow house where bouquets and teddy bears have collected on the front porch.

 

Each hearse carried a coffin. Inside one coffin were the bodies of two brothers, 5 and 4. Inside another was their mother and their 2-year-old sister. And in the third was Christopher Wood, 34, who last week killed them and then himself.

 

"Nobody's ever going to know why," said Middletown resident Brenda Blank, who lived near the family, which had outwardly seemed untroubled. "We'll never have the answer."

 

But to some psychologists and criminologists, at least part of the explanation lies in the financial pressures bearing down on families across the nation. Increasingly, callers to suicide hotlines complain of money problems. For a troubled few, including Wood, the response to such stress is to kill their wives and children and then themselves, experts said.

 

"This is a very rare but patterned way that people respond to economic reversals in their lives," said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence. Often in such cases, he said, "killing their families is part of a broader process of killing themselves."

 

Some researchers say unemployment rates over the years have correlated with family homicides, though others say the relationship is so slight as to be statistically insignificant.

 

In January outside Los Angeles, a 40-year-old man who had recently been fired and was behind on his house payments killed his five children, his wife and himself. A week ago, at a hotel outside Baltimore, a New York financial investor being investigated on allegations of defrauding clients killed his two daughters, his wife and himself.

 

The Wood family was at least $460,000 in debt, about half of that on credit cards, authorities have said. The bodies of Wood, his wife, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and their children, Chandler, Gavin and Fiona, were discovered Saturday morning in the yellow house on Washington Street.

 

Relatives and law enforcement officials have declined to detail how the family encumbered such debt, but the barest outlines can be gleaned from public records, Billotti-Wood's blog postings and interviews.

 

As recently as 2005, the family reliably paid rent on a house in Atlantic Beach, Fla., according to their landlord.

 

Billotti-Wood was then working part time as a fundraiser for the University of North Florida. Her husband was working for CSX Corp., the railroad company based in Jacksonville.

 

In March 2005, the family bought a house in Jacksonville with virtually no money down, taking on a $208,000 mortgage, records show.

 

In December that year, Billotti-Wood started working full time, and her salary soon increased to $56,000 a year. It is unclear what Wood was being paid at the time. When he died, he was earning $97,000 a year working in sales at CSX, officials have said.

 

In October 2006, Billotti-Wood quit her job to concentrate on raising the children, according to a university spokeswoman. The next month, the Woods took out a second mortgage for $108,000. The home has been in foreclosure since October.

 

In a blog she began about that time, Billotti-Wood wrote of having to forgo the salary and other career benefits. "Who will tell me I look nice in my new Ann Taylor suit?" she wrote. In June 2007, she wrote that her husband was telling her "to stop spending so much money."

 

Acquaintances, however, said Billotti-Wood had modest tastes. She was a bargain hunter, fond of T-shirts, capri pants and comfortable shoes, said Christie Taylor, who owned a consignment shop in Jacksonville.

 

"She was very casual and always comfortable," Taylor said.

 

Last summer, the family moved to Middletown, where Billotti-Wood was raised. Wood struggled to adjust to his new responsibilities at work, according to a March 16 blog posting by his wife.

 

"Chris is trying to adjust but he is having a hard time with the new job which makes him more of a major player at work. More of a mover and a shaker . . . I worry somewhat about the change Chris is experiencing," she wrote.

 

In her last posting, on April 1, she wrote, "I am thinking that Chris and I will never agree on a new house to buy."

 

In one of six notes he left scattered about the house, Wood described his struggle to manage anxiety and depression.

 

Such struggles, along with a possessive quality, are typical of people who carry out familicides, said Henry Westray Jr., director of the Maryland Youth Suicide Prevention Program and Maryland Youth Crisis Hotline. "They may feel that their family cannot make it without them," he said.

 

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said that over the past 30 years, unemployment rates have correlated with family murders involving two or more victims. In some cases, "they're going bankrupt or they've lost their job or their home or their farm," he said of the men responsible for such killings. "They've lost their dignity.

 

"Actually, it's an act of love in their mind," Fox said. "It's a perverted love, but it's an act of love. . . . They want to spare their loved ones the misery of living on this Earth."

 

Yesterday, after a private funeral, the three coffins were interred side by side at Zion Lutheran Church cemetery. Family members and mourners left without comment.

 

"In these most difficult times, the Billotti and Wood families stand united, loving on and comforting one another as Christ Jesus directs," the two families said in a statement. They urged people to "cling to your family, honestly embracing one another in love, no matter the circumstances."

 

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

 

© 2009 The Washington Post Company.

 

NAKED TRUTH: Maryland exports measles to Missouri

 

By Lauren C. Williams

Capital News Service

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

WASHINGTON — The rapid spread of measles across the nation -- including the link between a Maryland outbreak and a case in Missouri -- is raising concern among health officials of a swelling unvaccinated population.

 

An eastern Missouri woman contracted measles during her stay in Maryland during an event at the 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, said Mary Anderson, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County health department.

 

It is suspected that the woman, 24, who left the area April 11, was infected by a Maryland woman, who was the state's fourth measles case this year. The Maryland woman attended church services at the center before seeking medical attention the previous Sunday.

 

"Something as simple as walking down the hallway, within hours" of each other can spread measles, said David Paulson, communications director for the Maryland health department.

 

The Missouri woman became ill after returning home and was not contagious during her stay in Maryland, Anderson said. The Missouri health department is monitoring her and others who may have been infected.

 

The Missourian's family is under voluntary quarantine. Those who accompanied her on the trip have been notified, said Susan Kneeskern, public health consultant nurse for Missouri's health department.

 

The Washington metropolitan area has seen seven cases of measles this year, following two years without infections. The spike in cases is sparking concern, not just for an outbreak, but about a growing unvaccinated population.

 

Maryland's last outbreak, in 2001, had four cases, three confirmed and one suspected.

 

It takes about 10 days after exposure to measles for an infected individual's symptoms to manifest and 14 days for a rash to develop.

 

Adults who did not start school in the U.S., babies under 12 months and children whose parents waived vaccination because of medical complications or for philosophical reasons are susceptible to the virus.

 

The highly contagious viral disease, typically characterized by a rash on the face and neck, has infected people in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Two cases are isolated from the others, with causes unknown, the Maryland woman being one.

 

The other three of Maryland's four measles cases are related. The first was a restaurant owner who contracted measles on his trip to eastern Asia and on his return, infected an employee who sought treatment at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital where he infected an 8-month-old infant.

 

Cases five and six were a Washington couple who travelled to India and developed symptoms when they returned. The man was confirmed to have measles through laboratory testing while his wife was assumed to have measles given her proximity to her husband.

 

The most recent regional case was an adult male in Prince William County, Va., who hadn't travelled outside of the United States in the past 21 days and has not been associated with any other cases.

 

High vaccination rates have nearly eradicated measles in the U.S.; however, immunization rates focus on school-aged children and not adults. Immunization is recommended via the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine given to infants between 12 and 15 months and as a booster by age 6.

 

Virginia reported one travel-related measles case last year which followed a six years of being measles-free.

 

"Initially the concern is imported measles," said Denise Sockwell, epidemiologist, Virginia Department of Health.

 

"We don't know where he got his measles, which concerns us," and most U.S. cases start with an imported case, she said.

 

"At this point we may not ever know where he got this virus from," said Sockwell.

 

Most people fully recover from measles, but in some cases the virus can be fatal and cause complications such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and brain infection, which can result in permanent damage.

 

Sockwell said: "There could be other people out there who have the measles" and are not reporting it.

 

Copyright 2009 Salisbury Daily Times.

 

Suburban, Johns Hopkins to merge health systems

 

Associated Press

Daily Record

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

Johns Hopkins Health System and Suburban Hospital Healthcare System say they are merging to offer more efficient, integrated medical services in the region.

 

The systems announced Friday that the proposed merger is expected in the fall and wouldn't involve any financial exchanges.

 

If the merger happens, Johns Hopkins will completely assume ownership of the Montgomery County-based organization and Suburban Hospital. Both companies say Suburban's name, leadership and daily operations won't change.

 

Both companies say the change would help them address health care reform, offer health care in a more efficient way and provide better access to patients for health care.

 

Johns Hopkins said it has no plans to acquire other hospitals.

 

Copyright 2009 Daily Record.

 

City pastor charged with having man killed for life insurance

Accused was responsible for helping disabled victim through nonprofit

 

By Justin Fenton

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

A Baltimore pastor who worked with developmentally disabled people was charged Friday with befriending a blind and disabled man in his care, then paying a hit man $50,000 in church funds for an execution so he could collect life insurance money.

 

Police say Kevin Jerome Pushia, 32, who worked for four months as an operations manager for the Arc of Baltimore before abruptly quitting in January, confessed to plotting to kill Lemuel Wallace.

 

Pushia told police he persuaded Wallace and "numerous" other mentally challenged individuals to list him as a beneficiary on insurance policies.

 

A terse notation in Pushia's planning calendar for Feb. 5, the day after Wallace was found dead in a Leakin Park bathroom stall from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and back, reads: "L.W. project completed," police said.

 

Pushia was in custody while police look for other possible victims and examine whether Pushia had been plotting similar killings, said Maj. Terrence McLarney, commander of the city homicide unit. "We have a lot of work left to do," McLarney said, adding that the case remains open.

 

Wallace lived in a group home in the 4500 block of Maryknoll Road associated with the Arc, which provides resources for people with developmental disabilities.

 

Wallace had been involved with the organization for about 10 years and worked through an employment program as a janitor.

 

He was more independent than his peers and often went on walks, ran errands or visited family, police said.

 

"Lemuel did very well for himself - he was very capable in many ways," said Karen McGuire, advancement director for the Arc.

 

On Feb. 4, police said, someone identifying himself as an Arc employee picked Wallace up. It was the last time he was seen alive.

 

Detectives handed out fliers in Wallace's neighborhood and visited places he was known to frequent, but they had few solid leads.

 

On March 31, an agent for Globe Life Insurance contacted police, saying that Pushia was listed as Wallace's brother on a $200,000 policy, Detective Robert Ross wrote in charging documents. The agent was making a routine check to make sure Pushia was not a suspect in the death.

 

He wasn't at the time, but the call gave police a new lead. They searched Pushia's newly built townhouse in Frankford and found the planning calendar and numerous insurance policies in Wallace's name that Pushia had applied for on the Internet, according to records.

 

Taken to the homicide unit, Pushia asked for an attorney, then admitted to the scheme, Ross wrote. Pushia said he had taken out as many as six insurance policies in Wallace's name, worth nearly $1 million combined, and said he had policies on others.

 

According to his church Web site, Pushia has been involved in religious work since age 15 and started an East Baltimore church in 2005 that burned down two years later. Court records hint at personal and financial problems: In February, he lost a $20,000 judgment brought by the state employees credit union, and twice in recent months he filed for protective orders against a 29-year-old man.

 

Pushia's attorney, Russell A. Neverdon Sr., said his client is "very distraught over the turn of events, and he is anxious to bring closure to the matter."

 

Neverdon said the account of Pushia's confession in court records was "not the truth in its entirety" and that Pushia hopes to share his story at the appropriate time. Neverdon added that Pushia does not know who shot Wallace and "wants other players to accept responsibility where responsibility should properly lie."

 

Pushia's parents, listed on the church Web site as deacons, declined to be interviewed at their Cylburn home in Northwest Baltimore, as did church associates from East Baltimore contacted by phone.

 

McGuire, the Arc official, said Pushia resigned from his job as operations manager Jan. 7, when he had held a lower-level supervisory position for about four months. She said he was responsible for a number of Arc homes, including the one where Wallace lived.

 

Pushia told Arc officials that he was leaving "for personal reasons" and gave no notice, she said.

 

According to McGuire, Pushia was hired after standard reference checks and a background investigation.

 

News of Pushia's alleged involvement in Wallace's death "was really heartbreaking here, and we're all kind of in shock today hearing this," McGuire said. "Bottom line, we're glad an arrest has been made."

 

At Pushia's gray, two-story home in the 5400 block of Parkside Place, neighbors said they did not know him beyond occasional greetings.

 

One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said at least two men lived in the home with a young child and he assumed the men were college students. Pushia always wore a sharp suit and carried a backpack. The neighbor said arguments inside the home were occasionally audible.

 

Parked behind the house Friday was a gray SUV adorned with a Jesus fish and a vanity license plate that read "PUSHIA."

 

Property records show Pushia purchased the home in 2006 for $271,000 and transferred the title to the Greater Faith Tabernacle Church of Deliverance.

 

According to his Web site, Pushia served on the youth ministry for the Maryland Baptist Convention in the late 1990s. He said he received a bachelor's degree from Coppin State College in 2001 and a master's degree from Trinity College and Seminary in 2003 and was pursuing a doctorate.

 

He wrote that he "fasted and prayed, [and] God lead him in the order of purchasing real estate" to start the Church of Deliverance in the 2600 block of McElderry St., a transaction that he noted was paid in full. The storefront church underwent extensive renovations after settlement in 2003, and it opened for worship on April 3, 2005.

 

Donna Jones, who lives near the church, said Pushia was active in the community and often tried to recruit people into the church, which had a jetted tub on the second floor for baptisms. She recalled that Pushia once organized a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs and worked to rebuild the community.

 

"We're shocked," Jones said. "You'd never think he'd be capable of something like that. Everybody respected him as Pastor Pushia."

 

Barbara Archer, who rents her McElderry Street home from Pushia, also recalled him as an ambitious young pastor. She was informed recently that she would have to move because the house was being foreclosed on.

 

In January 2007, a two-alarm fire ripped through the second floor of the church and spread to the roof of a rowhouse. Fire officials could not say whether a cause of the fire was determined at the time, but police said they are meeting with arson investigators to determine whether it was intentionally set.

 

"It's early in the process, but we want to explore anything like that that he may have been involved with," McLarney said.

 

Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser contributed to this article.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

'Helping neighbors' talks on emergencies

 

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

Baltimore County will offer a five-part "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" emergency preparedness program, with the first session at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Owings Mills Volunteer Fire Company, 10401 Owings Mills Blvd. The program continues the next four Tuesdays, ending May 26. Emergency preparedness, fire safety, crime prevention and first aid will be covered. To register, contact volunteers@baltimorecountymd.gov

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

National / International

 

WHO: Mexico swine flu has 'pandemic potential'

 

Associated Press

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization says the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States could develop into a pandemic.

 

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the outbreak involves "an animal strain of the H1N1 virus, and it has pandemic potential."

 

Chan says it is too early to say whether a pandemic will actually occur.

 

The global health body has advised countries around the world to look out for similar outbreaks following the discovery of related strains on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border.

 

At least 62 people in Mexico have died from pneumonia after contracting a flu-like virus. WHO says some tested positive for a strain that sickened at least seven in the southwestern U.S. No deaths have been reported in the U.S.

 

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization has called an emergency meeting of experts Saturday to consider declaring an international public health emergency over the swine flu outbreak believed to have killed dozens of people in Mexico and sickened at least seven in the U.S.

 

It is the first time the WHO's Director-General Margaret Chan has convened such a crisis panel since the procedure was created almost two years ago, spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

 

The committee may decide Saturday that the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency, and if so, whether WHO should consider measures including travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.

 

The global body's flu pandemic alert level is now set to phase three — meaning there is no or very limited risk of a new virus spreading from human to human.

 

The committee "will be asked, 'should we raise the alert level to phase four or phase five,' depending on their appreciation of how far the virus has spread," Hartl said.

 

An increased alert level was considered likely, as initial evidence from the outbreak in Mexico indicates the virus has spread between people. Hartl said, however, that a decision would not be made Saturday.

 

At least 62 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by a flu-like illness in Mexico, according to WHO. Some of those who died are confirmed to have contracted a type of swine flu known as A/H1N1. That particular flu variant has not previously been seen in pigs or humans, though other types of H1N1 have.

 

"This is a very high concern for us as the world's global health organization," Hartl said.

 

The current seasonal flu vaccine is not believed to offer any protection against this new swine flu. But anti-viral drug Tamiflu appears to be fully effective against the H1N1 virus, and "Mexico and the United States already have large stocks of Tamiflu," Hartl said.

 

The virus has caused alarm in Mexico, where more than 1,000 people have been sickened. Authorities there have closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak.

 

WHO, which has been monitoring the situation since Thursday, said 12 of the Mexican cases have been confirmed as genetically identical to a swine flu virus detected in California.

 

U.S. authorities said seven people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas, and all recovered.

 

"We do seem to have found incidents of the same illness, which is swine influenza A/H1N1, on both sides of the border in various locations," Hartl said.

 

WHO has sent experts to Mexico to monitor the situation there, and asked countries to report any unusual flu outbreaks.

 

"We are at the beginning of the outbreak here, and there are a lot of things that we still don't know," Hartl said.

 

"We're not sure exactly of the transmission routes, where the initial infection came from, how efficient it is in transmitting," he said. WHO is also questioning "why no one has died in the United States so far whereas there have been confirmed deaths in Mexico."

 

WHO chief Chan broke off a visit to Washington, where she was to meet with U.S. officials, to oversee WHO's response to the crisis from its Strategic Health Operation Center in Switzerland.

 

The virus appears to cause flu-like symptoms that can develop into severe pneumonia, Hartl said, urging anyone to visit a doctor if they had been to affected areas and were feeling symptoms.

 

"You would want to take the same kind of precautions that you would do with pneumonia and an influenza-like illness," he said.

 

Web link:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_AZWy_CmwkfQ17w1-rP99e3xZnwD97PH4480

 

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved..

 

Texas family quarantined after son contracts swine flu

 

CNN

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

(CNN) -- As Hayden Henshaw was being rushed to the doctor's office after becoming ill, his father heard that his son's classmates had been struck with the deadly swine flu virus like the one sweeping through Mexico.

 

Patrick Henshaw called his wife immediately to have Hayden checked for it. Later, they received the bad news.

 

Hayden had become the third confirmed case of swine flu at his Texas high school. It is a virus that has killed 68 people in Mexico and infected at least eight people in the United States.

 

Health officials arrived at the Henshaws' house Friday and drew blood from the whole family, then told them to stay inside and away from the public, Henshaw told CNN.

 

The whole family is quarantined indefinitely, according to CNN-affiliate KABB. Henshaw said his family was shocked when they got the news about their son.

 

"Stunned. My wife was having a panic attack," Henshaw told the affiliate.

 

U.S. health officials have expressed concern about U.S. cases of a swine flu virus that has similar characteristics to the fatal virus in Mexico.

 

More than 1,000 people have fallen ill in Mexico City in a short period of time, U.S. health experts said.

 

"This situation has been developing quickly," Richard Besser, acting director of the Atlanta, Georgia-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Friday. "This is something we are worried about."

 

Besser said all of the eight U.S. patients have recovered.

 

New York health officials said Friday they were testing about 75 students at a school in New York City 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 the borough of Queens on Thursday after the students reported cough, fever, sore throat, aches and pains.

 

Test results are expected as early as Saturday.

 

The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.

 

Swine flu is caused by a virus similar to a type of flu virus that infects people every year but is a strain typically found only in pigs -- or in people who have direct contact with pigs.

 

There have, however, been cases of person-to-person transmission of swine flu, the CDC said.

 

Web link:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/25/swine.flu.family/?iref=mpstoryview

 

Copyright 2009 CNN online.

 

Swine Flu Fears at a Private School in Queens

 

By Anahad O’Connor

New York Times

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

The New York City health department dispatched a team of investigators to a private school in Queens on Friday after dozens of students complained of symptoms that officials believed were consistent with a strain of swine flu that has swept Mexico City.

 

The agency said about 75 students at St. Francis Preparatory School had complained Thursday of nausea, fever, dizziness and aches and pains. Several of the students were said to have recently traveled to Mexico, where as many as 61 people have died and possibly hundreds more have been infected in an outbreak of swine flu in recent weeks.

 

To control the epidemic, Mexican officials have shut museums and closed schools in and around the capital.

 

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that eight cases have been diagnosed in the United States, six in California and two in Texas.

 

In New York City, health officials said that doctors and investigators were sent to St. Francis Preparatory as a precautionary measure, and that tests were being conducted in an effort to rule out swine flu as the cause of the students’ symptoms.

“The health department will continue to work closely with students, parents and school officials to monitor the situation,” the agency said in a statement.

 

Web link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/nyregion/25sick.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

 

Copyright 2009 CNN online.

 

Biotechnology Company Provided Advance Warning of Mexican H1N1 "Swine Flu" Virus Outbreak

 

Replikins, Ltd. published a FluForecast® warning in April 7th, 2008, a year before the recent Mexico and California H1N1 cases. The company was able to state the likelihood of H1N1 outbreaks based on its patented Replikin Count™ genomics technology, which examines specific regions in virus genes which have been linked with past epidemics. The April 2008 announcement, attached below as published on the Web, stated that in H1N1 the company had then detected the highest concentrations of these specific regions ever seen, except for those from the 1918 pandemic which killed millions of people. Today, the company is actively pursuing licensing partnerships to apply its groundbreaking technology not only to early warning systems, but also to the development of synthetic vaccines to prevent or slow future epidemics. A synthetic H1N1 Replikins Vaccine is available for testing, and related products are described below and on the company's website.

 

(PRWEB) April 25, 2009 -- Replikins, Ltd. published a FluForecast® warning in April 7th, 2008, a year before the recent Mexico and California H1N1 cases. The company was able to state the likelihood of H1N1 outbreaks based on its patented Replikin Count™ genomics technology, which examines specific regions in virus genes which have been linked with past epidemics.

 

The April 2008 announcement, attached below as published on the Web, stated that in H1N1 the company had then detected the highest concentrations of these specific regions ever seen, except for those from the 1918 pandemic which killed millions of people. Today, the company is actively pursuing licensing partnerships to apply its groundbreaking technology not only to early warning systems, but also to the development of synthetic vaccines to prevent or slow future epidemics.

 

Replikins, Ltd. published a FluForecast® warning on April 7th, 2008, a year before the recent Mexico and California H1N1 cases. The company was able to state the likelihood of H1N1 outbreaks based on its patented Replikin Count™ genomics technology, which examines specific regions in virus genes which have been linked with past epidemics.

 

A synthetic H1N1 Replikins Vaccine is available for testing. A similar synthetic Replikin Vaccine has been shown to successfully block the entry of H5N1 virus into, replication in, and excretion from chickens. Another synthetic Replikin Vaccine has been shown to protect 91% of shrimp from the lethal Taura Syndrome Virus. The company is able to produce these vaccines in as little as 7 days, rather than the many months needed for traditional vaccines, because they are synthesized at the peptide level.

 

The following is the text of the April 2008 release in which Replikins was able to pinpoint the high risk of H1N1 outbreaks:

 

"H1N1 Influenza Virus with Highest Replikin Count™ Since the 1918 Pandemic Identified in the U.S. and Austria

 

Boston, MA (PRWeb) April 7, 2008 -- Replikins, Ltd. has found that the Replikin Count™ of the H1N1 strain of influenza virus has recently increased to 7.6 (plus/minus 1.4), its highest level since the 1918 H1N1 pandemic (p value less than 0.001). A rising Replikin Count of a particular influenza strain, indicating rapid replication of the virus, is an early warning which has been followed consistently by an outbreak of the specific strain. The current increase appears to be specific to H1N1; there was a concurrent 80% decline in the Replikin Count of H3N2, for instance.

 

The current H1N1 appears to be rapidly replicating simultaneously in the U.S. and Austria. It may succeed H5N1 as the leading candidate for the next expected overdue pandemic. However, the same virus replikin structures detected by FluForecast® software in all three previous pandemics, namely 1918 H1N1, 1957 H2N2, and 1968 H3N2, as well as in H5N1, have not yet been detected in the currently evolving H1N1.

 

There is evidence that many factors, including virus structure, host receptivity, and the environment, together with infectivity and rapid replication, need to converge for a pandemic to occur. For H5N1, the high human mortality rate, which peaked at over 80% in 2006-07 in Indonesia, as well as current low infectivity, both appear to limit H5N1's ability to produce a pandemic. Furthermore, the H5N1 rapid replication cycle which began in 1996 now appears to be over. The H5N1 virus produced less than 300 World Health Organization confirmed deaths over the past 10 years.

 

On the other hand, H1N1, with an estimated human mortality rate of only 2.5 to 10%, but with much higher infectivity, produced an estimated 50 million deaths in the 1918 pandemic. A number of countermeasures exist today which did not exist in 1918, however. Among these is Replikins' ability to manufacture synthetic vaccines based on current sequences, with a seven day production turnaround. (end of 4/2008 release)

 

In the April 2008 announcement above, as published on the Web, Replikins stated that it had detected the highest levels of its specific genome regions ever seen in any virus samples, except for those from the 1918 pandemic which killed tens of millions of people. Today, the company is actively pursuing licensing partnerships to apply its groundbreaking technology not only to early warning systems, but also to the development of synthetic vaccines to prevent or slow future epidemics.

 

The original release can be found at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/103052.php and http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-technology-1/H1N1-Influenza-Virus-With-Highest-Replikin-Count-28TM-29-Since-the-1918-Pandemic-Identified-in-the-U-S--and-Austria-4432-1/, among other sites.

 

# # #

 

Web link:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/04/prweb2360154.htm

 

Copyright 2009 PRWeb.doc.

 

WHO Calls Emergency Meeting On Swine Flu

 

By Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey

Reuters

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

WHO convening emergency committee to advise on swine flu

* 12 of 18 virus samples in Mexico same as California cases

* More epidemiological info needed for pandemic alert change

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday it was calling an emergency committee to advise whether outbreaks of swine flu in humans in the United States and Mexico constituted an international public health threat.

 

A deadly strain of swine flu never seen before has broken out in Mexico, killing as many as 60 people and raising fears of a possible spread across North America.

 

"WHO will convene, sometime in the very near future, an emergency committee under the International Health Regulations, which will consider whether or not this event constitutes a public health event of international concern," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters in Geneva.

 

Hartl also said that 12 of 18 samples taken from victims in Mexico showed the virus had a genetic structure identical to that of a swine flu virus found in California.

 

But more epidemiological information was needed before any change to the WHO's pandemic alert level, currently at '3' on a scale of 1 to 6, he said.

 

"The technical people in our Organization are saying that before we know how pandemic a virus can be, we need to know how efficiently it is transmitting and how widespread it is," Hartl said.

 

Web link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE53N4SZ20090424

 

Copyright 2009 Reuters.

 

Bay Area health officials brace for deadly swine flu that has killed at least 20 in Mexico.

 

By Mike Swift

Silicon Valley Mercury News

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

Concerned that a new strain of influenza that has killed at least 20 people in Mexico could trigger a global pandemic, state and local public health officials are asking hospitals and physicians to increase their surveillance and advised those with flu symptoms to stay home and call a doctor.

 

The same strain of swine flu that sickened at least eight people in Southern California and Texas this month has also sickened hundreds more in Mexico, leading health officials Friday in Mexico City to close schools and to take other steps to restrict transmission.

 

Health officials know of no cases in Northern California, but said the Bay Area could be particularly vulnerable because of its extensive global connections. Santa Clara and other Bay Area county health departments activated their emergency operations centers Friday afternoon and began contacting medical providers.

 

"What we're concerned about is whether the conditions have been met that puts this situation in a potential pandemic situation, one that sets up the circumstances that might lead to a broad-based epidemic or pandemic throughout the world," said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state's public health officer.

 

It may be several days before health officials know the full extent of the threat, but scientists are racing to better understand the virulence of the swine flu strain and the ease with which it is transmitted among people.

 

We haven't seen this strain before, which means nobody has immunity to it," nor are flu vaccines likely to be effective, said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County's public health officer.

 

Viral combination

Working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, state and local health officials scrambled Friday to respond to the new strain, which may have mutated making it more easily transmitted among humans. Although there are documented cases of human-to-human transmission, swine flu is rare and generally spreads to humans only through direct contact with pigs.

 

Mexico's national health officials Friday put the confirmed toll at 20 dead, but other deaths were being investigated, and at least ÿ1,004 nationwide were sick from the flu. Scientists said the virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.

 

The WHO has reported about 800 cases of flu symptoms in Mexico in recent weeks, most of them among healthy young adults. Officials in Mexico City closed schools, libraries and some theaters Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work, to avoid large gatherings and to refrain from shaking hands and kissing other people on the cheek.

 

If all the cases are caused by "the same virus in Mexico and it's causing deaths, it's also a virus that has some degree of mortality," Fenstersheib said. "That's concerning us."

 

U.S. health officials meanwhile are investigating eight cases in Southern California and Texas, which had the same genetic fingerprints as fatal flu cases in Mexico, but none of those cases involved contact with pigs, strongly suggesting human-to-human transmission. All the known U.S. patients, including a father and daughter in San Diego County who became sick within hours of each other April 5 and 6, have recovered.

 

The 54-year-old father had received a flu vaccine, according to a CDC report. Horton said that because the father and daughter got sick at the same time, they must have been infected by a third source, probably a person, but potentially an animal.

 

"We're trying to track down what that third source might have been," Horton said. "What we know to date is that none of the cases have had direct contact with swine, so at this point we have to say we don't know the origin of the virus."

 

Flu treatments

One piece of good news is that the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus does not appear to be resistant to the antiviral flu treatments Tamiflu and Relenza. While seasonal flu viruses typically kill infants and elderly people, pandemics - such as the 1918 flu strain that killed an estimated 20-50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States - often hit young, healthy people.

 

Fenstersheib said Silicon Valley and the Bay Area could be at greater risk than other parts of the country because of the region's cosmopolitan population and its highly developed network of global travel. About 160,000 residents of Santa Clara County, or 9 percent of the population in 2007, were born in Mexico, according to census data. About a third of the county's population are immigrants from Latin America or Asia.

 

In addition to respiratory symptoms, this strain of the flu may also produce gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea and diarrhea, Fenstersheib said. The Santa Clara health department will post more information at www.sccphd.org, while the CDC posts swine flu information at www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/swineflu_you.htm.

 

"We have a lot of people traveling internationally," Fenstersheib said. "There are family members traveling back and forth. "... We definitely have more potential risk because of the connections with Mexico, so it's important for us to really be on top of this."

 

Health officials are not advising travel restrictions to Mexico at this point, but Horton said officials will be monitoring the situation closely in the coming days.

 

"There's no question that we're getting some signals here that would indicate "... this could be a significant health threat," Horton said. "But I think we are taking all the appropriate steps."

 

Mercury News wire services contributed to this report.

Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648 or at mswift@mercurynews.com.

* If you experience flu symptoms, stay home and call your doctor.

* To avoid contracting any flu, wash your hands frequently.

* So far, officials haven"t issued prohibitions on travel to Mexico.

 

Web link:

http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_12223750

 

Copyright 2009 Silicon Valley Mercury News.

 

Mexico City closes museums to stop flu outbreak

 

By Mark Stevenson

Associated Press

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's federal government has closed museums, libraries, and state-run theaters as well as schools in its overcrowded capital to stop a swine flu outbreak authorities say may have killed as many as 60 people.

 

The government already shut down schools across Mexico City Friday in hopes of containing the outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people. World health officials worry a global flu epidemic could spread from the city of 20 million.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California. It's a frightening new strain that combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans.

 

Associated Press Writers Maria Cheng in London, Traci Carl in Mexico City and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.

 

Web link:

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1335769.html

 

Copyright 2009 Associated Press.

 

WHO ready with antivirals to combat swine flu

 

Reuters India

Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that it was prepared with rapid containment measures including antivirals if needed to combat the swine flu outbreaks in Mexico and the United States.

 

The Geneva-based agency has been stockpiling doses of Roche AG's Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, a pill that can both treat flu and prevent infection.

 

But health authorities in the two North American countries have the resources required already in place, including Tamiflu, and are "well equipped", according to the WHO.

 

"WHO is prepared with rapid containment measures should it be necessary to be deployed," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi told Reuters.

 

The United Nations agency saw no need at this point to issue travel advisories warning travellers not to go to parts of Mexico or the United States. "However, the situation may change depending on what the situation in the field is," Bhatiasevi said.

 

The WHO will convene a meeting of its Emergency Committee on international health regulations, probably on Saturday afternoon, she added.

 

WHO director-general Margaret Chan was flying back to Geneva overnight from Washington, D.C., for the emergency discussions which would link public health authorities and experts in various parts of world in a virtual meeting, she said.

 

The emergency committee could make recommendations including whether to change the pandemic alert level, but it would be up to Chan and the WHO whether to do so, she added.

 

Suspicions that the fatal outbreaks of flu in Mexico were not of the normal seasonal influenza arose because most cases were in healthy young adults, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

 

"Because these cases are not happening in the very old or the very young, which is normal with seasonal influenza, this is an unusual event and and a cause for heightened concern," Hartl said in an interview with Canadian broadcaster CBC.

 

Web link:

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39236120090424

 

Copyright 2009 Reuters India.

 

Opinion

 

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