New flu strain to be aware of

April 24, 2009

My one friend has a brother that works for World Health Organization in

Switzerland and he called her to tell her whatever flu strain is coming in is

one to be very careful of. I guess this is the flu he means? The swine flu?

" The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine

flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, according to the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar virus has been found in

the American Southwest, where officials have reported eight nonfatal cases.

Most of Mexico's dead were young, healthy adults, and none were over 60 or under

3 years old, the World Health Organization said. That alarms health officials

because seasonal flus cause most of their deaths among infants and bedridden old

people, but pandemic flus — like the 1918 Spanish flu, and the 1957 and 1968

pandemics — often strike young, healthy people the hardest "

nytimeshealth

U.S. public health authorities are investigating two cases of swine flu in

unrelated children in California, a development that has officials in Canada and

elsewhere on alert. Discovery of the two cases, in children who apparently had

no contact with pigs or with each other, suggests there probably has been some

person-to-person spread of swine flu viruses, officials of the U.S. Centers for

Disease Control said yesterday. Whether the viruses continue to spread isn't

currently known.

Here's a video about it

and from the CDC

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