Swine Flu Nears Pandemic as Schools Shut, Pigs Killed (Update1)
By Tom Randall
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Fort Worth, Texas, closed 144 public schools with 80,000 students after one child came down with swine flu. Citigroup Inc. disinfected a New York office building when a worker became ill, and as many as 400,000 pigs are being slaughtered in Egypt.
Companies, school districts and nations are reacting swiftly to a new strain of flu that has been confirmed in only 257 people worldwide yet threatens millions, according to the World Health Organization. Confirmed cases are now reported in 11 countries, and officials in New York, Mexico and Australia have said hundreds more infections are suspected.
The WHO yesterday raised its six-tier alert to 5 and said the world’s first influenza pandemic since 1968 may soon be declared. The United Nations agency 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.
“If we are very careful about noting what the recommendations are, we won’t go over the top in our response,” said William Schaffner, an influenza expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in a telephone interview today. “There’s going to be variations among different countries and social circumstances -- some of that is inevitable -- but what you’d like to do is get everyone on the same page.”
Travel Restrictions
Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, said yesterday that travel shouldn’t be restricted because it won’t slow the spread of the flu. Countries should review response plans and be ready to put them into action, she said during a news conference at the organization’s Geneva offices.
“It is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,” Chan said. “The biggest question right now is this: How severe will the pandemic be? All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic plans.”
A pandemic is an unexpected outbreak of a new contagious disease that spreads from person to person across multiple borders.
Batches of seed virus are being developed for potential vaccine production, according to WHO, in Geneva. Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA, Baxter International Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc are talking with world health authorities about how to produce a vaccine.
‘On Alert’
“We are in constant discussions with the government about how and if we should go ahead,” said Donna Cary, a spokeswoman for Sanofi’s Sanofi-Pasteur unit in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania. London-based Glaxo and Novartis AG of Basel, Switzerland, also are talking with regulators, spokesmen for the companies said.
Production of seasonal flu shots will be completed before swine flu vaccine production begins, if that decision is made, Richard Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said today.
The CDC may soon stop reporting numbers of cases, because as the disease spreads, “it can get murky,” Besser said. Swine flu has been confirmed in 11 U.S. states. The White House said 20 states have probable or confirmed cases.
An employee at the World Bank, the Washington-based lender that helps nations reduce poverty, has been preliminarily diagnosed with swine flu after traveling to Mexico for his job, according to an e-mail to employees from the bank. About 80 employees have been asked to work from home after coming in contact with the worker in the Washington office.
Mexico Toll
In Mexico, where the toll is highest, 159 people may have died from the malady, according to government officials, with 97 cases and at least seven deaths confirmed by WHO-approved laboratory tests.
A “worrisome sign from Mexico was the relatively young healthy adults” succumbing to the virus, Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director of the CDC science and public health program, said today in Congress. She said the average age of those in the U.S. confirmed to have the flu is 22.
In the U.S., at least 109 cases, including one death, have been confirmed, and New York City officials said they suspect hundreds are infected. The U.S. Department of Education counted 298 closed schools today, according to the Washington Post.
The White House today said a presidential aide who traveled ahead of Obama to Mexico City earlier this month was sick with flu like symptoms. The man’s wife, son and nephew also developed symptoms and all are being tested for swine flu, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
WHO’s statistics, which lag behind those reported by national and local agencies, showed confirmed cases in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel, Spain, the U.K. and New Zealand.
Spain Question
Disease trackers are trying to determine whether the new H1N1 influenza strain is spreading efficiently in Spain, said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for WHO in Geneva. The agency needs evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission outside North America to declare the outbreak a pandemic.
Among the 13 cases in Spain, at least one hadn’t traveled to Mexico, Thompson said today. One case “confirmed to us that there’s some community transmission beginning,” he said. “The virus is becoming established in another area. It’s this new single case that is especially worrying.”
The last pandemic, 41 years ago, killed 1 million people and was mild compared with the global outbreak of 1918, which may have killed as many as 50 million.
Parents Should Plan
President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion to battle an outbreak, and said parents should plan for school closings. Texas Governor Rick Perry declared a disaster, a “preemptive” measure to facilitate emergency preparations and seek federal reimbursement. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency.
Swine flu infections in people aren’t related to exposure to pigs, and properly prepared pork is safe to eat, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security and environment. The disease is spreading like the seasonal flu and is “unlikely” to stop, Fukuda said.
The genetic strains around the world that have been tested are “remarkably consistent and remarkably similar to each other,” Fukuda said. The three main seasonal flu strains -- H3N2, H1N1 and type-B -- cause 250,000 to 500,000 deaths a year globally, according to WHO. The new flu results in symptoms similar to those of seasonal influenza, including fever and coughing, nausea and vomiting, according to the CDC. It appears to be causing more diarrhea than seasonal flu, WHO said.
Hand-Washing
The U.S. can expect more hospitalizations and deaths, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said. Hand-washing and hygiene are among the most effective ways to control the outbreak, she said.
A Marine is recovering after being tested for the illness, and another 37 Marines are being “watched and tested” at a base with 15,000 personnel in 29 Palms, California, Marine Corps Commandant General James Conway said at the Pentagon yesterday.
Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said an employee at one of its offices in the New York City borough of Queens has been diagnosed with swine flu and is expected to make a full recovery. The Long Island City building in Queens is being “professionally disinfected,” Citigroup said in a statement yesterday.
WHO raised the level on its current pandemic alert system, adopted in 2005, twice this week. It had been at 3 since 2007, when it was elevated for an outbreak of avian flu.
A stage 5 warning is “a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent” with little time left for preparation, according to the WHO Web site. It’s based on the determination that the disease is established in communities in two countries in the same WHO region.
Swine Influenza (swineflu) is a respiratory disease common among pigs that is caused by type A influenza viruses.
Just like humans, pigs can get influenza but swineflu viruses aren’t equal to human flu viruses. Although this particular virus doesn’t usually infect people, periodic cases do occur in those who have had close contact with pigs.
But the current swine flu outbreak is different. According to the data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu seems to involve a new of type of influenza that has taken pieces of flu viruses from pigs, birds, and humans and combined them into a new virus, spreading it from person to person and it is evolving rapidly.
Swineflu is thought to be contracted in the same way as seasonal flu. The virus is spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by those who are infected. Sometimes people may become infected by touching an object with the virus on it and then touching their eyes, mouth or nose.
Swineflu is not transmitted by food, however. Humans cannot get the virus from eating pork; pork products; handling of uncooked pork; or consuming fruits and vegetables—as with all influenza viruses, swineflu in not a food-born illness.
The severity of cases in the current swineflu outbreak has varied widely, with Mexico being hit the hardest: as of April 28, the death toll rose to 152. There are also confirmed reports of people who have been infected in the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, and the U.K.—no deaths have been reported in either of the aforementioned countries.
Flu symptoms
What does the thermometer tell you? The symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. In the past, severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and deaths have been reported with swine flu infection in people. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.
Infected people may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 7 or more days after becoming sick. That means that you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick.
(Reuters) - Scientists say predicting the timescale and impact of any flu pandemic is extremely difficult, but the United Nations World Health Organization has several "suggested assumptions" outlined in its pandemic guidance.
How long any pandemic lasts would be key to its economic impact. The world is already struggling with the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, straining budgets of governments, some of which are trying to cut spending.
* An influenza pandemic can occur when a new influenza virus subtype emerges and spreads easily among human beings.
* An influenza pandemic can begin at any time of the year and any place in the world, and is expected to spread to the rest of the world within several weeks or months.
* A single wave of pandemic could last several weeks to a few months, but will likely vary from country to country and even by community.
* Most communities are expected to experience multiple waves of a pandemic.
* Increased hospitalisations, deaths and other effects are expected to vary widely among countries and communities. Vulnerable populations are expected to be affected more severely.
* People will stay away from work not only because they are sick themselves, but because they are caring for sick relatives, taking care of children home from school, or simply lying low. Workplace absenteeism will be higher than the estimated clinical rate.
Is this the plague that was foretold by the Mayans? Will it reach the whole world by 2012? The swine flu pandemic is here. It has traveled as far as New Zealand affecting the descendants of the Mayans. Be aware if you have just a drop of Mayan blood coursing through your veins. The swine flu is here to wipe out the rest of the descendants that survived the last pandemic giving the prediction of the Mayan calendar credence now in everyone's mind. It is too late to do anything about it. The survivors who are left behind will be running the world. Who can say they will be. The supremist groups have been readying themselves for such an occurance for many years by stockpiling weapons and grain. Are we to be run by them are their types or did they plant it?
Be aware buy seeds (there is a seed bank that you can be an affiliate?)
There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
2012 Theory 1: A giant Meteor or Asteroid
Millions of years ago, when our planet was still one big melted glowing ball of magma, it was continuously being bombarded with meteors and lose bodies from outer space. Later on, less and less meteors hit planet Earth, though several large ones have had severe consequences, like the one that once extinct the dinosaurs.
There is a chance that a meteor or asteroid of that size could crash on earth hear again. Could be in five thousand year, but it could also be tomorrow. If the meteor is over 10km (about 6.2mi) in span, it would destroy most of the life on our planet. Everything within a range of around one thousand kilometres would be incinerated immediately. But the worst effect of the impact would be a sort of nuclear winter. The crash sends huge amounts of debris into the atmosphere. These will block the suns rays, causing a temporary ice age that will kill all remaining life forms.
2012 Theory 2: A gamma ray burst
Though this is a very realistic theory, not many people know about it. When a huge stars dies, it will implode in its own core, creating a black hole), they emit an enormous amount of gamma radiation. Currently, this phenomenon only occurs in distant galaxies, however this may change. If a star within 10,000 light years dies and sends out a gamma ray burst, and if that star's axis is tilted towards our planet, we die instantly. The side of the earth that is disposed to the radiation directly will incinerate completely within 10 seconds. Next, the radiation (try imagining a million of nuclear power plants without the concrete around them) will change very single atom in the atmosphere and on the ground, turning them radioactive. Shortly after, everything on the other side of the earth dies of the huge amount of radioactive atoms degenerating and emitting radiation themselves.
Theory 3: A super volcano
Several super volcanoes have erupted in history, for example during the Permian Triassic era. The eruption destroyed 95% of all life on Earth. An area comparable to the United States would be covered in lava. Next to that, the volcano would pump huge amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere. This also causes a nuclear winter, just like the meteor did. But, in addition, the volcano will spew out chlorine compounds.
These break down the ozone layer, exposing us to the sun's deadly UV rays. It's quite interesting that there is actually a super volcano underneath Yellowstone National Park. It erupts every 600,000 years on average, and surprisingly, the last eruption was about 640,000 years ago. To make things even scarier, scientists have seen Yellowstone's ground level rise several centimetres over the past century.
How can we survive?
In case of a gamma ray burst, don't mind, there's absolutely no chance of survival since everything is radioactive. The only chance you would have is when you are in a bunker whose walls are about a mile thick. And you would never be able to surface.
In case of the meteor, get yourself to a bunker on the right side of the planet straight away. Take water, food and other supplies for five years. After those five years, the atmosphere should be cleared a bit, enough for plants and trees to grow. Now the problem is that everything is dead. Luckily, there is one place where you will be able to get your seeds. Norway has built a bunker over 400 feet under the Earth and stacked it with seeds from all plant species all over the world. Go to that bunker, get the seeds, learn how to be a farmer and replant the world. Next you might want to start communicating and repopulating with other groups of survivors. The bunker is located on the island of Spitsbergen and is built next to an airport. You can try taking an airplane, there's not really going to be anyone needing it anyway.
Lastly, in case of the volcano, if it destroys the ozone layer, you don't even stand a chance. If it does not, or only partially, destroys the layer, best is doing the same as with the meteor impact.
From the sun-scorched sands of the Kalahari to the snake-infested jungles of the Amazon, Les Stroud has made a life of surviving in the harshest—and most remote—regions on Earth.
Now, the creator, producer, and host of the hit television program Survivorman transfers his decades of knowledge and experience to the pages of Survive!, a practical guide that gives everyday readers a no-nonsense look at the real world of survival.
Stroud offers readers the essential skills and tactics necessary to endure in any corner of the globe, along with a wealth of insider information born of his own experiences in the outdoors and unavailable in any other book. Readers will learn:
How to make a survival shelter and why a lean-to is largely a waste of time.
Why survival kits are important, and why you should make your own.
Where to find water and why drinking contaminated water is sometimes warranted.
How to locate and trap small animals and why the notion of tracking and hunting large game is largely a pipe dream.
Whether seasoned in the outdoor arts or new to adventuring, all readers will learn something from Survive!. Stroud's many colorful anecdotes and cut-to-the-chase philosophy not only make for an entertaining read, but also enhance anyone's ability to focus on the main goal when everything else has gone wrong—survival.
From our humble planet to the most awesome celestial bodies, immerse yourself in this spectacular exploration of Space. Includes Beyond the Big Bang! Then, escape the bounds of our solar system in the second season of this awe-inspiring series. Eighteen complete programs bring the Cosmos brilliantly to life!
Celebrate the 260 day Mayan calendar and the 360 day calendar! Olmec, Aztec and the Maya human beings used this calendar before they were conquered. This is a spiritual calendar showing the sequence of energies which are "day." See for yourself.
By entering this 2012 web site, in exchange for use of this website, you the user hereby agree to the following:
The content of this website is for mature viewers only and may not be suitable for minors. If you are a minor or it is illegal for you to view nudity or mature images and language, do not proceed.
This site is presented to you AS IS, with no warranty, express or implied. By clicking "I Agree" and then viewing our site, you agree not to hold the webmaster and staff of this site (2012thetruth.com) liable for any damages from your use of these pages.
As a condition of using this site, you must fully read and understand, and comply with the rules of this site, which may be located by following the "Rules" link on the home page (2012thetruth.com).
[PLEASE NOTE: The articles released, posted, published OR issued by 2012thetruth.com. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The Articles releases or reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.] We are not responsible for your beliefs or ideas about 2012 or 12-21-2012, December 21, 2012, Doomsday, Armageddon, apocalypse.
NOTICE: 2012 News stories appear in new browser windows. Actual 2012 Paranormal and 2-12 News Stories are not archived on this web site; links may expire without notice. Increasingly more sites require registration, changes occur daily and from site to site, and smart browsers that remember logins make it impossible to point out which sites require it and which don't. Nor can we copy full real 2012 Paranormal Abnormal or Breaking News stories to our site without infringing copyright laws. If a link is dead we apologize for the inconvenience. So please don't let it haunt you for too long! 2012thetruth.com is not responsible for the content of external internet sites!
