The spread of swine flu in Australia has convinced the World Health Organization that the world has entered a flu pandemic — the first in four decades. But the W-H-O is still nervous about officially declaring a pandemic.
» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
Read more….
ABC News
The nurses union in Tasmania is concerned that nurses who contract swine flu will have to use annual leave if they have run out of sick days.
Other states have implemented a 20 day pandemic leave to cover nurses who have run out of sick leave.
The Tasmanian Government says workers will not be disadvantaged and sick nurses will be able to sign statutory declarations instead of getting a doctor’s certificate.
Read more….
This chronology of the pandemic will be updated regularly as news breaks and past events come to light. And follow ScienceInsider’s full coverage on the swine flu outbreak here. —Jon Cohen…
This chronology of the pandemic will be updated regularly as news breaks and past events come to light. And follow ScienceInsider’s full coverage on the swine flu outbreak here.
—Jon Cohen
2 June
Australia reports 501 confirmed cases, up from 17 a week before, making the island nation the hardest-hit country outside of North America. With increasing fears about the spread of H1N1 in the Southern Hemisphere, Asia, and Europe, WHO announces that it’s moving closer to declaring a phase 6 alert, but says it likely will include a severity index tailored for each locale based on both viral characteristics and ability to respond.
26 May
Swine flu begins to spike in the Southern Hemisphere, with 74 confirmed cases in Chile alone. The CDC suggests that the disease may have peaked in the United States, as reports of influenza-like illness declined in seven of nine regions. But this does not directly measure the actual prevalence of the novel H1N1 virus, and some epidemiologists caution against undue optimism. CDC also warns that even if the drop is real in the United States—which accounts for just over half of the world’s 12,954 confirmed cases—the virus has not left and may well come roaring back with the cooler weather in the fall.
Read more….
The WHO on Tuesday said it was “getting closer” to declaring the H1N1 (swine) flu outbreak to be a pandemic, as the virus continues to spread to people outside of North America, and in populations “as far apart as Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia,” the AP/Washington Post reports (Jordans, AP/Washington Post, 6/2).
The WHO on Wednesday confirmed that 66 countries have officially reported 19,273 cases of H1N1, including 117 deaths. A full list of country cases and deaths is availablehere (WHO Influenza A(H1N1) – update 43, 6/3).
“We still are waiting for evidence of really widespread community activity in these countries, and so it’s fair to say that they are in transition and are not quite there yet, which is why we are not in phase 6 yet,” WHO’s Assistant Director General Keiji Fukuda said (AP/Washington Post, 6/2).
“Phase 6 is a declaration that many member countries have long feared could mean economic disaster,” CNN writes (Sloane, CNN, 6/2) because, as Bloombergdescribes, it “may spur some countries to restrict travel, ban public events and adopt other measures that aren’t needed for mild flu, worsening the deepest economic slump since the Great Depression.”
Michael Leavitt, former HHS secretary, said, “The formalization of an influenza pandemic does have cascading consequences…The decision ought not to be taken lightly” (Gale, Bloomberg, 6/2).
Read more….
Loading ...
