A Look at Swine Flu’s Spread Around the World – May 2, 2009 Updated Stats

Unless you are living in a bubble, you have heard about the swine flu (H1N1). Some people are extremely concerned while others think that the whole ordeal is being blown out of proportion. In our family, we are simply taking typical flu season precautions. My daughter has asthma and when she gets a respiratory illness, she has the potential to get extremely ill. A few months ago, she tested positive for Influenza A (but not the H1N1 strain) and within 24 hours her fever spiked to 106.5. She’s had higher temperatures in the past so it wasn’t a “freak out” moment for me but I quickly did the sponge bath cool down thing and got her fever down into the 105s. So of course, I’d prefer to not have to deal with H1N1. However, the virus interests me and so I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the topic these past few days.

An article, How swine flu virus hopscotched the globe, appeared on MercuryNews.com yesterday discussing how the disease has spread to countries around the world. The expected ground zero of the “2009 H1N1 Pandemic” started with a 5 year-old boy in La Gloria, Mexico.

Today’s World Health Organization (WHO) update on the Influenza A H1N1 strain shows that there are 397 confirmed cases of the virus in Mexico with 16 deaths. More from the WHO press release:

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Austria (1), Canada (34), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Denmark (1), France (1), Germany (4), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (13).

Further information on the situation will be available on the WHO website on a regular basis.

WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities.

There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.