Friday, April 24, 2009

Crisis in the making?

CDC says too late to contain U.S. flu outbreak

"WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States. CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating, treating or isolating people. "There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very likely," he said. He said the U.S. cases and Mexican cases are likely the same virus. "So far the genetic elements that we have looked at are the same." But Besser said it was unclear why the virus was causing so many deaths in deaths in Mexico and such mild disease in the United States."

Essentially, US cases could turn deadly any time...people with weakened immune systems will be at great risk.

1 comment:

Purple said...

They still don't know much right now. There could be multiple strains going around - explaining the apparent differences in mortality. Or the death toll in Mexico could come from a huge denominator of milder cases that went unnoticed.