367 confirmed swine flu cases and counting
According to the World Health Organization the number of confirmed swine flu cases across the globe kept rising Friday. Despite the rising number of confirmed cases there are some signs of hope in the battle against the worldwide outbreak. On Friday, the World Health Organization said that the number of confirmed cases worldwide was at 367. The total cases includes 141 confirmed cases in the United States and 156 in Mexico. So far, thirteen countries have confirmed cases.
Researchers worked to develop a vaccine for swine flu, which is also known as 2009 H1N1. According to Michael Shaw, lab team leader for the H1N1 response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC hopes to have a vaccine to manufacturers within a month. “We’re doing the best we can as fast as we can,” he said. Even with the vaccine getting to manufacturers within a month, it would take four to six months from the time the appropriate strain is identified before the first doses become available, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research. “Of course we would like to have a vaccine tomorrow. We would have wanted to have it yesterday,” she said. “It’s a long journey.” She said there is “no doubt” that a vaccine can be made “in a relatively short period of time.”
The steps involved in producing a vaccine involve isolating a strain of the swine flu virus, which has already been done. Once the strain is isolated, researchers need to tweak it so manufacturers can make a vaccine, Kieny said. The tweaked virus will be shipped to manufacturers, who will fine-tune it. Once that is complete, there will be more tests before national regulatory agencies decide whether or not they will approve a vaccine.
Authorities in Mexico are “beginning to see evidence that the swine flu virus might be letting up, and the number of people who have been hospitalized has leveled out in regards to people who are contagious, at least as of yesterday,” Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard told reporters. “We do have a problem, but I say this so that we know where we are as a city after we have done all we have done, and in what direction we are heading and how much we have progressed. And what I can say is that we are heading in the right direction.”
While Mexican authorities indicated at least 358 cases and 16 deaths in that country and suspect that more than 150 deaths have been caused by the swine flu. The WHO said there were 156 confirmed cases in Mexico.
The CDC gave the following state-by-state breakdown of the 141 confirmed H1N1 swine flu cases in the United States: Arizona, 4; California, 13; Colorado, 2; Delaware, 4; Illinois, 3; Indiana, 3; Kansas, 2; Kentucky, 1; Massachusetts, 2; Michigan, 2; Minnesota, 1; Nebraska, 1; Nevada, 1; New Jersey, 5; New York, 50; Ohio, 1; South Carolina, 16; Texas, 28; and Virginia, 2. One death in the United States has been attributed to swine flu — a toddler from Mexico whose family brought him to Texas for medical treatment.
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