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Friday, May 1, 2009

CDC officials in Delaware today

 

Inquirer staff writer Brittany Talarico reports:
 
Seven representatives from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in Delaware to advise officials on how to deal with an outbreak of swine flu in the state.
 
It is not clear if they will visit the University of Delaware, epicenter of the outbreak.
 
The CDC officials, who are making the visit at the request of Gov. Jack Markell, stopped at an emergency preparedness center in Smyrna this morning, said university spokesperson Andrea Boyle.
 
“They have come to Delaware to assess the situation and provide advisory assistance to the state,” Boyle said. “It is unknown whether they will come to the university.”

“They were called in at the governor’s request, not for anything we were doing wrong,” she said 

Four University of Delaware students tested positive for swine flu, and 12 more probable cases involving students have been identified.Three of the four students confirmed to have the virus are recovering in Newark.

“The health center has been in contact with them, and they are all on the mend,” Boyle said.


Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.
Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 11:25 AM  Permalink | 4 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:22 PM, 05/01/2009
    A Philly cop pulled me over last night, will I catch the PIG FLU?
    — Superbowless Eagles
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:59 PM, 05/01/2009
    "Epicenter of the outbreak" ....a little extreme. Four students have essentially been put on bed rest and told not to share drinks with others, and we're calling it an outbreak in DE?
    — diiianaaa
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:07 PM, 05/02/2009
    DE is sort of being penalized for being the most open and honest. The Philly cases have already come back by now as probable, meaning 99% chance of atypical, unknown H1N1. So where is the coverage of the "epicenter" of the "outbreak" in Philly? There isn't any, because the confirmation from the CDC is not back yet, even though it should only have taken about 3 hours to confirm. The truth is that the region is experiencing simultaneous novel flu as travelers return from affected areas and start to spread the new virus.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:49 PM, 05/02/2009
    I'm very grateful that the governor of DE invited the CDC to look over and meet with officials where the new flu strain was confirmed in DE. That shows safe thinking. People shouldn't be frightened by this, but there is a chance, probably very remote, that this novel strain can become highly pathogenic before there is time to create a vaccine. There is a chance also that it can rapidly become highly pathogenic before a vaccine and become resistant to the two antivirals that now control it. Tamiflu and Relenza only block the "N" part of the flu virus, the knife on the outside of the coating that cuts the new virus out of the infected cell. With only a few mutations, the "N" or neuraminidase could simply be rendered unaffected by the only two antivirals known to control it. That's what happened to amantidine, which works on the M2 of the RNA molecule of the virus that creates the internal structure of the flu virus. A small mutation stopped the drug from blocking the role of M2, so the average flu mostly became resistant to amantidine, a groundbreaking drug at the time that cost millions to develop. We have to buy time to be prudent.
    — CleanupPhilly


4 comments
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