CDC Swine Flu Update

April 28, 2009 – Washington, DC

Today the Center for Disease Control (CDC) hosted a media call and we wanted to provide you all an update. As we expected, things are rapidly changing.

According to CDC:

• There are now 64 confirmed cases of swine flu in the U.S. (45 NY, 10 CA, 6 TX, 2 KS, 1 OH) The CDC will only be updating these numbers once a day so you will likely see higher numbers reported throughout the day. Also, they expect the numbers to increase as testing is completed.
• 5 cases have required hospitalization. These are all in California and Texas.
• As you have probably seen reported, California is investigating two deaths to see if swine flu may have played a role in them. CDC was not able to provide any comment directly on these cases but does believe, like with the seasonal flu, that we will see fatalities in the U.S.
• The typical incubation remains 2 to 7 days, which is standard for the flu. A minority of cases are now connected with direct travel to Mexico - indicating a human to human transmission.
• CDC recommends people continue to take preventative measures. They specifically mentioned hand washing, covering cough and staying home if you are sick. They have issued a series of guidance on their website (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidance/)
• Test kits are being distributed to states to increase laboratory capacity. This should speed up confirmations.
• They still do not know why people are getting sicker in Mexico. It remains an active part of the investigation.
• A feed stock for a vaccine is being developed. At this point, it has not been turned over to manufacturers and a decision has not been made to move to production. Moving to production would interfere with the production of next years flu vaccines.
• A question was raised about community controls. CDC mentioned that schools where students had tested positive have been closed in New York and Texas. They are going to continue to evaluate community controls to decide if they are effective but seemed to indicate that they thought it was appropriate to dismiss students until the schools got a better handle on the situation.
• CDC is continuing to recommend against non essential travel to Mexico.

Again, CDC wanted to emphasize that this is a dynamic situation and information will continue to be updated. Please let us know if you have any questions and be sure to check our website for additional information and resources.