WORLD> Worldwide Impact
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WORLD> Worldwide Impact
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H1N1 virus may be less potent than first feared
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-02 10:28
There were still plenty of signs Friday of worldwide concern. China decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai because of a case of A(H1N1) influenza confirmed in a flight from Mexico to Hong Kong via Shanghai, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.
And in Hong Kong, hundreds of hotel guests and workers were quarantined after the tourist from Mexico was tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza in Hong Kong, Asia's first confirmed case. Evoking the 2003 SARS outbreak, workers in protective suits and masks wiped down tables, floors and windows. Guests at the hotel waved to photographers from their windows. Scientists looking closely at the H1N1 virus itself have found some encouraging news, said Nancy Cox, flu chief at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its genetic makeup doesn't show specific traits that showed up in the 1918 pandemic virus, which killed about 40 million to 50 million people worldwide. "However, we know that there is a great deal that we do not understand about the virulence of the 1918 virus or other influenza viruses" that caused serious illnesses, Cox said. "So we are continuing to learn." She told The Associated Press that the A(H1N1) influenza virus also lacked genetic traits associated with the virulence of the bird flu virus, which grabbed headlines a few years ago and has killed 250 people, mostly in Asia. Researchers will get a better idea of how dangerous this virus is over the next week to 10 days, said Peter Palese, a leading flu researcher with Mount Sinai Medical School in New York. So far in the United States, he said, the virus appears to look and behave like the garden-variety flus that strike every winter. "There is no real reason to believe this is a more serious strain," he said. Palese said many adults probably have immune systems primed to handle the virus because it is so similar to another common flu strain. As for why the illness has predominantly affected children and teenagers in New York, Palese said older people probably have more antibodies from exposure to similar types of flu that help them fight off infection. "The virus is so close," he said. In the United States, most of the people with A(H1N1) influenza have been treated at home. Only nine people are known to have ended up in the hospital, though officials suspect there are more. In Mexico, officials have voiced optimism for two days that the worst may be over. But Dr. Scott F. Dowell of the CDC said it's hard to know whether the outbreak is easing up in Mexico. "They're still seeing plenty of cases," Dowell said. He said outbreaks in any given area might be relatively brief, so that they may seem to be ending in some areas that had a lot of illness a few weeks ago. But cases are occurring elsewhere, and national numbers in Mexico are not abating, he said. A top Mexican medical officer questioned the World Health Organization's handling of the early signs of the A(H1N1) influenza scare, suggesting Thursday that a regional arm of the WHO had taken too long to notify WHO headquarters of about a unusually late rash of flu cases in Mexico. The regional agency, however, provided a timeline to the AP suggesting it was Mexico that failed to respond to its request to alert other nations to the first hints of the outbreak. The Mexican official, chief epidemiologist Dr. Miguel Angel Lezana, backtracked Friday, telling Radio Formula: "There was no delay by the Mexican authorities, nor was there any by the World Health Organization." In the US, Obama said efforts were focused on identifying people who have the flu, getting medical help to the right places and providing clear advice to state and local officials and the public. The president also said the US government is working to produce a vaccine down the road, developing clear guidelines for school closings and trying to ensure businesses cooperate with workers who run out of sick leave. He pointed out that regular seasonal flus kill about 36,000 people in the United States in an average year and send 200,000 to the hospital.
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