New swine flu infection outbreaks

New swine flu infections continue to drop across the United States

December 01, 2009 - Swine flu down but deaths above 'epidemic threshold' in US.

New swine flu infections continue to drop across the United States, confirmation that the pandemic’s fall wave has peaked, according to figures posted online Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the number of children and teenagers killed by swine flu is still rising. An additional 27 deaths in lab-confirmed cases of it were reported among children and teenagers in the week ended Nov. 21, raising the total to 234 since April. In a typical flu season, there are fewer than 100 deaths among that segment of the population.

And since the C.D.C. believes that there are actually two to three deaths for each fatal lab-confirmed case, the total is presumably creeping toward 700.

But just 32 states, mostly in the Northeast and the West, reported “widespread” flu activity, down from 48 at the peak, in late October.

Overall doctors’ visits for flu declined for the fourth week in a row. Hospitalizations dropped for the third straight week, and, for the first time, there appeared to be a clear drop in weekly deaths. That defied pessimistic warnings from officials at the disease control agency that hospitalizations and deaths might keep rising, since most people are hospitalized days after first falling ill and may be treated for weeks before dying.

Experts at the agency have tentatively predicted that a new, but presumably smaller, January wave could emerge, brought on by students’ returning home for Christmas. Campus flu activity is declining but not gone.

Further, cases of seasonal flu are now being found occasionally. Among the 420 samples the agency has tested since September, it has found three cases of H3N2 flu, the strain that tends to be most lethal to the elderly; four cases of influenza B, which normally arrives late in the season; and one case of seasonal H1N1.

Flu experts have been watching to see whether the pandemic swine strain will “crowd out” seasonal ones. If it does not, there will soon be, in effect, two flu seasons running side by side, one tending to kill young people and one tending to kill the elderly.

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US and India to work together

US, India to work together to defeat Lashkar: Roemer

December 01, 2009 - As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned to India after his first state visit to the US, American ambassador Timothy J Roemer on Monday said President Barack Obama had conveyed to Singh of their determination to jointly defeat the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and ensure that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack suspects are prosecuted.

"Both leaders affirmed that peace and stability in Pakistan is in the interest of India and the US, both leaders had talked about their determination to work together to defeat Lashkar-e-Toiba and safe havens of other terror groups, wherever they are," Roemer said, adding that they also discussed their intention to work together to see that Pakistan "effectively prosecutes" the seven suspects it had put on trial.

"This is something that the US feels very strongly about," Roemer said, as he talked about the joint India-US counter-terrorism cooperation initiative which draws up 20 points on cooperation, from capacity building, forensic labs, mega city policing and also maritime and amphibious capability.

Describing Singh's visit as a "watershed movement in the course of our amazing partnership", the US ambassador said, "It was a meeting of the minds, literally and figuratively, reflecting not only the bold potential of our global partnership but also underlining the strength and depth of the unique people-to-people ties that fuel this defining partnership for the 21st century".

But, Roemer refused to comment on media reports that Obama had written a letter to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warning the latter not to use insurgents as a strategic tool and urging for the prosecution of the Mumbai terror attack suspects. "I am not the President of the United States. It is up to the (US) President what he says when it becomes public, if it becomes public," he said, referring to the purported letter.

When asked about any mediation between India and Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir, he said the "pace, scope and character" would be determined by the two countries and not by any "outside interest". "The US believes that bilateral relations between Pakistan and India will determine the pace, scope and character and not by us or any outside interest or any other country," Roemer said.

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