CDC Acting Director Richard Besser says the CDC is seeing “encouraging signs” in the outbreak.
The number of confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu in the U.S. has risen to 286 in 36 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a posting on its Web site Monday. The figures released by the CDC have steadily increased each day. On Sunday the CDC reported 226 cases in 30 states.
The World Health Organization said Monday it has so far registered 1,025 confirmed cases of swine flu, including 26 deaths. In a conference call, Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for Health Security and Environment, said there was concern that the influenza virus H1N1 is heading south and that it could hit the southern hemisphere, which is heading into winter. Fukuda said that to raise the pandemic alert phase to level 6, the virus would need to “be established in different parts of the world.” WHO’s pandemic alert phase is currently at level 5.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says New York City has 73 confirmed and six probable cases of swine flu. That’s 10 more confirmed cases than the city reported on Sunday.
Where things stand - Deaths: 26 confirmed in Mexico and one confirmed in U.S., a toddler from Mexico who died in Texas. Confirmed sickened world-wide: 1,276; 727 in Mexico; 300 in U.S.; 140 in Canada; 44 in Spain; 27 in Britain; eight in Germany; six in New Zealand; four in Israel, Italy and France; two in El Salvador; one each in Austria, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea and Switzerland.
Federal health officials are considering revising guidelines on school closures as evidence mounts that the current H1N1 influenza outbreak is acting like the seasonal flu. More than 400 schools have closed as a result of the outbreak
