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New flu spreads to Australia, now common in U.S.
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 09 - 05 - 2009


The new strain of H1N1
influenza popped up in Japan and Australia and has now been
confirmed in more than 2,000 Americans but health officials
said on Saturday this was a great underestimate of the true
number of cases, dpa reported.
Although most cases appear to be mild, just as in seasonal
flu the swine flu strain has killed, with 48 confirmed deaths
in Mexico, two in the United States and one in Canada.
It has moved into the southern hemisphere, where influenza
season is just beginning, and could mix with circulating
seasonal flu viruses or the H5N1 avian influenza virus to
create new strains, health officials said.
"This is a very unusual circumstance," Dr. Anne Schuchat of
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a news
briefing on Saturday.
"One of the big challenges with influenza viruses is the
way that they change, the way they combine and their prevalence
in a number of species," Schuchat added.
"This is why it is so important for countries to have a
strong capacity to deal with influenza and also why it is very
important to understand what happens at the interface between
people and animals."
The CDC reported 2,254 confirmed U.S. cases of the virus
with 104 people in the hospital, up from 1,639 cases
previously. "Today there are almost 3,000 probable and
confirmed cases here in the United States," Schuchat said.
"The good news is we are not seeing a rise above the
epidemic threshhold."
Japan reported four cases, and globally officials reported
more than 4,200 people in 29 countries had been ill.


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