Novel H1N1 Flu Situation Update

Some 2,000 students at Washington State University have reported symptoms of swine flu, university officials said, in one of the largest reported outbreaks of the virus on a US college campus. Washington state's Whitman County, where the school is located said that tests at a state laboratory late last week "confirmed that the influenza outbreak at Washington State University (WSU)... is indeed caused by the novel 2009 H1N1 Influenza A."

---------------------------

On August 7, 2009, President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has released a report assessing H1N1 preparations. The full text of the report can be found here (pdf).

---------------------------

CDC - http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm & http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

During week 34 (August 23-29, 2009), influenza activity increased in the United States.

Since mid-April to August 30, 2009, a total of 9,079 hospitalizations and 593 deaths associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses have been reported to CDC an increase from 8,843 hospitalizations and 556 deaths from the prior week.

[...]

Almost all of the influenza viruses identified were the new 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These 2009 H1N1 viruses remain similar to the viruses chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine and remain susceptible to antiviral drugs (oseltamivir and zanamivir) with rare exception.

---------------------------

WHO Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 64
30 August 2009

Tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia continue to experience geographically regional or widespread influenza activity (represented by countries such as India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia). Many countries in the region are reporting increasing or sustained high levels of respiratory disease, and a few (Thailand and Brunei Darussalam) have begun to report a declining trend in the level of respiratory diseases.

[...]

Pandemic (H1N1) influenza virus continues to be the predominant circulating virus of influenza, both in the northern and southern hemisphere. All pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza viruses analysed to date have been antigenically and genetically similar to A/California/7/2009-like pandemic H1N1 2009 virus.

The breakdown of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases is given in this map.

Number of global laboratory-confirmed cases = Over 254,206 (At least 2,837 deaths)

The laboratory-confirmed cases represent a substantial underestimation of total cases in the world as many countries focus surveillance and laboratory testing only in persons with severe illness.