Swine Flu Spreads To Israel, New Zealand

From WAPO:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta said 64 laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu have now been reported in five states — up from 40 confirmed cases yesterday — with most of the illnesses found among students at a single high school in New York City. Other cases have been confirmed in California, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, the CDC said. The tally did not include some cases confirmed by state officials, including one reported by the Indiana state health department today, which said a young adult in the northern part of Indiana had contracted the virus but was not seriously ill.

“The human swine flu outbreak continues to grow in the United States and internationally,” the CDC said in its latest bulletin. “Today, CDC reports additional cases of confirmed swine influenza and a number of hospitalizations of swine flu patients. Internationally, the situation is more serious too, with additional countries reporting confirmed cases of swine flu.”

Earlier today, cases of swine flu were confirmed in Israel and New Zealand, the first definitive proof that the dangerous new virus has spread to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

The World Health Organization raised its official tally of confirmed swine flu cases today from 73 to 79, adding a second case in Spain and confirming two cases in Britain and three in New Zealand.

The WHO tally has lagged behind national counts of swine flu cases because of the Geneva-based organization’s reporting requirements.

All the new confirmed WHO cases are associated with people who traveled to Mexico, officials said.

“These are direct travel-related infections right now,” said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director general for health security and environment. “These are really critical to identify. Right now it’s critical to identify every case. It helps us to monitor what the potential spread of the virus is worldwide and how the epidemic is moving.”

“The evolution into a pandemic cannot be considered inevitable, but of course we are taking this possibility very seriously,” he said. “Countries should really take this opportunity to prepare themselves for the possibility for a pandemic.”