From Times Online
April 27, 2009
Swine flu arrives in Europe as emergency health summit announced
Samples taken from patients with suspected swine flu in San Diego county, California, are labelled with a biohazard warning
IMAGE :1 of 9
Spain confirmed Europe's first case of swine flu today as the EU warned against non-essential travel to Mexico and the United States because of the threat of a global pandemic.
Two Scots tourists will find out today whether they, too, contracted the potentially fatal virus during a recent trip to Mexico, where it has been blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people in a fortnight. Scottish authorities today postponed a large-scale contingency exercise based around an imaginary flu pandemic because of the threat of a real one.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation brought forward to this afternoon a scheduled meeting of its emergency committee, which is expected to ratchet up the alert level for the outbreak.
Europe's first confirmed case from the novel virus is a 23-year-old student who returned from a study trip to Mexico last Wednesday. He is being treated in an isolation ward of the Hospital General de Almansa in his home town of Albacete, in south east Spain.
The Spanish Health Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, said that about 20 other patients were under observation. "They are all stable, none of the cases is serious, not even that of the case confirmed," she said. "These are people who have recently been on trips to Mexico."
The virus has also spread to the United States and Canada and other suspected cases are being monitored as far afield as Israel, Brazil and New Zealand. The head of the UK Health Protection Agency said officials here should work on the "assumption" that the virus will reach Britain.
The European Union’s Health Commissioner urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to the United States or Mexico because of the virus, while a top German holiday tour operator announced that it was suspending charter flights to Mexico City.
The two Scottish tourists, who have not been identified, returned from Mexico last Tuesday and were placed in isolation at Monkfields Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, after showing flu-like symptoms.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Health Secretary, said today that their condition gave no cause for concern. "They are not particularly unwell, their symptoms are very mild, and they are in hospital simply to facilitate the tests being carried out on them," she told BBC Radio Scotland. "We don’t yet have the conclusive results of those tests, we would hope to have those results during the course of today."
The minister said that the immediate focus was on tracing people the pair had been in contact with since their return from Mexico to offer "appropriate" advice and treatment. "We are doing everything we can at this stage to ensure that the chance of any infection, should it prove to be the case, is minimised," she said.
Ms Sturgeon also disclosed today that Cauld Craw - a four-week civil contingency exercise involving hospitals, ambulance services and other agencies to prepare the country for an eventual flu pandemic had been delayed because of the swine flu outbreak.
She told the Good Morning Scotland programme that Cauld Craw - Scots for Cold Throat - had been due "by sheer coincidence" to start this morning. "Obviously that has now been suspended," she said.
As Spain confirmed its first case of the virus, Ms Jiménez said that it was "urgent and a priority" to share any information about possible cases with regions across the country.
Ten other suspected cases were found in Catalonia, three in Andalucía, one in Castilla-La Mancha, one in Navarre, one in Valencia, one in Aragón, one in the Basque Country and another in Madrid.
Spain has a large Mexican emigre population and there are many trade links between both countries.
Financial markets reacted nervously to news of the outbreak, which has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to activate its 24-hour command centre dubbed the "war room".
Shares fell in Asia and Europe, with travel and leisure stocks such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and British Airways down sharply, whereas makers of drugs and vaccines, such as Roche, were higher.
EU health ministers will meet later this week to discuss the outbreak, probably on Thursday. "There needs to be maximum European co-ordination," said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. "It’s important that we ... provide a clear set of running actions that can provide a degree of assurance and coordination that people need, that is something we are determined to do."
In London, senior officials held their second meeting in two days under the Cobra civil contingencies system to discuss the crisis. No ministers attended, although Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is to make a statement to the Commons this afternoon.
Japan’s Cabinet held a special meeting and said it would prioritise production of a new vaccine. Health authorities across Asia tried to reassure nationals, saying they had sufficient stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to handle an outbreak.
The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.
Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency in the UK, said: "I think probably we should expect cases given the way this has spread across America. It is sensible that we plan in the assumption that there will be cases.
"We are already mobilising things in the UK in case the virus comes over here," he told the BBC. "I definitely think we have enough of the drugs."
But Mr McCracken added: "I don't think at this stage there is any need to declare an emergency."
Swine flu arrives in Europe
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Swine flu arrives in Europe
by EPSILON » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:11 pm
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by denizaksulu » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:34 pm
Oracle wrote:Make sure you wear warm woollies ....
RoC in Europe. Take all the precautions you need. The North is a Swine Fever Free Zone. There is a God after all.
Cant Cyprus be 'quarantined'. It is an island. This question is for our Oracle.
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denizaksulu - Forum Addict
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by EPSILON » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:36 pm
denizaksulu wrote:Oracle wrote:Make sure you wear warm woollies ....
RoC in Europe. Take all the precautions you need. The North is a Swine Fever Free Zone. There is a God after all.
Cant Cyprus be 'quarantined'. It is an island. This question is for our Oracle.
Do you drink Tzivania in North?Or you moved to Raki?
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EPSILON - Regular Contributor
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- Location: ATHENS
by EPSILON » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:42 pm
From Times Online
April 27, 2009
UK on alert after suspected swine flu hits Manchester
(Eliana Aponte/Reuters)
Soldiers wear face masks as they travel around Mexico City on board a military truck
IMAGE :1 of 8
Health authorities in Manchester are carrying out urgent tests on a suspected case of swine flu as governments around the world move to contain the deadly virus.
Hours after Spain confirmed Europe's first case of the virus in a 23-year-old man who returned from Mexico last week, officials said tests were being carried out on a Canadian woman who displayed flu-like symptoms while on a visit to Sale in Greater Manchester.
"The person concerned has been taken to hospital for further tests, in keeping with recommendations, and purely as a precaution. More information will be released as soon as possible," NHS North West said in a statement.
Further north, two Scots tourists are to find out later today whether they contracted the new flu strain during a recent trip to Mexico, where it has been blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people in a fortnight. Scottish authorities today postponed a large-scale contingency exercise based around an imaginary flu pandemic because of the threat of a real one.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation brought forward to this afternoon a scheduled meeting of its emergency committee, which is expected to ratchet up the alert level for the outbreak. The EU Health Commissioner, meanwhile, advised all Europeans to delay all non-essential travel to Mexico or the United States, where there have been some 20 confirmed cases so far but no deaths.
Europe's first confirmed case from the novel virus is a student who returned from a study trip to Mexico last Wednesday. He is being treated in an isolation ward of the Hospital General de Almansa in his home town of Albacete, in south east Spain.
The Spanish Health Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, said that about 20 other patients were under observation. "They are all stable, none of the cases is serious, not even that of the case confirmed," she said. "These are people who have recently been on trips to Mexico."
The virus has also spread to the United States and Canada and other suspected cases are being monitored as far afield as Israel, Brazil and New Zealand. The head of the UK Health Protection Agency said officials here should work on the "assumption" that the virus will reach Britain.
The European Union’s Health Commissioner urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to the United States or Mexico because of the virus, while a top German holiday tour operator announced that it was suspending charter flights to Mexico City.
The two Scottish tourists, who have not been identified, returned from Mexico last Tuesday and were placed in isolation at Monkfields Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, after showing flu-like symptoms.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Health Secretary, said today that their condition gave no cause for concern. "They are not particularly unwell, their symptoms are very mild, and they are in hospital simply to facilitate the tests being carried out on them," she told BBC Radio Scotland. "We don’t yet have the conclusive results of those tests, we would hope to have those results during the course of today."
The minister said that the immediate focus was on tracing people the pair had been in contact with since their return from Mexico to offer "appropriate" advice and treatment. "We are doing everything we can at this stage to ensure that the chance of any infection, should it prove to be the case, is minimised," she said.
Ms Sturgeon also disclosed today that Cauld Craw - a four-week civil contingency exercise involving hospitals, ambulance services and other agencies to prepare the country for an eventual flu pandemic had been delayed because of the swine flu outbreak.
She told the Good Morning Scotland programme that Cauld Craw - Scots for Cold Throat - had been due "by sheer coincidence" to start this morning. "Obviously that has now been suspended," she said.
As Spain confirmed its first case of the virus, Ms Jiménez said that it was "urgent and a priority" to share any information about possible cases with regions across the country.
Ten other suspected cases were found in Catalonia, three in Andalucía, one in Castilla-La Mancha, one in Navarre, one in Valencia, one in Aragón, one in the Basque Country and another in Madrid.
Spain has a large Mexican emigre population and there are many trade links between both countries.
Financial markets reacted nervously to news of the outbreak, which has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to activate its 24-hour command centre dubbed the "war room".
Shares fell in Asia and Europe, with travel and leisure stocks such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and British Airways down sharply, whereas makers of drugs and vaccines, such as Roche, were higher.
EU health ministers will meet later this week to discuss the outbreak, probably on Thursday. "There needs to be maximum European co-ordination," said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. "It’s important that we ... provide a clear set of running actions that can provide a degree of assurance and coordination that people need, that is something we are determined to do."
In London, senior officials held their second meeting in two days under the Cobra civil contingencies system to discuss the crisis. No ministers attended, although Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is to make a statement to the Commons this afternoon.
Japan’s Cabinet held a special meeting and said it would prioritise production of a new vaccine. Health authorities across Asia tried to reassure nationals, saying they had sufficient stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to handle an outbreak.
The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.
Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency in the UK, said: "I think probably we should expect cases given the way this has spread across America. It is sensible that we plan in the assumption that there will be cases.
"We are already mobilising things in the UK in case the virus comes over here," he told the BBC. "I definitely think we have enough of the drugs."
But Mr McCracken added: "I don't think at this stage there is any need to declare an emergency."
Britons arriving back from Mexico at Gatwick Aiport told how they were questioned by a doctor on board about possible flu symptoms before they were allowed to leave the aircraft.
Trevor Cox, 65, from Dover, Kent, was among passengers arriving on the Thomson Airways 358 flight from Cancun after a two-week sunshine break with his wife Kathy.
He said: "I thought we might have problems this end with a screening process, but a doctor just came on board and asked if anyone was feeling ill or experiencing diarrhoea, then basically left it up to passengers. I think one or two people came forward.
"We first heard about the outbreak in our second week. We were flicking through the television channels and it cropped up on the news. I was a little bit concerned. I asked our rep out there and she said there was nothing to worry about. It has mostly been in Mexico City rather than where we were."
April 27, 2009
UK on alert after suspected swine flu hits Manchester
(Eliana Aponte/Reuters)
Soldiers wear face masks as they travel around Mexico City on board a military truck
IMAGE :1 of 8
Health authorities in Manchester are carrying out urgent tests on a suspected case of swine flu as governments around the world move to contain the deadly virus.
Hours after Spain confirmed Europe's first case of the virus in a 23-year-old man who returned from Mexico last week, officials said tests were being carried out on a Canadian woman who displayed flu-like symptoms while on a visit to Sale in Greater Manchester.
"The person concerned has been taken to hospital for further tests, in keeping with recommendations, and purely as a precaution. More information will be released as soon as possible," NHS North West said in a statement.
Further north, two Scots tourists are to find out later today whether they contracted the new flu strain during a recent trip to Mexico, where it has been blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people in a fortnight. Scottish authorities today postponed a large-scale contingency exercise based around an imaginary flu pandemic because of the threat of a real one.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation brought forward to this afternoon a scheduled meeting of its emergency committee, which is expected to ratchet up the alert level for the outbreak. The EU Health Commissioner, meanwhile, advised all Europeans to delay all non-essential travel to Mexico or the United States, where there have been some 20 confirmed cases so far but no deaths.
Europe's first confirmed case from the novel virus is a student who returned from a study trip to Mexico last Wednesday. He is being treated in an isolation ward of the Hospital General de Almansa in his home town of Albacete, in south east Spain.
The Spanish Health Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, said that about 20 other patients were under observation. "They are all stable, none of the cases is serious, not even that of the case confirmed," she said. "These are people who have recently been on trips to Mexico."
The virus has also spread to the United States and Canada and other suspected cases are being monitored as far afield as Israel, Brazil and New Zealand. The head of the UK Health Protection Agency said officials here should work on the "assumption" that the virus will reach Britain.
The European Union’s Health Commissioner urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to the United States or Mexico because of the virus, while a top German holiday tour operator announced that it was suspending charter flights to Mexico City.
The two Scottish tourists, who have not been identified, returned from Mexico last Tuesday and were placed in isolation at Monkfields Hospital in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, after showing flu-like symptoms.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Health Secretary, said today that their condition gave no cause for concern. "They are not particularly unwell, their symptoms are very mild, and they are in hospital simply to facilitate the tests being carried out on them," she told BBC Radio Scotland. "We don’t yet have the conclusive results of those tests, we would hope to have those results during the course of today."
The minister said that the immediate focus was on tracing people the pair had been in contact with since their return from Mexico to offer "appropriate" advice and treatment. "We are doing everything we can at this stage to ensure that the chance of any infection, should it prove to be the case, is minimised," she said.
Ms Sturgeon also disclosed today that Cauld Craw - a four-week civil contingency exercise involving hospitals, ambulance services and other agencies to prepare the country for an eventual flu pandemic had been delayed because of the swine flu outbreak.
She told the Good Morning Scotland programme that Cauld Craw - Scots for Cold Throat - had been due "by sheer coincidence" to start this morning. "Obviously that has now been suspended," she said.
As Spain confirmed its first case of the virus, Ms Jiménez said that it was "urgent and a priority" to share any information about possible cases with regions across the country.
Ten other suspected cases were found in Catalonia, three in Andalucía, one in Castilla-La Mancha, one in Navarre, one in Valencia, one in Aragón, one in the Basque Country and another in Madrid.
Spain has a large Mexican emigre population and there are many trade links between both countries.
Financial markets reacted nervously to news of the outbreak, which has prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to activate its 24-hour command centre dubbed the "war room".
Shares fell in Asia and Europe, with travel and leisure stocks such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and British Airways down sharply, whereas makers of drugs and vaccines, such as Roche, were higher.
EU health ministers will meet later this week to discuss the outbreak, probably on Thursday. "There needs to be maximum European co-ordination," said David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. "It’s important that we ... provide a clear set of running actions that can provide a degree of assurance and coordination that people need, that is something we are determined to do."
In London, senior officials held their second meeting in two days under the Cobra civil contingencies system to discuss the crisis. No ministers attended, although Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is to make a statement to the Commons this afternoon.
Japan’s Cabinet held a special meeting and said it would prioritise production of a new vaccine. Health authorities across Asia tried to reassure nationals, saying they had sufficient stockpiles of anti-flu drugs to handle an outbreak.
The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.
Justin McCracken, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency in the UK, said: "I think probably we should expect cases given the way this has spread across America. It is sensible that we plan in the assumption that there will be cases.
"We are already mobilising things in the UK in case the virus comes over here," he told the BBC. "I definitely think we have enough of the drugs."
But Mr McCracken added: "I don't think at this stage there is any need to declare an emergency."
Britons arriving back from Mexico at Gatwick Aiport told how they were questioned by a doctor on board about possible flu symptoms before they were allowed to leave the aircraft.
Trevor Cox, 65, from Dover, Kent, was among passengers arriving on the Thomson Airways 358 flight from Cancun after a two-week sunshine break with his wife Kathy.
He said: "I thought we might have problems this end with a screening process, but a doctor just came on board and asked if anyone was feeling ill or experiencing diarrhoea, then basically left it up to passengers. I think one or two people came forward.
"We first heard about the outbreak in our second week. We were flicking through the television channels and it cropped up on the news. I was a little bit concerned. I asked our rep out there and she said there was nothing to worry about. It has mostly been in Mexico City rather than where we were."
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EPSILON - Regular Contributor
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by Oracle » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:44 pm
denizaksulu wrote:Oracle wrote:Make sure you wear warm woollies ....
RoC in Europe. Take all the precautions you need. The North is a Swine Fever Free Zone. There is a God after all.
Cant Cyprus be 'quarantined'. It is an island. This question is for our Oracle.
The "North" is also part of the RoC-EU Deniz ... I do declare you are becoming more Turkish by the day ...
Best thing to do, is for all the Turks to move out of Cypurs and on to Asia ... and take their chances with the endemic Asian Flu! Bird Flu still a hazard in Turkey I see
Last edited by Oracle on Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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