Swine Flu Spurs U.S. Health ‘Emergency’ as Cases Grow

Swine Flu Spurs U.S. Health ‘Emergency’ as Cases Grow

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- A growing number of swine flu cases in the U.S. and Mexico led the Obama administration to declare a public health emergency and release stockpiles of medicine.

New illnesses also were confirmed in Canada today, and suspected in Brazil, Europe and New Zealand. In the U.S., 20 people have contracted the disease in five states, and the number is likely to expand, said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a White House briefing today. While those instances were mild and no one died, the disease may become “more severe,” he said.

In Mexico, where authorities say more than 80 people have died, the government requested that bars, movie theaters and churches be closed in the capital, Mexico City. In New York, where eight cases were confirmed at a private school, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is keeping city schools open and urging residents to wash their hands frequently, stay home if ill and avoid the hospital unless very sick.

“We do think that this will continue to spread, but we are taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people’s health,” Besser said at the White House briefing. “We expect that we’re going to be changing our recommendations over time based on what we learn.”

Six people in Canada contracted the disease, governments in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia said, meaning all of North America has reported cases.

Same Level of Alert

The World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations, declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” yesterday. The organization also concluded that more evidence is needed to determine whether the level of pandemic alert should be increased.

An emergency committee will meet again April 28 to consider raising the alert, said Keiji Fukuda, the Geneva-based agency’s assistant director-general for health security and environment, in a call with reporters today.

The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a new virus would move it to level 4, according to the WHO Web site.

Scientists are trying to determine why the virus, normally transmitted among pigs, has been more severe in Mexico. In the U.S. only one person has required hospitalization, Besser said.

More Tamiflu Orders

There is no vaccine for the virus, he said. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of “courses of treatments” of drugs, known as antivirals, were being released from U.S. stockpiles. In all, there are 50 million courses, she said. Among those are Tamiflu, sold by Roche Holding AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Relenza, from GlaxoSmithKline Plc of London.

“This significantly increases the chances the U.S. government, and perhaps other governments, will restock Tamiflu supplies,” said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, in a note to clients today. “In addition, we believe retail prescriptions could increase.”

If the U.S. government bought 13 million doses of Tamiflu to replenish stockpiles, and the public bought an additional 1 million, Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. could see its 2009 earnings rise 4 percent, or about 10 cents, Schoenebaum said. Gilead invented the drug and gets royalties.

The Defense Department “has procured and strategically positioned 7 million treatment courses of Tamiflu,” Napolitano said.

Like a Hurricane, Flood

The U.S. government is issuing a health emergency declaration to devote more resources to blocking the virus. Napolitano compared their preparation to what the department does when it knows a hurricane is approaching. The move “frees up money” to buy medicines, and allows the use of “medication and diagnostic tests that we might not otherwise be able to use.”

For now, she said, the monitoring of travelers will remain “passive” and no restrictions on travel with Mexico have been issued. People entering the U.S. will be asked if they’re sick or have been, and those with apparent symptoms will be “isolated per established rules,” Napolitano said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was “far too early to determine” whether there will be an economic impact from the outbreak. Russia suspended imports of all meat from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, California and Kansas shipped after April 21 on concern about the spread of swine flu, the country’s veterinary watchdog said. Fukuda, of the World Health Organization, said there’s no evidence the disease is spread by exposure to “pork or pigs.”

Obama’s Mexico Visit

The World Bank promised Mexico $205 million in loans to help fight the disease, said Mexico’s finance minister, Agustin Carstens.

President Barack Obama was in Mexico City April 16 for meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Gibbs said the incubation period for an infection is long past and “the president’s health was never in danger.”

John Brennan, a special assistant to the president for homeland security, said the government is putting in place systems to allow “rapid identification” of any new cases and efforts to “mitigate a broader outbreak” in the U.S.

He said there is “no evidence whatsoever” of a connection to bioterrorism. Besser said all investigations so far point to a naturally occurring virus.

The U.S. cases have been confirmed in California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas.

New Zealand, France

France is investigating four possible cases of swine flu, including three in one family in the north of the country and one woman in the Paris region, officials said. Test results should be available within 24 hours, Francoise Weber, director general of the Sanitary Surveillance Institute, said at a news conference in Paris today.

Ten New Zealand high school students who returned from Mexico are “highly likely” to have swine flu, Health Minister Tony Ryall said today in a phone interview. The students don’t have “severe” symptoms and most already appear to be recovering, Ryall said.

In Brazil, the Sao Paulo state hospital Emilio Ribas has isolated a potential case, said Doctor Edenilson Eduardo Calore, head of weekend duty. The patient had been in Mexico, Calore said.

The latest U.S. tally includes eight students at the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens.

“There is an outbreak at St. Francis school and we are monitoring that outbreak very carefully,” New York Mayor Bloomberg said today at a news conference. “We’re also looking for outbreaks elsewhere in the city. So far there does not seem to be any.”

Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

Mutation Fears

Fears of a lethal pandemic lie in the nature of flu germs, which mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes with related influenza viruses. While the H5N1 bird virus that spread across Asia in the last few years, killing millions of fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has, said Malik Peiris, a microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong.

“The concern is that this virus has the ability to transmit from humans to humans because a number of the cases who got infection have had no direct exposure to swine,” said Peiris, who has studied the SARS and avian flu viruses. “That is certainly a cause for concern.”

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