The breakdown:
Arizona 4
California 13
Colorado 2
Delaware 4
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Kansas 2
Kentucky 1
Massachusetts 2
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Nebraska 1
Nevada 1
New Jersey 5
New York 50
Ohio 1
South Carolina 16
Texas 28
Virginia 2
TOTAL COUNTS 141 cases
The World Health Organization keeps tracks of the Swine Flu aka Influenza A(H1N1) internationally and they report that (yesterday's numbers for the U.S.- so although the report is listed as May 1, 2009, we know they are reporting figures as of April 30, 2009), 11 countries have officially reported 331 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (34), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8).
From yesterday's WHO press briefing:(Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General ad. Interim for Health Security and Environment World Health Organization)
The question that is really on many people's mind is what can we say about the severity of the illness at this point. I think that the information to date clearly points out that this infection can result in anything from very mild illness, where people do not need to be hospitalized and generally recover without any complications after several days, to fatal illness. We have now seen this occur in two countries and this is in keeping with how other influenza viruses behave. The question that we do not know right now is that when people get infected, how often are people going to develop mild illness, how often are people going to develop severe illness, and which groups of people may develop fatal illness. We do not have to handle on this right now and this is one of the questions which is important to identify. What is also important to identify is, among those people who develop serious illness, is there anything that can be done, are there any risk factors that can be identified, and so the investigations will continue in these areas.
At this juncture, I think that a fair question to ask is where we are going. Is it theoretically possible that this epidemic could certainly stop for unknown reasons, although this is probably unlikely at this point. It is also possible that we could continue on with spread of relatively mild illness in most countries recognizing that death and serious illnesses will occur sometimes. And it is also possible, that as we go into the future, we will see more serious cases. These options are all possible. We do not quite know how this is going to evolve but we will, as we mentioned over the last few days, monitor the situation very carefully. We will report the findings as they become available to us.
You can read the whole statement, along with reporter's questions and answer session, here. (7 page PDF file)
Previously, most recent on top:
World Health Organization Swine Flu Update #5
U.S. Human Cases Of Swine Flu Infection- 91
U.S. Cases of Confirmed Swine Flu At 64
Number of Swine Flu Confirmed Cases Continues to Rise.
Swine Flu Update
"Swine Flu: U.S. Declares Public Emergency"
"Swine Flu: Pandemic Potential"
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