Health Experts Expect Second Wave of Swine Flu This Fall
The Washington Postreports that flu experts are expecting a new wave of the H1N1 swine flu virus in the U.S. this fall. The article says health experts are alarmed by how the virus has been acting in South America.
"The virus is still around and ready to explode," said William Schaffner, an influenza expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who advises federal health officials. "We're potentially looking at a very big mess."
President Obama arrived in Mexico on Sunday for a two-day summit that will include discussions on swine flu, along with Mexico's drug wars, border security, immigration reform and economic recovery.
"Everyone recognizes that H1N1 is going to be a challenge for all of us, and there are people who are going to be getting sick in the fall and die," said John O. Brennan, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security. "The strategy and the effort on the part of the governments is to make sure we . . . collaborate to minimize the impact."
The article says some emergency rooms in New York City were temporarily overwhelmed by sick people seeking help earlier this year. There are concerns about what will happen if there is a massive surge in cases in New York City (and elsewhere in the U.S.) this fall.
Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the Washington Post, "It's fair to say there will be tens of millions of illnesses and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths. That's not atypical. It just depends on how many tens of thousands."
Obviously, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations this fall is going to overwhelm some hospitals. Tens of thousands of deaths means there will be some very sad families this fall - especially with this novel flu virus killing primarily young and middle-aged people and pregnant women. The only good news so far is that the virus has not mutated into an even more deadly strain.
The Washington Post 
