CDC: 50,000 Americans caught swine flu

Sat, 16 May 2009 07:20:41 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=94906&sectionid=3510203

A top official in the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared that at least 50,000 Americans may have contracted the swine influenza bug.

In a news conference on Friday, Dr. Daniel Jernigan, deputy director of the CDC's influenza division, told reporters that around 100,000 US probably have regular seasonal influenza, half of whom could be affected by the H1N1 strain of the virulent Type A influenza.

Jernigan said that during a seasonal flu outbreak over seven percent of Americans get infected, thus the 4,700 figure of cases with swine flu reported to the CDC so far would be a 'gross understatement.'

"It is a little hard to know what that means in terms of making an estimate now of the total number of people with [the seasonal] flu out in the community," Jernigan noted, adding, "But if I had to make an estimate, I would say ... probably upwards of maybe 100,000."

He went on to say that according to CDC data around half of the people who initially complained of the regular flu symptoms turned out to have developed the swine flu disease, meaning at least 50 thousand Americans may have contracted the H1N1 infection.

"The H1N1 virus is not going away. We know that the outbreak is not localized but is spreading and appears to be expanding throughout the United States," Jernigan said.

Jernigan's comments precedes CDC's sudden reversal of counsel in which the US health authority withdrew its travel advisory later on Friday noting, "The Department of State wishes to inform US citizens traveling to and residing in Mexico that on May 15 2009, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted its recommendation that American citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico."

"As a result of the CDC's decision, the State Department's Travel Alert relating to the 2009-H1N1 influenza outbreak is no longer in effect," AFP quoted the CDC statement as saying.