Human Viruses

http://reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53N6WT20090424
WHAT KIND OF FLU IS IT AND HOW IS IT SPREADING?
The virus is an influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1 and is spreading from person to person. It contains DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, or CDC.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/24/content_11252336.htm
Virus samples have been sent to laboratories in Canada for testing, they said.
The government also decided to close all schools in Mexico City and the center of the country to avoid spreading of the virus. The World Health Organization, which has identified swine influenza as a potential source of a human flu pandemic, has also activated its global epidemic operations center.

CDC says too late to contain U.S. flu outbreak
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUS24443479
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States.
CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating, treating or isolating people.

CDC: Swine flu viruses in U.S. and Mexico match
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/24/swine.flu/index.html
Of the 14 Mexican samples tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven were identical to the swine flu virus found in Texas and Southern California, Besser said at a news conference.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8016909.stm

(External info suggests pig/bird flu hybrid. Synthetic? Unconfirmed.)

Dozens of people have died and hundreds of others have been infected in a viral outbreak in Mexico suspected to have been caused by a strain of swine flu.

The World Health Organization thinks the virus may be behind 60 deaths in Mexico since mid-March.

Mexican authorities have closed schools in affected areas and a vaccination campaign is being launched.

Seven non-fatal cases of a new form of swine flu have also been confirmed in the southern United States.

A WHO spokesman said 12 out of 18 samples taken from the Mexican victims showed they died from a virus with the same genetic structure as the one found in the US.

The WHO would convene an emergency meeting in the "very near future" to determine whether the event constituted a "public health event of international concern", Gregory Hartl told Reuters news agency.

The White House said it was following the US outbreak - in California and Texas - closely.

'Mutated from pigs'

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said "unusual end-of-season influenza activity" was noticed in Mexico starting from the end of March.

Fifty-seven people had died in Mexico City from flu-like symptoms, she said, and another three in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico. There are around 800 suspected cases, she said.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the virus had "mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans".

The strain of flu had been confirmed in at least 16 deaths, with 44 others being tested, the government said.

It urged people to take preventative measures such as not shaking hands or sharing crockery.

All schools and universities in the capital and in nearby Mexico State have been closed, the BBC's Stephen Gibbs reports from Mexico City.

'No contact'

In the US, experts say the seven people who fell ill across two states were suffering from a new form of swine flu that combined pig, bird and human viruses.

The CDC said none of the seven victims had been in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu.

CDC spokeswoman Anne Schuchat said that officials did not yet know how widely the virus had spread.

But she pointed out that all seven victims had recovered. "So far this is not looking like very very severe influenza," she said.

While the world has been worried over the past few years about the impact of a pandemic originating from avian flu, the WHO say that swine flu has been implicated in the emergence of two of the last century's influenza pandemics, reports BBC science reporter Matt McGrath.

Pigs can serve as a mixing vessel for both human and avian viruses that could combine to create a more virulent strain, our reporter adds.