Thursday, November 10, 2011

U.S. spots two more human cases of flu with new swine virus but cases not linked

Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - Two new cases of human infection with a flu virus that has been sporadically jumping to people from pigs have been spotted in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported Friday.

The new cases, in Maine and Indiana, bring to seven the number seen in the U.S. since July. To date Canada has seen no infections with this virus, the National Microbiology Laboratory said.

While the infections have been mainly mild, the CDC is keeping a close eye on the situation. The head of the Atlanta-based agency's influenza division said a seed strain for a vaccine that would protect against this virus has already been developed and has been given to vaccine manufacturers.
 
"We're really trying to be in front of events in terms of preparedness," Dr. Nancy Cox said in an interview.
"We're being very vigilant because we realize that there's a portion of the population ... that really has very little cross-reactive antibodies to the swine reassortant virus." More

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