Tuesday, June 02, 2009

More on the new influenza virus

I guess the official name now is S-OIV [swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus]. Here is an update from the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine:

As of this writing, 2,532 cases of S-OIV have been confirmed in the United States by the CDC in 44 states, and 3 people have died, for a case-fatality rate of 0.11%. Simultaneously, the WHO reported 4,694 confirmed cases in 30 countries, with 53 deaths (a case-fatality rate of 1.1%), and with 48 of the deaths outside the United States occurring in Mexico.

Symptoms are similar to ordinary seasonal flu but this feature is different:

Nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, which are not common symptoms of seasonal
influenza, have been reported in approximately 50% of patients with S-OIV.

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