As of April 26th, health officials in the United States declared a public health emergency over the new strain of swine flu, designated A(H1N1). The emergency declaration releases more federal dollars for anti-viral drugs. One-quarter of the U.S. government’s stockpile of 50 million courses of anti-flu drugs will be made available for public health use. So far there have been 20 confirmed cases of including 8 in New York, 7 in California, 2 in Kansas, 2 in Texas and 1 in Ohio. More A(H1N1) flu cases are expected to be reported, but virtually all cases in this country been mild and non-fatal. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was well-understood that many contagious diseases were caused by microbes. However, unlike today, there was no anti-viral treatment available for any of the virally-caused diseases, with the exception of syphilis and malaria. The 1918-20 flu pandemic, sometimes referred to as the “Spanish flu” was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza, a virus strain of subtype H1N1.
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