Obama declares Swine Flu emergency with millions infected

UPDATE: President Obama has declared a Swine Flu national emergency as the director of the CDC admits "many millions" of Americans have been infected and 22,000 hospitalized. The novel virus has killed 95 children.

ATLANTA – (Update) Child deaths from Swine Flu continued to escalate in the U.S. and the director of the Centers for Disease Control says 'many millions' of people have already been infected. Multiple media reported President Barack Obama proclaimed a national emergency over the novel virus to give more leeway to health care authorities to deal with the pandemic. Obama signed a proclamation on Friday. “We continue to have widespread activity of H1N1 influenza. 46 states are reporting widespread activity. We have had up until now many millions of cases of pandemic influenza in the U.S. And the numbers continue to increase,” said CDC director Tom Frieden. So far, 95 children children are confirmed dead from Swine Flu while another 7 pediatric deaths are suspected of being linked to the novel virus. “This remains largely a young person’s disease, but we are seeing it increasingly affect young adults as well as children,” he said at a press conference on Friday. “As of now, we have seen, since the beginning of the pandemic in April and May, more than a thousand deaths from pandemic influenza and more than 20,000 hospitalizations in this country,” he said. “We expect that influenza will occur in waves,” said Frieden. In response to a question, Frieden encouraged pregnant women to get vaccinated. "Pregnancy is a risk factor for influenza each year. It's also a risk factor for serious illness and death from H1N1 influenza. About six times more likely to die from H1N1 influenza if you're pregnant. So women who are pregnant are a high priority for the vaccine," he said, according to a transcript of the press conference made available by the CDC. Swine Flu has been confirmed to be the cause of death of 9 children during the week of Oct. 11 to Oct. 17 while two other children also died from influenza A but the virus was not subtyped, although it is suspected to be Swine Flu. The new reported deaths take laboratory confirmed child deaths across the U.S. to 95 with an additional seven child deaths confirmed to be from influenza A but not sub-typed in labs, the CDC said on Friday. “Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) increased steeply since last week in the United States and overall, are much higher than what is expected for this time of the year,” said the CDC, indicating a full blown epidemic across most of the U.S. During an analysis of the previous week (identified as week 40) the CDC reported 11 children dead from Swine Flu. In a briefing last week, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC called the spread of the virus an epidemic. “And for the first week this fall, we’re seeing that the amount of influenza and pneumonia mortality is above the epidemic threshold,” she said. “All of these things may suggest it’s a very busy and difficult flu season and we are seeing very high levels of activity around the country,” she said during the briefing last week. “We are also having updates on the pediatric deaths. Unfortunately those are going up as well. There are now a total of 86 children under 18 who died from this H1N1 influenza virus, the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus,” she said before the tally of child deaths increased this week as she predicted. “We had 11 more influenza pediatric deaths reported in week 40, which is the week that ends October 10. Ten of those are confirmed to be due to the new strain, the 2009 H1N1 strain and the 11th is probably due to that but the typing hasn’t been completed,” said Dr. Schuchat. “About half of the deaths that we’ve seen in children since September 1st have been occurring in teens between the ages of 12 and 17. These are very sobering statistics, unfortunately, they are likely to increase,” she correctly predicted. The latest data released by the CDC on Friday shows an even more dramatic turn for the worse in the U.S. Swine Flu spread. Thousands across the U.S. are sick from the virus. The highlights of finding released on Friday are as follows: • Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) increased steeply since last week in the United States, and overall, are much higher than what is expected for this time of the year. ILI activity now is higher than what is seen during the peak of many regular flu seasons. • Total influenza hospitalization rates for laboratory-confirmed flu are climbing and are higher than expected for this time of year. • The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report has increased and has been higher than what is expected at this time of year for two weeks. In addition, 11 flu-related pediatric deaths were reported this week; 9 of these deaths were confirmed 2009 H1N1, and two were influenza A viruses, but were not sub-typed. Since April 2009, CDC has received reports of 95 laboratory-confirmed pediatric 2009 H1N1 deaths and another 7 pediatric deaths that were laboratory confirmed as influenza, but where the flu virus subtype was not determined. • Forty-six states are reporting widespread influenza activity at this time. They are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. This many reports of widespread activity are unprecedented during seasonal flu. • Almost all of the influenza viruses identified so far are 2009 H1N1 influenza A viruses. These viruses remain similar to the virus chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine, and remain susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir with rare exception.