Swine Flu

New data on hospitalizations and deaths caused by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus show that it is "a disease of the young," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. From Sept. 1 to Oct. 10, there were 4,958 hospitalizations from laboratory-confirmed swine flu in the 27 states reporting to the CDC, said Schuchat, who is director of the agency's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. More than half of those cases, 53%, involved people younger than 25; 39% were age 26 to 64 and only 7% were 65 and older.

Reclusive North Korea on Wednesday took the unusual step of acknowledging that it had suffered an outbreak of H1N1 flu, with foreign aid officials saying the virus has killed dozens of people. The Public Health Ministry confirmed an outbreak in the city of Sinuiju, on the border with China, and in Pyongyang, the capital, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. But so far, North Korea has acknowledged only nine deaths. "The relevant [agency] is further perfecting the quarantine system against the spread of this flu virus while properly carrying on the prevention and medical treatment," the agency said.

The pandemic H1N1 influenza virus is unexpectedly continuing to spread easily through the United States during the summer months, and health authorities expect a bump in transmission in about six weeks, when school goes back into session -- perhaps two or three months earlier than is normally seen with seasonal flu. "Every year, there is an increase in flu when children go back to school" and viruses are being shared in close quarters, Dr.

As New York City announced two more swine flu deaths Tuesday, bringing the state's death toll to four, health officials in Los Angeles County and California said the worst of the outbreak -- at least locally -- appears to be over.

It was Easter weekend when people in Oaxaca noticed strange happenings at the state-run Dr. Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital. Sections were suddenly off-limits. Security guards were added. The cop reporter at the local newspaper, El Diario Despertar, got a tip from a source at the hospital. Not above dressing its journalists up as paramedics, the paper sent two people to investigate. They quickly realized that the hospital was seized by alarm.

More than 38 million doses of vaccine against pandemic H1N1 influenza are now available, 11 million more than were available last week and double the number available two weeks ago, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Another 8 million doses are expected to arrive next week "if everything goes well," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "That is progress. . . . As supplies increase, things should go better."

In years past, the nation's attempts to prevent flu-related deaths have focused on limiting transmission of the virus through widespread vaccination programs. This year, with school starting up well before a vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus will be available, there will be little that can slow the spread of the virus for the next few months.

Orange County is experiencing a rise in swine flu cases -- a third of its 12 reported deaths were in the last two weeks -- a trend that mirrors much of the state. The virus has become so widespread that officials are stepping away from tracking individual cases, instead mustering resources to deal with the illness. As of July 16, health officials throughout the state stopped monitoring individuals who contract the H1N1 virus because doing so was sapping too many resources.

As two Stanford University researchers described their experience watching public reactions in the initial days of the swine flu outbreak, it sounded like one of those nature films in which tiny fish dart back and forth in perfect unison. The researchers were tracking thousands of Twitter posts pouring into an Internet site.

Television news shows and newspaper headlines scream about the potential dangers of H1N1, also known as swine flu, and there you are, contemplating a trip for the upcoming holidays. So, you ask yourself: Am I safe from airborne germs in the confined cabin of a crowded passenger jet? The topic of air quality on airplanes has come up repeatedly this year, most noticeably when Vice President Joe Biden told a television audience last spring that he was advising family members to avoid confined spaces such as airplanes for fear of contracting the flu from a sneezing passenger.