Swine Influenza

Los Angeles public health officials say they expect to receive the first shipments of H1N1 flu vaccine this week. Local clinics and doctor's offices will receive small shipments of the FluMist nasal spray vaccine as soon as Wednesday, according to a statement released Friday from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. "While the FluMist nasal spray vaccine may not be appropriate for everyone, we do encourage those who can receive this form of the vaccine to get it," said Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's director of public health.

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.

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest cruise line operator, announced Friday that it would resume visits to Mexican ports later this month. The decision came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would no longer recommend that Americans avoid nonessential travel to the country because of the swine flu outbreak. The company, a unit of Carnival Corp., said its first cruise ship to return to Mexico would be the Carnival Holiday.

San Bernardino County public health officials have declared a state of emergency due to H1N1 flu, one in a series of federal, state and local declarations intended to position authorities to deal with people sickened by the new flu strain. President Obama's declaration of a national H1N1 emergency last month came eight months after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide emergency. Local health officials say that by declaring emergencies at their level, they hope to lay claim to more vaccines and other resources, or be reimbursed by state and federal officials for mass vaccination clinics and other efforts.

With the death toll climbing, Mexican authorities at the center of an international swine flu epidemic struggled Monday to piece together its lethal march, with attention focusing on a 4-year-old boy and a pig farm. The boy, who survived the illness, has emerged as Mexico's earliest known case of the never-before-seen virus, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Monday. It provides an important clue to the unique strain's path. The boy lived near a pig farm run by a U.S.

London-based GlaxoSmithKline won U.S. approval to sell its vaccine to fight H1N1 influenza, also known as swine flu, after an eight-week delay. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the vaccine as a strain change to Glaxo's FluLaval seasonal flu vaccine, the drug maker said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has ordered 7.6 million doses of the swine flu vaccine as part of about 250 million doses secured from all manufacturers, the company said.

In recent days, U.S. security officials have been urged, vehemently at times, to close the border with Mexico. Cruise lines have canceled stops along that country's coast. France asked the European Union to halt flights there. And one European health official even suggested that travel to the United States be avoided. But here's the problem with such attempts to stop, or slow, the spread of the new H1N1 flu strain: Viruses don't grasp the concept of borders.

Reeling from a rash of drug-world violence and the effects of the global recession, Mexico's tourism is now taking a beating from the swine flu outbreak that is suspected in the deaths of 149 people and prompted the closing of theme parks, soccer stadiums and other public places. The country's benchmark IPC stock index plunged 3.3% on Monday, and the peso slumped as the ramifications of the outbreak filtered through the business and tourist community.

Chinese authorities tracked down Westwood resident Mike Su recently at a networking banquet in Beijing. They forced him to pack his bags, then whisked him away to a budget hotel on the edge of the city where they detained him for a week. Su's crime? On his flight from Los Angeles, the website director had the misfortune of sitting near someone who had allegedly contracted the H1N1 flu. "I felt like I was going to prison," said Su, 33.