In 2009, President Barack Obama declared a national emergency to address a swine flu outbreak.
MEXICO CITY — This sprawling capital was on edge Saturday as jittery residents ventured out wearing surgical masks and President Felipe Calderón published an order that would give his government emergency powers to address a deadly flu outbreak, including isolating those who have contracted the virus, inspecting the homes of affected people and ordering the cancellation of public events.
There is no evidence that federal efforts to address the swine flu outbreak have been hampered by a lack of funds.
Obama also plans to address the swine flu virus and the budget passed by both the House and the Senate earlier in the day.
At an April 29 hearing of the Homeland Security Committee, Secretary Janet Napolitano and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified that as a result of these significant investments, there is no evidence that federal efforts to address the current H1N1 flu outbreak have been hampered.
In this recent study, three major technical barriers for a rapid and reliable response to pandemic flu were addressed: the speed of synthesizing DNA cassettes to drive production of influenza RNA genome segments, the accuracy of rapid gene synthesis, and the yield of HA from vaccine viruses.
One question she will need to address is whether the swine flu outbreak deserved the term "pandemic".
Future prospective studies may address the question whether certain flu vaccines are able to increase cellular immune responses in the respiratory system, particularly after encounter with the wildtype flu.
For years, outreach has focused on the dangers of the flu, without adequately addressing the side effects that have many people – especially African-Americans – sounding the alarm.
There have been a few declarations meant to address specific crises, like a swine flu outbreak in 2009 or the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Fouchier and Kawaoka's experiments address a crucial question: could bird flu evolve naturally into a form that spreads easily among people?
