Eighteen U.S. soldiers have been confirmed as the first cases in Kuwait with H1N1 flu, the undersecretary of the ministry of health said on Sunday.

“They are 18 U.S. soldiers that were confirmed with the virus upon their arrival from their country to the military base (in Kuwait),” Ibrahim al-Abdulhadi told Reuters.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday the U.S. will spend $1 billion to start the process of making an H1N1 influenza vaccine.

The money, which comes from funds already set aside for pandemic influenza, will fund new and existing contracts with influenza vaccine makers such as Sanofi Aventis SA, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

·The number of deaths caused by A/H1N1 virus has risen to 91, health officials said.
·More than 11,168 people in 44 countries and regions have reportedly contracted the virus.

“We are now seeing a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City,” said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden earlier Sunday.

“With the virus spreading widely, closing these and other individual schools will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City, but we hope will help slow transmission within the individual school communities.”

An New York middle school assistant principal who was hospitalized with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, died Sunday apparently from flu complications, a hospital spokesman said.

New York City closed three public schools for at least five school days because of “unusually high levels” of flu-like illness, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“I know that many will find this information troubling, but information I’ve always thought is the best antidote to anxiety and we will continue to provide New Yorkers with clear, accurate and timely information as we have it,” Bloomberg said last night at a City Hall news conference, where he was joined by Governor David Paterson and city schools Chancellor Joel Klein. “By taking common sense precautions and not by overreacting we will get through this together.”

The male assistant principal at Intermediate School 238 in Jamaica, in the city borough of Queens, where more than 50 students have been sent home ill, may have had a pre-existing condition that worsened his illness, Bloomberg said.

Peru confirmed its first case of H1N1 Swine Flu, a 27-year-old woman who traveled to her Lima home from New York, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said yesterday. Measures such as total shutdown and Social Distancing may not be as viable for containing H1N1 Swine Flu infection in New York as they were in Mexico – and this has the New York school system acting quickly to close down schools immediately.

School Closures

In addition to IS 238, or the Susan B. Anthony School, the schools shut in New York yesterday are Public School 16Q in Corona, Queens, where 29 students were documented with flu-like symptoms, and IS 5Q, the Walter Crowley Intermediate School in Elmhurst, Queens, where 241 students were reported absent.

“We have been carefully monitoring the H1N1 virus, and we’re taking this action today because there are unusually high levels of flu-like illnesses at three public schools,” Bloomberg said yesterday.

A total of 4,500 students attend the three schools. The earliest date the schools may reopen is May 22 under the order put in place after health officials discovered the influenza symptoms. Bloomberg said swine flu has been documented in the assistant principal and four students.

H1N1 Swine Flu Updates

As of 06:00 GMT, 13 May 2009, 33 countries have officially reported 5728 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Mexico has reported 2059 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States has reported 3009 laboratory confirmed human cases, including three deaths. Canada has reported 358 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Costa Rica has reported eight laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Argentina (1), Australia (1), Austria (1), Brazil (8), China (3, comprising 1 in China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and 2 in mainland China), Colombia (6), Cuba (1), Denmark (1), El Salvador (4), Finland (2), France (13), Germany (12), Guatemala (3), Ireland (1), Israel (7), Italy (9), Japan (4), Netherlands (3), New Zealand (7), Norway (2), Panama (29), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (98), Sweden (2), Switzerland (1), Thailand (2), and the United Kingdom (68).

Swine FLu H1N1 News - H1N1 Swine Flu Cases Top 5000

The number of H1N1 Swine Flu infections continues to rise, and despite the recent cooling on the pandemic panic, WHO and CDC researchers are still concerned about the possibility of mutations in the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus that could lead to secondary waves culminating in a pandemic.

The number of worldwide swine flu cases on Tuesday passed 5,000, according to the World Health Organisation, as the virus spread to three more countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The highest number of cases has been reported in the United States with 2,600 infections, including three deaths, and Mexico with 2,059 cases, including 56 deaths. The global total stood at 5,251, the latest data posted on the WHO website showed.

The WHO raised its alert to five on a scale of six two weeks ago, signalling that a pandemic was “imminent” after Mexico and the United States showed sustained local transmission of the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

With the WHO confirmed death toll at 61, Costa Rica reported its first fatality from the flu — believed to be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs — and the United States confirmed a third death.

Because the new swine flu virus — technically called H1N1 — is a highly unusual genetic mix of bird, flu and human viruses, health officials worry that it could continue to mutate and return in a more virulent form for next winter’s flu season.

As the swine flu continues to spread across the United States — and most cases continue to be mild — federal health officials said Monday that they’re shifting their focus from individual cases of infection to trying to project what is likely to occur with the virus in the fall.

Costa Rica reported the death of a 53-year-old patient with swine flu on Saturday, the first death from the epidemic outside of a North American nation, while Japanese authorities scrambled to limit contacts with their first confirmed cases of the disease.

Worldwide: 3440 cases
United States: 2254 total cases of Swine Flu H1N1 flu, 2 deaths, 44 states have H1N1 Swine Flu Infections. The number of cases in the United States went from 1,639 to 2,254, with 104 people hospitalized, between Friday and Saturday afternoon.