Swine Flu

Laura Brewster, healthy and fit at 56, ran, swam, and played tennis. Two weeks ago, she returned to Glenside from a dream vacation in China. Less than a week later, she was dead of swine flu. Kevin Hirsch, 26, almost never missed a day of work at a McDonald's restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia. "He didn't have a runny nose, a cold, or a fever in 15 years," said his father, Mickey, who disconnected his son's life support on Nov. 18 after nearly 15 agonizing days in the ICU. For months, public health authorities have emphasized the dangers of swine flu for people with specific medical conditions.

Last week, the Swine Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic swept through the media at a speed unparalleled by the global speed of the actual disease. But just as rapid was the response from the public health community, which showed itself up to the challenge. Start with April 23, when ill students lined up to see the nurse at St. Francis Prep School in Queens, N.Y. Several of those students' cultures revealed a non-typeable strain of influenza A, quickly confirmed to be the H1N1 variant consistent with swine flu. The information crept from a call to the New York City Health Department to local media coverage.

Philadelphia declared a public health emergency yesterday, an administrative action that mainly gives hospital emergency rooms more flexibility in dealing with increasing numbers of swine flu patients, most of whom are not seriously ill. Visits to ERs in the city are up about 25 percent over this time last year, officials said, a statistic that combines far greater increases at pediatric hospitals with lesser increases at acute-care facilities....

A 51-year-old man from Gloucester County with underlying medical conditions died Friday of complications related to swine flu, a New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman said last night. He was the county's second death related to the H1N1 virus, and the state's 22d. At least 24 people have died of the disease in Pennsylvania, and four in Delaware. Also yesterday, Burlington County said it was canceling a swine flu vaccine clinic scheduled for this Friday at its Health Department office in Westampton and would instead hold clinics the same day at two malls - pending the receipt of more vaccine.

The rapid spread of swine flu continues to play havoc with the sports schedule around the world. Chile was asked to host two Mexican clubs' Copa Libertadores matches after health officials in Colombia rejected them yesterday because of concern about the swine flu outbreak. Chivas and San Luis qualified for the round of 16 in the Copa Libertadores - the Latin American club championship - but South American soccer officials do not want to play any of the matches in Mexico, where the swine flu outbreak has hit the hardest.

Archbishop Carroll will be closed today and tomorrow, with practices and games in all sports suspended, due to a report that one of its students had been diagnosed with swine flu and two others had symptoms of the same illness. "The school will be closed through Friday, and we'll reassess our situation on Saturday," said Fran Murphy, Carroll's athletic director. Carroll principal David R. Dickens said yesterday, in a letter posted on the school's Web site, that the Radnor-based school will be "thoroughly sanitized so that we can rid the building of any possible germs.

Swine flu is spreading: 292 U.S. deaths have been confirmed since Aug. 30, and seven times that number are suspected. But rumors about the illness and the vaccine to prevent it are spreading even faster. Some recommendations that were legitimate a few months ago have been superseded by larger studies, giving some people reason to doubt the latest advice. There is general agreement among experts about treating and preventing the disease, however. The following is based on the most up-to-date information.

IT HAS BEEN just a few days since the world began learning about a new strain of quickly spreading swine flu. Although none of the 40 known flu cases in the United States has led to death or serious injury, that hasn't stopped the nation's public-health machinery - and, of course, the news media - from quickly shifting into hyperdrive. President Obama said yesterday that the swine-flu outbreak - with origins in central Mexico - is a cause for "concern" but not "alarm," but how worried should you be?

As the number of reported swine-flu cases grows, Philadelphia area businesses and organizations are responding with precautions, not panic. The bottom line for many: good hygiene. "We offer our staff a sink with soap and water," said Farah Jimenez, executive director of the Mount Airy USA community-development corporation in Northwest Philadelphia. "It seems to work for most things. " Workers with flulike symptoms are being urged to stay home. Some employers are advocating telecommuting.

As a biologist and computer scientist, Pennsylvania State University's Marcel Salathe studies the viral spread of information and the spread of real viruses. Now he has found a link between the two: When the viral idea helps create resistance to vaccines, it leaves a path for real viruses to follow. Using Twitter, he identified regional clusters where people were likely to forgo immunizations. Those could be hot spots of potential outbreaks. The results, published last month, show how social media can be harnessed to identify at-risk areas and to help focus public health messages.

A new strain of swine flu has shown up in two children in Pennsylvania and Indiana who had direct or indirect contact with pigs. The virus includes a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do, authorities said. There's no sign that the virus has spread beyond the two children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. The first case was an Indiana boy under 5 who was sickened in late July. He had no contact with pigs, but a caretaker did in the weeks before the boy fell ill. He was hospitalized and has recovered, and no other family members appear ill. The second case was a Pennsylvania girl, also under 5, who had contact with pigs at an agricultural fair last month.

Nearly two years after pandemic flu terrified, however briefly, a lot of Americans, and nearly one year after all flu virtually disappeared, public-health officials said Friday that the early signs were pointing toward the return of a normal flu season. This does not mean much, since everything about the flu - where, when, how widespread, how severe - varies from year to year. But an average season sees one or two key influenza type "A" strains and one influenza type "B" strain appear around the country in late fall or early winter, get an infectious boost at holiday gatherings, and then make a lot of people sick between January and March.

At the Toronto International Film Festival, members of the media interview people from all over the world, but it's rare to interview them while they still have their luggage. Gareth Edwards was at TIFF to talk about his new movie, "Monsters" (opening tomorrow), and the Daily News caught up with him in the bar at the Hyatt Hotel, moments after he'd arrived from London. Fortunately, Edwards was able to sleep on his flight. With "Monsters" appearing in so many festivals, he's become accustomed to snoozing on planes.

Remember the seasonal flu? The last typical season was the winter of 2008-09. The pattern was upended by an out-of-season pandemic flu the following spring and fall, and hardly any flu at all last winter. Now the best educated guess by public-health experts is that influenza will next appear in a more-or-less normal season that contains several strains, including the so-called swine flu. And vaccine is starting to arrive. Several retail drugstore chains are already offering vaccine or plan to start soon.

Health departments in Philadelphia and most other counties in the region plan to schedule flu vaccine clinics in fall 2010. They will be posted on this page. Many physicians offices will also have vaccine. Several retail chains are already offering vaccine or will do so soon. What it protects against: The 2010-11 seasonal flu vaccine strengthens immunity against the three strains of influenza that experts believe are most likely to circulate this season. They are formally known as A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)

Hallelujah, the disaster has been averted! The World Health Organization last week declared the H1N1 swine flu pandemic over. Except for one little thing: It never happened. That is, the WHO had no business labeling it a "pandemic. " It did so purely for its own interests, wreaking worldwide havoc. In April 2009, WHO flu czar Keiji Fukuda declared that we could be facing a contagion on the order of the Spanish flu of 1918-19, and the United Nations soon concurred. Spanish flu killed about 50 million worldwide and 675,000 in the United States.

Los Angeles cops tell TMZ that Mad Men beauty January Jones crashed her Range Rover into three parked cars early Friday morning, then fled the scene on foot, saying "I can't deal with this commotion. " Jones told cops she lost control of her car after a gaggle of aggressive paparazzi followed her. An anon source tells gossip site Hollyscoop.com that Jones "smelled like a brewery" when she exited her car. Police said they had not arrested Jones, but were investigating the crash.

I'M BROAD STREET Bully, inviting you to please keep e-mailing your favorite stories and photos of your Flyered-up families and puck-passionate pets to:     LITTLE SAMMY'S SHINER: Paul and Heather D'Antonio of Deptford are so Flyered up that they almost named their son after Keith Primeau because Paul was blown away by the great Flyer captain's domination in the 2004 playoffs. Instead, they named the kid Samuel after his Flyers-loving grandpa, Paul's dad, a season-ticket holder for 39 years.

"The whole aim of practical politics," wrote H.L. Mencken, "is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. " Last year's hobgoblin was swine flu. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology warned of as many as 90,000 excess flu deaths, and the federal government declared two national emergencies. Yet, with the U.S. flu season ending, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate we've had perhaps a third the usual number of flu deaths.