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Swine Flu Outbreak Declared Public Health Emergency

Aired April 26, 2009 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. We're coming to you now for the next 30 minutes as well because of new developments today involving that swine flu outbreak. The White House is declaring it a public health emergency in the U.S. Test results are in, confirming a rising number of cases here.

In a rare Saturday White House press conference today, it was reveal today 20 people have tested positive for swine flu across five states. Here are the numbers. One in Ohio, two cases in Kansas, two in Texas, seven in California and eight in New York. The numbers here are not on the scale being seen in Mexico, where health officials say 81 deaths there are likely linked to a new strain of swine flu. Twenty of those cases are confirmed swine flu cases, that being in Mexico.

So we have CNN teams combing through these details to bring you in-depth coverage about what this means to your health. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with me in the studio. Our Elaine Quijano is at the White House and our Susan Candiotti is on top of developments coming out of New York. We'll check in with them in just moments.

Meantime, first, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano standing alongside the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and other top administration officials made the announcement and elaborated on the public health emergency just about 90 minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The first thing I want to announce today is that the Department of Health and Human Services will declare today a public health emergency in the United States. That sounds more severe than really it is. This is standard operating procedure. It allows us to free up federal, state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation and allows us to use medication and diagnostic tests that we might not otherwise be able to use, particularly on very young children. And it releases funds for the acquisition of additional antivirals.

So you'll see those declarations coming out today. And when I say standard operating procedure, that's exactly what I mean. We issued similar declarations for the recent floods in Minnesota and North Dakota and for the inauguration.

Second, I want to give you some information about where we are with respect to antiviral drugs. These are the kinds of things you would take should you get sick with this strain of flu. We have 50 million treatment courses of antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza in the strategic national stockpile.

We are releasing 25 percent of those courses, making them available to all of the states, but particularly prioritizing the states where we already have confirmed incidents of the flu. In addition, the Department of Defense has procured and strategically repositioned 7 million treatment courses of Tamiflu.

The United States Department of Agriculture is heavily involved in monitoring and testing to ensure that there is no issue with our food supply and everything looks fine.

I want to underscore that you cannot get the swine flu from eating pork. So that's very important. And we're screening and testing livestock to monitor any developments there.

Next, in the Department of Homeland Security, we have a number of components with direct responsibility here. The CBP is inventorying for every duty station and every employee. Our resources, personal, protective equipment and so forth to make sure that we have adequate supplies on hand at the borders themselves.

Secondly, we have implemented hazard surveillance protocols to screen individuals who may arrive at our borders. All persons entering the United States from a location of human infection of swine flu will be processed through all appropriate CBP protocols.

Right now, those are passive. That means that they are looking for people and asking about, are you sick, have you been sick and the like. And if so, then they can be referred over for further examination.

Travelers who do present with symptoms, if and when encountered, will be isolated per established rules. They will be provided both with personal protective equipment and we will continue to emphasize universal health measures like hand washing and gloves. And if -- and when the situation develops, all CBP sites can implement and we can deploy additional troops to the borders.

In addition, at the TSA, many of the similar measures are being implemented there with respect to the protection of our TSA workers and also their experience with travelers. To date, the State Department has not issued official travel advisories for particularly Mexico. But, again as I said earlier, these situations are very fluid and so you need to keep up to date on that.

In addition to the CDC Web site, the Department of State has a Web site that will keep travelers posted on what the situation is, not only with our neighboring countries but with countries around the world.

As I said earlier, our intent is to update you daily on this situation so that you can know what is happening within the federal government. State and local governments obviously now are in the loop. State and local public health authorities obviously are working very hard and will be working hard because as the doctor said, this will be a marathon, not a sprint.

And even if this outbreak is a small one, we can anticipate that we may have a subsequent or follow-on outbreak several months later, which we will be prepared for.

And again, the government can't solve this alone. We need everybody in the United States to take some responsibility here. If you are sick, stay home. Wash your hands. Take all of those reasonable measures. That will help us mitigate, contain how many people actually get sick in our country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano about 90 minutes ago at a rare Sunday White House press conference. Our Elaine Quijano joins us right now from the White House. You were in that press briefing. What was interesting to hear Napolitano say that it sounds more severe than it is. And she likened the announcement today to prepping for a hurricane before it is to arrive, really to put all of the added resources in place.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Fredricka. And what she was obviously trying to do there is walk a very fine line. As the administration tries to reassure Americans not to panic and to try to send the message that the Obama administration is very much on top of the situation. At the same time, outlining the steps that the federal government is taking in case it gets worse.

We heard Secretary Napolitano right there, as you noted, liken it to emergency preparations for a natural disaster. Obviously there are some similarities when you talk about perhaps prepositioning resources, assets. But this is different. When you are talking about this outbreak of a virus, very complicated situation as the health officials try to piece this all together.

One thing that I did have the chance to ask Secretary Napolitano as well that we didn't hear there is whether or not there is any evidence, any indication at all that this might be -- this new strain of flu might be the result of bioterrorism. White House officials are saying they don't have any evidence of that. We heard that from John Brennan, who is the homeland security adviser to the president.

That in all their examinations so far of this flu strain, that it does appear to be natural. That's what we heard from the head -- acting head of the CDC. But certainly it's still very early on in the process and you heard from Secretary Napolitano and other officials today really trying to strike that reassuring tone as the American public learns more about it and the government learns more about the situation as well.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano thanks so much from the White House.

Meantime, we are learning more today about the swine flu infections at a private school in Queens, New York. That's where we find our Susan Candiotti outside St. Francis Prep School. So Susan, is this a case that all of the confirmed New York cases are that of students from this school?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. In fact, they got the tests back -- the results back from the Centers for Disease Control, and they do have eight confirmed case of high school students here who were among about at least 100 to 200 students who felt sick starting on Thursday.

So eight confirmed case here of the swine flu. Consequently, the school decided to close its doors not for one day, but for two days. And this was following the direction of the health commissioner here, although the school had actually decided to close before they were directed to do so.

Joining us now to talk about this is Brother Leonard Conway. You are the principal of the school. At this hour, they are cleaning inside the school. They started that yesterday, didn't they?

BROTHER LEONARD CONWAY, ST. FRANCIS PREP SCHOOL: Yes, the actual cleaning started on Friday evening where they cleaned the public areas, the cafeteria, the auditorium and the gymnasium and the library because we were having an alumni reunion here last night. Today, they are working on the rest of the building, labs, classrooms, student desks, et cetera.

CANDIOTTI: Now the health commissioner has said that cleaning the school, sanitizing the school isn't really necessary to control anything. Why are you doing it anyway?

CONWAY: Just as a precaution to be on the safe side.

CANDIOTTI: What is your reaction to finding out that eight students here tested positive?

CONWAY: Well, they informed us that the eight had type A influenza and that it was going to be probable swine flu. And as we heard recently now, some of them do have a mild case of swine flu. And I am rather surprised that it just hit this particular area and just these students.

CANDIOTTI: What are the concerns you are hearing about from the parents, and what are you hearing about how the students are doing?

CONWAY: Well, we've been monitoring the telephone messages and e-mails nonstop for the last two days and returning calls to parents that are concerned. One issue is, do I need to see a doctor, and we are recommending that any student that has flu-like symptoms, particularly if it's a fever, should get to a doctor as soon as possible.

CANDIOTTI: What's the theory behind closing the school for not one, but two days. Why do you think that's a good idea?

CONWAY: I just want to make sure the bug gets out of everybody. I don't think it would be a good idea to be open and have the students in classes together because that might very well spread the germ even further.

CANDIOTTI: Thank you very much, Brother Leonard Conway. In fact, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City had said that he is not closing any of the public schools because he figures that students will be congregating anyway. At this point if they keep the schools open he said one good reason to do that is if some children should come down sick, they'll immediately find out about it and can take steps to control it. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Candiotti, thanks so much there in New York.

So again, eight of the 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. are taking place right there in New York. The other states involved here, Ohio, Kansas, California and Texas.

So let's talk to senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here about why there is fear the numbers might get progressively greater. We're talking about 20 now.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. The CDC has just come out and said that we expect these numbers to get higher. And the reason is you find this disease when you look for it. This disease, swine flu, really looks just like seasonal flu. People have a fever. They have body aches, they have diarrhea, they have vomiting. So unless the person goes to the doctor and the doctor knows enough to ask and say, hey have you been to Mexico recently, these cases will get missed.

For example, this most recent case in Ohio is a 9-year-old boy who has swine flu. Went to the doctor and the doctor thought to ask have you been traveling recently. Now if that doctor had not asked, that boy would just be considered a kid with the flu. Other kids have had the flu before. Right, it's just very normal, it's regular. It's often no big deal.

WHITFIELD: But what's interesting, while this has a different label and there are some differences between the swine flu and regular influenza or type A influenza, this swine flu is being treated very similar to the regular type A influenza with the Tamiflu and what's the other one called again?

COHEN: Relenza. Well what's interesting is that in this country, actually, as far as we know, no one has even needed those two. I mean, theoretically, they should work because in the lab they can see that this new swine flu virus is sensitive to those two antivirals.

But as far as we know, no one has even needed them. These people have recovered on their own. Twenty people have had mild disease, recovered on their own, only one of them needs to be hospitalized, which gets me to a point that Dr. Richard Besser at the CDC made this afternoon.

As Fred said, not only does he expect to see more cases of this, but he expects to see more severe illness. So let's take a listen to what Dr. Besser said. Oh well actually, we don't have that. But that was basically what he said. That is very significant because Fred, what we've seen so far, it's 20 cases of people with mild flu. That is not a public health, oh, my goodness, the world is falling apart. But if we start seeing the severe disease that they've been seeing in Mexico, that's a much more dangerous situation.

WHITFIELD: So that's why we are hearing the homeland security chief as well as Dr. Besser talk about the stockpiles of the treatments, even though, as you underscored, everyone who has had it in the U.S., at least identified as having it, they have recovered on their own. Still, the government needs to be prepared just in case the numbers balloon, particularly great.

COHEN: That's right, exactly, and that's why we learned from Secretary Napolitano today they've released 25 percent of the stockpile of Relenza and Tamiflu to states so that if all of the sudden there is an outbreak of a severe disease which we have not seen, but if that does happen, they want to make sure those drugs are easily accessible and not sitting in a stockpile in Washington or Atlanta somewhere.

WHITFIELD: OK, great. Well a lot of people have lots of questions. We've been receiving tons of questions from folks via e- mail and Facebook, et cetera. We're going to get some of those on the air. You'll get an opportunity to answer some of them directly. And Josh Levs will be joining us in a moment with some of those questions. You can see right now he's kind of sifting through quite a few. Answers to your questions, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, in a rare Sunday press conference coming out of the White House today, it was underscored there are now 20 confirmed swine flu cases in the U.S.

Here's a breakdown by the map of what you are seeing here. One in Ohio, eight cases in New York, two in Kansas. And in California, seven cases. And in Texas, two.

Now again, we have to emphasize, and it was revealed again or underscored again out of the White House or the CDC that of these confirmed cases, no one has actually had to take any antivirals. They've actually recovered on their own. That's the good news.

However, we heard from the White House today, they are declaring this a public health emergency and they are keeping tabs of the stockpiles of the antivirus just in case. We have numbers in the U.S. just like we've already seen in Mexico.

Twenty confirmed deaths related to swine flu in Mexico even though they suspect there is something like 81 cases that may be related to swine flu.

So senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here. You have inundated us with a lot of questions about swine flu. What is it? What do we do about it? How alarmed should we really be and now especially post this White House press conference. So Josh Levs has been going through all of these e-mail questions. And what's your first one?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I have pulled together a couple here that are representative of things a lot of people are asking us. I'm going to toss them out to Elizabeth. I know we can get some good reality check answers here. Let's zoom right in. This is actually on Facebook, Josh Levs CNN.

This is, "Why are there so many deaths in Mexico as compared to the U.S.? We have found cases where the death rate is about zero right now." Elizabeth, what is the difference there?

COHEN: Oh, you know what, this is not just a question, Josh. This is the question. This is exactly what public health authorities are trying to figure out. Are people sicker and dying more often in Mexico because perhaps there's a whole different strain in Mexico that's causing these deaths? Or is it because there are other viruses that are compounding the problem? Or is there something different about how the patients are being treated in Mexico?

It is a huge question. No one knows the answer. But when we were told yesterday that U.S. officials were -- had landed in Mexico, that was one of the very top questions that they had, trying to figure out why we have had such an easier time of it in this country than in Mexico.

LEVS: Yes, it is striking, because they are saying it's possible that some people got it from Mexico and brought it here. And yet it is true, the results that we're seeing over here are so incredibly different.

COHEN: Right, tough to know, very tough to know.

LEVS: Let me follow up if I can, get in one more here. This comes from Todd. "How is this flu spread? Is it airborne?" That's another thing a lot of people are asking us, Elizabeth.

COHEN: It is. Let me demonstrate this by taking a shot with both me and Fred. If I god forbid had swine flu and I coughed, didn't cover my mouth.

WHITFIELD: I am getting all those spores.

COHEN: Yes, you are getting it, you could be getting swine flu, because we are sitting very close to one another and this is airborne. So that's why in Mexico they're saying please don't greet each other hello with a kiss. Please don't do that. Please don't gather in large groups. And even...

WHITFIELD: ... And then maybe handshakes here because we are talking person to person contact. Someone coughs, sneezes and --

COHEN: Exactly. If I had the germ on my hand and I went like this and then you touched that hand to your face, you could get it that way as well. And even in Texas, where there's a high school that has had two and possibly three cases, even in Texas, they have closed the school and they are telling kids, hey, don't get together while school is out. That defeats the purpose. They are telling everybody, adults included, please postpone public gatherings. This is kind of the way to nip this in the bud.

LEVS: So Elizabeth, is airborne limited to coughing in that person's general direction or does it mean if you are in the same room, it can kind of take off in the air and anyone can catch it?

COHEN: It can take off in the air but it's not entirely clear. A lot of people say it's six feet give or take. It's not entirely clear like well you can't really see -- Josh and I are quite far away although technically in the same room. I mean, if I coughed or sneezed, someone across a huge room would probably not get it. It's not exactly clear how far it can travel but you're at highest risk if you are sort of close by like Fred and I are sitting.

LEVS: OK, well you know, I'm glad you are doing this and I know Fred, we're going to be answering some more of these in the 4:00 hour today?

WHITFIELD: We are, indeed. We've got time for that. All right, thanks so much, Josh, appreciate it. Of course while we're talking about the majority of the cases being investigated are in the U.S. and in Mexico, now express concerns coming from countries overseas, when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The outbreak of swine flu may have reached as far as New Zealand. Members of a student group just back from Mexico are quarantined in Auckland and some are feared to have the flu. Testing is under way to try to determine if they do, indeed have swine flu.

There's a wealth of information out there on swine flu. For many, it's right at your fingertips. Thank goodness, right? Our Josh Levs is here with much more on exactly where to go. And this is important, Josh, because the U.S. State Department does not have a travel advisory on its Web site. Instead, it's the CDC that's kind of taken command at this, at least for now.

LEVS: CDC is the central place online for everyone in America to get the latest information at this point. The government is saying that. The CDC is saying that. Let's just zoom in. So instead of seeing what you're seeing, you see what's there. This is it, CDC.gov/swineflu. You really can't miss it. Just go to CDC.gov, click on swine flu, it will bring you there.

It gets you a lot of really helpful information. You can see here, the investigation, some information there, what to do about it, things you can do. And yes Fred, they have alerts here. They keep updating it pretty regularly.

I'm going to show you two more really quickly. This is the WHO's Web Site, they have a lot of information, World Health Organization. And if you speak Spanish, you might be interested in following this. This is the health ministry in Mexico. They are updating it with some information as well.

Also, check this out. We have an interesting map here, healthmap.org. They track all sorts of diseases, not just this one. But if you spend some time on this one, you can take a look at some of the alerts in different countries.

But I'll end with this. To reality check all of this, I really want to show you this very, very simple map. Check this out. This is on CNN.com right now. Where you see the red marks are the only confirmed cases that we know about. So you can kick on these places in the United States, find out where it is. And can we zoom way over here to New Zealand? You can see that there's 22 students, three teachers who visited Mexico, may have the virus there.

So these are all some good sites. I posted links to all of them at my Facebook page, Josh Levs CNN. I'm on Twitter now, too, Twitter.com/JoshLevsCNN. I'll send you a link to everything right there. Hopefully that will help you follow this every step of the way. Get whatever alerts you need, if you're planning travel, that kind of thing, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Great. And, of course in the 4:00 Eastern hour, you'll be back with many more e-mail questions from our viewers. A lot of folks want to know so much more about the swine flu. More than we're able to get in the past 30 minutes. So we'll be back at the 4:00 Eastern time. Thanks so much, Josh, appreciate it. We'll have much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Growing concerns about swine flu. The White House has declared a public health emergency in a rare Sunday press conference today as the number of people sicken here in the U.S. rises. There are now 20 confirmed cases. Here's a breakdown of the numbers, you see on the map. One in Ohio, two in Kansas, two in Texas, seven in California and eight in New York, mostly at a private school. Health officials expect those numbers to climb in the coming days. The emergency declaration frees up more federal resources to combat the virus. We'll be delving into this and much more coming up in the 4:00 Eastern hour, more on the swine flu outbreak.

We'll also examine the president's first 100 days, including promises kept and broken. Plus, how is President Obama addressing poverty and homelessness in this country. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "YOUR MONEY" starts right now.