Ontario’s Deadly Swine Flu Surge, 24 dead in 72 hours
In a shocking surge, 24 Ontario residents have died in less than 72 hours from Swine Flu, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported on its website.
Ontario’s startling fatalities reported between November 10 and 11 a.m. EST on November 12 catapults the death toll from 37 reported on Nov. 10 to a total of 61. That is twice the figure of dead in Quebec and the highest of any province in Canada.
See also: B.C. Hospitals working over capacity.
Hospitals from coast to coast are swamped with admissions and visits to emergency departments in the past week with other provinces reporting record admissions from Swine Flu since its outbreak was noticed in April.
Nova Scotia and Manitoba reported one death each between Nov. 10 and Nov. 12 to take Canada’s national fatality toll to 161 with much of the spike happening since the second wave of Swine Flu began in October.
On November 10 at 11 a.m. EST, Ontario’s death toll stood at 37 and the Canadian national total was at 135.
46 Canadians have died between November 5 and November 12 with heavy rates of hospitalizations across the country.
Ontario government officials could not be reached last night to comment about the 24 deaths.
The latest federal figures show B.C. has 23 deaths with eight occurring in just one week, Alberta has 20, Saskatchewan 5, Manitoba 8, Ontario 61, Quebec 35, Nova Scotia 2, Newfoundland and Labrador 5 and one each in Yukon and Nunavut.
Swine Flu Could Kill Millions Worldwide Lacking Vaccines
The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world’s poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer.
The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed.
Health ministers around the globe were sent the warning on Thursday in a report on the costs of averting a humanitarian disaster in the next few months. It comes as officials inside the World Health Organisation, the UN’s public health body, said they feared they would not be able to raise half that amount because of the global downturn.
Gregory Hartl of WHO said the report required an urgent response from rich nations. “There needs to be recognition that the whole world is affected by this pandemic and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We have seen how H1N1 has taken hold in richer nations and in the southern hemisphere. We have been given fair warning and must act soon,” he said.
The report was drawn up by UN officials over the last two months. It was commissioned in July after Ban ki-moon, the UN’s secretary general, expressed concern that the H1NI virus could have a severe impact on the world’s poorest countries.
It paints a disastrous picture for the world’s most vulnerable people unless there is immediate action. “There is a window in which it will be possible to help poor countries get as ready as they can for H1N1 and that window is closing rapidly,” it says.
WHO Warns Of Severe Form Of Swine Flu
Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients infected with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need hospital care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.
“During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services,” it said.
“Preparedness measures need to anticipate this increased demand on intensive care units, which could be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in the number of severe cases.”
Earlier, WHO reported that H1N1 had reached epidemic levels in Japan, signaling an early start to what may be a long influenza season this year, and that it was also worsening in tropical regions.
“Perhaps most significantly, clinicians from around the world are reporting a very severe form of disease, also in young and otherwise healthy people, which is rarely seen during seasonal influenza infections,” WHO said.
“In these patients, the virus directly infects the lung, causing severe respiratory failure. Saving these lives depends on highly specialized and demanding care in intensive care units, usually with long and costly stays.”
