"Probable" NJ Swine Flu Cases Pending Confirmation

The Courier-Post reported this morning that New Jersey has seen five "probable" cases of swine flu. We first mentioned swine flu in yesterday's Whiz, wherein we cited that President Obama met a man at the start of his Mexico trip who later died of swine flu.

Luckily, it turns out that the infected patients in NJ are recovering well in their homes, and are not in danger of dying from their illness.

Also, NJ apparently has 800,000 doses of the flu vaccine Tamiflu, to which swine flu has yet to develop any resistance, on hand, with another 300,000 en route from federal sources. Of course, resistance is a possibility, and would be extremely detrimental to humanity's ability to cope with the growing problem posed by swine flu. That's probably why they're not recommending that we all line up for a shot.

Cases have been reported, though most not confirmed, in 26 countries, spanning from western Canada to New Zealand. While authorities are walking the thin line between due diligence in keeping people informed and causing an all-out panic, we thought we'd give you some links to the primary sources, and let you monitor things at your discretion.

• The United Nations World Health Organization has a Swine Flu Portal, as well as a Twitter account, @whonews.
• The United States Centers For Disease Control and Prevention have their own Swine Flu page, and their Twitter account is @CDCemergency.
• The Pennsylvania State Department of Health has an information page on swine flu
• Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management has limited information regarding the disease on its web site, which includes a link to the CDC page but no independent content. They might consider posting some information about the cases mentioned in the Courier-Post story we linked above, and devoting an entire unique web page to the issue. Just an idea.

Don't forget that you can follow us on Twitter, too. We sometimes post breaking stories on there before they make it to the full form over here.

Map via Google Maps. View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map.