WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are cautiously optimistic that the new swine flu isn’t as dangerous as first feared, but urged people on Sunday to keep taking common sense precautions — and they can’t predict if it will roar back in the fall.
"The good news is when we look at this virus right now, we’re not seeing some of the things in the virus that have been associated in the past with more severe flu. That’s encouraging, but it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet,” said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With swine flu, or the H1N1 flu, now in 34 states and counting, authorities say it’s spreading just as easily as regular winter flu. However, Besser said that the virus doesn’t seem to cause as severe disease as it did in Mexico.
"It’s a rapidly evolving situation and it’s still one that is cloaked in uncertainty,” Besser said. "But each day we’re getting more information … and we’re starting to see encouraging signs.”
He warned that with a new flu strain, one that people do not have immunity to, "you would expect that there are going to be hospitalizations and, unfortunately, there will be more deaths.”
A big concern is whether the virus will return, perhaps harder, when regular influenza begins. Flu season in the Southern Hemisphere is about to begin, and U.S. authorities will watch how swine flu circulates there as they prepare the first vaccine and then decide what to do in the fall.
"The early news seems to be cautiously optimistic about where we are right now,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But, she added, "We certainly can’t get complacent. We need to get prepared.”
Besser and Sebelius appeared on "Fox News Sunday,” ABC’s "This Week,” NBC’s "Meet the Press,” CNN’s "State of the Union” and "Face the Nation” on CBS.
by the associated press
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