Updated – Is A/H1N1 Outbreak A “Herald Wave” Preceding More Serious Fall 2009 Epidemic? 

“I do not think we are off the hook in the United States. I don’t think we should be complacent to think we’re not going to have it as bad as Mexico because I think if conditions were different and we were now in the Fall of 2009 and it was getting colder, we might see much more disease here.”

- Paul Glezen, M. D., Molecular Virologist

Updated May 28, 2009/ Original report May 7, 2009  Houston, Texas - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has had a series of phone press conferences to discuss the latest swine flu developments. Today, CDC’s Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program, Anne Schuchat, M. D., (SHOE-cut) confirmed that 8,585 cases of swine flu have been officially reported to American medical authorities, with 507 hospitalizations and the twelfth death of a Chicago resident last weekend. Authorities estimate that only one in twenty swine flu victims are being reported, so there could be at least 150,000 Americans now sick with this new swine flu.