Obama seeks £1 billion for swine flu as cases jump

[autorank]

Source: Reuters

Wed. April 29, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday for an additional $1.5 billion (1.02 billion pounds) to fight swine flu as the number of confirmed cases hit 65 people in six states in what doctors fear may become a full pandemic. SNIP

"With a new infectious agent you don't sit back and wait and hope for the best. You take bold steps, and then you pull back if you need to," Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centres for Disease Control, told reporters.

The CDC total included 10 cases in California, 2 in Kansas, 45 in New York, one in Ohio and 6 in Texas. An additional case was reported by Indiana state authorities.

While the new flu strain has killed up to 149 people in Mexico, cases seen in the United States and elsewhere have been mild. CDC officials said only five U.S. cases have required hospitalization, two of them in California, but they have said they expect more serious cases -- and possibly deaths -- as surveillance expands.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE53R62O20090429

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Serious stuff, quick response.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Oh hold it, that will cause a panic I tell you!

:sarcasm:

[autorank]

2. Question for you

I was out of newsland until about the time I posted this. What's the deal about the flu
starting out at some school in Queens? Is that correct? What a lesson for all the Bob &
Betty Whiner types conmplaining about Mexico.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. It did the kids went down to Cancun for spring break

and brought a lovely present home

(For the record I was so happy to have dodged that bullet as I also went down there for passover, mexico city)

Problem is that they are now afraid hundreds of kids might have caught it too by now

[nyy1998]

4. $1.5 billion?

I thought we were getting mad at republicans at a few hundred millions not billions.