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O Brasil registra nesta terça-feira 644 mortes por gripe suína em 19 Estados. A Secretaria de Saúde de Santa Catarina confirmou nesta terça-feira mais 12 mortes por gripe suína. Com os novos registros, sobe para 32 o número de vítimas do vírus Influenza A (H1N1) no Estado.

Brasilia - The number of serious cases of influenza A (H1N1) - swine flu - in Brazil fell by 97.3% in two months, from 2828 for the week ending August 8 to 78 on October 10, according to report released today ( 19) by the Ministry of Health

From April to October, the country recorded 17,219 new cases of flu, with 1368 confirmed deaths. The mortality rate of the disease in Brazil is 0.7 per 100 thousand inhabitants. In the last newsletter of September, Brazil recorded 899 deaths. However, according to the ministry, the increase does not refer to new cases of people who died during the period analyzed, but the cases had laboratory confirmation between 12 September and 10 October.

According to the ministry, the comparison with other countries was hampered because the international data update does not occur uniformly. The United States, for example, a country that has the highest number of deaths, have recently changed the criteria for classification of deaths, zeroed statistics and began to calculate not only the deaths caused by influenza A virus (H1N1), but for any type of influenza .

In recent days, there was an increase in transmission rates of respiratory disease in North America, Western Europe and northern Asia because of the proximity of winter in the temperate northern hemisphere.

Agency Brazil

16/11/2009
Rio Grande do Norte confirms seven deaths from swine flu
ESTELITA HASS CARAZZAI
of Agência Folha

The confirmation of seven deaths from swine flu - influenza A (H1N1) - in Rio Grande do Norte, all between late October and early November, left on alert health authorities.

In order to reduce the number of occurrences, doctors working in emergency departments in the state will undergo a training on the influenza A next week. Rio Grande do Norte had only one recorded death from the disease in August.

In the last three weeks, the number of suspected cases of influenza A, especially for serious events, increased significantly in the state, unlike the rest of the Northeast, which has fallen in reports since September.

In the region, the state with more deaths from influenza A is Bahia, with 14. Rio Grande do Norte comes next.

The Health Department does not see a reason for the recent increase, which was not, apparently, the occurrence of any factor that might contribute to the epidemic, such as rain or low temperatures.

A sub-coordinator of the Epidemiological Surveillance RN, Juliana Araujo, says that six of seven flu victims had risk factors such as pregnancy and hypertension. She says that doctors are aware of the disease since May. "Maybe the people have given less attention to the flu because the media stopped talking about it," he says.

According to the president of the Society of Infectious Diseases Potiguar, Henio Lacerda, however, was the inattention of doctors and local people who contributed to the occurrence of recent cases. "I heard the doctors themselves say that they thought the disease had disappeared. Only when the patients were in the ICU is that the possibility was raised of influenza A."

The state is studying the possibility of increasing the number of ICU beds for people with suspected influenza. With the training of doctors, the idea is to streamline the process of identification of symptoms and treatment of victims.

Health Minister, José Sócrates, said Monday in Manaus (AM) that the number of flu cases has dropped sharply in Brazil and that the situation is under control. He said the concern now is with the "second wave" of the disease in 2010. But he says the country will have "a powerful weapon, which is a vaccine" against the virus.