FRIDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- As of Thursday, April 30, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 109 cases of influenza A strain H1N1, or swine flu, in the United States, with 50 cases in New York, 26 in Texas, 14 in California, 10 in South Carolina, and the rest in seven other states. So far, only one death has been recorded.
On April 30 the Mexican government ordered a five-day shutdown of all non-essential services, but the country's health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, told The Associated Press that the number of new cases appears to be leveling off.
A vaccine to protect against the H1N1 strain may be available in six months, with production beginning after the production of the seasonal flu vaccine for next winter is complete, according to Richard Besser, M.D., the CDC's acting director. In the meantime, he urged the public to continue to take simple but effective preventive steps of hand washing, covering coughs, and staying home when sick.
"[We] continue to be very aggressive in our approach and we will continue to do that until the situation tells us that we no longer need to do so," he says. "There's no one action that is going to stop this. There is no silver bullet, but all the efforts -- the efforts of government, the efforts of communities and the efforts of individuals -- will help to reduce the impact on people's health."
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