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A World Bank employee here in Washington has been preliminarily diagnosed with a case of swine flu, Bloomberg is reporting. The employee in question had reportedly traveled on business in Mexico between April 14 and April 18. An email sent to local World Bank offices said that the employee has already recovered from the illness, but colleagues who were in contact with him when he was in the D.C. office on April 20 have been asked to work from home for the time being. A second test to confirm the swine flu diagnosis is reportedly underway. UPDATE: Official statement released by the World Bank is after the jump.
The World Bank today announced that a Bank staff member in Washington DC on April 29 was preliminarily diagnosed with the Swine Flu.
The infection is believed to have resulted from exposure while on business travel in Mexico between April 14-18, before Mexican health authorities and the WHO recognized and announced the epidemic. The final diagnosis has to be confirmed by a second test performed by the Center for Disease Control, a process which is underway.
Fortunately, the staff member sought treatment from his physician upon his return from travel and has made a full and rapid recovery. World Bank management and the Bank's Health Services department staff are in contact with the individual and will continue to monitor the situation.
Because the individual contracted the virus before we knew about the epidemic, he was in the office for part of the day on Monday, April 20. As a precautionary measure, Bank management is directly contacting colleagues who were in close contact with the staff member, and we have asked them to work from home until we get further guidance from the D.C. Department of Health authorities on next steps - including being tested for the virus.
We are also informing Mexico office staff who may have been in contact with the staffer to determine whether testing is warranted.
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Let the hysteria begin!
Note to self: stay the hell away from 18th Street Lounge, Current, and every other World Bank hiptard hangout.
i know it's twisted, but isn't it kind of entertaining to sit back and watch the freak-out?
Very true and yes.
So, you're not even slightly nervous? Because it'd be a lie to say that I wasn't.
Not even slightly. This will blow over as nothing more than media hysteria in short order.
no, i'm not even slightly nervous. i wouldn't give it a second thought if i wasn't having the story thrown in my face everywhere i turn...
Me neither. Now, if it was a flesh eating Zombifying virus that would be different. Even then, I am well prepared for such an event and IMGoph would be banging down my door for protection.
Well then....maybe this PSA will make you a little less at ease: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASibLqwVbsk
sorry, yonas, i'm not sure why you're trying to fearmonger today, but it's not going to work on me.
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza,
I opened the window,
And in-flew-enza.
Obey the laws
And wear the gauze.
Protect your jaws
From septic paws.
Exactly what I was thinking. A friend of mine lives in Mexico City and has a friend who had it a few months back. They said it was like the flu but worse, and they were given a clean bill of health within a week. Why the huge deal?
This seems like a good time to go on a nice long vacation at home with the old XBOX and some movies. Where's that duct tape?
I have felt this sudden urge lately to play in the mud. Permission to freak out??
http://doihaveswineflu.org/
Permission granted
OH MY GAWD! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIIEEEE!
What does DCist Davy have to say about this?
Sidenote, I saw a lady on the metro today wearing a face mask. Was it rude of me to slap her? I'm thinking now it probably was since we are all going to die b/c the swine flu is in DC!1!! OMG! RUNNNN!
Davy DCist for Swine Flu Czar, yes!
I know some friends in other areas who have already had it hit there. They aren't freaked yet, so we'll see.
My stock in Kissing Booths is plummeting.
Swine Flu = 1 week vaca from work....Time to start licking door knobs.
Its posers like you who are jumping on the bandwagon. I on the other hand never stopped licking doorknobs, handles and the ever-tasty railings.
Finally, now I can sell my designer surgical masks . Screw you, recession flu.
I for one, am so excited that I can wear my hello kitty face mask and not look like a total child molester!
On the bright side, maybe this will thin out the lunch line at Breadline.
Or the wait for a table at the vastly overrated Founding Farmers.
But who will eat their $10 potato chips and their cruelty-free, free-range pasta?
I'm hoping for a pork-product fire sale. My freezer has a lot of empty space right now.
Geewillerkerz! Calling all Junior Pigmen! Calling all Junior Pigmen! A major freak-out is expected in this major
metropolitan city. You are needed!
You are immune to the virus. By giving of ourselves, you will save the city. We need your bacon grease. The grease is a release.
I'm as much for taunting fearmongering as the next guy, but as the parent of a 22 month-old son, I'm not quite so cavalier about this as many of the previous posters.
Cytokine storm-inducing virus going pandemic isn't actually a sit back and laugh kind of thing.
I'm more worried about making sure my kids don't unbuckle their f**king seatbelts while the f**king car is moving. That, or getting creamed by some sonovabich who thinks he can talk on the phone and drive at the same time.
Global swine flu pandemic, not so much.
During the 2003-04 season, 153 flu-associated deaths in children were reported to CDC. (This data was collected by CDC.)
During the 2004-05 season, 47 deaths in children were reported to CDC. (This is the first year that influenza mortality in children became a nationally reportable condition.)
During the 2005-06 season, 46 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
During the 2006-07 season, 76 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
As of June 14, 2008, 83 deaths in children occurring during the 2007-08 season have been reported to CDC.
In 2008, there were 39,800 motor vehicle related fatalities in the U.S.
In the year 2008, an estimated 565,650 people died of cancer.
©2008, American Cancer Society, Inc., Surveillance Research
And like in WW2 there were like 18 million fatalities.
and 15,000 people were killed by guns. The vast majority of which, of course, were committed by law abiding citizens defending themselves.
Monkeyrotica, at
Wizzyliz, and your point is? Is it (a) that there are lots of other things to be worried about? If so, duh. Or is it (b) why worry about this influenza versus the 'common' flu, because look at how many more folks have died of the common flu, then your point is... for lack of a more precise term ... idiotic. Folks are still trying to figure this out (and it's handy being in a playgroup with parents at NIH and HHS), but *if* Mexico's experience doesn't end up being an outlier, then H1N1 will dwarf those figures. And *if* it follows the past influenza pandemic, we really won't see the serious problem until it goes through a second wave of transmission in another 4 months or so. Big ifs, but not so remote as to warrant pushing aside the worry as out-of-place.
Bro, you are posting on a snarky message board. If you want to be a superhero, look to Pigman as your idol, not Captain Serious.
bark bark.
Have you looked at the actual WHO numbers? There are only NINE confirmed deaths (8 in Mexico, 1 in the US). Yes, the threat is there but considering how many tens of thousands of people die from other "normal" flu strains and other varied communicable viruses that go uncovered by the media, if you're just now scared for your toddler's health I don't know what to tell you.
My point is that while some people are going to take this pandemic very seriously, it doesn't mean that I have to go to that place of self-centered fear. Did you even read this part of the World Bank statement?
"...the staff member sought treatment from his physician upon his return from travel and has made a full and rapid recovery."
You're right. It would kinda suck to be stuck in DC in August with thousands of infected corpses being burned in mass graves. On the other hand, the Feds have been looking for ways to use RFK Stadium and it is in the right part of town. My advice is to invest in those plummetting pork futures while they're still low, buy that log cabin property in the Shenandoah Valley, stock up on ammunition, and watch it all fall apart on pay-per-view. Definitely a lot less stressful than dealing with statistical insignificance and when the hoards of diseased dcists come to eat your brains, you can mow them down with impugnity. Gotta love that posse comitatus statute.
All I say is...
think of all those corpses, pig and man, gathered in a large pile, lit aflame...
burning like an oil field...
turning night into day and day into night....
the rich aromatic smell of death...
think of the fire, the FIRE!
(assuming they get permits and everything, of course.)
"corpses"..."mass graves"..."RFK"?
There's a DC United joke in there somewhere - but I'm not going to make it.
It lopped off my response to monkeyrotica... At less than two years old, my kiddo isn't yet coming close to pulling off Houdini escape acts from the car. Wait for it, wait for it.
As for the traffic fatalities stats. Yes, cars are very dangerous. (Tangent: That's why we let young kids fly for free without requiring them to have their own seat w/restraints on planes--not because going without a seat belt is particularly safe on planes, but because the extra cost of requiring them to have their own seat would push many parents to take long trips in cars, which is a more dangerous proposition.)
And hey, since cars are so darn dangerous and result in so many fatalities, let's not waste any time fretting on leaving the knives around where kids can reach them. Cause, you know, a risk means we can ignore an unrelated risk. Obviously.
And ClevelandRocks, when WW3 breaks out, I promise to put my pandemic concerns on the back burner. FYI, WW3 is not about to break out.
Trust me, when Supreme Commander James and the Cavaliers emotionally destroy Boston and LA through a form of psychic warfare far more deadly than any atom bomb, WW3 will break out. We will lay waste to coasts West and East. Rome shall burn!
I'd plan a vacation in June, if I were you.
bark bark.
Clearly the only sensible thiing for you to do is to duct tape and visqueen yourself and your child inside your house. It's what the NIH playgroup would recommend.
Bethesdaist, I think you're confusing it with the ready.gov/DHS playgroup. Verry different crowds. (Thank goodness.)
99% of the statistics you read online are inaccurate.
7 out of 16 people would have said that but not thought that.
Ha, ha, ha! The same is true of comments on Dcist.
I may have alzheimer's disease, but at least I don't have alzheimer's disease!
Maaaaaatloooooock!
And no generalization is worth a damn. Personally, I think Al Gore's prescient warnings about "ManBearPig" should have been heeded.
I hope Kermit the Frog is using the correct personal protective equipment.
This may rival the ">Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic in epic disaster folklore.
What would Absorbine Jr. do?
Get into fights with Absorbine Sr. about how he can build a better motorcycle that Sr and how much better life at the shop would be if Sr would just stay the hell out of his way and not have to talk about sticking his size 12 boots up someone's ass...etc etc...
Soften your hands while it does the dishes?
Wait until the other staffers find out the CDC will only help those who pay taxes in the U.S...
Panic, while counter productive, is the expected reaction. This is a virus that you have little control in preventing. It's not like HIV where you can just stop fucking or sharing needles and you'd be pretty safe.
Just wrap yourself in a towel and DON'T PANIC.
The time has come for an Obama press conference.
"We are all going to die." (Stunned gasps from White House Press Corp) "I meant eventually we are all going to die. Folks, we aren't immortal." Then Fox news would just play the first bit.
Just got a phone call from Captain Tripps. He sez Hello and not to panic... and something about some woman who turns men into pigs on an island. Avoid all pirates who've been there. Circes...something.
I swear to goodness I saw Flagg on the metro this morning. And then my train broke down.
And I'm carrying his seed!
world bank employee? i bet the virus was planted by a protester last weekend.
White people with dreadlocks carry every disease known to man. FACT!
so how about all the actual notes of money and coins that these people touched and our now flowing through our country? wtf? do something US govt.or you suck!
Dude, everyone uses cards now. Chill.
well i'll laugh when u use ur card at the ATM and it spits its amazing swine flu juices all over u
Doesn't Pigman have an long standing but never consummated love-thing with Ms. Piggy? Maybe he'll change his mind about not revealing his real identity to her now that SwineFlu is amok.
PIGMAN laughs about that affair. He said it was like humping 2 very large warm hams. Breathe like bacon.
The way I heard it was that Pigman wasn't so sure about her looks, but once they got down to it, it turns out Ms. Piggy shows up ready for the Porka-sutra. She put the sweet glaze on his honey baked ham.
It's Shake and Bake....and I helped!
Saw the weather report this morning. They are calling for a major Cytokine storm.
I kissed a pig....
...and i liked it.
I kissed a pig....
...and i liked it.
I kissed a pig....
...and i liked it.
I kissed a pig....
...and i liked it.
I kissed a pig....
...and i liked it.
That is a lot of very happy pigs.
Whose making love to your old lady? While your out kissing pigs.
If you didn't care what happened to me,
And I didn't care for you,
We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain.
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.
Can I wear my Government issued Evacuation Mask on Metro tonight?
What Government issued Evacuation masks? Dude, that's it.
That's why you've turned into a pig. It's your mask. See, the Gubment never sent out any masks. Did your mask have a Mexican stamp on it? OH Geeze! Dude, burn your mask!
Oh Snap!
I figured something was up when I saw the red bag it came in. I'm screwed. Guvment set me up!
M-O-O-N. That spells "pig virus"
Any one have a face mask with a grill on it?
I could make you one with my beadazzler!
If you sell that on etsy, let me know. I will snap it right up.
As long as the rhinestones aren't made from pigs that is, well I'll excuse it if they are made from bacon.
mmmm. bacon.
Once again, the Japanese are in the vanguard of the stylish surgical mask market.
Can you make it say "Four legs good, two legs bad".
KFC is advertising skinless chickens. What happened to their skins? What happened to the chicken lips? Where have all the flowers gone?
I should have invested in Peter Sarsgaard's SARS Guards
a few years ago.