US travel warning sir you probably heard the warning from the uh Health commissioner of the European Union just in the last few minutes warning against all non-essential travel to the United States uh given the fact that we've had 20 mild cases in this country is is is that a prudent warning you know it's very important that people look at travel in a situation where there's an outbreak taking place um we've posted recommendations regarding travel to Mexico and and notified people about an outbreak taking place there and we'll continue to look at those you know it would be my recomend mendation to a family member if they had non-essential travel to Mexico that they really reconsider that at this time right but the health commissioner is warning against travel the EU Health commissioner warning against travel to the United States that could have a huge economic impact is is that the right warning to S it this time I don't think that's warranted at this point we've identified 20 cases of swine influenza in this country um thankfully all of those people have recovered only one of those people has uh required hospitalization we are looking very hard for cases of swine flu I expect we're going to find some and we'll find some of of a of increasing severity in more of the mild cases um at this point I would not put a travel restriction or recommendation against coming to the United States so when when we look at pandemic history the history of these outbreaks epidemics or or pandemics you know a couple of reference points in history come to mind 1976 where it created a small cluster created a huge concern and prompted a nationwide back vaccination program and then there was 1918 where you had 20 million people die worldwide is there any indication whether this is going to be 1976 or whether it might be 1918 you know that's a great question every outbreak of disease uh is unique and as it progresses we learn more one of the critical questions is why are we seeing such a different Spectrum here in the United States than what they're experiencing in Mexico we're in Mexico as part of a trational team we have scientist on the ground who are working with the Mexican government and the Canadian government to try and answer that specific question and what is the United States doing to protect uh and prepare at least uh for the potential of an epidemic in this country you know we've been planning for years for the pandemic preparedness potential of of a pandemic focusing on Aven influenza and that has left us much better prepared than we would have been a decade ago there are things that have been taking place at the state and local level but it's very important some of the points that were made uh earlier about personal preparedness what you can do with simple handwashing or use of alcohol hand gels that can greatly reduce the likelihood that you will get sick now we talk about preparedness in terms of potential treatments and our Dr sanj Gupta who you know well uh has been on this morning talking about Tamiflu and relenza and and the fact that those don't actually cure they don't actually kill the virus but they do shorten the duration of disease but I've read some recent literature that suggest that that Tamiflu uh or at least strange of even the normal winter flu have become resistant against tlu so just how effective are our antivirals the ones that are now being put out there in the system to potentially combat any epidemic in this country that's an important question we did see during this seasonal flu season strains that were resistant to ult T osel tamav or or tlu this strain of swine flu is susceptible it can be treated with osil tavir or zamir and we will continue to monitor those strains and let people know if there's any change in that but for now early treatment with those drugs is effective or we would expect it to be effective we'll do studies to make sure that what we're saying about Effectiveness is correct