Update on the Novel Influenza A H1N1 Virus and New Findings Published

Glen Nowak: Thank you, and my apologies to all the reporters who tried to call in, and ran into a dead line, as I understand it. We've been working with our phone services to fix that problem, and I think we have managed to get it solved, so, again, I apologize for that inconvenience in getting this call started today. Today's update, we're going to focus on two things. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's national center for immunization and respiratory diseases is going to give an update on the novel H1N1 in the United States, and we are also joined today by Nancy Cox, Dr. Nancy Cox, that's C-O-X, who is director of CDC's influenza division, and she'll be talking about a paper that's been published today in "Science" that looks at the origins of this novel H1N1 swine influenza virus. So, I will turn it over first to Dr. Anne Schuchat for an update.

Anne Schuchat: Good afternoon, everyone. You know, this is -- we're heading into Memorial Day weekend now, and it's a time to reflect on sacrifice and service, and of course, observance of this holiday often also involves travel and other outdoor activities that involve crowds. I hope people will remember to be safe this weekend and to think about personal protection and personal responsibility in the context of the current outbreak of Novel H1N1 virus. This is no time for us to relax on the important reminders people have been taking to wash their hands, cover their coughs and to avoid traveling if they're sick or their children are sick. But we do hope people will be able to enjoy the weekend. The new virus continues to circulate in the U.S., and while it still is a very new virus, it appears to be behaving a lot like seasonal flu, except, of course, it's circulating so late in the spring. We also know that even the seasonal flu viruses cause much illness and harm each year in the U.S., and we are continuing to take this new virus very seriously. While we're seeing activity decline in some areas, we s...