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THURSDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) -- The initial scare posed by the sudden emergence of swine flu in April may have passed, but federal officials are warning against complacency and bracing for the virus' expected return in the fall.
On Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and others led an H1N1 swine flu "preparedness summit" at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The summit comes amid reports that the H1N1 virus continues to infect people in the United States and at least 100 other countries. Infections are becoming increasingly widespread in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season is under way.
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"Scientists and public health experts forecast that the impact of H1N1 may well worsen in the fall -- when the regular flu season hits, or even earlier, when schools start to open -- which is only five or six weeks away in some cases," Sebelius said in a news release.
"The goal of the summit is to launch a national influenza campaign by bringing federal, state and local officials, emergency managers, educators and others together with the nation's public health experts to build on and tailor states' existing pandemic plans, share lessons learned and best practices during the spring and summer H1N1 wave, and discuss preparedness priorities," she added.
The H1N1 swine flu first surfaced in the United States in mid-April, and has since infected an estimated 1 million Americans. Although the virus continues to produce mild illness and patients recover fairly quickly, 170 people in the United States have died from the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The most recent figures from the World Health Organization put the number of deaths globally at 429.
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