Chronology of the Swine Flu

Research from the Washington Post Newspaper -- May 3, 2009 edition

March 28 - Nine-year old girl in Southern Califormia (Patient B) has a cough and fever.

March 30 - Ten-year old San Diego County boy (Patient A) is taken to an out patient clinic with vomiting and a fever.

April 1 - Naval research center in San Diego uses rapid test on Patient A: cannot identify strain of influenza.

April 2 - Patient A specimen sent to Marshfield Clinic research lab in Wisconsin; strain not identified.

April 4 - Toddler and his family travel from their home in Mexico to Brownsville, Texas.

April 8 - Toddler becomes ill while on a visit to Brownsville.

April 10 - Patient A sample arrives at Wisconsin state lab.

April 13 - Wisconsin state lab test Patient A sample twice, but cannot identify the subtype; ships sample to CBC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

April 13 - A member of President Obama's preparation team becomes sick in Mexico and returns to the Washington DC area.

April 14 - CDC verifies Patient A samples are influenza A, but cannot initially identify subtype.

April 15 - CDC identifies strain in Patient A as H1N1. Two Texas teens test positive for unknown influenza A.

April 16 - CDC requests Mexican samples; Mexicans contact PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) about respiratory outbreak.

April 16 - President Obama visits Mexico.

April 17 - CBC confirms Patient B has the same swine flu.

April 19 - Conference call between CDC and California health department.

April 21 - CDC issues first dispatch warning of a novel virus in California patients.

April 22 - CDC activates its 24-hour Emergency Operations Center.

April 23 - CDC holds a 2pm conference call with 50-state public health labs. At 8pm, CDC confirms swine flu in Mexican samples.

April 24 - CDC on highest alert status.

April 25 - CDC sends first team to Mexico.

April 26 - United States confirms 20 cases and declares "public health emergency."

April 27 - Mexican Toddler dies in Texas, first U.S. fatality. Mexico confirms 26 cases and 7 deaths; U.S. confirms 40 cases.

April 29 - CDC sends two more teams to Mexico.

*May 5 - 36 states in the US have Swine Flu-infected citizens.

*May 5 - Judy Trunnell, a 33-year-old schoolteacher who had just given birth to a healthy baby girl, dies in Texas. First American death and second to die in the United States from the Swine Flu.

*May 7th, 2009 - In the United States, the Swine Flu is in forty-one States, there are 896 cases, and two deaths.

*May 9th, 2009 -- In Washington State, a thirty-something man died of the swine flu. The third swine flu victim in the United States.


*Not from Washington Post article