Key Facts about Swine Influenza (Swine Flu)

What is Swine Influenza?
Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine flu viruses cause high levels of illness and low death rates in pigs. Swine influenza viruses may circulate among swine throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter months similar to outbreaks in humans. The classical swine flu virus (an influenza type A H1N1 virus) was first isolated from a pig in 1930.

How many swine flu viruses are there?
Like all influenza viruses, swine flu viruses change constantly. Pigs can be infected by avian influenza and human influenza viruses as well as swine influenza viruses. When influenza viruses from different species infect pigs, the viruses can reassort (i.e. swap genes) and new viruses that are a mix of swine, human and/or avian influenza viruses can emerge. Over the years, different variations of swine flu viruses have emerged. At this time, there are four main influenza type A virus subtypes that have been isolated in pigs: H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1. However, most of the recently isolated influenza viruses from pigs have been H1N1 viruses..."

Agencies Propose Clarifications to Credit Card Rules
"The Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the National Credit Union Administration today proposed clarifications to aspects of their December 2008 final rules under the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) prohibiting certain unfair credit card practices. The Federal Reserve Board also proposed clarifications to its December 2008 final rule under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) amending Regulation Z to improve the disclosures consumers receive in connection with credit card accounts and other revolving credit plans..."

The 2009 Economic Landscape:How the Recession Is Unfolding across Four U.S. Regions
"...The following series of articles takes a closer look at the distinct way that this recession is playing out in four major regions of the country. The first article describes how the latest downturn is exacerbating long-term problems in the manufacturing sector of the Industrial Midwest. In the second article, we explore how
formerly booming housing markets in Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada have given way to a housing bust that has sharply reversed the momentum of the regional economy. The third article focuses on the impact of financial market turmoil on New York City and other financial centers along the East Coast, while the fourth article outlines why a number of states in the nation’s midsection have fared better than most thus far because of their high dependence on energy and agricultural
production."

Older Americans Month: May 2009
Find information on seniors from the Census Bureau's special "Facts for Features" series on Older Americans Month, May 2009.

Census in Schools
Find useful information for teachers and students on the use of census information in schools, especially as it pertains to the upcoming 2010 census.

HHS Releases Guidance for Securing Health Information and Preventing Harm from Breaches
"...The guidance issued today provides steps entities can take to secure personal health information and establishes the trigger for when entities must notify that patient data has been compromised. This guidance is related to “breach notification” regulations, which will be issued by HHS and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) respectively. The HHS regulations will apply to entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the FTC regulation will apply to vendors of personal health records and certain others not covered by HIPAA. The Recovery Act requires that these regulations be published within 180 days of enactment."

President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum and Attorney General Holder’s FOIA Guidelines Creating a "New Era of Open Government"
"Agencies were directed to respond to requests "promptly and in a spirit of cooperation." The President also called on agencies to "adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure" and to apply that presumption "to all decisions involving [the] FOIA." This presumption of disclosure includes taking "affirmative steps to make information public," and utilizing "modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government."

The President directed the Attorney General to issue FOIA Guidelines for the heads of executive departments and agencies "reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency." On March 19, 2009, during Sunshine Week, Attorney General Eric Holder issued those Guidelines. The Attorney General highlighted that the FOIA "reflects our nation’s fundamental commitment to open government" and that his Guidelines are "meant to underscore that commitment and to ensure that it is realized in practice."..."

Setting and Valuing Health Insurance Benefits
"This report briefly describes some of the key concepts and policy issues around specifying and valuing health insurance benefits.

“Actuarial value” is a summary measure of a health insurance plan’s benefit generosity. It is expressed as the percentage of medical expenses estimated to be paid by the insurer for a standard population and set of allowed charges. An actuarial value may also be referred to as a “benefit rate.” One purpose of an actuarial value is to distill all the benefit and enrollee cost-sharing
provisions of a health insurance plan into a single number, for easier comparisons among plans.
For example, under Massachusetts’ health reform, individuals purchasing unsubsidized coverage through the Connector have the choice of three benefit levels: Gold, Silver and Bronze. A Gold benefit package must be actuarially equivalent to the Gold package specified by the Connector, with low copayments and no deductible. The Gold benefit package has an estimated actuarial value of 93%. The Silver benefit package that an insurer develops can have greater cost-sharing (e.g., a deductible, higher copayments) but must have an actuarial value between 67% and 81%. The Bronze package must have an actuarial value of roughly 56%."

Retirement Savings and Household Wealth in 2007
"About half of all workers in the United States participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan of some kind, a proportion that has remained relatively stable over the past thirty years. Beginning in the early 1980s, however, employers began to move away from traditional pension plans – also known as defined benefit (DB) plans – to defined contribution (DC) plans, like those authorized under section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. Unlike DB plans, which are required by federal law to offer a benefit in the form of a life annuity, DC plans are individual accounts that typically pay the employee a lump sum at retirement. In 2007, approximately 21 million workers in the private sector participated in defined benefit plans, while more than 40
million workers participated in defined contribution plans..."

Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance --- United States, 2005--2007
"Overexposure to inorganic lead continues to be an important health problem worldwide. Furthermore, recent research has caused increased concerns about the toxicity of lead at low doses (1,2). Lead can cause acute and chronic adverse effects in multiple organ systems, ranging from subclinical changes in function to symptomatic, life-threatening intoxication. Since 1992, CDC's state-based Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES) program has tracked laboratory-reported elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) in U.S. adults. The vast majority (95%) of reported elevated BLLs have been work related. One of the Healthy People 2010 national public health objectives is to reduce to zero the prevalence of BLLs ≥25 µg/dL among adults (objective 20-7) (3). ABLES surveillance results through 2004 have been published previously (4--6). This report summarizes results for the period 2005--2007. An overall decline in national rates of elevated BLLs among state residents plus nonresidents from 14.0 in 1994 to 7.8 in 2007 has been observed. The national rate of state resident adults with BLLs ≥25 µg/dL was 7.2 per 100,000 employed adults in 2005 and 7.4 in 2006 and 2007. Industry subsectors with the highest numbers of lead-exposed workers were manufacturing of storage batteries, mining of lead and zinc ores, and painting and paper hanging. The most common nonoccupational exposures were shooting firearms; remodeling, renovating, or painting; retained bullets (gunshot wounds); and eating food containing lead. These findings indicate a need for increased preventive interventions to promote healthier workplaces and help move toward the Healthy People 2010 objective."

Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq, March 2009
"This report to Congress, Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq, is submitted pursuant to Section 9204 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2008, Public Law 110-252.1 This report is also submitted pursuant to Section 1508(c) of the Department of Defense Authorization Act for 2009, Public Law 110-417. The report includes specific performance indicators and measures of progress toward political, economic, and security stability in Iraq, as directed by legislation. This is the
fifteenth report in this series of quarterly reports. The most recent report was submitted in January 2009. The report complements other reports and information about Iraq provided to Congress and is not intended as a single source of all information about the combined efforts or the future strategy of the United States, its Coalition partners, or Iraq..."

International Travel and Health, 2009 edition.
Provides information on health risks for international travelers

Vision of High-Speed Rail in America
"President Obama proposes to help address the nation's transportation challenges by launching a new and efficient high-speed passenger rail network in 100-600 mile corridors that connect communities across America. The Strategic Plan outlines the President’s vision that would transform the nation’s transportation system by rebuilding existing rail infrastructure while developing a comprehensive high-speed intercity passenger rail network through a long-term commitment at both the federal and state levels. This plan draws from the successful highway and aviation development models with a 21st century solution that focuses on clean, energy-efficient rail transportation..."

Assessment of the Impacts of Global Change on Regional U.S. Air Quality: A Synthesis of Climate Change Impacts on Ground-Level Ozone (An Interim Report of the U.S. EPA Global Change Research Program)
"The earth’s climate governs several of the natural processes that influence air quality. Climate change, along with other aspects of global change, including changes in population, land use and the technologies employed for energy production and transportation, may alter the capacity for US states to successfully attain the national air quality standards in the future. In 2000, the US EPA ORD Global Change Research Program (GCRP) initiated a research and assessment program devoted to the evaluation of the potential impact of global change on US air quality. The overall design of the research and assessment program benefitted from input provided by the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, several EPA Regional offices, and the climate change research community. The EPA GCRP air quality research and assessment program is analyzing the complex role of global change processes in US air quality in two phases. The major effort undertaken in Phase 1 included the development of modeling tools that:

1. incorporate the physical and chemical links between global- and regional-scale meteorological processes to project future regional air quality, and;
2. account for changes in energy and transportation technologies in future air quality-related emissions."

EPA Finds Greenhouse Gases Pose Threat to Public Health, Welfare / Proposed Finding Comes in Response to 2007 Supreme Court Ruling
"After a thorough scientific review ordered in 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed finding Friday that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.

The proposed finding, which now moves to a public comment period, identified six greenhouse gases that pose a potential threat...

EPA’s proposed endangerment finding is based on rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis of six gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride – that have been the subject of intensive analysis by scientists around the world. The science clearly shows that concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions, and these high levels are very likely the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate..."