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Inside The CDC's Battle Against H1N1

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Nov 2, 2009 6:06 pm US/Eastern

Inside The CDC's Battle Against H1N1

ATLANTA (KDKA) ― There's a lot of talk about the H1N1 virus. You may be sick of hearing about it, but it's a serious illness.

In fact, the White House recently declared it as a national emergency.

The concern continues to grow as more and more young people die from the virus.

In the war against H1N1, the men and women working at the Centers for Disease Control are soldiers doing battle and there's no underestimating the enemy.

Chief Health Officer Anne Schuchat told KDKA's David Highfield that H1N1 has made for a very unusual situation for this time of year.

"What we're seeing right now is very high levels. We have widespread disease, 48 states are seeing widespread flu activity. That's just unheard of," Schuchat said.

In the Emergency Operations Center, everyone is working on H1N1 in some way. One room is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Also, there's a huge video wall to chart the latest information they've discovered and they've mapped out how the virus has spread.

In a series of maps, it's easy to see how H1N1 moved into the Pittsburgh area during that time.

Pennsylvania turned brown in mid-September, meaning the infection became widespread and then two weeks later, Ohio and then two weeks after that West Virginia.

Specimens from hospitalized patients across the nation and elsewhere are sent to the CDC to be examined in the lab.

They check to see if the virus is changing, or becoming more severe.

No one knows how long the war on H1N1 will take, but the list of wounded is different than with other strains of the flu and that's one reason the public is so concerned.

In addition, there have been some shortages of the liquid Tamilfu for children that's used to treat H1N1.

The CDC has announced it's releasing the last of it from a national stockpile.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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