Beginning only a few days ago, but spreading far and wide in a matter of days, the swine flu outbreak reached "Public Health Emergency" status today. Regular swine flu updates are now provided on the CDC web site, and media outlets are marshalling around-the-clock monitoring to keep a worried public informed but not panicked.

As this report is being posted, U.S. lab-confirmed cases have been reported in Ohio, California, Kansas, Texas and New York.  So far, reported U.S. cases have been mild, but transmission from person-to-person is common and already in evidence in the case of a Kansas couple where one spouse had travelled to Mexico.

Concern is mounting in Mexico, where more than 80 persons have died.  Experts do not yet understand why the severity of the illness has been greater in Mexican cases.

New cases were reported in the past 48 hours in New Zealand, British Columbia, Nova Scotia.  Some officials are considering mounting responses similar to those measures employed to combat SARS, but as of now, the U.S. is not requiring mandatory traveler screenings.

The World Health Organization will consider whether to raise the pandemic alert level to Level 4 on Tuesday. The New York Times quoted the W.H.O as concerned that "raising it to level 4 would be a very serious signal that countries ought to be dusting off pandemic plans," citing remarks by Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director general of the W.H.O. 

Planners with existing public health resource simulation models will be dusting off, if not activating those models -- if they have not already done so.