H1N1 UPDATE: 14,581 CONFIRMED CASES

UNCLAS BERLIN 001039 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER STATE FOR OES/IHB STATE FOR AID/GH/HIDN USDA PASS TO APHIS HHS PASS TO CDC HHS FOR OGHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU ECON PREL SOCI CASC EAGR MX GM SUBJECT: H1N1 UPDATE: 14,581 CONFIRMED CASES REF: A) Berlin 1025, B) Berlin 1023 and previous. ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: The number of confirmed H1N1 infections in Germany increased slightly by 256 cases, bringing the total as of August 25 to 14,581. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) At its August 25 press briefing, the National Reference Center for Influenza at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed a total of 256 new (laboratory and non-laboratory) H1N1 cases in Germany, increasing the total number of H1N1 cases to 14,581. New cases were distributed among eight federal states as follows: Baden-Wuerttemberg (77),Bavaria (69),North Rhine-Westphalia (40),Rhineland-Palatinate (32), Berlin (16),Hamburg (11),Saxony (9)and Bremen (2). ¶3. (U) According to RKI, 182 of the total 256 new cases are attributed to people returning from travel abroad. New cases include non-laboratory H1N1 cases that exhibited symptoms after being in contact with a laboratory confirmed infected person. ¶4. (U) North Rhine-Westphalia remains the German state with the highest number of confirmed virus cases with a total of 4,768, followed by Lower-Saxony (2,321) and Baden- Wuerttemberg (1,893 cases). About 24 percent (3,449) of all confirmed infections in Germany have resulted from domestic transmission. MURPHY