U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency in Response to Swine Flu

April 27 -- MONDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials declared a public health emergency Sunday in response to the swine flu outbreak, as the number of confirmed cases nationwide rose to 20.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration was a precautionary measure, and did not mean that the threat posed by the outbreak was worsening. But, the move allows federal and state governments easier access to flu tests and medications, she said.

"That [a public health emergency] sounds more severe than it really is. This is standard operating procedure, and allows us to free up federal, state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation. It allows us to use medication and diagnostic tests that we might not otherwise be able to use, and it releases funds for the acquisition of additional antivirals," Napolitano said during a press conference at the White House.

Napolitano said the federal government had 50 million doses of the antiviral flu medication Tamiflu, and a quarter of those doses were being released to states, if needed, "particularly prioritizing the states where we already have confirmed incidence of the flu."

All 20 U.S. patients -- eight in New York, seven in California, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio -- have recovered, Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the news conference.

In a separate Sunday afternoon press conference, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program, said that it's still too early to say that the flu outbreak in the U.S. will be less severe than the one occurring in Mexico.

"Right now it's premature to say the disease in Mexico is different than here. We don't have that many infected people at this point and we don't have great information from Mexico yet," Schuchat said. "Certainly, we have deaths in Mexico and we have not -- fortunately -- seen them yet here, but we fear that we may. We need to prepare for the idea that we will have additional cases, additional affected states and I do fear that we will have deaths here."

Meanwhile, in Mexico, believed to be the source of the outbreak, authorities continued to take dramatic steps over the weekend -- including suspending public gatherings -- to try to contain the swine flu outbreak that officials say has killed as many as 103 people, and sickened more than 1,600 others in that country.