United States navy halts aid vessel over flu

May 6, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

crew on the USS Dubuque were given anti-viral medication

EDITORS NOTE : Let’s hope these sailors are not being used as “guinea pigs”- as so many service men and women of the U.S. Military have been used in the past.

The US navy is postponing an aid mission to the South Pacific after a sailor on the vessel scheduled to take the trip developed swine flu.

Nearly 50 others sailors on the California-based USS Dubuque also showed symptoms of the new H1N1 virus.

A US Navy spokesman said officials would be looking at other alternatives to meet the mission’s objectives.

Earlier, a woman from Texas become the first US resident believed to have died from swine flu.

The woman – from Cameron County, close to the US border with Mexico – died earlier this week, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said.

But in a statement it added that she had been suffering “chronic underlying health conditions”.

Lt Cmdr John Daniels said the navy was using “using prudent judgment” in cancelling the deployment of the USS Dubuque.

The amphibious transport vessel normally carries more than 400 crew and about 900 Marines.

It had been due to depart in early June for Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands as part of America’s Pacific Partnership humanitarian programme.

Lt Daniels said the mission would still go ahead at some point but the USS Dubuque would no longer be part of it.

Navy Lt Sean Robertson said ill crew members had been treated with anti-viral medication and the remaining crew had been given prophylaxis.

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