Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tracking the Swine Flu Outbreak: Tuesday. And: The Swine Flu Index (*RXFLU)

The Tickerspy Swine Flu and Bird Flu Stocks (*RXFLU) :


Today: 0.0%
1-month: +34.3%
All-time: -30.0%
Today vs S&P 500 : +0.4%
1-month vs S&P 500: +29.5%
All-time vs S&P 500: +11.5%

Index Description: These companies all produce or are investigating production of treatments and vaccines for swine flu, bird flu, and other similar flu-like diseases with pandemic potential. Also included are companies that produce flu diagnostic tests.

Index Components

The Wall Street Journal's Health blog was a bit slow out of the blocks but is now putting together a major blog effort on the pandemic:

This live blog will track developments throughout Tuesday related to swine flu, from The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and other news services. For more coverage of the flu, see the WSJ.com Swine Flu page and the WSJ.com Health Blog. Also, see yesterday’s live blog and track human cases of swine flu with WSJ.com’s interactive map.

To follow this live blog day-to-day, please bookmark: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/category/swine-flu-tracker/

LATEST UPDATES

4:51 p.m.: Ascension Parochial School in Manhattan denies there is a swine flu outbreak. City Hall says Mayor Bloomberg “misspoke, and that there is only one suspected case at Ascension.

4 p.m.: Health officials on Tuesday said they expect the swine flu outbreak to widen in the U.S. beyond the 64 confirmed cases. “I really think we need to be prepared for the worsening of the situation,” said Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a Senate subcommittee hearing.

3:47 p.m.: Amy Merrick reports on pharmacy sales after the outbreak: Walgreen and Rite Aid said customers worried about swine flu are snapping up hand sanitizer, face masks and antiviral medications — in some cases causing a scramble to replenish supplies....MORE

And:
Swine Flu: Live Blogging CDC’s Tuesday Call