ATLANTA , Georgia ( CNN ) -- In a bustling room full of computers , giant wall-mounted monitors and constantly ringing telephones , a newly gathered army is fighting a war . The swine flu outbreak has kept workers busy at the Emergency Operations Center at the CDC.. The control room is staffed 24/7 , and the leader recently had to tell his fighters to make sure to take a day off per week . This is the Emergency Operations Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , which has ramped up its resources to tackle swine flu , a new disease that experts say may evolve into a global pandemic . `` The last time when we were really at this level was Hurricane Katrina , '' said Toby Crafton , operations manager . The CDC has 400 people tasked to work on the virus , also called the 2009 H1N1 flu , Crafton said . The agency had deployed 50 people to various U.S. states and Mexico by Friday . The Mexican government asked the CDC to help facilitate laboratory testing of the virus during a conference call with Canada and the United States , he said . Watch as Dr. Sanjay Gupta tours the Emergency Operations Center » . `` We do n't go anywhere unilaterally . We do n't go into any state unless asked , '' Crafton said . `` So if the state health department or the state health director or the government feels like their capacity is exceeded or they need us for our scientific expertise , they will ask us to come . '' Explainer : What you should know about 2009 H1N1 flu » . The U.S. has also committed to giving Mexico 400,000 doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu , a shipment believed to have arrived Friday morning , said Dr. Anne Schuchat , interim deputy director for science and public health at the CDC . In front of each computer in the Emergency Operations Center is a placard : Ethics , Immunization , Mental Health , Security , and dozens more . The people -- some in jeans , some in skirts , some in uniforms with military stripes -- are fielding phones calls to their respective departments . Elsewhere in laboratories , samples of the virus arrive in FedEx and World Courier packages for analysis , triple packaged to avoid leaking . Scientists are working on the genetic sequencing of the virus , as well as growing a strain that functions as a vaccine . Although the CDC is not in the business of mass-producing vaccines , researchers there are working on developing one . A vaccine strain is being grown and characterized , Schuchat said . Once a suitable candidate virus is developed -- it takes about three weeks -- the CDC theoretically would send it to a manufacturer , which would need another eight to 10 weeks to determine production possibilities as well as the dosage , said Dr. Nancy Cox , director of the CDC 's Influenza Division , at a press conference Friday . But it would not interfere with the seasonal influenza vaccine . `` If a vaccine for this new virus is prepared , it would be prepared either in parallel with or after the seasonal vaccine is already produced , '' Cox said . Still , there has not been a recommendation to mass produce a vaccine for swine flu . The U.S. part of that decision would come from the Department of Health and Human Services . Map : Where the flu is » . Researchers are still struggling to understand the origin of the virus . `` What is n't making sense right now is why there were n't reports of illness in pigs , '' said Michael Shaw , leader of the laboratory team force for the 2009 H1N1 virus . `` Usually , if you find a human who has been infected by a swine influenza virus , you look around , you start seeing sick pigs , and we have n't seen that . '' Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta talk with Michael Shaw about what CDC is doing to combat virus » . It is possible that the virus did not originate in pigs . Swine viruses have been found in turkeys , for example , Shaw said . The 2009 H1N1 virus has a `` level 2 '' containment distinction at the CDC , although extra precautions from `` level 3 '' are being applied , Shaw said . That means swine flu is one containment level below avian flu , which was at 3 . One key handling difference is that lab workers had to shower after being exposed to the avian virus , he said . Back in the Emergency Operations Center , computer screens glow with e-mails , maps , databases , slides and articles related to the new flu strain . `` We 're going to continue to be vigilant and continue to work as hard as we can until it 's over , '' Crafton said .
CDC has 400 people tasked to track and fight the 2009 H1N1 flu virus . Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta , Georgia , operates 24/7 . Researchers still struggling to understand the origin of the virus .