News of extreme importance!

[Eliza]

Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved emergency use of the experimental intravenous antiviral drug peramivir

Responding to a request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved emergency use of the experimental intravenous antiviral drug peramivir to treat hospitalized patients with pandemic H1N1 influenza.

Tamiflu, the primary drug used to treat swine flu, is given orally, and Relenza, also used, is given as a nasal spray. Some experiments have been conducted with an intravenous form of Relenza and it has been credited with saving at least one swine flu patient's life, but it is considered more experimental than peramivir.

The problem with existing drugs is that some people have difficulties tolerating the oral Tamiflu and that the nasal spray Relenza may not get deep enough into the lungs to reach the swine flu virus when it causes viral pneumonia. The emergency use authorization says peramivir can be used when other drugs have failed or when delivery by a route other than intravenous is not expected to be feasible.

Peramivir, manufactured by BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., is still in Phase 3 clinical trials. Known side effects include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and decreases in white blood cell count, all of which stop when its use is halted. It has not been tested in pregnant women.

[Eliza]

A/H1N1 flu vaccine withdrawn in Canada due to high number of allergic reactions

www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-20 23:36:46 Print

OTTAWA, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- About 170,000 doses of A/H1N1 flu vaccine are being withdrawn in Canada from Friday after health officials reported an unusually high number of allergic reactions.

Health officials in the western province of Manitoba reported Thursday a higher-than-usual number of allergic reactions after using vaccine from a batch manufactured by a factory of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Quebec.

Usually one or two allergic reactions are expected for a batch of that size, but Manitoba has recorded six severe allergic reactions.

GSK said Friday in a statement that the recall was a precaution and they would investigate to see whether there was something wrong with the batch.

Another province which has been using the vaccine did not report any rise in adverse reactions.

Of the 6.6 million people that had been vaccinated, there were 36 serious adverse reactions, Dr. David Butler-Jones, the country's chief public health officer, said earlier this week.

One person was believed to have died from a serious reaction to the vaccine, but the death had not been conclusively linked to the flu shot, he said.

[AC]

Eliza...thanks for these posts.

[Eliza]

Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I) Mortality Surveillance
During week 45, 7.5% of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. This percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 6.8% for week 45. Including week 44, P&I mortality has been above threshold for seven consecutive weeks.

This simply means that 7 1/2% of all deaths reported were related to pneumonia and influenza.

We've been above the epidemic threshold for seven straight weeks now.

I believe the very slight improvement, is due to warm tempratures.

Bigfish-

[Eliza]

Experts believe bacteria living in the nose and throat get into lung tissue that has been inflamed by fighting the flu virus and cause pneumonia. They may then reach the blood or brain, causing even more dangerous infections. The most common sign, Dr. Schuchat said, is a sudden relapse in a flu patient who had been recovering.

Dr. Schuchat was both alerting doctors to watch for such infections and endorsing a vaccine that prevents them. The Pneumovax vaccine, which protects against 23 strains of the most common pneumonia bacteria, is routinely given to adults over 65. But any adult with asthma, emphysema, a smoking habit, diabetes, or lung, heart, kidney or liver disease should get it now, Dr. Schuchat said. Only a quarter of those younger adults have probably had it.

[Eliza]

New review questions benefit of Roche drug Tamiflu

Tue, Dec 8 2009

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - There is no clear evidence that Roche's widely used drug Tamiflu prevents complications such as pneumonia in people with flu, a group of medical experts said on Tuesday.

Governments around the world have mobilized Tamiflu stockpiles to fight swine flu but an updated review of past clinical trial results found there was insufficient data to know if the medicine cut complications in otherwise healthy people.

Roche contested the finding and said it stood behind the robustness and integrity of previous data showing a benefit.

Sales of the antiviral drug, also known by the generic name oseltamivir, have soared since the start of the current H1N1 flu pandemic in April due to massive government orders.

That has provided a windfall for the Swiss drugmaker, which said in October it expected Tamiflu revenue to reach 2.7 billion Swiss francs ($2.65 billion) this year.

The latest analysis, which updates an earlier 2006 review, was published online by the British Medical Journal, whose editor-in-chief, Fiona Godlee, said it left important questions about Tamiflu's effectiveness unresolved.

"Governments around the world have spent billions of pounds on a drug that the scientific community now finds itself unable to judge," she said.

The BMJ report was also the subject of a Channel 4 News story on British television.

At issue is whether or not certain previously published trials on Tamiflu should be included or excluded when analyzing the drug's effectiveness.

For the latest review, a team led by Chris Del Mar from Bond University in Australia looked at 20 trials -- but they decided to drop eight that were included in the earlier review because they were unable to independently verify the results.

As a result they concluded that while Tamiflu reduced flu symptoms by about a day they had no confidence in previous claims that it cut the risk of flu complications.

David Reddy, Roche's pandemic taskforce leader, said the expert group was wrong to exclude the data from the eight studies.

He told reporters that Roche would have supplied full data on the contested studies if the investigators had signed confidentiality agreements, which were drawn up to protect patients.

"We fully stand behind the robustness of the data and the integrity of that data, particularly the efficacy and safety of Tamiflu, the conduct of our clinical studies and the publication process," Reddy said.

Tamiflu, which Roche manufactures under license from Gilead Sciences, has been commercially available for 10 years as a treatment for seasonal flu and used by around 68 million people worldwide.

The pill competes with another less widely used flu medicine from GlaxoSmithKline, called Relenza, which must be inhaled.

[Eliza]

This news is very disturbing. Week 47, I believe the death rate was 7.2%. I really expected the news, or week 48, would be that the P&I index, would have fallen below the epidemic threshold.

E

A/H1N1 deaths in U.S. still above epidemic threshold
2009-12-12 10:50:38 Print

HOUSTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Hospitalizations and deaths related to the A/H1N1 virus in the United States now continue to be higher than expected, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday.

"During week 48 (ending on Dec. 5), 7.8 percent of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to pneumonia and influenza (P&I). This percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 7.1 percent for week 48," the CDC said on its website.
Including week 48, the proportion of deaths attributed to P&I was above the epidemic threshold for the tenth consecutive week, the CDC added.

[Eliza]

Tragedy

[Eliza]

Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I) Mortality Surveillance
During week 51, 7.7% of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. This percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 7.4% for week 51.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

[Eliza]

http://www.vancouverite.com/2010/01/02/ ... in-in-u-s/

Swine Flu spikes again in U.S

ATLANTA – There has been an upsurge in visits to doctors for Swine Flu and deaths associated with flu and pneumonia are again higher than the national epidemic threshold, the CDC said in a report released on Saturday.

“Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) nationally increased slightly this week over last week. This is the first increase in this indicator after eight consecutive weeks of national decreases,” said the CDC.

“The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) based on the 122 Cities Report increased over the previous week and is now back above the epidemic threshold after dipping below it last week for the first time in 11 weeks,” it said.

But there is no indication that the expected third wave of Swine Flu has struck. One explanation for the increase in visits to doctors is that people sometimes put off visits until after Christmas as is often seen in other flu seasons.

But the CDC did not offer an explanation about why the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia moved higher again after dipping the previous week for the first time. Other experts had suggested Christmas gatherings may cause the virus to spread more.

Swine Flu continued to kill more children. The CDC has said the pandemic virus killed five times more kids than a regular flu season.

“In addition, four flu-related pediatric deaths were reported this week compared to 9 reported last week: two of these deaths reported this week were associated with laboratory confirmed 2009 H1N1, and two were associated with influenza A viruses that were not subtyped (suspected to be Swine Flu.)

“Since April 2009, CDC has received reports of 289 laboratory-confirmed pediatric deaths: 243 due to 2009 H1N1, 44 pediatric deaths that were laboratory confirmed as influenza, but the flu virus subtype was not determined, and two pediatric deaths that were associated with seasonal influenza viruses.”

“Since August 30, 2009, CDC has received 225 reports of influenza-associated pediatric deaths that occurred during the current influenza season (42 deaths in children less than 2 years old, 25 deaths in children 2-4 years old, 83 deaths in children 5-11 years old, and 75 deaths in children 12-17 years old),” said the agency.

“One hundred eighty-three (81%) of the 225 deaths were due to 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infections, 41 were associated with influenza A virus for which the subtype is undetermined, and one was associated with an influenza B virus infection. A total of 243 deaths in children associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been reported to CDC.”

Between August 30 and December 26, there had been 37,090 hospitalizations and 1,697 deaths caused by influenza and pneumonia. The CDC says while there are lab confirmed cases, the actual figures are far higher.

Delaware, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia are the only states reporting widespread Swine Flu activity.

[Eliza]

January 8, 2010
The Official Word to All, Get a Swine Flu Vaccination Now

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Citing mistakes made in the 1957 flu pandemic, federal officials on Thursday urged hesitant Americans to get vaccinated now against swine flu to prevent any possibility of another wave of illness and deaths.

Vaccine is now plentiful across the country, and most states are encouraging people of all ages to get shots, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of immunization and respiratory disease for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When supplies were short, most states tried to limit the vaccine to children, pregnant women and others at higher risk.

In 1957, Dr. Schuchat said, officials “gave the all-clear whistle” in midwinter and did not encourage flu shots, which were then rarer and also less purified. As a result, she said, there was another substantial wave of deaths in March 1958.

But she conceded that no pandemic was identical to any other. The death rate from swine or H1N1 flu appears to be about a quarter of that of the 1957 flu, but that may be because of antiviral drugs and better ventilators, not the virus itself.

Flu activity across the country is far below its late-October peak, but still higher than normal for this time in most years. It is almost all still swine flu; almost no seasonal flu has been found, and Dr. Schuchat urged doctors to send more samples to state laboratories.

Pneumonia and flu deaths ticked up slightly, which officials were “really keeping our eye on,” she said. The percentage of doctor visits that involved flu symptoms also rose, but that is normal during Christmas vacation because few people schedule routine checkups. There is no way to know if the unusually cold weather has played a part, she said.

The disease centers’ “best guess” is that 60 million people have been vaccinated. There are now 136 million doses available from many sources, including city clinics, schools, private doctors and pharmacy chains.

[Eliza]

Jan. 10 kicks off National Influenza Vaccination Week. Monday targets health-care workers; Tuesday is for people with underlying health conditions; Wednesday is for children, pregnant women, and families. Thursday is for young adults. Bringing up the rear, on Friday, are seniors—the group at greatest risk of dying from H1N1.

Find this article at
http://www.newsweek.com/id/229947

[yankee-in-france]

... better late than never, Eliza.

[Eliza]

FWIW, any real news, coming out regarding the H1N1 flu has slowed substantially.

Just recently, I plodded through over 500 articles that had been forwarded to me and only a handfull contained any real news. When things were popping, I was receiving, and reading, over a hundred reports a day. Mostly reporting deaths and outbreaks.

Most of the more current reports, are local articles touting where vaccine stations were being planned or reporting that vaccine supply has greatly outpaced demand. Public intrest has waned. The media is moving on to other things.

Thankfully, we've weathered the storm and the worst is past.

A big thanks to YIF, Fash, Hannie, Kay, VC, and Joy for allowing us to maintain this data base at RU.

I will continue to follow the Pandemic and post any pertinant information.

Thank you,

E-

[yankee-in-france]

--- and a big thanks for all of your efforts, Eliza.

[Eliza]

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/14585/Sp ... eaths.html

Spike In US Pneumonia and Influenza Deaths|

Friday, January 29, 2010 8:56:23 PM

The CDC Week 3 influenza report has been released and once again there were no reported cases of seasonal influenza A. 2 cases of influenza B were reported and the vast majority of cases (98%) were pandemic H1N1, indicating seasonal influenza A has been crowded out in the US. The frequency of influenza detection has risen slightly and is at the highest level since week 50, signaling the end of the fall wave and the beginning of a winter wave. However, although the detection rate rose slightly, the P&I deaths spiked higher and are now well above the epidemic threshold and as high as it has been since the peak of the 2008/2009 season.

This dramatic jump in deaths raises concerns that the current H1N1 is more virulent and lethal than the H1N1 circulating in the fall. The early appearance of that virus dramatically increased the P&I, which then declined as the H1N1 levels declined. However, the current jump is well ahead of such a corresponding jump in H1N1, which would support a more lethal H1N1.

Recent reports from Tennessee have described a higher frequency of children with H1N1 entering the ICU as well as a higher percentage dying.

[Eliza]

New strain of swine flu emerges - report

Thu Oct 21, 2010 4:49pm GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The H1N1 swine flu virus may be starting to mutate, and a slightly new form has begun to predominate in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, researchers reported on Thursday.

More study is needed to tell whether the new strain is more likely to kill patients and whether the current vaccine can protect against it completely, said Ian Barr of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, Australia and colleagues.

"However, it may represent the start of more dramatic antigenic drift of the pandemic influenza A(H1N1) viruses that may require a vaccine update sooner than might have been expected," they wrote in the online publication Eurosurveillance.

It is possible it is both more deadly and also able to infect people who have been vaccinated, they said.

Flu viruses mutate constantly -- this is why people need a fresh flu vaccine every year. Since it broke out in March 2009 and spread globally, the H1N1 swine flu virus has been very stable with almost no mutation.

Scientists around the world keep an eye on all flu strains in case an especially dangerous new mutant emerges. While H1N1 turned out not to be especially deadly, it spread globally within weeks and killed more children and young adults than an average strain does.

WHO declared the pandemic over in August but H1N1 has now taken over as the main seasonal flu strain circulating almost everywhere but South Africa, where H3N2 and influenza B are more common. The current seasonal flu vaccine protects against H1N1, H3N2 and the B strain.

"The virus has changed little since it emerged in 2009, however, in this report we describe several genetically distinct changes in the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus," Barr's team wrote in the report, available here

"These variants were first detected in Singapore in early 2010 and have subsequently spread through Australia and New Zealand."

The changes are not significant yet, they said. But there have been some cases of people who were vaccinated also becoming infected, and also some deaths.

"Already this variant virus has been associated with several vaccine breakthroughs in teenagers and adults vaccinated in 2010 with monovalent pandemic influenza vaccine (protecting against only H1N1) as well as a number of fatal cases from whom the variant virus was isolated," they wrote.

But there is not enough information to tell whether there may have been other factors making the patients more vulnerable, they stressed.

"It remains to be seen whether this variant will continue to predominate for the rest of the influenza season in Oceania and in other parts of the southern hemisphere and then spread to the northern hemisphere or merely die out," they wrote.

WHO says 18,450 people worldwide are confirmed to have died from H1N1, including many pregnant women and young people. But WHO says it will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to determine the true death toll, which is likely to be much higher.

Seasonal flu kills an estimated 500,000 people a year, 90 percent of them frail elderly people, according to the WHO. The 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million people and the last pandemic, in 1968, killed 1 million.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews ... 21?sp=true

[Eliza]

NHS at the limit: Intensive care units almost full as swine flu takes its toll

By Sophie Borland
Last updated at 7:37 AM on 24th December 2010

Intensive care units across Britain are almost full as the NHS faces one of the worst flu outbreaks in a decade.


Some hospitals have only one or two life-support machines left and critically ill patients are being transferred by ambulance to other trusts.


Managers are drawing up emergency plans to transform operating theatres into makeshift intensive care departments to cope with the soaring demand.

Senior doctors report that they are seeing the highest number of flu cases in more than 20 years and expect the situation to worsen over the coming weeks.


Children’s intensive care units are under particular pressure and some of the largest departments in the country are full.


Hospitals including Great Ormond Street in London, Manchester Children’s, Bristol Children’s and Alder Hey in Liverpool have reached full capacity or have just one or two beds left.

The latest figures show that 302 people – adults and children – are in intensive care because of flu, taking up one in ten of all available beds.


More...
The 24 known victims this winter may be only a fraction of the true number, admit experts
Father-of-four is latest victim of swine flu as health chiefs confirm virus has caused 24 deaths

In addition, 16 of the most seriously ill victims have been placed on heart-lung machines known as ECMOs which take blood out of their body and pump it with oxygen.

Hospital trusts including Nottingham University and Southampton University are cancelling heart surgery and other major operations to make way for a predicted surge in flu cases.


The National Health Service is under increasing strain from the unexpected winter flu outbreak. Yesterday the Daily Mail revealed that the NHS Direct helpline is at ‘breaking point’ as it is besieged by callers.

Dr Bob Winter, president of the Intensive Care Society, who works at University Hospitals Nottingham, said hospitals had drawn up emergency plans to expand intensive care units.

‘Hospitals have escalation plans which involve expanding critical care into areas such as theatre recovery. As far as I am aware no hospital has done this yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do over the next few weeks,’ he said.


‘Operating theatres have areas called theatre recovery where patients go following an operation. Nurses in these departments are used to looking after unconscious patients so they can be used to expand intensive care.


‘Our own hospital has cancelled elective surgery that needs critical care and I believe several others have too.’


One leading intensive care doctor said it was the worst flu outbreak he had seen in more than 20 years.

Dr Ian Jenkins, former president of the Paediatric Intensive Care Society, who is based at Bristol Children’s Hospital, said: ‘I’ve never seen this amount of flu in my 20-year career. There are appreciably more cases than last year. We are under pressure.


‘The virus has come back and there are more cases than last year. We are having to move older children into adult ITU units to make room for much younger children.’

[Eliza]

Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I) Mortality Surveillance
During week 51, 7.5% of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. This percentage was at the epidemic threshold of 7.5% for week 51.

[Eliza]

CDC: US Flu Deaths Reach Epidemic Level


Updated: Thursday, 30 Dec 2010, 5:15 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 30 Dec 2010, 5:15 PM EST

(NewsCore) - The number of flu cases in the US is on the rise and the proportion of deaths that have resulted from influenza and pneumonia have reached epidemic levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday in its weekly report.

The data is not unusual for this time of year, with the number of cases typically peaking in January and February, the report said.

Influenza cases were reported to be widespread throughout the US, with 13 states and Puerto Rico reporting regional activity, nine states reporting local activity and Washington, D.C., the US Virgin Islands and 23 states reporting sporadic activity.

[Eliza]

A Global Threat: Swine Flu

January 2nd, 2011

Kara.Thomas

Swine flu has begun to make victims all over the world. What once appeared like a harmless cold has now turned into a world wide threat that has caused even the death of some people. Flu shoots have been provided but sometimes they do not reach people in time.

In Scotland swine flu has caused the first victims during the holidays, a mother and her new born child. The two died at a hospital in Preston, Lancashire leaving behind a heart broken husband and father. Julie Ellison, the mother, was only 31 years old. Another young mother is fighting for her life in a hospital in Ayrshire. She managed to give birth two weeks ago to a baby girl but right after the birth she was infected with swine flu and is now struggling for her life. Doctors induced a coma in order to treat her and the signs are now promising. Swine flu killed last year 69 people in Scotland alone.

Another pregnant woman in Somerset is also fighting for her life after her husband took her to the hospital on Christmas day because she was having problems breathing.27 years old Gemma Escott was diagnosed with swine flu and pneumonia and is currently on life support, in a state of induced coma the same as in the case of the Scotland pregnant woman. Her mother-in-law told reporters that everything started as a usual cold but her condition deteriorated quickly. They are now hoping for the best.

It may appear that there is no protection against the swine flu virus. People all over the world catch it with no apparent source of infection. Three female inmates in a Vancouver jail were also diagnosed these days with the virus and they were immediately treated. The swine flu is now a globally spread disease and it appears that for now there is no stopping it.

[Eliza]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-me-f ... 3072.story

chicagotribune.com
New swine flu virus sickens 5 children in 3 states

By CLARKE CANFIELD

Associated Press

1:20 PM CDT, October 21, 2011

PORTLAND, Maine

An unusual strain of swine flu has infected five young children in Maine, Pennsylvania and Indiana, health officials said Friday.

A young boy of 7 or 8 from Cumberland County, Maine became the latest case when he came down with flu symptoms in early October, not long after being exposed to pigs at an agricultural fair, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. He and the other four children have recovered, health officials said.

The H3N2 swine-origin strain was confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as the same strain identified earlier in three cases in Pennsylvania and one case in Indiana, according to Maine's state epidemiologist Stephen Sears.

The three infected children in Pennsylvania had all attended an agricultural fair in August where pigs were exhibited, the CDC said. The Indiana child had not been exposed to pigs, but is thought to have been infected in late August by another person who had recently been exposed to pigs, but who did not have flu symptoms.

Unusual strains of influenza pop up virtually every year, health officials said, and there's nothing to suggest that this H3N2 strain is being widely transmitted from person to person. The infected boy in Maine was treated by a family doctor and is back up and playing, Sears said.

"We're taking a prudent public health approach to this," Sears said. "This is an unusual virus, but it doesn't appear to be spreading in people, so we don't think it's a major issue."

The first case of H3N2 was reported to the federal CDC in late August after a boy under 5 from Indiana experienced a fever, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea and a sore throat. The boy was hospitalized for treatment and has since recovered.

Like humans, pigs can become infected with influenza viruses and suffer the same symptoms people do. Pigs can become infected not only with swine flu viruses, but with human and avian influenza viruses as well, the CDC says. On rare occasions, humans can become infected with swine flu viruses; the CDC says fewer than two dozen cases have been documented in the last five years.

The H3N2 virus contains a gene picked up from H1N1 swine flu virus that resulted in global pandemic in 2009, the first combination virus to turn up in people since the pandemic, according to the CDC. It is a hybrid of viruses that have infected pigs over the last decade.

Influenza viruses are constantly changing and picking up genes from other viruses, and the H3N2 strain represents a step in the evolutionary process of a virus taking on new genetic properties, said federal CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

"Right now we don't see any widespread person-to-person transmission and that's the key when it comes to influenza cases," Skinner said.

Meanwhile, seasonal influenza activity remains low around the country with the arrival of seasonal flu season, the CDC says. The agency said earlier that this year's vaccine, the same as last year's, likely would not protect against the new swine strain.

AP-WF-10-21-11 2112GMT

[Eliza]

Flu Study Released After Biosecurity Debate Concern Over Use Of Virus As Biological Weapon

By Madison Park CNN
POSTED: 9:37 am MDT May 3, 2012

UPDATED: 1:55 am MDT May 4, 2012


(CNN) -- The first of two controversial studies about a mutated form of the potentially lethal H5N1 bird flu virus was finally published Wednesday after months of debate over whether release of the research could pose a biosecurity threat.

The journal Nature published the study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka. Similar research led by Dutch researcher Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam has yet to be published in its entirety in the journal Science.

Both studies found that with a few genetic alternations, this bird flu virus can be much more easily transmitted. Six months ago the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) asked both journals not to publish essential data because they feared it could be misused and turned into a biological weapon. Scientists in favor of publication argued that the data was important for flu surveillance and public health preparedness.

"This study has significant public health benefits and contributes to our understanding of this important pathogen," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the author of the Nature study and a flu researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a released statement. "By identifying mutations that facilitate transmission among mammals, those whose job it is to monitor viruses circulating in nature can look for these mutations so measures can be taken to effectively protect human health."

H5N1 is a virus that has caused major concern, due to high global death rates associated with it. Since 2003, the virus has infected at least 600 people, mostly in Asia, and killed more than half of the people infected. The virus has spread to people who are in close proximity to birds, but it hasn't spread easily human-to-human.

But researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and another team from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands each created a mutated version of the H5N1 virus that can more easily transmitted amongst mammals. They tested the mutated virus on ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to the flu.

The 23-member NSABB had expressed that revealing such detailed results could "represent(s) a grave concern for global biosecurity, biosafety, and public health."

But the World Health Organization recommended that the two studies be published in their full form. By April, the U.S. government reversed its position with new information and revisions. The board said the research could help in fighting a possible future outbreak. It recommended the researchers' findings be published without "methods or details" that could be used by terrorists to produce a biological weapon.

Flu viruses constantly mutate in nature. The virus engineered in Kawaoka's lab was of low virulence, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"H5N1 viruses remain a significant threat for humans as a potential pandemic flu strain. We have found that relatively few mutations enable this virus to transmit in mammals. These same mutations have the potential to occur in nature," said Kawaoka in the university's press release.

The research also showed that the mutant virus could be controlled by a H5N1 vaccine and the drug, Tamiflu. The study was funded partly by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

[Eliza]

H3n2!

By Mike Stobbe
AP Medical Writer
August 12, 2012 2:00 AMATLANTA — Health officials Thursday reported a five-fold increase of cases of a new strain of swine flu that spreads from pigs to people.

The cumulative case count jumped from 29 a week ago to 158 this week, thanks to a wave of new cases confirmed in Indiana and Ohio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Most of the cases have been tied to state and county agricultural fairs, where visitors are put in close contact with infected pigs, said the CDC's Dr. Joseph Bresee.

The recent cases include at least 113 in Indiana, 30 in Ohio, one in Hawaii and one in Illinois, Bresee said.

Most of the infected patients are children — probably because many were working closely with raising, displaying and visiting pigs at the agricultural fairs, Bresee said.

Also, diagnosis of cases has become quicker in the last week. CDC no longer must confirm a case with its own lab. Now states are using CDC test kits to confirm cases on their own on, speeding the process along. The patients were likely infected a week or two ago.

The CDC has been tracking cases since last summer. A concern: the new strain has a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do.

The good news is the flu does not seem to be unusually dangerous. Almost all of the illnesses have been mild and no one has died. Two of the recent cases were hospitalized, but both recovered and were discharged, added Bresee, the agency's chief of influenza epidemiology.

More good news is that all of the recent cases appear to have spread from pigs to humans, meaning it's not very contagious, at least between people.

But there probably will be more cases in the weeks ahead, and it won't be surprising if at least a few of them involve person-to-person transmission, Bresee said.

[Eliza]

LINK

CDC updates novel H3N2 info for clinicians

Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer


Aug 10, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported that it has received 153 reports of novel H3N2 infections (H3N2v) since illnesses started surfacing in the middle of July, nearly all of them in people who had contact with pigs or were around pigs at fairs.

In another development, the CDC issued new information on H3N2v for clinicians, including an evaluation of rapid influenza tests that found their sensitivity varies greatly, and the agency urged clinicians not to use negative results as the basis for treatment.

The CDC's latest total includes seven new cases that the Indiana State Department of Health reported yesterday, plus one new case from Ohio. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) today announced six more cases, which would push its total to 36 and the national total to 158.
-snip-

The CDC said 128 (93%) of the patients are younger than age 18 and the median age is 7 years. Though the infections have predominantly occurred in kids, the fact that 10 of the illnesses involved adults underscores the point that people of any age can be infected, the CDC said. It urged people with underlying health conditions that pose a high risk of complications from flu to avoid swine barns this summer, especially if sick pigs have been identified.

-MUCH MORE-