News of extreme importance!

[Hannie]

I also have my doubts for the same reason, Yif.
I also hear and read that people are getting more sick of the vaccin than the flu itself...

Every year between 200.000 and 300.000 people die from regular flu worldwide. So I don't know...

[Siddalee]

Relatively few swine flu cases have been seen in people over age 65. Most labs have been overwhelmed by samples coming in, so they are testing only the most severe cases. Curacao recently had a Little League tournament and 7 kids from the Virgin Islands were sick. They sent samples to Holland for testing and 5 did have swine flu. In most instances I seriously doubt the pharmaceuticals are in cahoots with the labs and the tests are valid.

[Eliza]

I also have my doubts for the same reason, Yif.
I also hear and read that people are getting more sick of the vaccin than the flu itself...

Every year between 200.000 and 300.000 people die from regular flu worldwide. So I don't know...

Has anyone been vaccinated yet?

[Eliza]

Eliza, I just saw the under 64 in the vaccine program. Am I mistaken or didn't I read that most people 65 and older without serious health problems do not seem to be effected by this virus? Could that be the reason for the under 64 policy?

I do not know whether there is any truth but I was having lunch the other day with a friend, who is an Irish ex-pat. She is a psychologist and has many friends in the medical field in Ireland. It is her belief (from conversations with her doctor/nurse friends) that every sniffle is being diagnosed as swine flu and that in the majority of cases, it is not the real McCoy. I asked her why would this be happening. She thinks that it is designed to make money for the drug companies. She claims that the use of Tamiflu is rampant and could actually be making people more ill than they would be naturally. She personally is going to get the regular yearly flu vaccine and not the swine flu vaccine.

I am not a great believer in conspiracies, but she is a pretty solid individual and conservative so this was a bit interesting. However, I am not a fan of the Irish healthcare system so I am not sure that the info she received is the best.

What do you think, Eliza?

Honestly, I take any news coming out of the UK with a grain of salt.

They have been minimizing and covering up the FLU pandemic for some time. I do not trust the BBC. It reminds me of the MSM in my country.

I believe it will be a serious mistake NOT to be vaccinated. Of course, there will be reacions. Some people have reactions if you get a peanut near them so nowadays, poor little kids can't take a peanut butter for lunch.

We have a great data base here. I would not listen to rumors.

The pandemic of 1957 started off just like this. I believe the elderly will be affected in Jan-March 2010. It will be a disaster if they are not vaccinated.

The reason so many young were affected was due to them being in school. Captive audiance.

Pandemics make their rounds over 2-3 years with 2-3 waves. Wave one is not yet completed.

There is absolutely no scientific conclusive proof that the elderly will not be affected. It takes years to do studies not weeks or months.

The stats I've seen show that the fatality rate is 5-10 times greater on the elderly than young people. More young people are getting the flu but when the elderly get it, their mortality rate is great.

I have great faith in the vaccine. I hope kooks don't derail the jab programs and cause unnecessary illness or death. India is being hard hit now. As I suspected all along, developing countries are going to be devestated this winter in the N hemisphere.

[yankee-in-france]

Our internist says that he will have the vaccine in October or November. At this time, he is going with the vaccine, and I guess that we will have it but then do they also vaccinate for the regular flu? It is a bit confusing.

My hubby would agree with you that the BBC regrettably is not as objective and unslanted as they once were.

[Eliza]

Our internist says that he will have the vaccine in October or November. At this time, he is going with the vaccine, and I guess that we will have it but then do they also vaccinate for the regular flu? It is a bit confusing.

My hubby would agree with you that the BBC regrettably is not as objective and unslanted as they once were.

Yiffy, the vaccine is our only hope. Without an effective vaccine, chos will overwhelm everything especially our health systems. Widespread disease, breeds even more diseases.

[yankee-in-france]

I think that you are right, and people over here are very complacent because we don't have it yet in this region (Languedoc Roussillon) of France.

[Eliza]

Potential for a global dynamic of Influenza A (H1N1)

Geographical and temporal diffusion patterns of a human pandemic due to Swine Origin Influenza Virus (S-OIV) remain uncertain. The extent to which national and international pandemic preparedness plans and control strategies can slow or stop the process is not known.

However, despite preparedness efforts, it appears that, particularly in the USA, Mexico, Canada and the UK, local chains of virus transmission can sustain autonomous dynamics which may lead to the next pandemic. Forecasts of influenza experts usually rely on information related to new circulating strains.

Methods: We attempted to quantify the possible spread of the pandemic across a network of 52 major cities and to predict the effect of vaccination against the pandemic strain, if available.

Predictions are based on simulations from a stochastic SEIR model. Parameters used in the simulations are set to values consistent with recent estimations from the outbreak in Mexico.

Results: We show that a two-wave pandemic dynamic may be observed in Southern hemisphere because of seasonal constraints for a maximum value of the basic reproductive number (R0,max) within a city equal to 1.5 and a mean generation interval (GI) of 2 days.

In this case and in the absence of vaccination, attack rates may reach 46% when considering a completely susceptible population. More severe scenarios characterized by higher values of R0,max (2.2) and GI (3.1) yield an attack rate of 77%.

By extrapolation, we find that mass vaccination in all countries (i.e. up to 50% of the population) implemented 6 months after the start of the pandemic may reduce the cumulative number of cases by 91% in the case of the low transmissible strain (R0,max=1.5).

This relative reduction is only 44% for R0,max=2.2 since most of the cases occur in the first 6 months and so before the vaccination campaign.

Conclusion: Although uncertainties remain about the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the new influenza strain, this study provides the first analysis of the potential spread of the pandemic and first assessment of the impact of different immunization strategies.

Author: Antoine FlahaultElisabeta VerguPierre-Yves Boelle
Credits/Source: BMC Infectious Diseases 2009, 9:129

[Eliza]

Cases of swine flu higher among city blacks, Hispanics By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | August 18, 2009

Since its arrival in Boston in late April, swine flu has proved to be a particular source of misery to the city’s African-American and Hispanic residents, causing hospitalizations at far higher levels than other groups, disease trackers report.

More than 3 of every 4 Bostonians who have spent time in the hospital because of the viral ailment are black or Hispanic, a finding that may reflect broader social ills, the top official at the Boston Public Health Commission said.

The same crowding in dense urban neighborhoods that fuels the spread of other germs may be spurring the transmission of swine flu, known scientifically as H1N1, disease specialists said. And the chronic conditions that are more prevalent in predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods - diabetes, for example - may make residents of those swaths of Boston especially vulnerable to the complications of flu.

“It’s disheartening to see these patterns on our first pass at collecting data around H1N1,’’ said Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston health agency. “I thought people were getting sick everywhere at the same level, but it wasn’t true. Some of our neighborhoods were much more impacted by this.’’

They are neighborhoods such as Dorchester, East Boston, and Roxbury. And, as a result, health authorities are vowing to be especially assiduous in reaching out to those areas as the city embarks on a campaign to prepare for the potential double whammy of seasonal influenza and swine flu this fall.

Another part of that effort will focus on city workers: Yesterday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino pledged that all city employees can take two hours of paid time to get flu shots. And, at a City Hall press conference, the mayor said he intended to ask private employers to do the same.

[Eliza]

A/H1N1 flu spreads at "unbelievable" speed: WHO

www.chinaview.cn 2009-08-29 23:54:52 Print

PARIS, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- A/H1N1 flu is spreading at an "unbelievable" speed, with "a very severe form of disease" attacking the lungs of healthy young people, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned in an interview published by French daily Le Monde on Saturday.

"Sixty percent of the deaths cover those who have underlying health problems," Director-general of the WHO Margaret Chan said, adding that the remaining 40 percent of the deaths are young adults in good health, "who die of a vital fever in five to seven days."

"This is the most worrying fact. Up to 30 percent of people in densely populated countries risked getting infected," Chan noted.

The WHO announced in a statement that the A/H1N1 pandemic virus is now the dominant influenza strain around the world.

"All governments must prepare for the worst," Chan stressed, adding that intensive healthcare services were required.

According to the latest WHO report, more than 2,180 people around the world have died from the virus since April.

[Eliza]

Swine flu infects cells deep in lungs: study

(AFP) –

9/09/09

PARIS — Swine flu can infect cells deeper in the lungs than seasonal flu, thus helping to boost the severity of the illness, a study released on Thursday said.

The paper provides the first laboratory corroboration of reports from front-line doctors that some patients with A(H1N1) virus suffer worse symptoms compared to those with run-of-the-mill seasonal flu.

Influenza viruses penetrate cells by attaching themselves to molecules called receptors, located on the outside of the cell wall.

The virus' docking spike and the receptor are like a key and a lock. Some viruses only open a few cells, while others have something rather closer to a pass key, making it possible to infect a larger cell variety.

Once inside, the virus uses the cell's machinery to replicate, eventually bursting the cell and going on to attack others.

Seasonal strains attach themselves almost exclusively to cells found in the nose, throat and upper airway, producing a some of influenza's signature symptoms: runny nose, scratchy throat, a dry cough.

But the new research, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, shows that the new swine flu -- by sticking to a greater range of receptors -- can also breach cells deep in the lungs.

Lab-dish experiments were carried out by Ten Feizi of Imperial College London and colleagues in which 86 different receptors were exposed to both seasonal and pandemic flu.

The seasonal strains only locked onto the kind of receptors found in the upper respiratory track.

But the swine flu virus was also able to latch onto receptors found deep inside the lungs, albeit more weakly. The adhesion results in a more severe lung infection.

Feizi spelt out the risk of what could happen if natural selection encourages viral strains that favour this deep-lung penetration.

"If the flu virus mutates in the future, it may attach to the receptors deep inside the lungs more strongly, and this could mean that more people would experience severe symptoms," said Feizi.

"We think scientists should be on the lookout for these kinds of changes in the virus so we can try to find ways to minimise the impact."

Using a statistical technique, epidemiologists sifting through data from other countries have found similarly disquieting patterns.

French epidemiologist Antoine Flahault has reported a 100-fold increase, compared to seasonal flu, in the number of swine flu deaths in Mauritius and New Caledonia attributed directly to the virus itself rather than secondary bacterial infections or underlying conditions.

Many of those deaths were caused by acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS), which requires intensive-care treatment for an average of three weeks. Only 50 percent of ARDS patients survive.

[Eliza]

Influenza A H1N1, CA-MRSA coinfection fatal in two pediatric patients

The first case reports of concomitant influenza A H1N1 and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection indicate that the presence of both pathogens may lead to rapid disease progression and death.

Findings were presented in a poster session at the 49th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco this weekend.

A 9-year-old girl (patient one) and a 15-year-old boy (patient two) were admitted to the same ICU within 48 hours of each other with septic shock and bacterial pneumonia. Blood and tracheal cultures were positive for USA300 CA-MRSA. Both were placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation within hours and administered vancomycin. Patient one was also prescribed oseltamivir.

Labs upon admission were as follows: white blood cell counts 0.7 for patient one and 0.2 for patient two; serum creatinine levels of 1.0 and 5.6; total bilirubin levels 1.0 and 2.2.

Patient one died 11 days after admission with a white blood cell count of 50.3, serum creatinine at 0.02 and total bilirubin at 57.1. Patient two died three days following admission with a white blood count of 4.0, serum creatinine at 3.6 and total bilirubin at 11.7.

Autopsies revealed necrotizing bacterial pneumonia and tracheal blood cultures positive for MRSA in both patients. Influenza A H1N1 could not be confirmed in the first patient, but was cultured from lung, brain, spinal fluid and nasopharyngeal tissues in patient two. – by Nicole Blazek

(snipped)

[Eliza]

The Harvard poll is much closer to other polls from the past but quite different from a more recent poll being touted. I believe this poll to be accurate, for what it's worth. It's VERY sad how little trust folks have.

Just 40% of U.S. adults "absolutely certain" they will get A/H1N1 vaccine: survey

www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-03 13:10:49 Print

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Only 40 percent of U.S. adults are "absolutely certain" they will get the A/H1N1 vaccine for themselves, and 51 percent of parents are "absolutely certain" that they will get the vaccine for their children, a study of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers showed on Friday.

The Harvard researchers polled 1,042 U.S. adults for what they said was a representative sample of national opinion on Sept. 14-20.

According to the survey released Friday, however, if there were people in their community who were sick or dying from A/H1N1 virus, about 60 percent of the people who used to say that they didn't think they would get the vaccine would change their mind and get it for themselves and their children.

"These findings suggest that public health officials need to be prepared for a surge in demand for the A/H1N1 vaccine if the A/H1N1 flu becomes more severe," said Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at HSPH.

Those who are not "absolutely certain" they will get the vaccine cited the following as the top "major" reasons for their thinking: (1) they are concerned about getting side effects from the vaccine (30 percent); (2) they don't think they are at risk of getting a serious case of the illness (28 percent); and (3) they think they could get medication to treat A/H1N1 if they do get sick (26 percent).

The top "major" reasons cited by parents who are not "absolutely sure" they will get the vaccine are that (1) they are concerned about side effects of the vaccine (38 percent); (2) they are concerned that their children could get other illnesses from the vaccine (33 percent); and (3) they do not trust public health officials to provide correct information about the safety of the vaccine (31 percent).

"There's still a lot of uncertainty about what people will ultimately do in terms of getting the vaccine. If public health officials want to encourage a larger number of people to get vaccinated this fall, they will need to address the public's concerns in the coming weeks," said Blendon, who led the survey.

[resigned]

Has anyone been vaccinated yet?

I know someone who is participating in the vaccine trials. No side effects so far.

[Eliza]

I know someone who is participating in the vaccine trials. No side effects so far.

Thanks!

[Eliza]

'Explosive' swine flu threat for poor nations: UN(AFP) – 5 hours ago

ISTANBUL — Poor countries face "explosive outbreaks" of the global swine flu pandemic and need speedy financial assistance to access vaccines, UN officials warned on Sunday.

"What we see now is that the A(H1N1) virus is beginning to penetrate into some of the poorest communities in the world," said Julie Hall, an expert from the UN's World Health Organisation.

"We are anticipating that we may well see a different pattern of impact once this virus starts to take off and those explosive outbreaks occur in poorer communities," she told a news conference

David Nabarro, UN senior influenza coordinator, said both manufacturers and rich countries were ready to make vaccines available for developing nations, but warned that the supply would still be inadequate.

"We are aware that there will only be enough for a small percentage of the population of developing countries," he said.

"The challenge during the next few weeks is... to ensure that adequate vaccines reach health workers and essential personnel in developing countries in time to help them as the next waves of the pandemic reach them," he added.

Last week, the WHO said pharmaceutical firms can produce only three billion doses of swine flu vaccines a year, covering less than half of the global population.

Nabarro also called for cash donations to help low-income countries prepare for the pandemic by raising awareness and improving their health services infrastructure.

At least 3,917 people have died from the A(H1N1) virus since it was uncovered in April, with most of the fatalities in the Anericas region, according to the WHO.

[Eliza]

If Obama was dictated, how could California and other states deal with the increased patient load? They couldn't. Absolute proof, that under Obama, there would be rationing!-Eliza

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/06/content_12186535.htm

California braces for spread of H1N1 virus

www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-06 13:43:02 Print

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- California, the most populous state in the nation, is bracing for the possible spread of H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, Governor Schwarzenegger said on Monday.

Schwarzenegger said he has issued an executive order to support and facilitate California's aggressive approach to addressing the spread of the virus.

"Today's action will make sure California has the ability to continue to aggressively fight the spread of the H1N1 virus by cutting red tape and giving the state greater flexibility to respond to an outbreak," the governor said.

Under the order, the state will be able to acquire services faster such as medical staff for state facilities and transportation of H1N1 vaccine and goods such as hand sanitizer and paper masks.

"California stands ready to combat what could be a very severe flu season with the threat of H1N1," Schwarzenegger.

"The state of California is taking the H1N1 virus very seriously, and I urge every Californian to take it seriously too."

As the outbreak of H1N1 is spreading across the U.S., California is expected to be among the hardest hit, health experts said.

California and other Far West states are weathering a 53 percent shortage of medical technologists in hospitals, commercial labs and other diagnostic facilities to cope with the spread of the virus, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) warned earlier.

California's public health and emergency response officials have been planning for the further escalation of the disease and the distribution of vaccines, Schwarzenegger said.

This includes expanding surveillance to detect increased pandemic activity, continuing development of clear guidelines for the public, working with local health departments to ensure healthcare facilities can respond to a surge in the need for patient care, and strengthening communication lines with medical providers and the public to get out information, according to the governor.

Schwarzenegger urged Californians to take the following everyday steps to help protect against and prevent the spread of germs that cause the flu: Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and throw the tissue in the trash after you use it; Wash your hands often with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand cleaners, especially after you cough or sneeze; Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth to prevent germs from spreading; Try to avoid close contact with sick people; Stay home if you are sick for seven days after your symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer so as to keep from infecting others and spreading the virus further.

Special Report: World Tackles A/H1N1 Flu 　

[Eliza]

Ordinary flu jab may protect against H1N1 - study

Tue Oct 6, 2009 7:00pm EDT
* Only 13 percent of vaccinated patients got swine flu

* None of the vaccinated patients died of H1N1 swine flu

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Mexican researchers say they have some evidence that the ordinary seasonal flu vaccine may offer some protection against the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu -- contrary to other studies.

They found that people who had been vaccinated against seasonal flu were far less likely to be sick or to die from H1N1 than people who had not been immunized against seasonal flu.

"These results are to be considered cautiously and in no way indicate that seasonal vaccine should replace vaccination against pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009," Lourdes Garcia-Garcia and colleagues at the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca wrote in the British Medical Journal.

But they said the findings might offer some good news for people who have been vaccinated against seasonal flu, especially as governments are just beginning to distribute newly made swine flu vaccines.

The new H1N1 swine flu virus is a very distant cousin of the H1N1 seasonal flu virus, which is included in the mixture provided every year in the seasonal flu vaccine.

Most studies have shown the annual vaccine provides little or no protection against H1N1, likely because it is very different.

One study in Canada suggested that in fact people who got seasonal flu vaccines may be more likely to become infected with H1N1, although the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both expressed doubts about the findings.

Garcia's team studied 60 patients with confirmed swine flu and 180 similar people with other diseases being treated in the Mexico City area.

The Mexican government distributes seasonal flu vaccine.

Only eight people who had been vaccinated against seasonal flu were among the swine flu cases, the researchers reported. They found that 29 percent of unvaccinated people in the study became infected with H1N1, versus 13 percent of vaccinated people.

None of the vaccinated people died, but 35 percent of swine flu patients who died had not been vaccinated against seasonal flu, they found.

"Seasonal vaccination might protect against the most severe forms of the disease," the researchers wrote.

Menno de Jong of the University of Amsterdam and Rogier Sanders of Cornell University in New York said the study shows some protection but said what the world really needs is a universal flu vaccine that protects people against all strains.

Currently, the seasonal vaccine must be formulated every year because influenza viruses mutate, and new strains, such as the H1N1 swine flu, require a completely new vaccine. The new H1N1 vaccine took five months to formulate and manufacture. (Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Eric Walsh)

[Eliza]

CDC official downplays risk from swine flu vaccine

(AP) –

10-11-09

WASHINGTON — A top U.S. health official says the risks from not getting the swine flu vaccine are greater than any potential risks associated with the vaccine.

Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says she's surprised by all the misinformation going around about the new vaccine. She says a good safety record from past vaccines bodes well for the swine flu vaccine now becoming available.

Schuchat says there's no problem associated with getting shots for both the swine flu and seasonal flu on the same day. But health officials recommend a three-week period between receiving the nasal versions of the vaccines.

Schuchat says vaccines remain the best way to protect children and adults from both strains of flu.

She appeared Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

[Eliza]

Sickest swine flu patients require heroic measures

Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:04am EDT
By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Once swine flu patients are sick enough to need hospital care, they decline very fast, requiring ventilators and advanced treatments that quickly strain scarce hospital resources, several teams reported on Monday.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association they paint a picture of how younger, previously healthy people quickly developed severe respiratory failure, forcing doctors to use extreme measures to save them.

"The fact that they develop this very rapid, very severe respiratory failure means hospitals need to be prepared to manage these patients at any time of the day or night," said Doug White of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who wrote a commentary in the journal.

He said although the outbreaks in Canada and Mexico were relatively mild, they consumed a vast amounts of life-saving therapies.

If the second wave of H1N1 now spreading across the United States is more severe or broad-based, it may mean some patients will not get the critical life support they need, White said in a telephone interview.

"Saying no will mean they will die," he said.

"MAXED OUT"

"This is one of the most difficult conditions I've ever had to treat," said Dr. Anand Kumar of St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a hotspot of infection during the first wave of the swine flu in May and June.

Kumar said he normally sees only a few patients a year who become severely ill from an infection.

"In the case of Winnipeg, we saw 40 people on ventilators struggling for their lives simultaneously. It's a bizarre and somewhat frightening experience," he said in a telephone interview.

"At one point, 50 percent of the available ICU (intensive care unit) beds in the entire city were filled with H1N1 patients," Kumar said. "We basically maxed out our capacity."

While 95 percent of the patients he studied had some underlying risk factor, most of these were very common, such as asthma, smoking, obesity or high blood pressure.

"If you'd asked them, they would have said, 'Yes, I'm a pretty healthy person.' That is surprising to me," he said.

Researchers studying the outbreak in Mexico between March and June 2009 had similar experiences.

They saw critical illness mostly among younger people, who developed severe respiratory failure. About 40 percent of them died.

SALVAGE THERAPY

To help some of the very sickest patients who were struggling to breathe even with the assistance of a mechanical ventilator, researchers in Australia and New Zealand tried a type of life support called ECMO that adds oxygen to blood and circulates it throughout the body.

"Despite their illness severity and the prolonged use of life support, most of these patients survived," Dr. Andrew Davies of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and colleagues wrote.

Kumar said doctors in Winnipeg used the system for some of their patients who were struggling despite being on ventilators.

"In about 15 to 20 percent of our patients, had to use salvage therapies -- basically, stuff that is unproven. But you use them because you've got nothing left," Kumar said.

Kumar said most people who get H1N1 will not have severe disease, which he said only occurs in about 1 in 1,000 patients. "The problem is, if you get half of your population with H1N1, that can turn into a lot of really sick people."

[Eliza]

TheBostonChannel.com
9 In 10 ER Doctors Concerned About Flu Season

Most Worry Hospitals Aren’t Prepared

POSTED: 4:27 pm EDT October 12, 2009
UPDATED: 6:27 pm EDT October 12, 2009

BOSTON -- A stunning report released Monday by the American College of Emergency Physicians reveals that nearly 90 percent of doctors who responded to an e-mail survey in September were concerned or very concerned about their hospital’s ability to care for a surge of patients with the H1N1 flu.


NewsCenter 5’s Heather Unruh reported that the new flu strain has been reported in all 50 states.

Three-quarters of the 1,043 emergency room doctors polled between Sept. 15 and Sept. 23 responded that they did not believe their employer was doing everything it could to prepare for the possibility of a severe outbreak.

Last month hospitals in Memphis, Tenn., and Austin, Texas, erected large outdoor tents to screen, test and treat the overflow of suspected H1N1 flu patients.

The dramatic move shocked some, but was also an effective way of keeping people with flu-like illnesses separated from the general population.

“We’re right now not thinking tents,” said Dr. Jonathan Olshaker, who runs the emergency room at Boston Medical Center. “But we are thinking that we could use different areas of the hospital for a similar purpose.”

Last spring when the H1N1 flu pandemic began and Boston saw an unusually large number of cases compared to other parts of the country, Boston Medical Center set aside part of its pediatric emergency room as a triage center for those sick with the flu.

“You do have to be able to gear up very, very quickly -- which we are preparing and we think we're able to do,” said Olshaker. “It's a challenge because we are really at full capacity without any significant number of flu cases.”

In Boston most, if not all, of the large medical centers have been preparing for months. The first steps many are considering including stocking up on supplies -- everything from masks and thermometers to extra ventilators should children, in particular, become seriously ill from the flu.

Half of the reported cases of H1N1 flu so far have been in children and young adults.

Adding to the sense of urgency about how well U.S. hospitals are preparing for a potential worsening of the illness is an editorial in the Nov. 4 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Authors Douglas B White, M.D. and JAMA contributing editor Derek C. Angus, M.D., M.P.H. of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, wrote that hospitals nationwide may face a situation where they do not have enough physicians or staff to treat the most seriously ill H1N1 flu patients.

If that occurs, they said, “Hospitals must develop explicit policies to equitably determine who will and will not receive life support.” They continue, “Any deaths from 2009 influenza A (H1N1) will be regrettable, but those that result from insufficient planning and inadequate preparation will be especially tragic.”

“We shouldn't be complacent about the issue,” said Dr. Peter Smulowitz, an emergency room physician at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “We have to do everything we possibly can to get pandemic preparedness in place, so that if we have a worst case scenario with the H1N1, at least we'll be prepared to deal with it.”

The general sense is, according to physicians with whom NewsCenter 5 spoke, that Boston is most likely prepared better than hospitals in other parts of the country.

Experts also cite that currently, the vast majority of H1N1 cases are mild and do not require hospitalization or, in many cases when the patient does not have underlying medical conditions, even a visit to the doctor’s office.

However, even optimists in the medical field said if the number or severity of cases grows significantly, even the most prepared medical community could become overwhelmed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health are strongly urging everyone -- especially health care workers, pregnant women and children -- to get vaccinated against both the H1N1 and seasonal flus.

They hope widespread vaccination will be the most effective way of preventing a widespread and serious outbreak.

[resigned]

I know someone who is participating in the vaccine trials. No side effects so far.

Still no side effects - no flu. ( They had the shot (2) - not the mist)

So far so good.

[Eliza]

Turkeys In Ontario Infected With H1N1 Virus; Livestock Workers Urged To Get Flu Shots

October 22, 2009 6:16 a.m. EST
Share This Article


AHN Staff
Ottawa, Ontario (AHN) - Poultry at the farms owned by Hybrid Turkeys have the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, prompting Ontario's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arlene King to recommend for livestock workers to immediately get vaccinated against swine flu. King's advice is timely since Health Canada approved on Wednesday Arepanrix, a vaccine against the H1N1 virus.

The approval declares the adjuvanted vaccine safe and effective for use across the country. Arepanrix is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said in a statement, "This is a milestone in our efforts to fight the pandemic H1N1 flu virus. Thanks to careful planning we now have a safe and effective vaccine being distributed to provinces and territories that they will be rolling out in a matter of days. I encourage all Canadians to get vaccinated because it is the best way to protect our health and the health of our loved ones."

King said tests have confirmed the virus discovered in the turkeys is the same found in humans. Of the 19 farm workers interviewed by Ontario's health unit, one person had the swine flu symptoms. Hybrid Turkey said the virus is limited to one barn which has 3,500 birds.


Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles ... z0UiqQfSHa

[Eliza]

Second wave of A/H1N1 flu hits 46 U.S. states

www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-24 08:13:59 Print

HOUSTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Forty-six U.S. states and Washington D.C. are having widespread flu activities when production delays continue to hamper distribution of the A/H1N1 flu vaccine across the country, a leading U.S. health official said on Friday.

"We are now in the second wave of pandemic influenza," Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, confirmed at a press conference. "Forty-six states are reporting widespread activity," he added.

Statistics released by the CDC on Friday show that the only states without widespread flu are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and South Carolina.

Since the beginning of the H1N1 breakout in April and May, according to the CDC director, more than 1,000 deaths from the virus and more than 20,000 hospitalizations have been recorded around the country.

A CDC survey released on Thursday found that one in five U.S. children had a flu-like illness earlier this month, and most of the cases were probably the H1N1 flu.

"We expect that influenza will occur in waves. We can't predict how high, how far or how long the wave will go or when the next will come," Frieden said.

As nervous Americans clamor for the N1N1 flu vaccine, production is running several weeks behind schedule because of the vaccine is growing more slowly in egg-based cultures than manufacturers had anticipated, resulting in fewer available doses.

"As of Friday, there were 16.1 million doses on hand nationwide, up from 14.1 on Wednesday," Frieden said. "It's frustrating to all of us. We are nowhere near where we thought we would be by now. We are not near where the vaccine manufacturers predicted we would be."

Because of production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million vaccine doses would be available by mid-October.

"What we have learned more in the last couple of weeks is that not only is the virus unpredictable, but vaccine production is much less predictable than we wish," he told reporters.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, CDC officials explained. "Even if you yell at them, they don't grow faster," Frieden said.

The widespread of the H1N1 virus epidemic plus the unpredicted delay of the vaccine are complicating the CDC strategy against the second wave of the epidemic.

"Whether this will continue through the fall into winter, whether it will go away and come back in the winter, only time will tell," Frieden said.

[Eliza]

Hope no one looses a kid, a Grandpa, or a Mom becuse they weren't vaccinated. The elderly, were last on the list.

Despite Shortage, US to Donate Swine Flu Vaccine Abroad Through WHO

Friday, October 23, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee that the United States will help people in other countries get vaccinated for the H1N1 virus even as the United States faces shortages of the vaccine.

(CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)(CNSNews.com) – The United States is one of 11 countries that have agreed to donate H1N1 vaccine directly to the World Health Organization, which will then decide which less-developed countries should get it. The problem is, the U.S. will donate the vaccine at a time when it doesn't have enough to meet demand at home.

The federal government is currently 10 million doses shy of the 40 million doses of H1N1 influenza vaccine it said would be available to the American public by the end of October. Nevertheless, the Department of Health and Human Services says it will go ahead with its plan to donate 10 percent of all doses it receives to countries around the world, after meeting its original 40 million goal.