Side-effects of Swine flu drug

More than half of children taking Tamiflu suffer side-effects such as nausea, insomnia and nightmares, researchers said.
Two studies from experts at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) showed a "high proportion" of British schoolchildren reporting problems after taking the anti-viral drug.
Data was gathered from children at three schools in London and one in the South West who were given Tamiflu earlier this year after classmates became infected.
The researchers behind one study said that, although children may have attributed symptoms that were due to other illnesses to the use of Tamiflu, "this is unlikely to account for all the symptoms experienced".
Their research, published in Eurosurveillance, looked at side-effects reported by 11 and 12-year-old pupils in one school year in a secondary school in South West England.
The school was closed for 10 days in response to a pupil being confirmed with swine flu on return from a holiday in Cancun, Mexico.
A total of 248 pupils took part in the study and were given Tamiflu prophylactically. Compliance with prophylaxis was high, with 77% of children taking the full course, the researchers said. But they added: "Fifty-one per cent experienced symptoms such as feeling sick (31.2%), headaches (24.3%) and stomach ache (21.1%).
The researchers said "likely side-effects were common" and the "burden of side-effects needs to be considered" when deciding on giving Tamiflu to children prophylactically. The researchers concluded that a "high proportion of school children may experience side-effects of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) medication".
A spokesman from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it was monitoring reported side-effects by GPs and the public. Between April 1 and July 23, the MHRA received a total of 150 reports of 241 suspected side-effects for Tamiflu and five reports for another anti-viral, Relenza.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "As is the case with many medicines, nausea is a known side-effect of Tamiflu, in a small number of cases. Symptoms may lessen over the course of the treatment, and it may help to take Tamiflu either with or immediately after food, and drinking some of water may also lessen any feeling of nausea."

Pregnant womens more infected by swine flu

 Pregnant women are four times more likely to be hospitalised for swine flu and face a much higher risk of severe illness and death, according to
health experts.
US researchers have revealed that the H1N1 virus is taking an “exceptionally heavy toll” on expectant mothers – accounting for at least 13 per cent of deaths worldwide.
And now, they have recommended that pregnant women with the illness should be given antivirals.
Also they have said that expectant mothers must also be given the vaccine as soon as one is ready.
When pregnant, women are always at a higher risk of infection, particularly in the later stages of pregnancy,

Swine Flu in india reached 371

Twenty nine new cases of swine flu were reported in the country on Thursday, taking the tally to 371.
'Twenty-nine new laboratory confirmed cases have been reported on Thursday. Seven in Delhi, six in Bangalore, four in Chennai, four in Pune, three in Hyderabad, two in Thiruvananthapuram, two in Goa and one in Coimbatore,' said a health ministry statement.
'Of the 371 positive cases, 237 have been discharged. Rest of them remain admitted to the identified health facilities. The situation is being monitored,' it added.

Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia on Thursday asked parents not to send their children to school if they show symptoms of swine flu, but at the same time advised students that there was no need for panic.
On a visit to St. Thomas School, where 11 students were diagnosed with Influenza A(H1N1), Walia said the government is fully prepared to treat swine flu if there is an outbreak.
'Swine flu has not taken a virulent form and there is no need to worry about the disease. It is curable and can be controlled,' Walia said. Of the 11 students of the school who were diagnosed with the virus, six have been fully cured, while the rest are being treated in the Ram Manohar Lohia, Bhimrao Ambedkar and Loknayak Jai Prakash hospitals.
Special: Swine flu
'There is no need to close the schools. We only need to be careful and take precautions about the disease. The preventive measures have been sent to the schools and principals have been asked to tell the students about the dos and don'ts to avoid the infection,' Walia said.

Fight against swine flu

Copper is quite effective in inhibiting the influenza A H1N1 virus commonly known as Swine flu, according to the latest study.
Copper appears to have a broad spectrum in antiviral activity due to its effectiveness against RNA (Ribonucleic acid)-based influenza and DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)-based adenovirus 40/41, which causes gastrointestinal infections.
Bill Keevil, professor at the University of Southampton’s School of Biological Sciences, said that he believed copper could be used to reduce the spread of flu in public places.
"With the ongoing threat of contamination by influenza A virus, such as H1N1, there is a real and pressing need to utilise all appropriate and effective measures with proven antimicrobial qualities," said Keevil.
"It is recognised that many infectious diseases are contagious and studies have now shown that the use of copper as a surface material in key public places such as hospitals and food preparation areas offers the potential to substantially restrict and reduce the spread of harmful infections."
The influenza aspect of the study involved a series of experiments testing incubation of influenza A on copper and stainless steel surfaces.
Results showed that after incubation for one hour on copper, 75 percent of the virus was eradicated. Similar inactivation rates have now been observed for adenovirus 40/41.
The study has contributed further to the understanding of copper's antimicrobial qualities, which actively inhibit the growth of bacteria, fungi and viruses, said a University of Southampton release.
These findings were presented at the BIT Life Sciences' Second Annual World Summit on Anti-virals in Beijing this week.

Swine flu test positive in city

Four persons from the city have been tested positive for H1N1 influenza (swine flu), health officials said on Saturday, in the first reported case of the deadly virus in Rajasthan.
The patients -- two women and two children -- are from one family residing at Vishwakarma Industrial Area in the city. They are currently undergoing treatment at the isolation ward of SMS Hospital.
According to the health department, a relative of the patients from London had stayed with the family from July 12 to 14 with his two children. The relative's children were tested positive for flu in Hyderabad on July 16.
"The report of National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed positive for A(H1N1) infection," said a senior health official.
Meanwhile, the health department held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue and initiate measures to contain the disease. According to officials, relatives, neighbours, colleagues and visitors of the family were being provided precautionary medication.
In fact, it was due to the vigilance of the family which led to early diagnosis of the case. "After the relative was tested positive in Hyderabad, the family reported to the health department about his stay in Jaipur. Those with symptoms were subsequently admitted to the hospital," said a health official.
Meanwhile, health minister Aimaduddin Ahmad Khan said 20 beds have been arranged in the SMS isolation ward for swine flu, besides masks, caps, gowns and drugs. Rapid response teams had been deployed at all district headquartersto contain the disease, he said.

Younger People at Greater Risk by swine flu

Younger people are at greater risk of catching swine flu, with most cases occurring in teenagers, the World Health Organization said.
The median age of those infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus is 12 to 17 years, WHO said in a statement yesterday, citing data from Canada, Chile, Japan, U.K. and U.S. Patients requiring hospitalization and those with fatal cases may be slightly older, the Geneva-based United Nations agency said.
“As the disease expands broadly into communities, the average age of the cases is appearing to increase slightly,” WHO said. “This may reflect the situation in many countries where the earliest cases often occurred as school outbreaks but later cases were occurring in the community.”
World health officials are trying to determine which groups are most likely to get severely ill so measures to best protect them can be taken. Drugmakers are developing vaccines to fight the scourge, which WHO says may result in 2 billion infections.
Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer put people infected with the new H1N1 virus at greater risk of developing severe complications, the UN agency said. Asthma and other forms of respiratory disease have been consistently reported as underlying conditions associated with more severe illness in several countries, it said.
Obesity has also been reported as a risk factor, and there is mounting evidence that pregnant women are at higher risk for more severe symptoms, WHO said. Some minority populations may also be more vulnerable, “but the potential contributions of cultural, economic and social risk factors are not clear.”
Vaccine Supply
Humans trials of a pandemic vaccine began in Australia this week, helping regulators gauge the safety and efficacy of shots.
The most common way to make flu vaccine is by growing the virus in fertilizer chicken eggs. The virus is then extracted, purified and killed for injection into humans, prompting the immune system to generate antibodies that fend off any infection.
WHO said yesterday that the yields for pandemic vaccine viruses are 25 percent to 50 percent of those of normal seasonal flu viruses for some manufacturers.
A network of WHO collaborators is trying to develop higher- yielding vaccine virus candidates, the agency said, adding that it will be able to revise its estimate of pandemic vaccine supply once it has the new yield information.

Help by Factory against swien flu

Workers at the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) factory in Montrose are getting ready to restart production of an essential component of a drug to treat swine flu.

The plant will restart manufacturing zanamivir, the active ingredient in Relenza, in the next few weeks.
Production will last about six months and is designed to replace supplies which are currently being used up because of the swine flu scare.
GSK has said it plans to increase production levels of Relenza.
By the end of the year, it expects to raise its annual production capacity to 190 million treatment courses.
The previous maximum capacity was 60 million treatment courses.
Relenza, which has previously been used in the treatment of bird flu, is an alternative to Tamiflu.
Tamiflu is the drug which has been most widely used in the UK when treating swine flu.

Swine Flu reaches everywhere

he swine flu virus has reached 160 countries and could infect two billion people within the next two years, the World Health Organization has said.
A senior WHO official, Keiji Fukuda, said the virus was still in its early stages and would continue to spread for some time.
Mr Fukuda said work on a vaccine was intensifying but safety could not be compromised by rushing the process.
The virus is thought to have killed almost 800 people in recent months.
Mr Fukuda, the WHO's Assistant Director General for Health Security, said the agency had been reporting only laboratory-confirmed cases, but that this was always going to be "only a subset of the total number of cases".
"Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases, we're relatively early in the pandemic," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"One of the things that is relatively clear is that we will continue to see spread of the virus; even though we are now three to four months into the pandemic, this is still pretty early into the overall period," he said.
Mr Fukuda said the WHO estimates two billion people, one third of the global population, could eventually be infected.
He said the figure was a reasonable prediction, based on analysis of previous pandemics, but that it was "really impossible to predict what the future will hold".
Pregnancy risk
Mr Fukuda said officials and drug manufacturers were investigating how to speed up the process of developing a vaccine against the H1N1 swine flu strain.
But he said there could be no doubt over the safety and efficacy of the drug before it was publicly distributed.
"There is always a balance in this sort of situation. You of course want to get out vaccine and as much vaccine as possible, as quickly as possible. On the other hand there are certain things which cannot be compromised," he said.
"There are certain areas where you can make economies, perhaps, but certain areas where you simply do not try to make any economies."
The WHO says that in most affected countries, the majority of cases appear to be occurring in young people, around the ages of 12 to 17, although some reports suggest it is mainly older people who have required hospital treatment.
The organisation also said there was "accumulating evidence suggesting pregnant women are at higher risk of more severe disease".

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W.H.O: It Plans to Stop swine flu cases

In a move that caught many public health experts by surprise, the World Health Organization quietly announced Thursday that it would stop tracking swine flu cases and deaths around the world.
The announcement, made in a “briefing note” posted on the organization’s Web site late in the day, perplexed some experts, and even baffled a W.H.O. spokesman, Gregory Hartl, who said in an e-mail message, “I don’t have reliable info” about what his agency would track instead.
Only a little earlier in the day, Mr. Hartl had confirmed that Argentina, with 137 swine flu deaths since June, had surpassed Mexico, where the epidemic began in February, as the country with the second-largest number of swine flu deaths. Mexico has 121; the United States, with a much larger population, has 211.
The last W.H.O. update, issued July 6, showed 94,512 confirmed cases in 122 countries, with 429 deaths.
Many epidemiologists have pointed out that, in reality, millions of people have had swine flu, usually in mild form, so the numbers of laboratory-confirmed cases were actually meaningless. And performing the tests has overwhelmed many national laboratories.
But the cases — and, more to the point, the deaths — have been closely watched by the media and flu experts, even those who knew they were undercounts, as a crude measure of how the epidemic spread around the globe. Such figures can also, in theory, be useful to public health officials. For example, knowing that Chile has had far fewer deaths than Argentina even though their outbreaks began almost simultaneously could be useful to other countries who might want to imitate Chile’s response.
The briefing note said countries would still be asked to report their first few confirmed cases. It also said countries should watch for clusters of fatalities, which could indicate the virus had mutated to a more lethal form. Other “signals to be vigilant for,” it said, were spikes in school absenteeism and surges in hospital visits.
Wealthy countries routinely collect such data, and also do blood tests to see what percentage of a population has flu antibodies, indicating they were infected but recovered. However, poor countries do not.
Dr. Joseph S. Bresee, chief of epidemiology for the C.D.C.’s flu division, said he agreed with the W.H.O. premise that case counts were just too inaccurate to keep using.
“I don’t know exactly what their plans are,” he said, adding that he hoped they would track the severity and spread of flu cases over time, as his agency does state-by-state in flu season. “But it’s not like they’re just going to let the screen go blank.”
Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said confused journalists in many countries had misread the low W.H.O. numbers of confirmed deaths to report that the new flu is not a threat. And testing is so hit-or-miss that even apparent differences in death rates like those between Chile and Argentina “may not be based in science,” he said.
“Bad measures can be worse than no measures at all,” he added. “But I hope this will force the public health community to come up with better ones.”

Clinical Trials for Flu Vaccine

With pharmaceutical companies racing to have a swine flu vaccine ready for the fall flu season, the federal government announced Wednesday that the first clinical trials of vaccine candidates would start shortly.
The trials are being conducted “in a compressed time frame in a race against the possible autumn resurgence” of the swine flu, possibly at the same time as the regular seasonal flu, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which will oversee the trials.
Only after the trials are done, which is estimated to take about two months, can health officials recommend a vaccination program. It would be voluntary and would have to be rolled out in stages because not nearly enough doses for all Americans will be ready in the fall even if there are no testing or production problems.
For the trial, healthy adult volunteers will be recruited at eight sites and given one or two shots, each containing 15 or 30 micrograms of vaccines made by two different companies. Some will get the injections concurrently with seasonal flu vaccines.
If the shots seem safe in adults and the elderly, trials in teenagers and children as young as 6 months will be added.
About 2,400 volunteers will be tested in this round, Dr. Fauci said. All will be monitored for bad reactions, and, about three weeks after each shot, their blood will be tested to see how many antibodies to the swine flu were made. A high antibody level means the volunteer would not get the flu or would get only a mild case.
In such a small trial, researchers will be able to pick up only obvious problems, Dr. Fauci said. Typical side effects of seasonal flu shots include sore arms, fever and aches. (These symptoms, echoing those of mild flu, lead to the persistent but false rumor that flu shots cause flu, experts say.) Rarer but more serious side effects like hives, dizziness and breathing problems usually stem from allergies to the chicken eggs that vaccines are grown in.
Researchers will also look out for Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause fever and serious nerve damage and muscle weakness.
The 1976 vaccination of 40 million people after a swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, N. J., was stopped after some people developed the syndrome. But shots were never proved to have been the cause, and the syndrome may be an extremely rare reaction to any vaccination.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one person in 100,000 develops Guillain-Barré syndrome for unknown reasons. These trials are very unlikely to pick up a side effect that rare. “You’d have to vaccinate several hundred thousand or millions of people to do that,” Dr. Fauci said.
The trials will be conducted at eight hospital and medical organizations that have been used since 1962 to test seasonal flu shots and other experimental vaccines. They include the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Emory University in Atlanta, Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the University of Maryland medical school in Baltimore, St. Louis University and Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
The initial tests will be of vaccines made by Sanofi-Pasteur, a European company, and CSL Biotherapies, an Australian company that has supplied seasonal flu shots in the United States for years. Novartis, the third company from which the government has contracts to buy large amounts of swine flu vaccine, is conducting separate trials for Food and Drug Administration licensing, Dr. Fauci said.
None of the first trials will test a vaccine containing an adjuvant, which is an additive, usually an oil-water emulsion, that stimulates the immune system to react more strongly. The government bought large stocks of adjuvants to stretch the vaccine supply if the flu mutates into a more dangerous form and a clamor for shots emerges.
Adjuvants, which are common in veterinary vaccines, cause more side effects and are not now used in flu shots in the United States. But they are “not off the board,” Dr. Fauci said. “We’ve developed a mix-and-match protocol for them, but we want to see the data on vaccine safety first.”

Has swine flu been handled well?

The Health Protection Agency has been overseeing the launch of nine regional Flu Response Centres to deal with the swine flu pandemic.
Using mainly HPA staff, the centres have dealt with thousands of calls from health professionals and managed all aspects of containment, from swabbing to treatment and contact tracing.
The East Midlands Flu Response Centre is supported by HPA public health consultant, Dr Philip Monk, who detailed his experiences in a unique audio diary for Radio Four over a week, beginning with the region's first significant outbreak, among students at Nottingham University on 21 June.
His team works taking swabs, dispensing anti-virals and - most importantly in the early days - buying crucial time for the NHS to adapt plans drawn up for bird flu.
But by 25 June staff were finding it hard to cope.
Dr Monk said: "We haven't got enough phone lines, we've only got 15 incoming numbers and we're getting irate people because they've had to wait a long time to get through.
"And we're getting tired and getting stressed, so it's all getting a bit tetchy and a bit irritable and there's no let-up in this."
Could do better
Professor Nigel Lightfoot, chief advisor at the HPA and head of the Pandemic Influenza Programme, has admitted to the BBC that more could have been done to properly resource the nine local response centres.
He said: "In some areas our flu response centres worked well but in others perhaps we should have moved faster in the staff, the resources, that were put in there and that is one thing we would do differently - just put more staff in.
"Lessons are being collected from the operation of the flu response centres and will be implemented if we ever have to do it again."
The phone lines are manned 12 hours a day, seven days a week but Professor Lightfoot says problems have also occurred because so many people used lines intended for health care professionals.
He said HPA representatives should have been dispatched overseas as soon as the new strain of virus was identified.
"We probably should have sent more people earlier to Mexico, sent some people to the US, to learn what was happening and we will be sending someone to Australia because Australia is in the winter season so they're experiencing what we might experience come October."

Applies for swine flu funds

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday the state is applying for $7 million in federal emergency funds to prepare for a possible swine flu outbreak this fall.
The federal government is making $350 million available states to prepare for possible vaccinations and treatments in case H1N1 flu outbreaks worsen during the second half of the year.
Brewer said $5.2 million would be used for possible vaccinations and testing and another $1.8 million could be sent to hospitals treating flu victims.
There are worries the H1N1, which started out in Mexico in April and spread to the U.S. and other countries, could cause public health problems in the fall.

Swine flu infanted mother birth a child

An infant girl delivered prematurely from her mother, who has the swine flu virus, has died, hospital officials said Monday.

Aubrey Opdyke was put into a medically induced coma to give the baby as much oxygen as possible.

Parker Christine Opdyke was delivered 14 weeks early by doctors at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Florida's Palm Beach County.
Her mother, Aubrey Opdyke, was placed into a medically induced coma June 3 to help give the baby as much oxygen as possible. But doctors delivered Parker on Saturday after her mother suffered a collapsed lung last week.

Aubrey Opdyke remains comatose and in critical condition in Wellington's intensive care unit.
"Despite heroic efforts on the part of physicians and nurses, we are sad to announce that baby Parker Christine Opdyke has expired," said a written statement from the hospital.
No other details were available Monday. Attempts by CNN to reach the family were unsuccessful.
Even under the best circumstances, delivering a child at 27 weeks is a very early birth, Dr. David Feld, a Palm Beach County obstetrician and gynecologist, told CNN affiliate WPEC.
"When you have an infectious case, I don't think you're going to see that lung maturity as quickly, and I think that is the issue," he said. But, he said, now that Aubrey Opdyke is no longer pregnant, she will be able to fight for her own life.
Palm Beach County has had 247 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, but only one death. In late June, a 25-year-old pregnant woman died, but her baby survived.
Pregnant women have long been a prime concern of health care officials regarding the flu virus, but are of particular concern during this outbreak of swine flu. Pregnant women have always been advised to get a flu shot because they are at greater risk because of the weakened immune system resulting from their pregnancy. But the H1N1 epidemic has seen new complications and challenges.
"We have seen, with this virus, worse complications and severe infections in pregnant women," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're urging women who are pregnant who develop fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly."

The CDC said it is vitally important for pregnant women to recognize the signs and symptoms, like fever and cough, to get to their doctor quickly and to begin taking antiviral medicines early on.
"I know that many pregnant women don't want to take anything while they're pregnant," said Schuchat. "This is a situation where you need to be more worried about your health and the baby's health."
The CDC also recommends that pregnant women get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, in addition to an annual flu shot. "For people who are at high risk, like pregnant women, planning to receive both vaccines is probably the right way to go," Schuchat said.

Swine flu and Tamiflu

Concerns have been raised that swine flu is becoming resistant to anti-viral drugs at the same time that ACT Health braces for a potential outbreak of the disease as children return from school holidays.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said there was isolated evidence that swine flu was becoming resistant to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu overseas.
''I do agree with doctors that we have to be careful not to over-prescribe this medication. It's why we're urging people, the vast majority who have mild symptoms, not to take Tamiflu unless they are in a vulnerable category and unless their doctor recommends that it's necessary,'' Ms Roxon said.
She warned swine flu would persist for months, and ACT Chief Health Officer Charles Guest said the end of holidays could lead to an outbreak of swine flu when children return to classrooms today.
''The return to school ... changes the groupings around and yes, it's possible that we might see a spike in cases ... On the other hand there is a lot of flu this week here and elsewhere,'' Dr Guest said.

Why You Should Still Be Worried: Swine flu

Swine flu is spreading faster than ever — so much so that the World Health Organization has decided to stop tracking cases.
In the U.S., the H1N1 virus has sickened tens of thousands and closed summer camps at a time when there should be little or no flu activity.
Even as the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to raise awareness of this potentially deadly disease, which appears to be killing both sick and healthy individuals, the topic has virtually disappeared from the headlines.
“Complacency is a major concern,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director for National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC.
“This virus is a new one, and on top of that, we really still don’t know how it’s going to behave,” Schuchat said during a media conference call Friday. “There are special efforts that have been undertaken by health agencies, but individuals also need to be ready, to be thinking ahead and have steps in place should a family member get sick or a workplace close down or a situation arise that requires working from home.”
Over the next six to 12 weeks, there are several concerns that national health officials are preparing for:
1. Figuring out how the virus will react and spread once students return to schools, especially inner city schools, which typically struggle with overcrowding issues.
2. Overseeing the completion of a vaccine and getting it to the individuals who need it most.
3. Determining how the virus will behave as it spreads and mutates.
Schools
School districts across the U.S. struggle every fall with outbreaks of typically non-flu respiratory viruses, which are easily spread through germs on surfaces and doorknobs, as well as passed from student to student through sneezing, coughing, and sharing drinks and food.
Seasonal influenza usually begins to spread through schools in the late fall and early winter, but this probably will not be the case with swine flu, which behaves differently than seasonal influenza – by oddly thriving in warm and humid conditions.
“This year we’re seeing the H1N1 virus circulating through summer camps and military units, so I’m expecting we may see an increase in cases once school starts, but we don’t definitely know that,” Schuchat said. “We are concerned that there will be challenges in the fall. It is the kind of thing we want to be ready for and not surprised by.”
Schuchat said national and state health officials are working closely together on updating their guidance for schools and similar institutions with regard to swine flu outbreaks.
“We still believe that the best place for kids is in schools, where they can be nourished receiving a healthy breakfast and lunch and learning,” she said. “But we also believe the best place for a sick kid is at home being cared for. So we’re working on putting strong plans in place on communication and preparedness on the local and state levels.”
Vaccine
Companies such as Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis are working to ready a swine flu vaccine for October. Earlier this week, concerns were raised that the U.S. may not receive all the vaccine it needs because it only manufactures about 20 percent of its own supply. The other 80 percent is produced in foreign countries, which will also need ample supplies of the vaccine.
But Schuchat downplayed those concerns, saying the U.S. has contracts in place with manufacturers around the world that guarantee it will receive adequate vaccine.
But, will the vaccine be effective?
In a typical year, the seasonal flu vaccine is about 70 to 90 percent effective, depending on how closely the vaccine matches the strains circulating and on the population the vaccine is used in. In other words, a vaccine is not going to be as effective in a person with a compromised immune system or someone who is considered at high risk for the virus.
Scientists typically spend months researching the strains of seasonal flu virus that are circulating the globe in order to pick out the three strains that it puts into the annual vaccine.
Because swine flu is new and mutating – for example, in Argentina the virus appears to have mutated to where it can now easily spread from humans to pigs – scientists have their work cut out for them when it comes to determining what strains of the H1N1 swine flu virus to include in the vaccine.
“Unfortunately, right now, we do not know how effective it will be in different populations,” Schuchat said. “We will be looking back at how well it worked, taking into account whether it worked as well as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. Unfortunately, that’s something we’re not able to do until after the fact.”
Virus Behavior
World and U.S. health officials have already determined that swine flu behaves differently than seasonal flu in a number of ways. First, it’s able to spread in hot and humid weather, which is not usually the case for the seasonal flu virus.
Second, the infection appears to be more severe in young people and less severe in the elderly than the typical seasonal flu. Schuchat said in some countries, elderly people, usually at high-risk for influenza, appear to be immune to swine flu – possibly because of the similarities between swine flu and the 1918 flu pandemic, which some of the world’s elderly survived and may be resistant to.
“We are particularly concerned about pregnant women; we’re seeing fatalities and life-threatening illnesses that have occurred in pregnant women in the Southern Hemisphere,” Schuchat said. “We are expecting pregnant women to get a recommendation to get the H1N1 vaccine to reduce the risk of complications from influenza. We know many pregnant women don’t like to take any drugs, but this is one instance where you need to be much more concerned about your health than the baby’s health.”
“We’re in a very active stage of preparing for the [coming months],” she continued. “We’re working with the private sector. We want individuals and families to be preparing. Influenza in general is unpredictable, and we don’t know what to expect in the weeks and months ahead.”

Swine-Flu Vaccination UK plans

The medical establishment in Britain, the nation hardest hit by swine flu outside North America, is scrambling to roll out a large-scale vaccination program in an effort to protect its population against a virus that threatens to spread rapidly here in coming weeks.
The state-run health system is deciding whether to hire private contractors to help doctors carry out the massive vaccination job, said Peter Holden, a general practitioner who represents the British Medical Association in pandemic-flu planning with the government. Doctors would rather handle the shots themselves, he said, but as phone calls and office visits related to swine flu have jumped, they are concerned the extra work will overwhelm them unless they suspend some other routine care.

Getty Images

A postman delivers a leaflets giving information about swine flu to a home in Scotland. The leaflets were delivered to every household in the U.K.

In his own practice in the Peak District in central England, Dr. Holden is making plans for each doctor or nurse to vaccinate between 30 and 40 people an hour. "There'll be no chitchat. It will be, 'Are you allergic to anything? Bang, in, out,'" he said.
It isn't yet clear how many doses will be needed per person, but many flu experts believe it will be two.
Since the spring, 17 Britons have died after being infected with the H1N1 virus that is causing the swine-flu pandemic, according to U.K. officials. The U.K. recently recorded its first swine-flu death in an otherwise healthy patient, an event that set off further concern, even as other deaths, including that of a 6-year-old girl last week, have gained attention.
As of July 6, the U.K. had 7,447 confirmed cases, ranking the country fourth in the world, behind the U.S., Mexico and Canada, according to the World Health Organization's most recent figures. World-wide, 429 people have died from swine flu and 94,512 have been infected, according to the WHO.

swine flu deaths in London

Four more people in London have died after contracting swine flu, including a baby less than six months old.

The other casualties are a 70-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and another adult. All of the victims had underlying health problems.
Three other possible swine flu deaths are also being investigated.
NHS London said the latest fatalities, which happened in the past two weeks, bring the total number of swine flu-related deaths in the capital to 10.
The baby died at Royal Free Hospital last week.
Dr Simon Tanner, regional director of public health at NHS London, said: "We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to each of the families affected at this very difficult time.
"It is also important that these deaths be kept in perspective.
"All four had underlying health conditions and these upsetting cases should be kept in context with the many people who have had swine flu and recovered just a few days after experiencing a mild illness."
Andy Wapling, head of emergency preparedness at NHS London, said: "We would like to reassure people that NHS London is well-prepared - all NHS organisations have plans which have been practised and checked regularly.
"NHS London has put in place recently audited plans on how to prepare for flu pandemic and ensure that anyone who needs help will receive it."
Twenty-nine people have now died in the UK after contracting swine flu and the number of new cases hit 55,000 last week.
The NHS has seen a surge in calls and consultations.
Ministers in England have responded by promising the National Flu Service will go live at the end of next week to relieve pressure on hospitals and GPs.
The government has also warned that deaths from swine flu this winter could be between 19,000 and 65,000 in the UK.

Symptoms Of Swine Flu?

Swine flu has affected thousands around the world - 29 people in the UK have died after contracting it and there are predictions that the worst is still to come.

Test kits for swine flu

Symptoms of the H1N1 virus are similar to those of seasonal flu. Sufferers will usually have a fever (temperature above 38C or 100.4F), sudden cough and some or all of the following:

• sore throat
• headache
• runny nose
• sneezing
• muscle ache
• vomiting
• diarrhoea or upset stomach
• tiredness
• chills
• loss of appetite

Do you think you have symptoms of swine flu?

Some areas in the UK have been identified as having sustained person to person spread.
These areas are Greater Glasgow, Birmingham and London.
The vast majority of cases reported so far in this country have been mild.
Most people who have contracted swine flu recover within a week and do not suffer complications, even without being given antiviral medication.
Only a small number have led to serious illness, and these have mainly been where patients have had underlying health problems.
The Government have decided to offer the antiviral, Tamiflu, to everyone with swine flu, at their doctor's discretion.

High-risk groups
People with:

• chronic lung disease
• chronic heart disease
• chronic kidney disease
• chronic liver disease
• chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease)
• immunosuppression (whether caused by disease or treatment) and diabetes mellitus, patients who have had drug treatment for asthma within the past three years
• pregnant women
• people aged 65 years and older
• young children under five years old.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham has confirmed a formal move from a "containment phase" to a "treatment phase" for swine flu.
This means that school closures will no longer be automatic, and cases will be confirmed by doctors rather than through lab testing.
The National Pandemic Flu Service will also be put into place by the end of next week.

6000 could die with Swine flu

A "worst case scenario" could see around 6,000 people die from swine flu across the country this season, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.

Over 10,000 Australians have contracted the virus, 22 have died and almost 60 are in intensive care.
There were predictions yesterday that between 10,000 and 20,000 people could die from swine flu, but the Health Minister was quick to dismiss those numbers as "ludicrous".
Ms Roxon has told Radio National that projections show that if no action was taken against the disease, such as use of a vaccine and anti-virals, around 6,000 deaths would be expected.
"The 6,000 figure was agreed between all jurisdictions and advising health professionals," she said.
Yesterday infectious diseases expert Professor Raina MacIntyre, who is part of the influenza advisory group to Australia's chief medical officer Jim Bishop, said there could be up to 20,000 deaths from the disease.
But Ms Roxon says this is not correct.
"That simply is not based on the current information that we have about this particular disease," she said.
On average there are around 1,000 flu deaths in Australia each season.
On Tuesday Professor Jim Bishop said swine flu cases were expected to peak in August.
Pharmaceutical CSL will begin human tests next week of a vaccine it has developed after which it is expected over 20 million doses will be distributed in October.
In the UK it is likely a vaccine will be available in around a month but Ms Roxon says this is because they are not conducting human tests.
"I think we should be confident that we want to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective before we distribute it to a very big chunk of the population," she said.
However, Ms Roxon said if the virus "took a turn for the worse" the Government would consider fast-tracking the vaccine if appropriate advice was given.
She also said treating those with swine flu make take precedence over elective surgery as hospitals deal with the extra demand.
"It may well mean that some elective surgery or other procedures do have to be delayed for urgent attention to be provided to those who are having a severe impact from this flu," she said.

NRI family positive for Swine flu

Four members of a Non-Resident Indian family, whose swab samples were sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, on Tuesday have tested positive for A (H1N1).
Suspected swine flu patients were quarantined in the local civil hospital on Monday, after symptoms of the H1N1 virus were noticed among them, T.P. Singh, district epidemiologist, told reporters revealing that the family belonged to the United States and had recently visited Jalandhar to meet their relatives.
Family quarantined All the four patients were kept in the Isolation Ward of the civil hospital and efforts were on to identify the persons, who came into contact with the family in the recent days and accordingly each and every identified person would be medically examined, Dr. Singh added.
He said that family recently visited other districts also and accordingly authorities concerned of such districts were being informed to undertake the identification of the persons, who came into close contact with the affected NRIs.
13 positive cases With the detection of four more H1N1-affected persons, the number of swine flu positive cases reached 13, including a couple who returned from Thailand recently and seven students, who came back from an educational trip from NASA.

Swine Flu cases in India reached 251

Twenty-two new cases of swine flu, highest in a day so far, were reported on Wednesday in India taking to 251 the number of total
confirmed cases of the influenza A(H1N1), which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared as "unstoppable" virus.
According to the health ministry, the new laboratory confirmed cases were reported from Delhi (7), Jalandhar (4), Cochin (2), Thiruvananthapuram (2), Mumbai (2), Pune (2), Hyderabad (1), Ahmedabad (1) and Bangalore (1).
According to the union health ministry, so far 1,293 persons have been tested, of whom 251 were positive for Influenza A(H1N1). Of these 251 positive cases, 141 have been discharged. The remaining 110 of them are admitted to the identified health facilities.
Five of the seven freshly confirmed cases in Delhi belong to one family and were among the group who returned from Malaysia. Another case from the group is a 45-year-old man and the seventh case is a 38-year-old man who travelled from Bangkok to New Delhi, a health ministry statement said.
The four cases from Jalandhar are from one family - a 45-year-old man, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. They had returned from San Francisco, US.
The four Kerala cases include two sisters who returned from Manchester, Britain, a 39-year-old man who travelled from Germany via Dubai, and a 60-year-old woman who contracted the disease through secondary infection.
The two cases from Mumbai are a seven-year-old old boy who travelled from Hong Kong and the second is a 26-year-old man who travelled from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Mumbai.
The two cases from Pune - a boy of 12 and a girl of the same age - are indigenous cases who contracted the disease in their school from other students who returned from the US and tested positive.
A 24-year-old man from Hyderabad who travelled from San Francisco has also tested positive.
From Bangalore, a 17-year-old girl who travelled from New York has tested positive and the solitary case reported from Ahmedabad is a 14-year-old girl, without any travel history.

Swine flu vaccine

With about 100 million doses of swine flu vaccine slated for distribution by October, public worries about the disease should lessen, said Patti Bull, infection prevention coordinator with Hendrick Health System.
“People should take some comfort in the fact that they’ve been able to make a vaccine so quickly,” she said. “At this point in time, they’re saying that the severity will be unchanged, but whether it’s worse or less severe, we’ll have a vaccine.”
Officials met at the National Institute of Health at a “flu summit” in Maryland Thursday to discuss the new vaccine. Clinical trials are scheduled for next month. The Institute warned that states should prepare for another wave of swine flu in the fall.
But Bull said people should not panic just yet.
“If there are adequate supplies, it will be distributed just like other vaccine seasons,” she said. “If there is an inadequate supply, they will first go to protecting the most vulnerable.”
High-risk persons include children, those dealing with children, the sick and elderly.
Bell said it is too early to determine how many immunization doses the Hendrick Health System will be allotted.
Five U.S. pharmaceutical companies are working on the vaccine, which has affected roughly 1 million people nationwide and killed 170. Globally, the virus has killed at least 420 people.
Last month the World Health Organization(WHO) declared a swine flu pandemic, meaning the disease spread in two world regions. WHO estimates more than 100 countries have been exposed to the disease.
Experts say the H1N1 virus more severely affects people between the ages of 5 and 24.
As of June, only 14 cases of the swine flu were confirmed in Taylor County.
“I think it’s just a matter of continuing to recognize that we need to observe this organism,” Bull said. “They are advocating judicious use of anti-viral resistant, meaning they don’t want people to get crazy and take a lot of anti-virals.

Swine Flu Outbreak at Airforce Base

The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado is dealing with the state's largest outbreak of the H-1-N-1 virus, or swine flu.

The Academy says initial tests show 15 cadets with the virus.
Nearly 90 cadets have been isolated because of flu-like symptoms.
The Academy says most of the sick cadets are members of the incoming freshman class.
They began training on June 25th.
Others in the 13-hundred member class are having to wash their hands with an alcohol-based sanitizer.

New Cases of Swine Flu Continue Nationwide

 The government is spending $1 billion on a new vaccine. Nearly 100,000 people have been infected worldwide - 37,000 of those in the use and 429 people worldwide have died from complications of the virus, including 211 in this country.
"The potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming," President Barack Obama said recently - so the government is now putting big money into finding a vaccine, fast.
"There'll be another $1 billion worth of orders placed to get the bulk ingredients for an H1N1 vaccination," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today. "Congress has agreed with the president that this is the number one priority, keeping Americans safe and secure."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 211 Americans have died after contracting H1N1. A CDC map shows some H1N1 activity in almost every state, with widespread illness in more than 20 states.
Hawaii saw 100 new cases in just the past week, and in Colorado, the Air Force Academy says more than 80 cadets are being tested for H1N1 after coming down with flu-like symptoms.
Some summer camps are closing early after 50 outbreaks among campers. In Britain, the actor Rupert Grint, who plays Harry Potter's friend in the movies, is now recovering.
U.S. health officials are watching countries in the southern hemisphere where it's winter and flu season now, to see what effect H1N1 might have here in the fall. Bolivia announced its first two swine flu deaths today.
"When exactly the flu season starts, we can't predict, but we will have a vaccination ready by mid-October, assuming we have a safe, effective strain that's been identified," Sebelius said.

H1N1 Swine Flu Cases in Brazil

he dreaded H1N1 swine flu continues unabated in Brazil as the number of new cases rose by 72 to 977 confirmed cases of the disease, the Health Ministry said late Wednesday.
Brazil first reported the H1N1 flu on May 8, and the numbers have increased quickly since then. One patient died after a return trip from Argentina, where the situation has deteriorated over the last several weeks.
Argentine authorities have confirmed 2,800 cases, with 70 patients dying of the respiratory disease.
In Brazil, 57% of the infections were caught during international travel, with the vast majority of them coming from Argentina.
According to the World Health Organization, there are 94,512 cases of the new flu in 122 countries as of July 6. Around 430 people have died.

Fort Gordon's Swine flu Cases

It’s a pandemic that has caused a global panic, and now the swine flu has found its way into the CSRA. The recent cases were confirmed by doctors at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center (EAMC), Wednesday night, At Fort Gordon.
Dr. Edward Boland, EAMC: “Of those eight cases, only two of them had a travel history like you would accept, according to the CDC.“
Doctor Edward Boland Is The Chief of Preventive Medicine on post. He says most of the patients got the flu from outside Fort Gordon.
Dr. Boland: “We know the flu is out in the community. That is were most of our folks were getting the H1N1 flu. They are members of the community, so they did not have a travel history, and we suspect that they are getting it here in Georgia.“
Dr. Boland says the patients got better and were released. He says, despite the widespread panic, many of them were not really concerned.
Dr. Boland: “The experience in the United States was not like it was in Mexico. Patients have sort of calmed down. At this point, it’s not the death threat that we thought it was going to be, in this country.“
Dr. Boland says, at this point, there are measures in place to make sure all their soldiers are safe and healthy before they leave the country.
Dr. boland: “You have to have your temperature taken to make sure you’re not running a fever, and you answer a questionnaire looking for flu-like symptoms. If you answer yes to any of those questions, you’re pulled to the side, then you don’t get to deploy until we know, for sure, that you are not sick.“
On friday, the Obama administration warned the states that swine flu promises to create a real mess this fall. The federal government called together health officials from every state to check their preparations for mass vaccinations, and how they’ll handle flu-riddled schools this fall.

Vaccine for Kids

he U.S. is planning a vaccination campaign that could start in October, with school-age children among the first to be offered a shot, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The new vaccine still has to be developed and tested. But if it works, the government will purchase much of the vaccine. Unlike seasonal flu, which disproportionately affects the elderly, the swine flu has hit particularly hard among school children.

Officials have documented three cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu, but they appear to be isolated cases and not evidence of widespread resistance, the WHO said. In one case, testing revealed that a teenage girl who flew from San Francisco to Hong Kong was infected with a Tamiflu-reistant strain, despite the fact that she hadn’t been treated with Tamiflu — suggesting a resistant strain that has the ability to spread from person to person, the New York Times reports. There is no evidence that the resistant strain is widespread, and Tamiflu-resistant flu is susceptible to Relenza, another drug.
The French government is planning to spend nearly $1 billion to buy 100 million doses of vaccine from Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Baxter, reports the French newspaper Le Parisien.

Swine Flu 140 Cases in Maine

Maine's swine flu tally now stands at 141.  The Maine Center for Disease Control says 140 of those cases have been confirmed and one is considered probable.  Forty-seven of the cases have turned up in out-of-state residents who are visiting Maine. 

The cases are concentrated in southern Maine, in Cumberland and York Counties, but swine flu has been confirmed in 11 of the state's 16 counties.  Counties with no identified cases so far include Aroostook, Franklin, Piscataquis, Waldo and Washington.

But state health authorities say the official numbers don't tell the whole story because a lot of people who get sick don't get tested.  The Maine CDC says H1N1 is now widespread in Maine and tests are being conducted less frequently. 

Among those identified with the disease, seven have been hospitalized, but all have been discharged.

First women died by swine flu

The H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, claimed its first victim in Stanislaus County last week, a 21-year-old woman with prior health problems.
County health officials would not release the woman’s identity or location, but they said she had been hospitalized with severe pneumonia and died July 1. The Modesto Bee reported this week the woman was Rosario Rivera of Ceres.
It was the fourth confirmed case of the flu in Stanislaus County. County Public Health Officer Dr. John Walker said the other three cases were also relatively young adults, which follows the trend of the global pandemic that has sickened nearly 100,000 and killed more than 400 according to the World Health Organization.
Of the 187 swine flu-related deaths in the United States so far, 24 have come in California. While the flu is believed to have originated in Mexico and spread through travel there, Walker said it’s more likely the virus will now act like the typical seasonal flu that appears later in the year.
“We genuinely believe that H1N1 is active in all parts of our county,” Walker said. “As we monitor this outbreak in our county and in California, it’s very clear that it’s no longer related to travel but that it is spread within a community, person to person.”
The county confirmed its first case of swine flu on June 15, a 22-year-old woman who was not hospitalized and fully recovered. Since then, there have been two other confirmed cases, but Walker said both recovered and neither required hospitalization.
According to the state Department of Public Health Web site, Stanislaus is one of only 13 counties in California with a swine flu-related death. San Joaquin County, though it has had 14 confirmed cases, has had no deaths. Merced County has had two confirmed cases and no deaths.
The county is generally advocating standard hygiene like it would during the normal flu season — washing hands regularly, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, etc. Walker said the county is trying to walk a fine line by emphasizing the seriousness of the swine flu while not causing any unnecessary panic.
“What we’re trying to do is to alert people that it may be summer, but we have influenza,” Walker said. “We don’t want to alarm them … it’s very similar to seasonal influenza. But we don’t want it to be taken lightly, either, because influenza carries the risk of serious complications.”

2 new swine flu deaths in Minnesota and LA

Health officials say two more people in Los Angeles County have died of swine flu, bringing the total death toll in the county to three. The county's health officer, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, said Wednesday that the latest victims had underlying medical conditions.
One of the recent victims was a pregnant woman. Her baby survived.
Overall, 23 swine flu deaths have been recorded in California as of July 2, the latest statewide tally available.

became infected. The first, a 5-year-old girl from Minneapolis, had been fragile since infancy. The two announced Wednesday -- one a child; one an elderly hospital patient -- also had underlying complications.
That might be reassuring to healthy people, but it's one reason why health officials have been monitoring the new flu so carefully: A broader outbreak could quickly kill dozens of people with conditions as common as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.
That's what happens every winter when the seasonal flu bug strikes. People with common but compromising health problems are the ones most at risk when they also contract the flu.
In fact, the most common health problem among Minnesotans hospitalized with swine flu is asthma, state health officials said Wednesday.
"This novel virus is affecting the same groups" as regular seasonal flu, said Dr. Aaron DeVries, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health.
Only at this point there is no vaccine to protect the medically vulnerable from the new flu.
It's largely for the sake of those vulnerable people, primarily sick children and the elderly, that health officials keep repeating the wash-your-hands, cover-your-cough mantra to stop the flu's spread.
Those with heart and lung disease, for example, have a 100-fold increase in the risk of death from flu, said Dr. Greg Poland a flu expert with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
Nationally, each winter about 36,000 people die and 200,000 are hospitalized from standard seasonal flu, and the vast majority had some kind of underlying health condition.

Swine Flu Returns

Even though the panic seems to have faded, the number of swine flu cases has just jumped dramatically.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the most significant increase in reported U.S. activity came at the end of June, months after the initial scare. U.S. deaths jumped 34 percent to 170 in just the past week.
"We don't have any evidence that it's mutated yet, but I'm concerned the mutation may be taking place. The children seem to me to be getting much more sicker than they used to be one or two months ago," said Dr. Norris Payne, a Houston pediatrician.
He's seeing three or four new cases of swine flu each day.
Dr. Payne is the pediatrician for FOX 26 anchor Melissa Wilson's two year old son. Melissa's son has been diagnosed with swine flu.
Over the weekend, she says, "He was belligerent. He would not stop crying." His fever had soared to 105 degrees.
"Flu season is over, but this is the first time in 30 years I've seen flu in the summer," said Dr. Payne.
For now, the antiviral tamiflu still seems to be working.
Melissa says, "If you have a child with a fever in the middle of summer, that's odd. I would get help immediately."
Dr. Payne believes the cases he's seeing could be just the tip of the iceberg. The CDC estimates more than a million Americans have been infected with the virus, though many probably had a mild illness.
A vaccine is still being developed but could become available sometime in the fall.