Swine flu cases in India

Three more people were confirmed to be infected with influenza A(H1N1) Monday, taking the number of swine flu cases in the country to 23. However, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the situation was under control as 11 of the infected had recovered.

He also said people who plan to visit the US should suspend their plans. The US is among the countries badly hit by the virus and most of the swine flu cases in India are those who arrived from that country.

'Medicine is available in plenty and the most important thing is that this disease is 100 percent curable. Of the total 23 cases, 11 have already been treated and discharged. So you are only left with 12 cases,' Azad told reporters in New Delhi.

He said keeping in mind the size and population of the country, 11-12 cases were nothing as compared to the huge numbers most developed countries have reported.

Chairing a review meeting at Nirman Bhavan, the minister, however, expressed concern over the spread of flu to smaller towns.

His concern was over the fact that nine children from Jalandhar in Punjab were quarantined after one of their classmates tested positive for the flu and was hospitalised in Delhi.

The quarantined students were part of a group of 31 students and three teachers of the Guru Amar Das Public school that had gone to New York and Florida on an educational trip to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

A team of four doctors from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi has gone to Jalandhar to oversee the treatment of the students, the minister was told.

Azad said the director general of health services should immediately send a Rapid Response Team to Punjab and make available adequate quantities of Tamiflu tablets to help contain spread of the disease.

Azad also spoke to chief ministers of all the states urging them to gear up the state health machineries to tackle the possible spread of virus.

In Hyderabad, two sisters aged eight and four, and a 45-year-old woman were late Sunday confirmed to be infected, taking the total number of cases in Andhra Pradesh to 12, the highest in India. The confirmed cases include five children.

The two children and their mother arrived in Hyderabad from New York June 10 by Indian Airlines Flight IA-140. Their mother is among five air passengers kept under observation for suspected symptoms of swine flu.

Doctors at the Andhra Pradesh Chest Hospital said the samples of the suspected cases, including two children had been sent to the NICD in New Delhi.

Health officials said they would also screen passengers of IA-140 who sat three rows in front and three rows behind the two girls and their mother.

The 45-year-old woman, who also tested positive late Sunday, is staying in the hospital along with her 20-month-old grandson who was confirmed to be infected Friday.

Authorities have also sent for testing the samples of the grandfather of a six-year-old girl who tested positive last week. He has been staying with the girl in the hospital.

Health officials said all the infected persons came from abroad, majority of them from the US.

Meanwhile, the state authorities are set to launch an exclusive interactive voice response (IVRS) facility on influenza A(H1N1). The IVRS facility will provide information and clarify doubts among the general public with regards to the flu.

Controls of swine flu

A new research has suggested that targeting children for vaccination could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.
The study suggests that targeting kids is the best way of using limited supplies of the vaccine currently being developed.
Ever since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic global H1N1 swine flu, countries are looking at ways to control the spread of the disease.
These measures include the use of antiviral treatments, such as oseltamivir, social distancing (for example, closing schools and stopping public transport) and quarantining infected individuals.
Pharmaceutical companies have also stepped up production of vaccines effective against this particular strain of the virus.
However, if the spread of the disease increases significantly in the autumn, as some scientists predict, it is unlikely that supplies of the new vaccine will be sufficient to vaccinate entire populations.
Dr Thomas House and Professor Matt Keeling from the University of Warwick have used computer modelling to predict the spread of pandemic influenza and to look at ways of controlling it effectively, particularly where supplies of vaccine are not sufficient for universal coverage.
The researchers showed that the disease is likely to spread fastest in densely populated conurbations, suggesting that these should be priority areas for tackling the spread.
However, they showed that vaccinating entire households at random was an inefficient use of resources; instead, vaccinating key individuals offered sufficient protection to others in their household.
Although a simplification of the complex reality of pandemic flu transmission, the researchers believe their model provides a robust argument for vaccinating children.
"Our models suggest that the larger the household - which in most cases means the more children living at home - the more likely the infection is to spread," said Keeling.
"This doesn't mean that everyone in the household needs to be vaccinated, but suggests that vaccination programmes for children might help control a potential pandemic," Keeling added.
The researchers argue that targeting children for vaccination would not only help protect those at greatest risk of exposure to the virus, but would also offer protection to unvaccinated adults.
This so-called "herd immunity" effect would mean that significantly less vaccine would be necessary to help control the spread of the virus than if it were offered to everyone.

Swine flu symptoms in Punjab School

Five more students with swine flu symptoms were hospitalised in this Punjab city on Tuesday and their blood samples sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi for tests, officials said.
The students complained of high fever, sore throat and shivering. Nine of their schoolmates were quarantined in the hospital on Sunday.
The students were part of a group of 31 students and three teachers of the Guru Amar Das Public School that went to New York and Florida on an educational trip to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
"Five more students with suspected swine flu virus were admitted in Jalandhar on Tuesday. They had travelled along with other infected students in the same flight. We have sent their blood samples to Delhi," Roop Lal, Jalandhar district health officer, told IANS.
Of the nine students admitted to the civil hospital on Sunday, seven have tested positive for the infection while the reports of the other two are still awaited.
"A special OPD has been set up for those showing symptoms of the virus. The seven students who tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) yesterday (Monday) have been kept in isolation wards and are under constant observation," said Lal.
He said a list of people who came in contact with the infected students before being hospitalised was being prepared.
SS Walia, a surgeon at the civil hospital who is treating the infected students, told IANS: "The seven students with confirmed reports of swine flue are normal and recovering fast. There is no need to panic and the situation is under our control."
The 31 students of the Guru Amar Das Public School and their three escorting teachers returned from the US to New Delhi Saturday aboard a Qatar Airlines flight via Doha.
One of them, a Class 12 student, tested positive for the swine flu virus in New Delhi. He was admitted to a Delhi hospital on Saturday immediately after landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).
The rest of the group travelled to Jalandhar by road.
"The school administration and health authorities acted very irresponsibly in this matter. After the detection of the first case in Delhi, they should not have allowed the rest of the group to travel without properly diagnosing them," said a relative of a student in Jalandhar.
A health official said: "We have also identified eight other passengers of the Qatar Airlines flight, six of whom are from Punjab, who came in contact with the infected students. We have advised them to take required precautions and to immediately report to the doctor in case they detect any symptom of swine flu."
Blood samples of another person who landed at Amritsar airport from Birmingham Monday were also sent to the NICD after he showed the symptoms of the swine flu.

Swine Flu at school

Nine sixth form pupils at a Cornish boarding school are being treated for swine flu.

Bolitho School in Penzance remains open while the pupils receive anti-viral medication in the school's sanatorium.
They were diagnosed with the virus - described as "low grade" by the head teacher - after falling ill on 15 June.
It is the first outbreak of swine flu in Cornwall. A Cornish pupil at a school outside the region was diagnosed with swine flu in May.

Head teacher David Dobson

Anti-viral drugs are being given to all other sixth form pupils, teachers and families who have been in close contact with the confirmed cases.
Head teacher David Dobson told BBC News: "Most of the students who were feeling unwell are now almost fit and well again, certainly a vast improvement from how they felt on Monday.
"It is low grade because the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the NHS have been in the school all day doing risk assessments.
"They have told us that no other actions other than giving medication to the affected students is necessary.
"The school is to remain open as usual."
It is a not known where the pupils are thought to have contracted the disease.
A total of 224 cases of swine flu were diagnosed in England on Friday, bringing the total number of laboratory confirmed UK cases identified since April to 1,984.

Mark of Swine Flu Cases in UK

The number of UK swine flu cases has risen to 1,759 after 145 more people in England were confirmed with the virus.

In Scotland seven more patients tested positive for swine flu. Six are in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
The overall UK total includes 1,207 cases in England, 537 in Scotland, 12 in Northern Ireland and three in Wales.
A Department of Health spokesman said UK cases have been "generally mild in most people, but are proving to be severe in a small minority of cases".
He said: "We are continuing to work to slow the spread of the disease and to put in place arrangements to ensure that the UK is well-placed to deal with this new infection."
'Best prepared'
Meanwhile, the Scottish Crown Office has confirmed that Jacqui Fleming, 38, of Glasgow, was the first person to die from swine flu outside North America.
Ms Fleming - who had underlying health problems as well as the virus - died on Sunday, two weeks after giving birth.
Her son Jack, who was born prematurely, died in hospital in Paisley, Renfrewshire, on Monday night, but not from the virus.
As well as the confirmed cases in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, a patient was also confirmed with the virus in Lanarkshire. There are 411 possible cases currently under investigation in Scotland.
Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Laboratory testing is now resuming for all possible cases in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the number of confirmed cases in the area is likely to increase in the coming days."
She added: "Scotland remains amongst the best prepared countries in the world to deal with pandemic flu and we are continuing to plan and prepare for any future eventuality.
"Where new cases are being identified, public health officials are moving quickly to treat people appropriately."

Donates Doses of Swine Flu Vaccine

Sanofi-Aventis SA will donate 100 million doses of swine-flu vaccine to the World Health Organization.
Once production of a vaccine begins, Sanofi will reserve 10 percent of output for the donations, the Paris-based company said today in a statement. The donation will help ensure that the poorest countries have access to the shots, Sanofi said.
“ It’s a call for collective action,” Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said in a telephone interview from Seattle today. “We all have to play our part. It can’t be only the rich countries having access to the vaccines, in case of a pandemic.” GlaxoSmithKline Plc also plans to donate 50 million doses to the WHO, spokesman Stephen Rea said in an interview today.
The decisions by Sanofi and Glaxo contrast with that of Novartis AG, which said this week it wouldn’t donate the vaccine. The Basel, Switzerland-based company may look at pricing and other ways to assure access, spokesman Eric Althoff said today in a telephone interview. Donations won’t address the current pandemic or create sustainable access, Althoff said.
“In principle, I agree that you don’t want to rely on donations, they are not a sustainable model,” Viehbacher said. “But a pandemic is an exceptional event, it’s not on-going. We have to do what we can to help the WHO fight it.” The decision won’t affect Sanofi’s margins, he said.
H1N1 Cases
The spread of the swine flu virus, formally known as H1N1, helped push the WHO on June 11 to declare the first flu pandemic in four decades, and the agency is urging drugmakers to begin producing shots. The agency said today that 35,928 cases of the virus, including 163 deaths, have been reported in 76 countries.
In most cases H1N1 causes little more than a fever and cough. Still, governments have ordered millions of vaccine doses as health officials watch for signs the virus could mutate into a more dangerous form in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
Wealthy nations need to ensure that poor countries have access to vaccine during the pandemic, Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, said last week at a press briefing.
Sanofi said it will also consider a tiered-pricing policy for developing countries should its vaccine plants become fully committed to the production of swine-flu vaccine.
Australian drugmaker CSL Ltd. and Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, also are producing shots to prevent the virus.

Cruise ship over Swine flu fears

Add Venezuela's Isla Margarita to the list of Caribbean islands turning away cruise ships with suspected cases of the H1N1 swine flu.
Pullmantur's 1,350-passenger Ocean Dream arrived as scheduled at the island Wednesday, but most passengers and crew were not allowed to disembark due to an outbreak of flu among crew on the ship.
The Associated Press reports several hundred Venezuelan passengers who had previously been scheduled to depart the island as their final destination were the only passengers allowed off.
The island is the third this week to deny entry to cruisers from the ship. Grenada and Barbardos turned away the ship earlier on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Two other Caribbean islands, St. Lucia and Antigua, have turned away a cruise ship this month over swine flu fears.  
As of Wednesday, three crew members on the Ocean Dream had tested positive for the H1N1 swine flu, and 11 more crew members have reported flu-like symptoms. Pullmantur says no passengers have fallen ill.
Several news outlets are reporting Venezuelan officials initially had planned to quarantine the Pullmantur ship for 10 days at Isla Margarita. The Associated Press says Pullmantur has denied that was the case, contradicting a Venezuelan health official quoted by the news agency.
The Ocean Dream is now sailing to Aruba where it is scheduled to arrive today.

Swine Flu in island of Aruba

A Spanish cruise ship hit by an outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus among its crew headed for its final stop at the Caribbean island of Aruba on Thursday, the ship operator said.
The Ocean Dream, owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, was on a week-long cruise due to end on Friday but its itinerary was limited after several crew members came down with the swine flu.
Venezuela confirmed three cases of H1N1 flu among the ship's crew when the boat arrived at the island of Margarita and more than 300 Venezuelan passengers were allowed off, Royal Caribbean subsidiary Pullmantur said.
The ship's remaining 900 passengers and crew are expected to disembark late on Thursday in Aruba, the cruise's final stop.
The ship made stops earlier in the week in Barbados and Grenada, but authorities there refused to let passengers leave the ship.
Pullmantur denied reports by Venezuelan health authorities that the boat had been quarantined for a week along with its passengers, who are mainly from Spain, Colombia and Venezuela but also include Brazilian, British and French citizens.
"The boat is continuing its itinerary in the direction of Aruba, where the rest of the passengers and the affected crew will disembark," the company said in a statement.
Barbados refused to let the ship dock on Tuesday because 43 crew members exhibited flu-like symptoms, the Barbados Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Many of the small island states in the eastern Caribbean depend on cruise ship arrivals as an important source of foreign exchange for their vulnerable economies.
A number of Caribbean states have reported confirmed cases of the H1N1 swine flu, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization last week. Venezuela has confirmed at least 45 cases, with no deaths. One person died from the virus in nearby Colombia.
Royal Caribbean Chief Executive Richard Fain said last week the flu outbreak had "a short, but highly disruptive impact to our operations," although he added vessels were returning to their original itineraries.
The launch of a Pullmantur cruise ship targeting Mexican nationals, the Pacific Dream, had to be canceled because of the H1N1 outbreak in Mexico, the epicenter of the pandemic.

Agency review on Swine Flu

Although it is fading in much of the nation as warmer weather comes on, swine flu is causing outbreaks in summer camps just as it has in schools, federal officials said Thursday.
The illness has hospitalized 1,600 Americans, most of them young, and is blamed in 44 deaths, the officials said. It is most persistent in the Northeast, and nearly 90 percent of the flu cases that are tested nationally are the new swine H1N1, not seasonal flu.
The advice to camp administrators and parents is basically the same as for schools, said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, deputy director of the flu division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Camps should be on the alert for sick children, who should be kept home for a week or until 24 hours after symptoms have finished. (Not all camps offer refunds, the American Camp Association noted.) Parents should be prepared to take sick children home on short notice.
Religious camps in Clayton, Ga.; Santa Rosa, Calif.; and Cleveland, Ga., and a Boy Scout camp near Asheville, N.C., all reported probable swine flu cases in local newspapers this week. The C.D.C. also said that many hospitals and clinics were not doing enough to prevent the spread of flu within their walls.
Preliminary analysis of 26 cases of swine flu among health care workers in April and May showed that too few hospital staff members wore masks and other protection, and that patients with the flu were not being identified quickly enough.
“Infectious patients should be identified at the front door,” said Dr. Michael Bell, chief of infection control for the agency. “Identifying them up front is essential.”
When that is done correctly, Dr. Bell said, hospitals act appropriately by putting infectious patients in single rooms, covering their mouth and nose with masks, alerting staff members to wear protection and wash their hands, and doing some procedures in rooms pressurized to make sure no air escapes into corridors.
As if to emphasize the potential risks in hospitals, The Associated Press reported Thursday that 33 premature infants in a hospital in Greensboro, N.C., were getting precautionary flu treatment because a respiratory therapist had worked in the neonatal intensive-care unit after treating an older patient who later tested positive for the virus. None of the children had flu symptoms, a hospital administrator said.

Swine flu influenza

 

Click here to view slideshow

As Swine Flu is on a high tide these days, the requisite of the hour is to bag in as much information as possible. When epidemics spread, rumors and myths also travel along. This makes the situation worse. Thus, it is our prime concern to clear off the misconceptions and spread the word of true information as far as possible. This presentation gives an insight of the present pandemic scenario as well as the prevention and medication tips. Apart from these, the presentation includes slides on slide flu vaccination, slide flu symptoms, slide flu history and swine flu cause. 

Swine flu symptoms

 

Click here to view slideshow

Swine flu Catestrophy

 

Click here to view slideshow

Swine flu symptoms

Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those caused by other influenza viruses. These include fever and chills, coughing, sore throat, and fatigue. Sometimes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea can occur. In the past, pneumonia and potentially fatal respiratory failure have been associated with human swine flu infections. It is not possible to distinguish swine flu from "regular" influenza on the basis of symptoms alone. The symptoms of swine flu can also vary in severity among affected individuals. source by:medicinenet.com

History of Swine Flu

The Swine influenza a tendency to keep changing its form. This is actually its own way to dodge the  protective antibodies in Swines, avians and humans that have developed in response to previous exposures to influenza or to influenza vaccines.The virus undergoes an alteration after every one or two years. But at an interval of about a decade, when a large part of the world's population has developed some level of resistance to these minor changes, it changes itself drastically to easily infect the masses around the world, often infecting hundreds of millions of people who have lost their antibody resistance . Definitely a smart species, I must say.  There have been instances when the influenza virus has changed its form over a much shorter period. For instance, during the Spanish flu pandemic, the initial wave of the disease was relatively mild, while the second wave of the disease a year later was highly lethal.

During the 1918 pandemic, when pigs became sick at the same time as humans, it was deduced that Swine flu is the same as human influenza, atleast the similarities were quite a lot. But only about ten years later, i.e. in 1930, a virus was identified as a cause of disease in pigs. For the next 60 years, Swine influenza strains  meant exclusively H1N1. It was only between 1997 and 2002, that novel viruses of three different subtypes  and five genotypes entered the scene as the carriers of influenza among pigs and then the following years brought the H3N2 strains. These strains, which include genes derived by  from human, swine and avian viruses, have become a major cause of swine influenza in North America. Reassortment between H1N1 and H3N2 produced H1N2.

 As well as persisting in pigs, the descendants of the 1918 virus have also circulated in humans through the 20th century, contributing to the normal seasonal epidemics of influenza. However, there have been very less cases of viral transfer from pigs to humans.