Tag Archive for 'H1N1 strain'

Volunteers of all ages will be used to test swine flu shots

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Jana
on August 5, 2009
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Many volunteers will be rolling up their sleeves soon to get the swine flu shot so it can be tested to see if it will really protect against this new virus before it comes back strong this fall. The government health researchers and vaccine makers are looking for volunteers from every age to participate so they can prepare for the fall, which is expected to bring a new surge of cases. It is important to test all ages, because this new flu seems to prey on school-age children, teenagers and young adults. The regular flu is more dangerous for those over 65 and under 2.

On July 22, the National Institutes of Health contacted medical centers in the U.S. to start a series of studies. The first shots will be for healthy adults. If there are no instantaneous health concerns, like allergic reactions, testing will begin on children as young as 6 months. One of the chosen places for the research is Duke University Medical Center in Durham.

The government will be using the tests and vaccine manufacturer’s research to help it decide if the swine flu vaccine should be given to millions of Americans beginning in mid-October. Hopefully there will be enough produced by then. That is still not certain because the vaccine is getting harder to manufacture.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says he’s afraid that it is going to be extremely close. Dr. Karen Kotloff of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is helping to pilot the NIH study. She said “we are racing to provide them as much information as we possibly can.”

The fall will probably be a very perplexing time as doctors try to give the vaccine for the winter flu and inform patients to be patient and wait and see if they can return for their swine flu shots.

The new swine flu strain comes form the H1N1 influenza viruses, but because it is a distinct H1N1 strain, scientists fear that it might be more difficult for the vaccine to provide the right protection.

The plan for the test is for all the volunteers to get 2 swine flu shots, which will be given 21 days apart. In early September, blood tests will hopefully reveal how much immune protection the first dose provided and if a low-dose shot worked or a higher dose is needed. Then another month will be needed to retrieve information on the second shot.

Swine flu shots may be available for students and at-risk groups in October

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Jana
on July 22, 2009
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Billions of dollars have been put aside to pay for a national H1N1 flu vaccine program that could be ready as early as the middle of October, according to the Obama administration.

The announcement was made at an all-day summit on the swine flu outbreak by Kathleen Sebelius, who is the Health and Human Services Secretary. Officials said that a major reason for the summit was to help refurbish a sense of urgency to the global response to the epidemic. Sebelius said that the government has a billion dollars to purchase the main ingredients and an additional $7.5 billion for emergency preparedness funds.

In October, U.S. swine flu vaccinations could start with children being the first to receive them at their local schools , according to the Obama administration. This said, no final decision has been decided on for vaccinations on Americans. This depends mainly on studies with experimental batches that are set to begin the first week in August. These experimental batches will test to see if they are safe and effective and if one or two doses will be needed.

If everything goes well, the federal government will purchase the vaccine from manufacturers and share it freely among the states. The first to get the vaccine will most likely be school-age children, young adults with conditions like asthma, pregnant women and health workers.

Obama said that the chance of an outbreak in the fall is looming, and although he doesn’t want to make people panic, he wants the U.S. to be prepared.

Even though it has become clear that most cases of the swine flu so far were mild and required little or no medical treatment, the summit reinstates that infection rates have not calmed down this summer like some experts predicted. This said, countries such as Britain have had to alter their response. According to the World Health Organization, 2 billion people could become infected around the world.

Public health experts and scientist warn that the prevalence of the swine flu may get worse in the fall as the normal flu season begins or even sooner when schools start to open.

Pandemic may be declared soon

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Jana
on June 17, 2009
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A rise in swine flu cases in Austria may pressure The World Health Organization to declare the first pandemic in 41 years. The WHO is also worried about an intense illness caused from the disease in Canada.

Keiji Fukuda, the chief of the WHO, said the agency wants to steer clear of panic or governments taking the wrong approaches – if it does announce a pandemic. This said, some experts of the flu believe that the world is already in a pandemic and that WHO has surrendered to demands that an announcement be delayed.

Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, believes that we are in Phase 6. She also said that she thinks it is imperative to confirm reports that the virus is starting to be established outside of North America before a pandemic is announced. “I need to be convinced that I have indisputable evidence,” she said.

Chan will soon conduct a conference call with governments so she can confirm some of the reports before making a proper announcement.

According to the WHO, 26,563 people in 73 countries have been infected by the virus and it has caused 140 deaths. North America has seen most of the cases, but Australia has recently seen a sharp escalation as the amount of cases shoots up to more than 1,000.

The good news is that in most of the 73 countries, the virus has caused only mild illnesses. On the other hand, the WHO is concerned because some of the deaths have happened to previously healthy adults. This fact has urged the WHO to rank the outbreak as “moderate” for now.

Fukuda said that about 50 percent of the people who have died from the H1N1 infection were healthy before, making this one of the reasons that has given the organization the most worry.

NYC Woman is 11th U.S. swine flu fatality

Published
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Jana
on May 28, 2009
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A NYC woman died of swine flu this past weekend. This makes her the city’s 2nd victim and the nation’s 11th. She was in her 50’s and had other health problems. 

As of Sunday, there were 280 confirmed swine flu cases and 94 hospitalizations. The amount of confirmed cases is probably not completely accurate because health officials are not testing everyone for the H1N1 strain. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman, Jessica Scaperotti, said that if you are sick with the flu, odds are that you have the H1N1 virus.

The first outbreak for NYC happened a little more than a month ago, when about 1,000 teenagers from a Catholic high school in Queens got ill after their return from Mexico, the initial place of the outbreak.

Since then, the virus has made it’s way through the school system and even reached the jails, causing visiting hours to be shortened and a generous supply of hand sanitizer to be dispensed. Correction officials said Thursday that a Rikers Island 2,600-inmate jail will be sanitized. 

On Friday, May 22, The World Health Organization had counted more than 12,000 swine flu cases around the world; more than half of them occurring in the United States. At least 86 deaths were recorded, with 75 happening in Mexico.

Even though eighteen soldiers were infected with swine flu on an American base in Kuwait, they have recovered. Jose Lopez, a U.S. Army Major and military spokesman, said that there are currently no cases of swine flu among American troops in Iraq that have been reported.