Tag Archive for 'pandemic'

Worst flu season in 10 years

Published on January 10, 2013 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Doctors say we’re entering the worst flu season in a decade, Boston’s mayor has, a public health emergency has been declared by Boston’s mayor and sick people are being turned away from Chicago hospitals. So we should panic, right?

ABC News’ Alex Perez reports that this is the earliest flu season onset in a ten years. This eruption of the flu has arrived a full four months earlier than 2009′s outbreak of the H1N1 “swine flu” virus, unmistakably the worst flu epidemic to hit the U.S. in recent times. That outbreak began in late April, well into spring. Most flu seasons kick in around mid-January, but this year’s flu season started snowballing towards the end of December.

This flu season brings back the H3N2 variety of influenza, a strain that brings on stronger symptoms than common flu strains and stays around longer. The strain was rampant in 2004, which had elevated death rates from the flu. Dr. William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, proclaims that “this is a bad year,” but also says that an H3N2 pandemic doesn’t appear to be quite as severe the threat from 2009′s H1N1 outbreak. Fortunately, the good news is that these strains are well-matched by current vaccines. That said, only 37% of Americans got a flu shot this season and it’s only effective in 60% of people.

Reports of Chicago hospitals being so overwhelmed that they’ve had to turn some flu patients away may sound scary. And admission rates are much higher than usual — four percent of Boston’s doctor visits are flu-related right now, up from the usual one percent. But it’ll take a lot more admissions to reach levels from the 2009 outbreak. CDC researchers anticipate that as many as 1 out of every 100 people visited hospital emergency wings during that pandemic.

According to the CDC, 18 children have died from the flu so far this season. However these numbers are only accurate up to December 29th. So far, it’s too soon to know whether the death toll will surpass that of the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, which took somewhere between 8,870 and 18,300 lives.

Click here to find out how you can better protect yourself from the flu!

Spread of swine flu is slowing down

Published on February 12, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The U.S. swine flu epidemic is not over, but it is hopefully coming to an end.

Federal health officials aren’t quite ready to announce that the threat is gone and the outbreak has ended, but they did report that for the fourth week in a row, no states have reported widespread flu activity. Since October, U.S. cases have been decreasing since the end of October.

One expert said that the epidemic is almost over and there are some indications that lead many to believe that there will not be another wave during the year.

One reason for the decline in the epidemic is that the virus hasn’t shown any signs of mutating. Also, the vaccine against it seems to be very effective. Now, about half of the U.S. population have some immunity because they have been infected with it or received a vaccination.

There is also good news from the World Health Organization, which is observing an international decline and is discussing what measures to take to announce that the pandemic is over. Experts are not sure if it will continue to slow for the rest of the winter, but they are pretty sure it will.

The Harvard School of Public Health released a poll which found that 44 percent of Americans believe the outbreak is over.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that most states are continuing to have just occasional flu activity. This said, only three states had zero reports, and a CDC official warned that the swine flu is still here and is probably going to keep infecting people.

Around 15,200 have died from the swine flu since it reared its ugly head in April. Most of the deaths were in the U.S. This is a much lower amount than originally feared. The U.S. and Mexican governments have been commended for their actions by experts. Scientists have also been praised for their quick development of an effective vaccine.

Pandemic may be declared soon

Published on June 17, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

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.

Pandemic could infect about 2 billion

Published on May 10, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The World Health Organization recently warned that up to 2 billion could become infected with the swine flu if the recent outbreak becomes a pandemic and it could last as long as two years.

The WHO flu leader, Keiji Fukuda, said that when we look at the history of flu pandemics, it shows that approximately one-third, or 2 billion, of the world’s population will get infected. This said, he indicated that since the world has changed, looking at pandemics of earlier years is not an accurate predictor.

The professor of virology at St. Bart’s and Royal London Hospital, John Oxford, said people should not be scared, because this doesn’t mean 2 billion will die. WHO predicts that around 2 billion may contract it, but half won’t even show any symptoms, or if they do, they will be hardly noticeable.

Fukuda said that right now no one knows whether the recent strain will be severe or mild, but even with a mild flu, there will still be plenty of people who might develop pneumonia, need respirators, or die. One’s general health and other factors such as poor diet, war, HIV infections will cause people to be more vulnerable to the swine flu.

The swine flu virus has spread to 26 countries so far, Brazil and Argentina being the two most recent. WHO has raised its worldwide total of cases confirmed through labs to 2,099, from 1,893  on May 6.

U.S. plans attack against the swine flu

Published on April 27, 2009 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

On Sunday, U.S. officials called the swift outbreak of the swine flu to be a public health emergency. In response, 12.5 million doses of the antiviral medications Tamiflu and Relenza have been released to help in the battle to fight the disease. An additional 7 million courses of Tamiflu is being made by the Defense Department. Although both Tamiflu and Relenza help lessen the intensity of flu symptoms, but it is still not clear if the medications will work on the swine flu.

State and local authorities, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the international health community have increased public awareness, testing and surveillance in an attempt to try to terminate the disease before it becomes a global epidemic.

The outbreak developed in Mexico where more than 100 people have died and more than 1,500 have become sick in recent weeks. In the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi, schools have been canceled until May 6. Tons of public events such as concerts and sports events have been halted to keep the virus from spreading in large crowds. Also, zoos were closed and visits to juvenile correction centers were postponed.

The majority of people who died reached out for medical help when it was too late, and the disease became too advanced. Once Sunday rolled around, thousands of Mexicans were bolting to hospitals, although some had just a fever.

It is unsettling that The World Health Organization claims that this new flu strain has “pandemic potential.” A flu pandemic happens when a new influenza virus manifests, people have scarce or no immunity to it, and there’s no vaccine.

Thankfully, there have been no deaths reported yet in the United States, but it was confirmed Sunday that eight students from a New York City high school have tested positive for the disease. Some of these students recently went to Cancun, Mexico. There school has closed as a safety measure. Other cases have been confirmed in California, Kansas, Texas and Ohio.

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, is leading the federal endeavor to handle the outbreak. Many other departments such as the Health and Human Services and Agriculture are also engaged.

The virus in the U.S. seems to be the same strain as the one in Mexico, but health officials are puzzled as to why the U.S. outbreaks have not been as serious. So far, all the victims in the U.S. have recuperated and only one was hospitalized. Unfortunately, that may change because infectious diseases, especially the flu virus, are unpredictable.

So what exactly is the swine flu? It is a respiratory disease of pigs that is usually common among people who have close contact with pigs. It can spread from person to person because it is so contagious. Swine flu has the same symptoms as the human flu such as fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills and fatigue.

All citizens are urged to help stop the spread of this dreaded disease. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services urges anyone with flu symptoms who has recently traveled to Mexico or one of the five U.S. states with confirmed cases, to contact your doctor or a health-care provider right away. Also, if you have flu symptoms, stay home from work or school to prevent the disease from spreading. Do not go back until two days after your symptoms are gone. Of course, always cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing and wash your hands often throughout the day! Important to mention is that the disease can not be contracted by eating pork.