Officials in Cardiff confirmed today the world's first cases of human-to-human transmission of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 influenza. It's not unexpected, but it is worrisome. Even though flu cases are down here in Minnesota and across the US, keep washing your hands!
Tags : Feeling under the weather and not quite sure if you have H1N1 flu? Here's an online survey you can take to see if you need to get things checked out by a medical professional. Want to pass the URL along to others? It's http://www.h1n1responsecenter.com
H1N1 vaccination
Courtesy AJC1
How do I know it is safe?
"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?'" said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. What if, after getting a flu shot, a person goes home. then suddenly has a heart attack. Was the heart attack a side effect of the flu shot?
More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. This happens when no flu shots are given. When no flu shots are given, from 14,000 to 19,000 miscarriages happen every week.
When we start giving flu shots to 100s of millions of people, how do we differentiate side effects caused by the vaccination, from what would have happened even without the vaccination?
Intensive monitoring of side effects planned
This year there will be intense new monitoring.
Harvard Medical School scientists are linking large insurance databases that cover up to 50 million people with vaccination registries around the country for real-time checks of whether people see a doctor in the weeks after a flu shot and why. The huge numbers make it possible to quickly compare rates of complaints among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the project leader, Dr. Richard Platt, Harvard's population medicine chief.
Johns Hopkins University will direct e-mails to at least 100,000 vaccine recipients to track how they're feeling, including the smaller complaints that wouldn't prompt a doctor visit. If anything seems connected, researchers can call to follow up with detailed questions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing take-home cards that tell vaccine recipients how to report any suspected side effects to the nation's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system.
However the flu season turns out, the extra vaccine tracking promises a lasting impact.
"Part of what we hope is that it will teach us something about how to monitor the safety of all medical products quickly," said Harvard's Platt.
Source: Associated Press
How much do you really know about the new H1N1 flu? CNN's testing your knowledge about the virus. Answer these 10 questions and see how you do.
FluMist inhaler for H1N1 flu
Courtesy garrisonpao
Vaccine for swine flu is ahead of expectations
October is almost here, and so are more than 3 million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine. The vaccine is a the FluMist nasal spray type which is inhaled rather than injected. The nasal spray contains a weakened live virus, while injections contain killed and fragmented virus. The inhalation method gives a stronger immune reaction and is not recommended for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with asthma, heart disease or several other problems. The earlier than expected delivery will be be great for people in other high-risk groups though (health care workers, people caring for infants, and healthy young people).
Any type of flu can be deadly
In the United States a typical flu season is believed to kill about 36,000. The Asian flu of 1957 was blamed for the deaths of about 70,000 Americans. The pandemic H1N1 or 2009 H1N1 flu (we are not supposed to call it the swine flu) so far has not been bad. Flu activity is now “widespread” in 21 states, up from 11 a week ago. (Read more here - New York Times)
2009 H1N1 flu vaccine approved
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Sept. 15 that it has approved four vaccines against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. The vaccines will be distributed nationally after the initial lots become available, which is expected within the next four weeks.
As with any medical product, unexpected or rare serious adverse events may occur. The FDA is working closely with governmental and nongovernmental organizations to enhance the capacity for adverse event monitoring, information sharing and analysis during and after the 2009 H1N1 vaccination program." FDA News Release
Flu sends 4-H'ers home early
State Fair 4H campers plagued by H1N1 flu
Courtesy the_dharma_bum I have fond memories of staying overnight at the State Fair. I can imagine the disappointment of being told to go home early after looking forward to performing at the State Fair for months.
Four confirmed cases of H1N1 flu
Earlier this week sick kids were being sent home but after it was confirmed that four students had been diagnosed with the swine flu, officials sent more than 100 4-Hers home.
"When we met the girls this morning, they were in tears," said BayBridge, who lives across the border in Big Stone City, S.D., and whose kids participate in the 4-H club in Ortonville, Minn. "They look forward to this all year long. But in a case like this, you have to do what you need to do." StarTribune.com
Incoming 4-H students allowed in
About 400 new 4-H students were expected to move into the dorm Thursday after workers sanitized surfaces. Jerry Hammer, the fair's general manager, said he considers the fair to still be "perfectly safe."
"It's as safe as going to any store or the Mall of America or even your neighborhood park," he said. "Follow the advice of the experts: wash your hands well, cover your coughs, use common sense. If you don't feel good, stay home."
An Update on Swine Flu (Yeah, I'm still calling it that)
The swiney flu has a new target!! Football players!? Yes, it's true. They can't run from or tackle it, but really, no one can.
Seriously Swine Flu...Still??: Those little swines will just not give up...sheesh!
Courtesy WIkimedia Commons
Tulane University in New Orleans has reported an out break of H1N1. Just 8 days after the first case of the disease was reported, 30 more students displayed symptoms of the disease. Players from the football and volleyball teams were the first to be infected. Many researchers guessed and some even expected a resurgence of the flu this fall; with the start of the academic year, especially at colleges the disease could easily spread.
Players from both teams at Tulane canceled upcoming events to recover and to lower the risk of a wider outbreak. Flu's like H1N1 tend to spread more quickly among young people because they have been exposed to so many fewer strains of various flu's and other diseases. This makes the average college campus a very formidable possible "ground zero" this fall.
Tulane University was not the only school to recently report cases of the virus. Duke, Texas Christian and Alabama have all reported cases of students having contracted the flu, or at least having flu-like symptoms. At least cases are being caught and diagnosed very early in the academic year before teams have flung their germs widely by traveling to many schools and other students come in constant contact with each other. Now all schools, and especially athletic departments are on high alert and are taking symptoms seriously.
In other swine flu news, studies on the vaccine are well under way, and recipients have yet to show any adverse effects. The second group to receive the vaccines will be children from ages of 6 month old to 17 years. Following that round, hopefully pregnant women will be next in line. The rest of us (well, only SOME of us) will have to wait for the estimated 50 million vaccines that will be available by mid-October. Stay strong, America, and fight the swine!
Human type H1N1 influenza infects turkeys without mutating
"My understanding is that with the ones that were sick, it was a very mild disease," Lubroth said. "It's significant in that we don't need to recommend any drastic measures, as far as culling the population of turkeys. Let them go through their illness and recover — seven to 10 days — and if they are sound and healthy, they could enter the food chain."
Source: Associated Press via Yahoo News
Last night on the CBC, I heard a story about a new computer game developed to simulate a global outbreak of a flu virus... much like our current H1N1 situation.
Naturally I checked it out at work today. It's kind of fun. So far nothing has exploded, which is a big minus for me with videogames, but, on the other hand, tons of people can die, which is generally a big selling point for games. And there's spooky windy/bubbly/throat-singing sounds always playing in the background, which adds a creepy atmosphere of immediacy. (I'm assuming that flu viruses make spooky windy/bubbly/throat-singing sounds.) CBC, you haven't let me down yet.
Basically, you just scroll around a slick map of the world, spending your limited amount of money on things like research, drugs, and prevention programs. I've already stopped a level one virus, but I'm currently watching the world become overrun with a level 3 virus. And I'm out of money, so hopefully everyone is feeling lucky.
You can find The Great Flu game here.
This angsty dude, Alex Jones, points out that the game is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, a giant pharmaceutical company, and it's just a gross piece of propaganda to get kids into anti-viral drugs and stuff. And, I suppose, that's technically true, depending on your definition of propaganda. But whatevs. Flu pandemics are real, and anti-virals and vaccines probably do save a lot of lives. And this is an interesting way to learn about the non-pharmaceutical in combating viral outbreaks.
Check it out. But wear your propaganda glasses, or whatever.
"Riots in Canada"? I'm sorry, Canada, you haven't even had any infections in my game. What are you rioting over? Stop rioting.
We have other things to worry about now, obviously (MJ, anyone?), but, um, the H1N1 swine flu virus is still out there, and some scientists are still pretty concerned about it.
A new study seems to show that the 2009 A/H1N1 virus might be significantly more dangerous than we had previously thought. While regular ol' seasonal flu generally just infects cells in your upper respiratory tract, scientists have found that H1N1 can thrive deep in your lungs. That means that it's more likely to cause pneumonia. Similar characteristics in the infamous 1918 swine flu exacerbated the danger of that outbreak. So, you know, don't start sticking your fingers in other peoples' mouths and then rubbing them on your eyes again just yet.
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