Calif. to get 350K swine flu vaccines in 1st round

LOS ANGELES—About 350,000 doses of the swine flu vaccine will be sent to California in the first round of shipments from the federal government. California Department of Public Health spokesman Ron Owens said the state is divvying up the first doses of the nasal spray vaccine among counties based on their populations. Providers can expect to receive those the week of Oct. 5.
Another 200,000 doses of the injectable vaccine are expected to arrive the week of Oct. 12.
For the entire flu season, California may order as many as 4.5 million doses of the nasal spray vaccine and 18 million doses of the injectable vaccine.
In the first shipments of the nasal spray to Southern California, Los Angeles County is expecting 95,000 and San Diego County is expecting 28,000 doses.
In both counties, school-age children are being targeted in the first round of distribution of the nasal vaccines.
In Los Angeles County, demand will outstrip supply with about 280,000 doses of the vaccine already on order.
That's not cause for concern, according to the director of the county's immunization program, Dr. Alvin Nelson El-Amin, because it's a result of some medical providers who haven't staggered their orders in tune with the ongoing production and release of the vaccines.
"A lot of clinicians or providers have ordered all of the vaccine that they think they'll use over two months at one time," said Nelson-El Amin.
"As the vaccine becomes available, only certain amounts of it become available at a time." Nelson-El Amin said he anticipates millions of doses will become available and distributed as drug companies roll out their wares.

Doctors demand specialist lung treatment for swine flu victims!!!

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The treatment received by Sharon Pentleton, who is pregnant, saves one life for every six, says the study

Patients with swine flu who experience severe respiratory failure should be given a specialist lung treatment, researchers say today.
The treatment — for which one Scottish woman, Sharon Pentleton was flown to Norway — saves one extra life for every six patients compared with conventional treatment for those who are critically ill, the study in The Lancet medical journal reports.
There is only one adult unit in the UK which offers the treatment, called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). It involves circulating the patient’s blood outside the body and adding oxygen to it artificially.
The Glenfield Hospital in Leicester has five ECMO beds and treats around 100 patients a year on average. The unit can be expanded to ten beds if necessary, but Ms Pentleton, who is pregnant, had to be flown to University Hospital in Stockholm for the treatment in July because the Leicester unit was full. She was successfully treated and has now returned to her Scottish home.
Giles Peek, who led the study at the ECMO unit at Glenfield Hospital, said there was likely to be a “big increase” in the need for ECMO as swine flu enters its second wave this autumn.
University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust said it expected ECMO to be an “essential weapon” in the expected resurgence of illness due to the H1N1 virus this winter.
The study looked at 180 patients aged 18 to 65 with severe lung failure who were treated in Leicester. It found that 63 per cent of patients given ECMO survived to six months without disability compared with 47 per cent of those who were assigned to conventional treatment with a ventilator.
Patients with reversible respiratory failure should be treated with ECMO to “significantly improve survival without severe disability”, the researchers concluded.
But last week, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, questioned the value of ECMO for adult patients, saying that medical opinion on the treatment was “divided”. He said that 13 nurses were required to run one ECMO bed, compared with six or seven for a normal intensive care bed, meaning the cost of providing the procedure was doubled.
Dr Peek said that Sir Liam was reflecting the scepticism felt about ECMO in some parts of the intensive care community. But he said this was because some units had “dabbled” with ECMO without proper training and had had little success.
In Leicester, of 13 swine flu patients treated so far with ECMO, 85 per cent have survived. But of an estimated 100 patients treated with the procedure for other respiratory illness in other hospitals in Britain, none had survived, Dr Peek said.
He called for the Government to fund the use of ECMO properly so there could be an expansion of the number of beds this winter if needed, but said that this should involve experts from Leicester advising other trusts rather than “people going it alone.”
Asked if he was concerned there would not be enough ECMO beds for swine flu patients this winter, he said: “Yes and no. It depends on the Government’s approach. If the chief medical officer is rubbishing [the research], I don’t think we are going to have an informed approach.”
ECMO units for children are based in specialist neonatal units in Great Ormond Street Hospital, Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, and Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.
The deaths of at least 75 people in Britain have been directly linked to swine flu.

H1N1 Vaccine Latest and symptoms

 Doctor Ivan Walks of the Maryland Swine Flu Advisory Board joined us with the latest news about H1N1 vaccine.

Va expects 1st doses of H1N1 flu vaccine soon

 Virginia health officials expect the state to get its first doses of H1N1 influenza vaccines by early next week.

The initial shipment of the vaccine will be sent to hospitals and local health departments to immunize healthcare workers and emergency-services staff that have direct contact with patients, according to James B. Farrell, director of the Virginia Department of Health's division of immunization.

Farrell says the immunizations will start next week. Health officials say the initial doses will be the nasal-spray version of the H1N1 vaccine, which is made with a live weakened flu virus and is recommended for use only by healthy people ages 2 to 49.

Baltimore student diagnosed with swine flu dies

A female middle school student diagnosed with swine flu has died, becoming the ninth death in Maryland linked to the virus, school and health officials said Wednesday.

The child's death is still being investigated, but the Montbello Elementary-Middle School student had no apparent underlying medical conditions, Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services Fran Phillips said Wednesday. Further details on the girl's case were not released for privacy reasons.

"Sadly, this is the profile that other states have reported," Phillips said. "A previously healthy child who becomes quite ill very quickly and requires intensive care treatment, and despite a high level of care does not recover."

Mayor Sheila Dixon and Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso said in statements that the school system and city health department are working with federal and state authorities to keep students and parents informed about precautions they can take to avoid spreading influenza.

"My sympathy and prayers go out to the parents, family and friends of this child as this tragic passing is a reminder of the challenge we face with the H1N1 (swine) flu virus," Dixon said.

The child's death, the second death of a Maryland child under 18 linked to the virus, shows how important it is that children receive the vaccine, Phillips said.

When the swine flu vaccine is available, officials will focus on vaccinating children, pregnant women and health care workers, Phillips said. Parents should look out for information about getting the vaccine at pediatricians' offices, local health departments and school-based clinics.

Wednesday was the first day the state was able to place orders for vaccines, and officials planned to order 31,600, the maximum allowed for the day, Phillips said. The first shipments are expected to be delivered in the middle of next week, she said.

Since June, state health officials have reported 198 hospitalizations linked to swine flu.

my opinions:

1. Swine flu vaccines are thought to be safe and effective as the initial symptom is mild.

2. Folks need to stay vigilant on refraining form the in-take of pork, just in case of the mutation.

(( Genes included in the new swine flu have been circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade, according to researchers who have sequenced the genomes of more than 50 samples of the virus. The findings suggest that in the future, pig populations will need to be monitored more closely for emerging influenza viruses, reported a team led by Rebecca Garten of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a report released by the journal Science.))

3. I personally recognize that wheat is a far better diet than meat on the ground it usually goes out of body with ease and rapidity, and we are well aware that our heath depends upon smooth metabolism and blood stream associated with the immune system and how important our daily workout is, as well.

I still think the critical conditions mostly come from breach of our immune system, and the food that stays long in the body is more likely to become a source where germs, bacterias and the like multiply.
Sounds outlandish, but wheat might be a principal "clean and healthy" food that has led western society to the most decent culture of all.

3. Additionally, a simple action like brushing teeth following each and every meal could make a big difference in our immune system, let alone workout, I believe.

4. Provided the average temperature is getting higher, accordingly all forms of germs, viruses, and influenza etc are more likely to multiply.

Some skeptics say the warning against hazards of climate change is overstated, but judging from more frequent and widespread outbreaks of e. coli, salmonella, and bird, swine flu cases endangering human lives and economic recovery seriously, some prompt measures need to be taken, I guess. 

The Common Sense H1N1 (Swine) Flu Checklist

If you have a Flu-Like Illness Including:

• Fever of 100ºF (37.8ºC) or higher and,
  
• Cough or Sore Throat
  
• A healthy individual who is mildly sick should stay home and recover unless you develop Emergency Warning Signs (see below)
  
• If you are at risk for serious health complications or have concerns, contact your health care provider
  
• Always call your health care provider before you visit
  

 

Swine flu vaccination to start within weeks!!! ha ha at last

The first wave of vaccination against swine flu is due to start this month as a study today confirmed fears that healthy children are prone to complications from the virus.
The Government hopes to begin vaccinating high risk groups and frontline health workers against swine flu in the second half of October, depending on whether batches of the newly-licensed Pandemrix vaccine, from GlaxoSmithKline, become available.
Internal NHS documents suggest that supplies could reach local health authorities by October 14 at the earliest, reaching GPs’ surgeries up to five days later.
Healthy adults and children will not be offered the vaccination as a priority despite a study by the Department of Health showing that eight out of ten young children requiring hospital treatment for swine flu were previously healthy.
Asked whether the Government would reconsider its priority groups for vaccination in light of the latest findings, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, said: "I think it would be counter-intuitive to think that children with underlying health problems are not at increased risk."
Sir Liam added that the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the Government, are meeting next week and would "be giving advice on the next stage of the vaccination programme," which may include offering the jab to the wider population.
The analysis of 192 patients who needed hospital treatment found that the majority were in the 16-44 age group. Of these 52 per cent were said to be previously healthy, but among the under 5s this proportion was 82 per cent.
The findings suggest that younger people who have not previously encountered strains of flu that are similar to the H1N1 swine flu virus are more likely to develop complications if they catch it. Older people who are otherwise healthy are thought to be less likely to develop complications.
The same study found that, of those treated in hospital, more than one in four had asthma, about 15 per cent had heart disease and 10 per cent suffered from diabetes. Of the hospitalised patients, about 4 per cent – "a small but significant proportion" – were pregnant women, he added.
The breakdown came as Sir Liam said that the the number of swine flu cases in England had risen for the third week in a row.
"The continued increase in swine flu activity is consistent with the early stages of a second wave", he said, but added that the rates of illness are nothing yet like the "explosive increases" that would be expected at the peak of a pandemic.
Estimates from the Health Protection Agency suggest that 14,000 people in England fell ill with swine flu last week, more than a 50 per cent increase on 9,000 cases the previous week.
Since the start of term, at least 79 schools in England had suffered swine flu outbreaks that meant more than 15 per cent of their pupils were off sick. Among them were 39 schools in Yorkshire, 12 in the West Midlands and 12 in London.
There have been two more deaths in England, bringing the UK total to 84. As of yesterday there were 286 patients being treated for swine flu in hospital, with 36 in a critical condition.
Sir Liam also announced today that a number of specialised beds to treat people with severe lung failure will be doubled from five to ten units at a specialist unit in Leicester. Earlier this year, Sharon Pendelton, a Scottish woman who developed serious complications of swine flu while pregnant, was flown to Sweden for the procedure, known as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), due to the lack of beds in Britain.