U.S Army Confirms First Suspected H1N1-related Death

 

 

A soldier stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., who died Sept. 10, possibly is the first H1N1-related death suffered by the U.S. armed forces, Army officials here said. Army Spc. Christopher Hogg, 23, of Dayton, Fla., died of pneumonia, but autopsy reports released yesterday confirm his death was the result of complications caused by the H1N1 virus, better known as swine flu, said Karen Soule, a Fort Jackson spokeswoman.

Fort Jackson doesn’t yet offer the H1N1 vaccine, but officials there expect the first supply to arrive this month, she added.

Fort Jackson is taking the issue seriously, Soule said. The base is the largest Army training facility with more than 10,000 soldiers stationed there at any given time. An H1N1 epidemic there could compromise the Army’s ability to effectively produce soldiers to support fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, she explained.

Hoggs was a basic training recruit in his fifth week of training when he was taken to the hospital Sept. 1 for a fever and respiratory issues. He was set to graduate Oct. 15.

 

Swine flu could overload U.S. hospitals says a U.S official

 Fifteen states could run out of hospital beds and 12 more could fill 75 percent of their beds with swine flu sufferers if 35 percent of Americans catch the virus in coming weeks, a report released on Thursday said.

A medical professional leads a volunteer to receive an experimental vaccine designed to prevent him from contracting the H1N1 swine flu virus, during early trials of the drug at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, August 10, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed 

 

The study, based on estimates from a computer model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows the strain hospitals and health departments could face as a second wave of swine flu surges.
"Our point in doing this is not to cry Chicken Little but really to point out the potential even a mild pandemic can have and how readily that can overwhelm the healthcare delivery system," Jeffrey Levi, director of Trust for America's Health, which sponsored the report, said in a telephone briefing.
According to the report, the number of people hospitalized could range from 168,025 in California to 2,485 in Wyoming, and many states may face shortages of beds.
Some may need to cut back on hospitalizations for elective procedures.
"States around the country will also have to figure out how to manage the influx of people in doctors' offices and ambulatory care settings, in addition to the surge in hospitalizations," Levi said.
He said state and local health departments are scrambling to set up distribution systems for the H1N1 vaccine as it becomes available this month, but challenges remained.
"These systems are untested, and glitches are sure to arise along the way," Levi said.
Local health authorities are especially worried about reaching young people, who traditionally are not vaccinated for flu, and minorities, who were harder hit by the swine flu in the spring.
While the federal government will pay for the vaccine itself, Levi said, it was not yet clear how the actual cost of giving the shot will be financed.
Although many public and private insurance plans have said they will cover it, others have not yet agreed.
"This could become a huge burden for state and local health departments, or become a dangerous disincentive for people to get a vaccine," he said.
The 35 percent attack rate used in the report is based on the 1968 flu pandemic, which was considered mild. It assumes an outbreak would last around eight weeks.
Levi said the number was consistent with World Health Organization statements predicting that up to a third of the world's population will become sick with the new H1N1 virus that was declared a pandemic in June.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in August that 1,8 million Americans may need to be hospitalized and around 30,000 could die, assuming a 30 percent infection rate

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.

Obama Announces $5B in Medical Grants

 Calling scientific research a job-creating engine, President Barack Obama heralded $5 billion in new government grants Wednesday to fight cancer, autism and heart disease while boosting the economy.

Obama described the money as crucial to improving public health and helping add jobs to an economy that has seen unemployment surge. Visiting the Bethesda campus of the National Institutes of Health, he said that its projects illustrate the dual goals of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill: rescuing the economy and laying the groundwork for future generations' stability.

"The American people are looking forward to the next set of discoveries that you are working on today," Obama told employees.

Altogether, the stimulus bill included $10 billion for NIH. More than $1 billion of it would be directed to work on genetic research that could identify the causes and cures for ailments ranging from heart and lung disease to blood diseases and autism.

The White House said the $5 billion in grants announced Wednesday would support some 12,000 existing projects and create thousands of jobs over the next two years for researchers and educators, as well as for medical equipment makers and suppliers.

Obama called it the "single largest boost to biomedical research in history."

The investment includes $175 million for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to collect more than 20,000 tissue samples from more than 20 cancers, and determine in detail all of the genetic changes in thousands of these tumor samples.

The cancer study involves more than 150 scientists at dozens of institutions around the country, the White House said in a statement released before Obama took the stage, joined by his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and his NIH director, Dr. Francis S. Collins.

"We can't know where this research will lead. That's the nature of science," Collins said.

Obama said that was OK, too.

"Breakthroughs in medical research take far more than the occasional flash of brilliance, as important as that can be," Obama said. "Progress takes time, it takes hard work, it can be unpredictable, it can require a willingness to take risks, going down some blind alleys occasionally. Figuring out what doesn't work is sometimes as important as figuring out what does."

Obama added that NIH research should focus on the public health, not investors or corporate owners.

"We know that the work you do would not get done if left solely to the private sector. Some research does not lend itself to quick profit," he said. "And that's why places like the NIH were founded."

Obama, who has taken steps to paint himself as a pro-science president -- a dig at his predecessor who was accused of having put politics over evidence -- also made a point of praising the NIH scientists.

"The work you do is not easy. It takes a great deal of patience and persistence, but it holds incredible promise for the health of our people and the future of our nation and our world," he said.

"And yet, if we're honest, in recent years, we've seen our leadership slipping as scientific integrity was at times undermined and research funding failed to keep pace."

Before making remarks about the grants, Obama and Sebelius toured an NIH oncology laboratory.

"That's a pretty spiffy microscope," the president quipped as he walked through the lab. Researchers allowed Obama to take a look at the brain cells they're studying, explaining the difference between healthy cells and cancerous cells

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

•  

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.

Swine flu pandemic could trigger spate of heart attacks, doctors warn

The swine flu pandemic could trigger a spate of heart attacks if rates of illness surge as predicted this autumn, doctors warned.
Patients with heart disease are being advised to accept a vaccine against H1N1 swine flu as it becomes available next month in order to reduce the risk of fatal complications.
An estimated 5,200 people in England went down with the virus in the week before last compared with about 3,000 the previous week, suggesting that a predicted second wave of illness may be on its way.
About 2.5 million people with heart disease, as well as patients with other chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, will be offered a flu jab. Last year, however, uptake of an annual vaccine against seasonal flu strains among patients considered “at risk” was only 47.2 per cent, researchers writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal said.
Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist at University College London, and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that more efforts were needed to encourage people with heart disease and diabetes — which increases the risk of heart attacks — to have the flu jab. They reviewed 39 studies carried out between 1932 and 2008 and found that people with heart disease made up between 35 to 50 per cent of excess flu deaths.
All the population papers examined also showed a rise in deaths due to heart disease or incidence of heart attacks during times when the flu virus was circulating.
Flu can produce significant stress on the cardiovascular system and cause breathing problems, changes in blood pressure, a rapid heart rate and even direct effects on the heart.
The researchers wrote: “During influenza epidemics there are many deaths and serious complications in vulnerable populations. People with underlying chronic medical disorders such as cardiovascular disease are particularly at risk ... We believe influenza vaccination should be encouraged — especially in those people with existing cardiovascular disease.”

Swine flu cases almost double for second week on sep 25th

Estimates suggest that there were 9,000 new cases in England with at least 66 schools in England affected by the virus

 

The number of cases of swine flu has almost doubled for the second week in a row with at least 66 schools in England affected by outbreaks since the start of the new term, NHS figures show.
The latest estimates from the Health Protection Agency suggest that there were 9,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, up from 5,000 in the previous week. The week before that the figure was about 3,000.
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government’s chief medical officer, said that the increases “suggest the early stages of a second wave” of swine flu, after a lull in cases over the summer.
While the majority of cases continue to be mild, the total number of swine flu-related deaths in the UK rose to 82.
In Scotland, the new weekly figures showed a slight increase from 6,180 to 7,034, while levels of swine flu are much lower in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Sir Liam said that cases were high for this time of year but had not reached the levels that would be expected in a typical flu season.
Schools in at least eight out of ten NHS regions in England had reported outbreaks, including those with confirmed cases and some under investigation.
Of the 66 schools, 27 were reported to be in the Yorkshire and Humber region, with 12 in the West Midlands, eight in the East Midlands, and six in London.
The data was obtained from local health authorities but was likely to underestimate the true number of schools affected, Sir Liam said.
He said that a school “outbreak” could mean anything from a couple of suspected cases to more than a dozen children being off sick with flu, but said that the numbers correlated with rises in the number of cases seen in young people.
The Government has ruled out a policy of regular school closures as had been recommended when the H1N1 flu virus emerged in April. Sir Liam stressed the importance of good hygiene, instead, including regularly washing hands with soap and water, throwing tissues away and covering the mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing. “Research across a lot of children’s diseases does show that that cuts the rate,” he said.
“Parents of children with underlying illnesses should consult their doctor (if they have flu) and children with flu-like symptoms and whose condition deteriorates should consult their doctor because that might be an indication that they have serious complications of flu or have another serious illness of childhood.”
Sir Liam said that the “small increase” in cases seen last week was still less than the doubling in new cases each week that would be expected during large-scale outbreaks. But he added: “I would have preferred not to have seen any increases yet and had more flatlining because that gets us close to the vaccine becoming available. I would have preferred to have had more breathing space.”
Recent figures suggest that the situation is much worse in France, where rates of flu-like illness are in excess of even the peak experienced in England in July, when up to 100,000 new cases a week were being diagnosed.
European regulators are still due to licence a swine flu vaccine so that it can be given to those in high-risk groups, such as pregnant women and children and adults with asthma or diabetes, from next month.
Evidence suggests that people may need only one dose of the jab rather than two, although children may still need two after showing a lower immune response in clinical trials.
Sir Liam said he was “optimistic” that the country may be able to rely on one dose for adults.

my thoughts:

Q)How can they possibly know if this is genuine swine flu when they don't actually test for it unless there are serious side-effects?

I had most the symptoms last week but it wasn't that severe and I carried on as normal - still coughing a bit, but no need to bother a doctor.

ANS)I had the porcine plague this week. Not much fun but a reasonable excuse to bunk off work and play the six degrees of seperation in European and Russian cinema (Ladies in Lavender to Night Watch in three steps, not bad).

However, I just went onto the NHS swine flu website (hey, it's Friday afternoon) and I am not only suffering complications (read also, the usual post-flu cough and gross-ness as my body rids itself of the excess fluids it has been hoarding over the last few days), but am also able to pick up my anti-virals at any pre-ordained pick-up point. I can even get a friend or relative to pick it up for me.

The NHS is now only one step away from doing deliveries. I think they must have based their system on Pizza Hut's...