Medical Rationing A Must For Severe Pandemic
The closer an influenza patient is to death during a severe pandemic where medical resources would be scarce, the more likely they'll be excluded from admission to an intensive care unit. That's the recommendation from a task force studying ethical dilemmas during pandemics. Months before the world was introduced to the swine flu, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control commissioned a task force to take a look at the state's preparedness plan for a severe influenza pandemic. "We found (we) had more work to do, DHEC does, particularly in dealing with scarcity of medical resources in a pandemic," said Dr. ...
Swine Flu Vaccine Trial Seeks Volunteers
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine are looking for healthy adults to test a new swine flu vaccine mixed with an ingredient that could boost people's immune response. Adding such a chemical adjuvant to the vaccine could help stretch limited supplies by making a single dose more potent, researchers believe. That's important in the United States, where public health officials are expecting about 45 million doses of vaccine by mid-October - far fewer than the 120 million doses that had been expected. "An adjuvant potentially allows us to use less vaccine, so we can spread the vaccine supply among a larger ...
Green Bay School Districts Prep For Swine Flu
Students heading back to class Tuesday will be greeted with a continued emphasis on hygiene as school districts look to prevent or limit the instances of swine flu. Meanwhile, schools and health departments continue to prepare for a possible pandemic of the H1N1 virus, creating and bolstering contingency plans in case large numbers of students or teachers fall ill. They can't, however, prepare for a host of unknowns, including when and how a vaccine will be available and administered or the timing and severity of a possible pandemic. The Green Bay School District has a 50-plus page pandemic plan designed to prepare ...
Europe Braces for Swine Flu’s Potential
As children across Europe go back to class and staff return from vacation, governments are keeping a watchful eye on the H1N1 virus and are preparing for possible vaccinations, home schooling and the prospect of widespread absenteeism. For now, governments have resisted closing schools preemptively, judging that the virus has not yet reached the scale where such a move would be beneficial. But they have been circulating contingency plans for schools and companies — an approach broadly supported by health experts. Simon Cauchemez, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said that evidence from the spread of the virus in past months in ...
Toronto – Bird Flu Fears Puts Couple In Isolation
Fears a couple that just returned from Bangladesh could have avian flu are inaccurate, according to a Toronto hospital. The elderly couple was admitted to Toronto East General Hospital Tuesday night after complaining of flu-like symptoms and apparently isolated. However speculation that they could be suffering from a human form of the H5N1 virus is unfounded, the hospital said in a statement released Wednesday. "Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) is concerned about inaccurate media speculation and reporting regarding human cases of avian flu. TEGH has no reason to speculate that any patients in the hospital have avian flu," the statement read. "Furthermore, media reports are indicating that the individuals ...
Indonesia: Rampant Bird Flu Raises Pandemic Risks
Efforts to contain bird flu are failing in Indonesia, increasing the possibility that the virus may mutate into a deadlier form, the leading U.N. veterinary health body warned. The H5N1 bird flu virus is entrenched in 31 of the countrys 33 provinces and will cause more human deaths, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement released late Tuesday. "I am deeply concerned that the high level of virus circulation in birds in the country could create conditions for the virus to mutate and to finally cause a human influenza pandemic," FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said. Indonesia "has not ...
U.S. Flu Epidemic Rises
The USA's flu epidemic continued to grow last week, with cases mounting in every state and a dozen new deaths among children, the government's leading flu expert said Friday. Altogether 22 children have died of flu so far, with widespread flu activity reported in 49 states, up from 44 last week, says Nancy Cox, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention influenza division. Only Florida is reporting regional flu activity for the week ending Feb. 16th, according to the CDC. "Influenza activity has continued to increase, but not quite as dramatically as over the previous two weeks," she said in ...
Some Vietnamese Suspectedly Infected With Bird Flu
Vietnam's Preventive Medicine and Environment Department has said some people hospitalized recently are suspected of having contracted bird flu, local newspaper Youth reported on Friday. Specimens from the people, including a seven-year-old child from northern Hai Duong province, are being tested for bird flu virus strain H5N1. The child is under treatment at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in capital Hanoi. To date, Vietnam has confirmed a total of 104 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003. In mid-February, two local people, a 27-year-old man from northern Ninh Binh province ...
Bird Flu Alert For Human Infections Raised In India
A week after lifting the ban on the sale of poultry products, the state government on Monday suddenly issued an alert on the spread of bird flu among human beings. The health department has asked health officials to keep a watch on possible human contraction of the H5N1 virus. "We will have to be alert to prevent any such cases for the next three months," an official said after attending a high-level meeting to assess the threat. Health officials are extremely worried that cullers and civilians who helped out in the culling may have escaped the rigorous quarantine process. The condition of ...
India Influenza Outbreak Portends Pandemic
An epidemic of avian influenza in West Bengal, India has the Indian "government in panic mode", according to the Times of India Web site. And with good reason: 15 million of West Bengal's 80 million people are crammed into its capital city, Kolkata (Calcutta), which is a petri dish of poverty, pollution, political intransigence and hopeless public health. It is the city where Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity order. If the infection reaches Kolkata's poultry markets, there is a much greater risk of animal-to-human transmission than there has been in Indonesia or Vietnam, where infections of H5N1 influenza have already ...
Flu Pandemic - Top News Stories
Medical Rationing A Must For Severe PandemicThe closer an influenza patient is to death during a severe pandemic where medical resources would be scarce, the more likely they’ll be excluded from admission to an intensive care unit. That’s the recommendation from a task force studying ethical dilemmas during pandemics. Months before the world was introduced to the swine flu, the S.C.... [Read more of this review]
Swine Flu Vaccine Trial Seeks VolunteersResearchers at Stanford University School of Medicine are looking for healthy adults to test a new swine flu vaccine mixed with an ingredient that could boost people’s immune response. Adding such a chemical adjuvant to the vaccine could help stretch limited supplies by making a single dose more potent, researchers believe. That’s important... [Read more of this review]
Europe Braces for Swine Flu’s PotentialAs children across Europe go back to class and staff return from vacation, governments are keeping a watchful eye on the H1N1 virus and are preparing for possible vaccinations, home schooling and the prospect of widespread absenteeism. For now, governments have resisted closing schools preemptively, judging that the virus has not yet reached the scale... [Read more of this review]
Read More Posts From This CategoryFlu Pandemic - National News
Green Bay School Districts Prep For Swine FluStudents heading back to class Tuesday will be greeted with a continued emphasis...
U.S. Flu Epidemic RisesThe USA’s flu epidemic continued to grow last week, with cases mounting in...
Read More Posts From This CategoryFlu Pandemic - World News
Toronto – Bird Flu Fears Puts Couple In IsolationFears a couple that just returned from Bangladesh could have avian flu are inaccurate,...
Read More Posts From This Category