Pregnant? Flu Shot May Come With Some Hassle

LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press

Sept. 28, 2009, 10:13PM

WASHINGTON — It's hard for pregnant women to escape the message: You're at extra risk from swine flu — it could trigger premature labor, hospitalize you for weeks, even kill you — so be among the first in line for the vaccine next month. But only about one in seven pregnant women gets a flu shot each winter.

While health officials are working hard to raise that number, repeated swine flu warnings won't overcome a key obstacle: Many obstetricians don't vaccinate. And not only are women reluctant to hunt for flu shots elsewhere, historically some pharmacists and others have been wary of vaccinating them.

“Maybe this year we can change that culture,” says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It's not supposed to happen that you, when you are pregnant, are fighting for your life on a respirator.”

Pregnant women make up 6 percent of H1N1-confirmed deaths even though they account for only 1 percent of the population, according to the CDC. They're at least four times as likely to be hospitalized as other flu sufferers.

Vaccine is a two-for-one deal during pregnancy: It can protect not just mom but the baby, too, for the first few months after birth. That's important because flu can easily kill newborns, yet babies can't be vaccinated until they're 6 months old. 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no count of how many OBs offer flu vaccine, though it's still considered a minority. An extra complication: Each state's health department will decide who offers the H1N1 vaccine, aiming for locations that vaccinate the most people. Those decisions haven't been made public yet. Even if your OB requested shots, he or she may not get any, at least from initial shipments. So the CDC and ACOG are urging OBs to partner with a hospital or drugstore to guarantee their patients a shot, a message the government will reiterate Tuesday in a swine flu seminar for OBs nationwide.

Yet providers who don't routinely treat pregnant women may not understand flu's risk and the shot's safety record, says Dr. Neil Silverman of the University of California, Los Angeles. Take pharmacists, expected to be key vaccinators. Silverman gets phone calls from women who say a pharmacist won't fill a flu-shot prescription. For every patient who calls, “I know there are at least two who just say, ‘Well, OK, I'm not going to do this,' and just walk away.”

The American Pharmacists Association is urging its members to follow the CDC's pregnancy guidelines, but a few stores may still balk, says association chief of staff Mitchel Rothholz.

Swine Flu Jabs To Start

20 September 2009 | by Simone Roberts:  Pharmacy News

Pharmacists are on a list of priority patients to be given immunity to swine flu following the approval of a vaccine by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). 

The medicines regulator approved the registration of CSL's Panvax H1N1 influenza vaccine for use in adults and children 10 years of age and over on Friday.

"The human adult trials have indicated that the pandemic vaccine is similar to that of seasonal influenza vaccine with a high safety and low adverse events profile, and that only one injection is required for adults," a release from the Department of Health and Ageing said.

The TGA has not approved the vaccine for use in children less than 10 years of age, and is awaiting further data from CSL on the results of a paediatric clinical trial currently in progress. 

Following the announcement a national vaccination program will begin next week with frontline health workers, pregnant women, indigenous people, those with chronic health and other vulnerable groups the focus of the initial roll-out. The wider population will also be able to access the vaccine.

Health minister Nicola Roxon urged all adults to receive the shot.
"As a vaccine remains our best defence against the pandemic flu, the TGA's decision to approve the vaccine is most welcome," she said.

"As there is enough vaccine for all adults, I encourage people to protect themselves and their families against the pandemic flu by getting vaccinated."

The Rudd Government has purchased 21 million doses of the vaccine. State health authorities will begin delivery to immunisation providers including hospitals and GPs next week.

In Australia the pandemic flu has been associated with thousands of hospitalisations and 172 deaths. Worldwide there have been more than 3,500 deaths associated with this flu strain.

U. K. Says Swine Flu Vaccination Program To Start In Autumn

By Ben Livesey | Bloomberg News 
Monday, September 14, 2009 9:08 PM EDT

 

The U. K. government said its swine flu vaccination program will start in the autumn and will be administered by family doctors. The plan will target nine million people most at risk from complications and will reduce the number of people needing hospital and intensive care treatment, saving money for the state's health care service, it said in an e-mailed statement.

"The vaccine is the best line of defense against this virus," the government said in the statement.

Studies: Swine Flu Spreads Long After Fever Stops

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE (AP) – 48 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO — When the coughing stops is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious, experts said after seeing new research that suggests the virus can still spread many days after a fever goes away.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer — especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.

Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.

"This study shows you're not contagious for a day or two. You're probably contagious for about a week," said Gaston De Serres, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in Quebec.

He presented one of the studies Monday at an American Society for Microbiology conference. It is the first big meeting of infectious disease experts since last spring's emergence of swine flu, which now accounts for nearly all of the flu cases in the United States. More than 1 million Americans have been infected and nearly 600 have died from it, the CDC estimates.

It is unclear whether the new research will lead the CDC to rethink its advice on how long people with swine flu should hole up. Long breaks from school and work do not seem worth it for a virus that now seems to cause mostly mild illness, said the CDC's flu chief, Nancy Cox. Swine flu is spreading so widely now that confining the sick does less good, she said.

"We tried to have our guidance balance out all of these factors," she said. "It's just virtually impossible not to have virus introduced into settings such as schools and universities."

Doctors know that people can spread ordinary seasonal flu for a couple of days before and after symptoms start by studying virus that patients shed in mucus. The first such studies of swine flu are just coming out now, and they imply a longer contagious period for the novel bug.

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Only One Swine Flu Shot Needed

Health News Forum

Posted by Michelle Mitzvie | September 12th, 2009 at 9:30 am Ethiopian Review

The U.S. National Institutes of Health says clinical trials show that the new H1N1 swine influenza vaccine could protect against the virus with just one dose instead of two as had previously been expected.
This means vaccine supplies could be available for twice as many people.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says trials show that adults who got a single dose of the swine flu vaccine were protected from the virus within eight to 10 days.
Fauci is expected to officially release the U.S. vaccine trial results at a news conference Friday.
On Thursday, the New England Journal of Medicine published two studies that also confirmed a single vaccination could protect against the virus.
Australian vaccine maker CSL Limited and Swiss Drug company Novartis conducted the studies.
Also Friday, the World Health Organization released new advice for schools to reduce the spread of swine flu.
The WHO said schools deciding to close because of an H1N1 outbreak should do so at an early stage to slow transmission of the virus.
The WHO has declared the swine flu outbreak a pandemic, and says up to two billion people may eventually be infected. It says more than 3,000 deaths related to the virus have been reported worldwide.
- VOA News

Memphis Children's Hospital Erects Tent To Handle Influx of Patients With Swine Flu

From:   The Associated Press

10:43 AM CDT, September 12, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Medical officials at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center have erected a tent to handle a growing influx of patients stricken with swine flu.

The 2,400-square-foot tent set up Friday night will allow nurses will conduct health screenings on flu patients to determine if they're in need of hospital care.

Dr. William May, chief medical officer at the hospital, told The Commercial Appeal that many people are coming into the emergency room without emergency conditions.

The hospital's emergency room, which will be replaced by one twice as big under new renovations, normally receives about 160-180 children a day. But on some days, the patient load has exceeded 350 — at least half of them being children with flu-like symptoms.

___

Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com

iPhone Pinpoints Swine Flu Outbreaks

Offbeat News ExaminerBroderick Perkins

If you want to steer clear of Swine Flu outbreaks, a new iPhone App will help you pinpoint problem areas and avoid other contagious diseases.

Created by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, the app tracks and reports outbreaks of infectious diseases in real time, including the latest baddie, H1N1 (Swine Flu).

You'll still have to get to a social networking site to get updates on the latest Swine Flu party.

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US Says Tamiflu For The Sick, Not A Preventive

(AP) ATLANTA

Federal health officials put out new guidelines Tuesday that say the flu medicines Tamiflu and Relenza should only be used to treat people who are sick with the flu and at high risk for complications.
The new advice tries to close a door that government doctors had left open in May. Back then, they didn’t rule out sometimes using the drugs to stop swine flu’s spread and prevent illness even in children who had no symptoms.
Now that swine flu is so common, health officials say the medicines should be reserved for people at higher risk of complications.

U.S. Races To Get Millions Of Swine Flu Doses Ready

New technologies could speed up production

By Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 5, 2009 11:33 p.m.

In a contest that pits human against virus, the U.S. government is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of swine flu vaccine in hopes of having millions of doses ready for use before the next wave of the pandemic H1N1 sweeps across the nation.

This week the virus struck first, infecting a handful of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; an additional 25 to 30 are awaiting results of a swine flu test.

Across the United States, thousands of other students have reported influenza symptoms, though many have not been tested for swine flu, according to college officials and a survey by the American College Health Association.

"Well, I think it's going to be a race," said Douglas Reding, vice president of the Marshfield Clinic. "It could potentially be neck and neck depending on when the next outbreak occurs."

At the Milwaukee Health Department, Medical Director Geoffrey Swain said: "I've got my fingers crossed. I'm hopeful that the swine flu outbreak will not have picked up a lot of steam before we get a lot of vaccine."

The race comes at a time when the federal government is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar effort to boost America's flu vaccine capacity and just as vaccine makers are moving into new technologies. Read the rest of the story.

Be A Swine-Flu Fighter: Keep It Clean

Linda Shrieves
Sentinel Staff Write

Worried about the spread of swine flu?

Join the crowd.

Already, there are reports coming from schools across Florida that kids are being diagnosed with swine flu (also known as the H1N1 virus ). And in Georgia, Alaska and Puerto Rico, health officials say swine flu already is widespread.

The good news is this: Although swine flu is highly contagious, the World Health Organization says it generally causes "very mild illness" in healthy people.

But there are ways to prevent the flu from spreading, mainly by washing your hands.

If doctors sound like your mom, who keeps bugging you to wash your hands before you eat, there's a reason.

"Whenever you're contaminated by touching things that other people have touched — desks or tabletops in the lunchroom — you really should wash your hands before eating or drinking or touching your face," said Dr. Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New Yorks University's Langone Medical Center. Eighty percent of all infections are spread when you touch germs and then touch your mouth, eyes and nose. Read More

China Approves Single-Dose Swine Flu Vaccine

By: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

The Associated Press

BEIJING — The answer may be at hand to a crucial question about vaccination for the advancing swine flu — one shot or two? Chinese officials approved a vaccine Thursday that they say prevents the new flu in a single dose.

If they're right, it would be good news. Many health researchers fear it will take two shots to protect people, vastly complicating efforts to stem the spread of the illness.

The World Health Organization says it is encouraged after reviewing the test details from the vaccine by Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. — one of several being developed in China. However, experts said more results are needed from other vaccine makers to determine if one dose would be potent enough.

Australia-based CSL should know within days whether one dose of its vaccine, administered to volunteers in that country in late July, was enough. CSL to date has been mum.

In about two weeks, the US expects to announce initial test results from its vaccine, which is the same type as one of the Chinese versions, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health.

"From what I've seen and heard of the data, it looks encouraging," Fauci said of the clinical trials of Sinovac vaccine. "This is very good news. Let's hope the material that we're using has similar results."Most experts agreed." Read The Rest Of The Story

Obama Urges Swine Flu Precautions

The Washington Post
By: Michael A. Fletcher
Wednesday, September 2, 2009

President Obama called on Americans on Tuesday to take common-sense steps to help contain the expected impact of swine flu, including staying home from work when they are sick, frequently washing their hands, and covering their sneezes with a sleeve instead of a hand.

Obama told reporters in the Rose Garden that the federal government is taking a coordinated approach to fighting the expected outbreak, including ramping up what he says will be a "voluntary but strongly recommended" H1N1 flu vaccination program.

The president has received regular briefings on the flu pandemic, including one Tuesday from several Cabinet members and other top officials. He has asked officials to "spare no effort in addressing this national security challenge," according to the White House.
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