The fed'l gov't originally promised 120 mil doses of swine flu vaccine by now, but only 13 mil have come through. Production is running several weeks behind schedule, and health officials blame the pressure on drug makers to crank it out along with the ordinary flu vaccine, and a slow and antiquated process. Clinics that managed to obtain doses of the vaccine have been swamped, and doctors are getting bombarded with calls from worried parents.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Spreading Swine Flu
By Rob Stein |
The Washington Post
People may be able to spread swine flu even after their symptoms have subsided, according to new research.
A study of Air Force cadets who came down with the flu this summer found that a significant proportion of them were still "shedding" virus more than 24 hours after their fever and other symptoms had disappeared.
Public health authorities have been asking people to stay home from work and school for at least a day after their temperatures return to normal, in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. But the new findings, reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, raise questions about that advice.
The new study involved some of the 1,300 basic cadet trainees who arrived at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on June 25 for a six-week military training program. By July 6, some of the cadets began to experience flu-like symptoms, and two tested positive for the illness. The virus apparently spread during a social mixer; cases peaked 48 hours after the event and dropped off quickly afterwards.
Read More Sunday, October 4, 2009
Swine Flu Vaccination Effort Starts Monday: CDC
Sun Oct 4, 2009 11:03pm EDT
REUTERS.com
Vaccination clinics are scheduled for Monday morning for staff at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee and Wishard Health Services in Indianapolis, the CDC said.
The CDC said it is not especially deadly, but it is affecting younger people than seasonal flu usually does and at a time of year when there is generally little or no influenza.
REUTERS.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Healthcare workers in Indiana and Tennessee will be among the first to get swine flu vaccines in the United States on Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Vaccination clinics are scheduled for Monday morning for staff at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee and Wishard Health Services in Indianapolis, the CDC said.
The U.S. government has ordered about 250 million doses from five companies -- Sanofi-Aventis SA, CSL Ltd MedImmune, Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline. MedImmune had especially good production of the H1N1 vaccine and has been the first to make doses available.
The vaccines will trickle in at a rate of about 20 million doses a week, and officials are unsure how many Americans will actually get them. The U.S. government is providing them for free, but clinics and retailers may charge to administer them.
The picture is further complicated by seasonal flu vaccination, which started last month.
Pandemic H1N1 has been circulating since it was first identified in two U.S. children last March but it has picked up speed since schools returned from their summer break in August.
Dozens of children and at least 28 pregnant women in the United States have died from the virus and at least 100 pregnant women were sick enough with it to be hospitalized, the CDC said.
Pregnant women, healthcare workers and people with special health conditions including heart disease and diabetes are supposed to be the first to get the vaccine
Monday, September 28, 2009
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.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Swine Flu Jabs To Start
20 September 2009 | by Simone Roberts: Pharmacy News
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.
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.
Monday, September 14, 2009
U. K. Says Swine Flu Vaccination Program To Start In Autumn
By Ben Livesey | Bloomberg News
"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
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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