Swine Flu Virus

[angel_by_day]

a pandemic has now been declared officially.

 

 

lomex - the last time it happened to me, di ko natiis. i actually handed sheets of tissue to this guy i didnt know, who kept on sneezing in a coffee shop.

it had nothing to do with swine flu, really. i just cant get it why people cant simply cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing.

Edited June 11, 2009 by angel_by_day

[Kurtsky Keigee]

World now at the start of 2009 influenza pandemic

http://tinyurl.com/npu4mq

[Kurtsky Keigee]

Breaking News!

[peterparker]

WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

 

GENEVA – Swine flu is now formally a pandemic, a declaration by U.N. health officials that will speed vaccine production and spur government spending to combat the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. Thursday's announcement by the World Health Organization doesn't mean the virus is any more lethal — only that its spread is considered unstoppable.

 

Since it was first detected in late April in Mexico and the United States, swine flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 29,000 people. Most who catch the bug have only mild symptoms and don't need medical treatment.

 

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the long-awaited declaration after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts and said she was moving to phase 6 — the agency's highest alert level — which means a pandemic is under way.

 

"The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century," Chan said in Geneva.

 

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta that he does not expect widespread public anxiety in the United States as a result of the declaration, noting it came nearly two months after the virus was identified.

 

For many weeks, U.S. health officials have been treating it as a pandemic, increasing the availability of anti-viral flu medicines and pouring money into a possible vaccination program. And scientists have grown to understand that the virus is generally not much more severe than the seasonal flu.

 

"That helps to tamp down any fears that may be excessive," Frieden said at a news conference — his first as CDC director.

 

But the virus can still be deadly and may change into a more frightening form in the near future, and so people should not be complacent, he added.

 

So far, swine flu has caused 144 deaths, compared with ordinary flu that kills up to 500,000 people a year.

 

The pandemic decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more accurate information about swine flu's rising sweep through Europe. Chan said she called the emergency meeting with flu experts after concerns were raised that some countries, such as Britain, were not accurately reporting their cases.

 

Chan said the experts unanimously agreed there was a wider spread of swine flu than was being reported.

 

She would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the situation from Australia seemed to indicate the virus was spreading rapidly there — more than 1,300 cases were reported by Thursday.

 

In Chile, authorities have identified almost 1,700 cases to WHO.

 

Many health experts said the world has been in a pandemic for weeks but WHO became too bogged down by politics to declare one. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil. At the time, WHO said it would rewrite its pandemic definition to avoid announcing one.

 

But with the recent surge in cases across Europe, Chile, Australia and Japan, the agency was under increasing pressure to acknowledge a pandemic.

 

"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota.

 

David Ropeik, an expert in risk perception and communication at Harvard University, says the word pandemic is less frightening than when emerged during worries about bird flu a few years ago.

 

He said the "soft buildup" to declaring swine flu a pandemic has been helpful.

 

"That allows people to get used to what is otherwise a scary word, understand the particulars of the disease, and that should mean reaction will be a little more information-based and a little less emotional," Ropeik said in an e-mail.

 

WHO will now recommend that pharmaceutical companies make swine flu vaccine. The agency typically recommends which flu strains drug companies should use in the vaccines. In a global outbreak, WHO also advises whether companies should make pandemic vaccine.

 

The decision to make pandemic vaccine is a gamble. Most flu vaccine makers cannot make both regular seasonal flu vaccine and pandemic vaccine at the same time. That means they must decide which one the world will need more.

 

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said it could start commercial production of pandemic vaccine in July but that it would take months before large quantities are available.

 

Glaxo spokesman Stephen Rea said the company's first doses of vaccine would be reserved for countries who had ordered it in advance, including Belgium, Britain and France. He said Glaxo would also donate 50 million doses to WHO for poor countries.

 

Pascal Barollier, a spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis, said they were also working on a pandemic vaccine but WHO had not yet asked them to start making mass quantities of it.

 

WHO described the pandemic as "moderate." Fukuda said people should not get overly anxious about the virus. "Understand it, put it in context, and then you get on with things," he said.

 

Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy — people who are not usually susceptible to flu. Swine flu is also crowding out regular flu viruses. Both features are typical of pandemic flu viruses.

 

Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.

 

"What this declaration does do is remind the world that flu viruses like H1N1 need to be taken seriously," said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, warning that more cases could crop up in the fall.

 

Now that a pandemic has been declared, some countries might be prompted to devote more money to containing the virus. Many developed countries have pandemic preparedness plans that link spending to a WHO declaration.

 

The U.N. is keen to avoid panic. "We must guard against rash and discriminatory action, such as travel bans or trade restrictions," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

 

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands have flooded hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse during winter weather. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger had swine flu.

 

China has quarantined travelers, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, on the slightest suspicion of contact with an infected person.

 

The U.S. government has already increased the availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorized $1 billion for developing a new swine flu vaccine. In addition, new cases seem to be declining in many parts of the country, U.S. health officials say, as North America moves out of its traditional winter flu season.

 

Still, New York City reported three more swine flu deaths Thursday, including a child under 2, a teenager and a person in their 30s.

 

"Countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a second wave of infection," Chan warned.

 

 

 

:mtc:

[Kurtsky Keigee]

encourages everyone should not go to work & go to school until they have found a cure to swine flu.

[Kurtsky Keigee]

problema kung tulad ko walang pang check up. asa lang sa flu medicine .

[peterparker]

Swine flu vaccine ready for tests after pandemic declared

 

GENEVA (AFP) – A Swiss pharmaceutical giant said Friday it has a swine flu vaccine ready for trial as governments stepped up precautions to counter the newly-declared influenza pandemic.

 

While millions could catch the flu, governments and health experts around the world have sought to play down fears that the A(H1N1) virus could become a major killer.

 

Swine flu has so far infected almost 30,000 people in 74 countries and claimed 145 lives since it was first detected in Mexico in April, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures.

 

The Swiss company Novartis stole a march on competitors by announcing it has completed a first batch of its vaccine for pre-clinical trials. A spokesman told AFP it hoped to have a vaccine in production by September or October.

 

"Novartis has successfully completed the production of the first batch of influenza A(H1N1) vaccine, weeks ahead of expectations," the company said in a statement.

 

Novartis said it hopes to start trials on patients in July and to gain a licence soon after. It said more than 30 governments had already asked for A(H1N1) virus "vaccine ingredients."

 

The US government gave Novartis 289 million dollars (205 million euros) to help develop a vaccine. It also placed an order with Sanofi-Pasteur of France which said it hopes to have doses ready for clinical trials in coming weeks.

 

British-controlled GlaxoSmithKline said Friday that it could produce a vaccine in four to six months and that it was ready to convert a donation of 50 million doses of vaccine against H5N1 bird flu for the WHO to swine flu doses.

 

The UN health agency raised its global alert to a maximum six on Thursday saying it had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread.

 

WHO Director General Margaret Chan said the declaration of a "moderate" pandemic should not spark panic and did not mean the A(H1N1) death toll would rise sharply.

 

She said raising the alert "means that the world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century."

 

The WHO said it would ask drug-makers to quickly prepare to produce swine flu vaccines once the production of seasonal flu vaccine ends.

 

The southern hemisphere is currently heading into winter and the height of its flu season. Northern hemisphere countries expect to see a swine flu surge when their winter starts later.

 

Mexico has been worst hit. Its government on Thursday increased the country's death toll to 109 with 6,294 A(H1N1) infections. The United States comes next. Its health authorities have reported 27 deaths and 13,217 cases.

 

Australia, the worst hit in the Asia-Pacific region, was mulling raising its national flu alert and adopting powers to cancel sports events, restrict travel and even shut national borders. There are currently 1,307 confirmed cases including four in intensive care.

 

In Hong Kong, which was hit hard by the 2003 SARS outbreak, authorities closed all primary schools after a group of children became the Chinese city's first "cluster" of cases.

 

Israel's health ministry raised its alert to the highest level following the WHO decision, ordering the stocking of vaccines to inoculate up to 25 percent of the country's 7.2 million population.

 

Britain is Europe's worst hit country with 909 recorded cases, but the total has risen significantly in recent days.

 

In Spain, where there are 488 confirmed cases, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez called for calm after WHO raised its alert, saying that the symptoms were "slight" and the flu could be easily treated.

 

France, where there are 80 cases, and Germany (95) said they are not changing their alert levels.

 

The risk of the spread of an influenza pandemic is greatest in Britain, closely followed by the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and South Korea, according to a ranking of 213 countries released Friday.

 

But even if most rich countries are vulnerable, despite the rapid transmission of the disease, they are far better equipped to cope with its impact, said Alyson Warhurst, a professor at Warwick Business School in Britain and main architect of the global ranking.

 

 

 

:mtc:

Edited June 13, 2009 by peterparker

[Kurtsky Keigee]

147 confirmed cases as of today

 

http://tinyurl.com/na8rew

[Kurtsky Keigee]

247 na total

[Kurtsky Keigee]

311 na cases

[Kurtsky Keigee]

SAO PAULO -- Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the swine flu virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, their institute said on Tuesday.

 

The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus from California.

 

The genetic sequence of the new subtype of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team led by one of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a statement.

 

The mutation comprised of alterations in the Hemagglutinin protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts, it said.

 

More aggressive

 

It was not yet known whether the new strain was more aggressive than the A(H1N1) virus which has been declared pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

The genetic makeup of the H1N1 virus and its subvariants are important for scientists.

 

Pharmaceutical companies are working to mass produce a vaccine against the current A(H1N1) flu.

 

According to the WHO, 36,000 people in 76 countries have been infected with the H1N1 virus, causing 163 deaths. AFP

[angel_by_day]

this has been anticipated (i guess, and i hope)......that there will be emergence of new and more virulent strains....primarily due to what is known as genetic reassortment. Nowadays, it's not as simple anymore as identifying the genetic structure of a particular strain, simply because the longer they proliferate, the more hosts they conquer, the more that they adapt and evolve.

 

sounds scary....but what we've read in Crichton novels may cease to be plain sci-fi stuff alone.....but would be more evident and real, right before our very eyes.

Edited June 19, 2009 by angel_by_day

[peterparker]

Philippines reports 1st swine flu-related death

 

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines confirmed Monday its first swine flu-related death — a 49-year-old woman who died from congestive heart failure but who also tested positive for the H1N1 virus.

 

The fatality is the second in the Asia-Pacific region related to swine flu, following the death of a man in Australia on Friday.

 

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the woman's chronic heart disease was aggravated by severe pneumonia. She started to have flu-like symptoms such as dry cough, fever, chills and difficulty breathing two days before her death on June 19.

 

A throat swab revealed she was also infected with the swine flu virus.

 

Duque said post-autopsy findings disclose that the death was caused by heart failure "aggravated by severe pneumonia either bacterial, viral or both."

 

Given the available information, health authorities cannot conclude that the death is due to H1N1. In other countries that have reported swine flu deaths, the majority have had pre-existing conditions, he added.

 

Duque said the Philippines has 17 more confirmed swine flu cases, bringing the total to 445 — though 84 percent of the total cases have already recovered.

 

 

 

:mtc:

[robo_cop]

Ano ba ang pinagkaiba nito sa Human flu? para kasing masyadong maraming natatakot dito? Siguro naman karamihan dito sa MTC nagka flu na even once in their lives, gumaling naman tayo, etong bagong strain gumagaling din naman. sa tingin ko pareho lang. so may ilang namamatay? wala pa bang namatay sa common human flu?

[Kurtsky Keigee]

was just curious sa mga nagkarun nito. pag gumaling ba immune na sa virus?

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/...f-AH1N1-vaccine