It looks like it will be necessary to get that flu shot after all with the latest information in the health news reports. Even though the press is not talking as much about the subject, there are still warnings and precautions about the Swine flu – H1N1 virus given out by the World Health Organization. There has been a rise in the number of people who have been struck by the flu virus and an increasing number of deaths world wide. For more information, please read further this article at the CBC News health site.
“The global swine flu epidemic is still in its early stages, even though reports of over 100,000 infections in England alone last week are plausible, the World Health Organization’s flu chief said Friday.
Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general for health security and environment, told The Associated Press that given the size of the world’s population, the new H1N1 virus is likely to spread for some time.
WHO earlier estimated that as many as two billion people could become infected over the next two years.
“Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases …we’re relatively early in the pandemic,” Fukuda said in an interview at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
The global health agency stopped asking governments to report new cases last week, saying the effort was too great now that the disease has become so widespread in some countries.
Authorities in Britain say there were over 100,000 infections in England alone last week, while U.S. health officials estimate the United States has passed the one million case mark. Those figures dwarf WHO’s tally of 130,000 confirmed cases worldwide since the start of the outbreak last spring.
“We know that the total number of laboratory confirmed cases is really only a subset of the total number of cases,” Fukuda said.
Fukuda, the former chief of epidemiology at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said there must be no doubt over the safety of swine flu vaccines before they are given to the public.
Dramatic rise in H1N1 cases expected
Health officials and drug makers are looking into ways of speeding up the production of the vaccine before the Northern Hemisphere enters its flu season in the fall.
The first vaccines are expected in September and October, said Fukuda. Other vaccines will take until December or January before they are released onto the market — well into…”
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With the latest health news reports on the H1N1 which says that H1N1 is Tamiflu-resistant, people are somewhat worried especially with the flu season just months away. However, Reuters reports that this is a single case and we do not have to worry too much. The pandemic alert is still high though which means that you should still be planning to get your flu shot this year when flu season begins.
By Stephanie Nebehay and Laura MacInnis from Reuters
“The first H1N1 infection found to be resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu represents an isolated case with no current implications for public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
“The United Nations agency has declared a global pandemic is underway from the virus known as swine flu which has so far been treatable with Tamiflu, made by Roche.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said that the discovery of a patient in Denmark whose infection did not respond to the drug, revealed by the Swiss company and Danish officials on Monday, did not amplify the severity of the virus.
“This is an isolated case. At this time, there is no public health implication. But we must remain alert as the virus can change at any time and we must not be complacent,” he told Reuters.
Officials say the patient is now well and no further contagion with the resistant virus was detected.
Resistance to Tamiflu has been previously documented in the deadly bird flu virus H5N1 and seasonal H1N1 flu, Thompson said.
“We need to monitor the virus (H1N1) continuously,” he said, adding that the WHO’s global influenza surveillance network linking laboratories in 97 countries would keep monitoring it.
“WHO is not changing its recommendations for the use of antivirals,” Thompson added, referring to the global body’s advice to its 193 member states.
The WHO has previously said that the H1N1 virus is sensitive to a class of antiviral drugs which includes Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, and Relenza by GlaxoSmithKline, known generically as zanamivir.
Denmark’s State Serum Institute said, when making the announcement on Monday, that it was expected that the strain would at some point show resistance to Tamiflu.
It said that while the patient was found to be infected with a virus strain that had mutated to a form resistant to Tamiflu, the alternative drug Relenza, which is inhaled, remained an effective treatment.
GLOBAL PANDEMIC
The WHO on June 11 raised its pandemic flu alert to its highest level of 6, signifying that the first influenza pandemic since 1968 was under way [ID:nLC321991]
Flu viruses mutate regularly and can develop resistance to drugs at any time.”
Remember, young and old alike are affected by the H1N1 virus, which means that you must not forget to get your flu shot.
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Reuters health news reports today online that the death toll from the swine flu or H1N1 flu as it is now known, is declining.
“MEXICO CITY – New laboratory data showed fewer people have died in Mexico than first thought from a new influenza strain, a glint of good news for a world rattled by the threat of a flu pandemic.
Mexico cut its suspected death toll from the H1N1 flu to up to 101 from as many as 176, as dozens of test samples came back negative. Fewer patients with severe flu symptoms were also checking into hospitals, suggesting the infection rate of a flu that has spread to Europe and Asia was declining.
The World Health Organization said on Saturday 15 countries have reported 615 infections with the new flu virus A-H1N1, widely known as swine flu.
Italy later confirmed its first case, a man in the Tuscany region who returned from Mexico on April 24. He has recovered.
Almost all infections outside Mexico have been mild. The only death in another country has been a Mexican toddler who was taken to the United States before he fell sick.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed the outbreak may not be as severe as it looked a few days ago, citing many mild cases that were not immediately noticed.
President Barack Obama said the United States was responding aggressively to the new flu strain.
He outlined steps his administration was taking to address the virus, including school closures, and said antivirals were being distributed to states where they may be needed and new stockpiles had been ordered.
For Mexicans — spending a second weekend stuck indoors with stores and businesses shuttered across the country and the capital, Mexico City, devoid of its lively restaurants, bars, cinemas and museums — the data is cheering.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova acknowledged the numbers were encouraging but cautioned it was too early to say Mexico had control of the flu.
“For now it’s unpredictable,” Cordova said late on Friday. “We need more days to see how it behaves and whether there is really a sustained decline.”
The new virus is only the third infectious disease experts regard as having pandemic potential in the past 10 years.
It has world health experts racing to find a vaccine and is wreaking havoc with a travel industry that flies hundreds of thousands of people to and from Mexico each week.
China suspended flights to Mexico after Hong Kong authorities on Friday confirmed a Mexican man who flew via the Chinese mainland was infected with the flu strain”.
By Catherine Bremer, Source: Reuters.com
