Posted on 06/24/2009 8:04:24 AM PDT by metmom
Within minutes, six-year-old Rubjit Thindal went from happily chatting in the back seat of the car to collapsing and dying in her father's arms.
"If we had known it was so serious, we would have called 911,'' Kuldip Thindal, Rubjit's distraught mother, said in Punjabi yesterday. "She just had a stomach ache -- she wasn't even crying.''
Rubjit was pronounced dead at hospital barely 24 hours after showing signs of a fever. Later, doctors told her parents she had the H1N1 influenza virus. She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada with the virus to have died.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.guelphmercury.com ...
LOL :)
In a Perspective, written by 3 CDC physicians (Sonja A. Rasmussen, Denise J. Jamieson, Joseph S. Bresee) and published in the CDC Journal of EID article, Pandemic Influenza and Pregnant Women in February of 2008, we get this assessment of the historic impact of influenza on pregnant women.
Although appropriate nonpregnant control groups were generally not available, mortality rates among pregnant women in the pandemics of 1918 and 1957 appeared to be abnormally high (5,7). Among 1,350 reported cases of influenza among pregnant women during the pandemic of 1918, the proportion of deaths was reported to be 27% (5).
Similarly, among a small case series of 86 pregnant women hospitalized in Chicago for influenza in 1918, 45% died (6). Among pregnancy-associated deaths in Minnesota during the 1957 pandemic, influenza was the leading cause of death, accounting for nearly 20% of deaths associated with pregnancy during the pandemic period; half of women of reproductive age who died were pregnant
And during the opening months of the 2009 pandemic, we’ve seen a 4 to 6 fold increase in influenza-related hospitalizations among pregnant women compared to the rest of the population. Sadly, we’ve received reports of numerous fatalities as well.
All of which has led doctors to advise that pregnant women receive antiviral treatment if infected, and be targeted for early vaccination when that becomes available.
One aspect of influenza infection during pregnancy that has been getting less attention, simply because the impact may not be as obvious or immediately apparent, are the effects prenatal exposure to the virus may have on the fetus.
There have been studies in the past that have linked such exposure to developmental problems, although the evidence is indirect. Once again, the authors of the EID Perspective weigh in:
Although certain infections are well recognized to increase the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, the effects of maternal influenza infection on the fetus are not well understood. Viremia is believed to occur infrequently in influenza (18), and placental transmission of the virus also appears to be rare (19).
However, even in the absence of fetal viral infection, animal studies suggest that adverse effects can still occur. Prenatal influenza infection in the mouse has been associated with histopathologic changes in the brain (20) and behavioral alterations (21) in offspring. Although influenza virus RNA has not been detected in the fetal brain, these changes suggest that fetal effects could be secondary to the maternal inflammatory response, rather than the result of a direct viral effect (22).
In other words, it may not be so much the virus, but the immune response mounted by the mother, that can cause fetal damage. Again they write:
Associations between maternal influenza infection and childhood leukemia (23), schizophrenia (24), and Parkinson disease (25) have been suggested by some studies. Even if the influenza virus does not have a direct effect on the fetus, fever that often accompanies influenza infection could have adverse effects.
In April of this year, just days before the news of the novel H1N1 virus made the headlines, news of another retrospective study emerged reporting lower IQ scores (on a population basis) among those born during the Hong Kong Flu Pandemic.
Full commentary here: http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2009/10/pregnancy-flu-bad-combination.html
That gray is hard to read. subliminal?
It is horrible smelling stuff, isn't it.
Swine flu deaths show this flu is different - experts
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE58E7Q220090915?rpc=401&;
“This is almost exactly what we see with avian flu,” Zaki said. “This looks like avian flu on steroids.”
I don’t mean it to be, but some people do have a tough time with it. If it becomes a problem for you, please click and drag your cursor over it. It will appear in reverse, but it will be easy to read.
My intent is to post what was already said, so I respond on all points.
Tents Set Up In Parking Garage for Flu Patients In St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 @07:52pm CDT
Officials at a St. Louis Children’s Hospital are concerned about the number of potential Swine Flu cases.
So much that they are setting up tents outside the hospital just in case.
They’re called Emergency Unit Overflows and can act as a so-called mini ER.
Crews spent Tuesday afternoon putting up two tents in the parking garage.
Up to twenty kids can be treated there.
Hospital officials say the ER is seeing 30% more kids than normal and the tents give them more room.
The hospital assured patients and parents that the tents will not be used to isolate kids with flu.
Instead, children with non-life threatening conditions will be seen there.
Dr. Alexis Elward of the Children’s Hospital says,” this will help us treat patients more efficiently and more quickly. We hope that we’ll improve patient satisfaction so that we can have patients waiting in the emergency room for shorter periods of time.”
Other hospitals around the country are also using tents to help handle overcrowded emergency rooms.
Tents are popping up in cities including Memphis, Nashville, Austin, and Atlanta.
http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=191781
Important points that can be taken from this abstract...
- There are not only high-pathogenic and low-pathogenic H5N1 viruses, but “lesser pathogenic” viruses. That is, lesser pathogenic than high-pathogenic.
- It appears that a higher dose may be necessary to fight the “more virulent” high pathogenic strains. A higher dose is also needed to achieve the same protection once time has lapsed from beginning of infection.
The viruses tested came from Vietnam 2004 and Turkey 2006, but no strains from Indonesia or Egypt were included, where partial resistance to Tamiflu may be developing in some isolates.
____________________
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2007 Apr;51(4):1414-24. Epub 2007 Feb 12
Efficacy of oseltamivir therapy in ferrets inoculated with different clades of H5N1 influenza virus.
Govorkova EA, Ilyushina NA, Boltz DA, Douglas A, Yilmaz N, Webster RG.
Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Department of Pathology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38105-2794, USA.
Highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses have infected an increasing number of humans in Asia, with high mortality rates and the emergence of multiple distinguishable clades. It is not known whether antiviral drugs that are effective against contemporary human influenza viruses will be effective against systemically replicating viruses, such as these pathogens. Therefore, we evaluated the use of the neuraminidase (NA) inhibitor oseltamivir for early postexposure prophylaxis and for treatment in ferrets exposed to representatives of two clades of H5N1 virus with markedly different pathogenicities in ferrets. Ferrets were protected from lethal infection with the A/Vietnam/1203/04 (H5N1) virus by oseltamivir (5 mg/kg of body weight/day) given 4 h after virus inoculation, but higher daily doses (25 mg/kg) were required for treatment when it was initiated 24 h after virus inoculation. For the treatment of ferrets inoculated with the less pathogenic A/Turkey/15/06 (H5N1) virus, 10 mg/kg/day of oseltamivir was sufficient to reduce the lethargy of the animals, significantly inhibit inflammation in the upper respiratory tract, and block virus spread to the internal organs. Importantly, all ferrets that survived the initial infection were rechallenged with homologous virus after 21 days and were completely protected from infection. Direct sequencing of the NA or HA1 gene segments in viruses isolated from ferret after treatment showed no amino acid substitutions known to cause drug resistance in conserved residues. Thus, early oseltamivir treatment is crucial for protection against highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses and the higher dose may be needed for the treatment of more virulent viruses.
PMID: 17296744 (enter at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez)
Why is the world so poorly prepared for a pandemic of hypervirulent avian influenza?
Authors: Olav Albert Christophersen; Anna Haug a
Affiliation: a Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Ås. Norway
DOI: 10.1080/08910600600866544
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease, Volume 18, Issue 3 & 4 December 2006 , pages 113 - 132
Subject: Biotechnology;
Abstract
The world is now extremely poorly prepared to counter a possible pandemic of hypervirulent H5N1 influenza. Most countries are planning for nothing worse than the Spanish flu pandemic. It may be possible that this can in large measure be explained as a consequence of an epidemic of wishful thinking, which may already have infected the health authorities (and parts of the scientific community as well) in most countries in the world. However, it may also be possible that it can have happened as a consequence of too little contact between medical scientists and more general biologists (natural scientists) from disciplines such as ornithology, ecology and evolutionary biology. This may have led to a lack of proper understanding among medical scientists (and health bureaucrats) of the nature of evolutionary processes affecting influenza viruses, as regards the evolution of host species adaptation, infectivity and virulence properties, and also a lack of appreciation of the ways in which such forms of evolutionary adaptation depend on ecological boundary conditions that have radically changed, comparing the world in 2006 to the world in 1918. While the Spanish flu virus possibly might be compared to a one-headed monster, it may be possible that highly virulent varieties of H5N1 virus might better be compared to a three-headed one - because there is evidence of at least three independent virulence factors connected with three different genes. It is highly unlikely that all of the high-virulence alleles will simultaneously mutate and disappear if and when the haemagglutinin gene changes so as to make the haemagglutinin molecule better adapted for the human-type (alpha-2,6-linked) receptor (which is a necessary prerequisite in order that a pandemic with H5N1 virus may start). It is more probable that evolutionary adaptation of the haemagglutinin of H5N1 viruses to the human-type receptor will happen without any simultaneous change in those other genetic properties that now are important for explaining the exceptionally high virulence of certain strains of avian-adapted H5N1 influenza virus. The change of the haemagglutinin molecule from avian adaptation to human adaptation must be expected to act as an additional virulence factor because it will enhance the total number of cells that can be infected (per host organism), increase the total rate of virus replication and potentiate the effects of the other virulence factors already present. The monster will then have four heads, not three, and case fatality rates must be expected to become even higher than they have been until now, perhaps reaching as high as 98-99% (at least in poor countries with less than optimal nutrition).
It takes less time to just use the html code for italicizing than it does to use the html code for changing color. Why not do like everyone else and just italicize to posters words?
If you run the cursor over the whole post then all of it is highlighted making it impossible to know where your words start and theirs ends. Its more time consuming to have to run the cursor over certain portions only, when all that is usually necessary is to scroll down and just read.
I tend to ignore posts where the text is too small, too light or deliberately made difficult. just saying.
Select Specialty Hospital nurse’s death is a confirmed case of swine flu
It is now official: Knox County has had its first swine flu death.
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/62405642.html
Posted: 5:45 PM Sep 28, 2009
Reporter: Amber Miller
Email Address: amber.miller@wvlt-tv.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) — It is now official: Knox County has had its first swine flu death.
A couple of weeks ago, we told you that Tina Henson Vick, 43, who was a nurse at Select Specialty Hospital at Saint Mary’s died, and her family believed it was because of H1N1.
Now that the CDC has confirmed it, they wanted to get their story out.
Tina Vick’s family wants everyone to know that the H1N1 virus moves quickly and it can affect anyone.
“No one thought she was going to die,” Ronnie Dunn, Tina’s uncle said.
From a backrow pew at his church Monday, Dunn said he felt comfortable for the first time, talking about his niece’s death.
When doctors handed the paperwork to Tina’s family, they took notes: verified by the CDC. Influenza H1n1 positive.
“From the day she was born, she was smiling and she never quit smiling. And she just had the sweetest personality in the world,” Dunn commented as he looked at old pictures.
Dunn was the only family member up for talking.
And he says they all think it is important they get Tina’s story out.
“Tina Michelle Henson Vick is the first confirmed death in Knox County with the H1N1 swine flu,” Dunn repeated.
Vick’s death, he says, is noteworthy because she was healthy and she was a nurse.
“I think she was exposed to someone while she was at work because there were seven or eight other nurses who went home with flu-like symptoms that weekend,” Dunn told Volunteer TV.
H1N1: Heart needs to be checked too
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4917119,prtpage-1.cms
H1N1: Heart needs to be checked too
Kounteya Sinha , TNN 21 August 2009, 03:55am IST
NEW DELHI: Scientists analysing the earliest deaths due to swine flu in Mexico, believed to be the country of origin of the H1N1 virus, had made a vital finding this week - almost 62% of the fatal cases had an increased level of Creatine Kinase (CK).
Present in skeletal and heart muscles, this enzyme if secreted in higher quantities is an indication of heart or muscle damage. In cases of H1N1 infection, scientists found that patients who died of Myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle had increased CK levels.
The finding is crucial for India which has also reported deaths due to Myocarditis following H1N1 infection. Samrat Pandya, the 31-year-old resident of Gurgaon, who died on Thursday following two cardiac arrests, was diagnosed with myocarditis after an ECG was conducted. A central team that returned from Pune also reported deaths there due to Myocarditis.
Experts now are saying that doctors in charge of screening patients with H1N1 symptoms, besides looking at lungs for pneumonia or other respiratory diseases caused by H1N1, should also look for the condition of the heart. Professor of medicine at AIIMS Dr Randeep Guleria said an eco cardiograph must be done to rule out heart complications of a suspected H1N1 patient.
“If muscles and the heart gets damaged, they start secreting CK. Rise in CK means there is muscle or heart damage. In some people virus stays in the throat while in serious cases, it goes into the lungs causing pneumonia and enters the blood circulation to go to various organs, later causing multi organ failure. Therefore it is vital that doctors don’t just look at the lungs but also the heart. If found affected, the treatment has to be then modified accordingly,” Dr Guleria said.
This is the way I do it. I’m sorry you don’t approve.
I appreciate your bringing to my attention. Over the last eleven and a half years that I’ve been here, you are about the third to the fifth person to object.
Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro
Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro.Roschek B Jr, Fink RC, McMichael MD, Li D, Alberte RS.
HerbalScience Group LLC, 1004 Collier Center Way, Suite 200, Naples, FL 34110, USA.
A ionization technique in mass spectrometry called Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART TOF-MS) coupled with a Direct Binding Assay was used to identify and characterize anti-viral components of an elderberry fruit (Sambucus nigra L.) extract without either derivatization or separation by standard chromatographic techniques. The elderberry extract inhibited Human Influenza A (H1N1) infection in vitro with an IC(50) value of 252+/-34 microg/mL. The Direct Binding Assay established that flavonoids from the elderberry extract bind to H1N1 virions and, when bound, block the ability of the viruses to infect host cells. Two compounds were identified, 5,7,3’,4’-tetra-O-methylquercetin (1) and 5,7-dihydroxy-4-oxo-2-(3,4,5-trihydroxyphenyl)chroman-3-yl-3,4,5-trihydroxycyclohexanecarboxylate (2), as H1N1-bound chemical species. Compound 1 and dihydromyricetin (3), the corresponding 3-hydroxyflavonone of 2, were synthesized and shown to inhibit H1N1 infection in vitro by binding to H1N1 virions, blocking host cell entry and/or recognition. Compound 1 gave an IC(50) of 0.13 microg/mL (0.36 microM) for H1N1 infection inhibition, while dihydromyricetin (3) achieved an IC(50) of 2.8 microg/mL (8.7 microM). The H1N1 inhibition activities of the elderberry flavonoids compare favorably to the known anti-influenza activities of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu; 0.32 microM) and Amantadine (27 microM).
PMID: 19682714 [PubMed - in process]
Do you think all these young children that have died had raised levels of CK?
A lot of people probably did like I did and ignored your posts. I just thought I would point out the problem, but hey, I'm ok with going back to ignoring them.
I don’t know ?
But it something to watch out for ...
Oh hey, here’s a thought, maybe you could just make the font darker.... or does that defeat your purpose
Oh well, not my concern anymore, on to readable posts.
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