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 ...
The next town over someone died from the swine flu :(
I’ve heard of people who had the swine flu but I don’t really know them .
I’m happy that your friends & family are doing good :)
Smokin’ Joe does the freeper avian / h1n1 flu ping list .
Do you want to be added to the freeper ping list ?
Thanks , DvdMom
British aristocrat’s corpse may hold swine flu key
July 28th, 2009 - 2:54 pm ICT
London, July 28 (ANI): Scientists believe the corpse of a British aristocrat who died 90 years ago could provide vital information about the swine flu epidemic.
Sir Mark Sykes, a Tory MP, soldier and diplomat, was one of 50 million people killed when Spanish flu swept the world in 1918.
He was exhumed last year in the hope that the Spanish virus could help them understand bird flu.
All three strains are part of the H1N1 virus but Spanish flu is thought to be the first.
Boffins reckon that strains of the disease that killed him may have been preserved in his body and could be used to find a cure, reports The Daily Express.
Now, a research team led by Professor John Oxford from Queen Mary’s School of Medicine in London shall review new samples from his tomb in the grounds of stately home, Sledmere House, in East Yorks.
Prof Oxford said: “I suspect something really interesting could come out of this. We could identify a weakness of the virus. Any new knowledge about the 1918 virus, how it kills people and where it goes, could provide vital background information on analysing swine flu.”
UK:
SWINE FLU VICTIM SPEAKS OF HER ORDEAL
Published Date:
28 July 2009
By MICHAEL SCOTT
http://www.dromoreleader.co.uk/dromore-news/SWINE-FLU-VICTIM-SPEAKS-OF.5499750.jp
A Banbridge swine flu victim has spoken of how the virus made her hallucinate and how she was quarantined for a number of days to stop the potentially lethal disease from spreading.
Eighteen-year-old Emma McIntyre-Barnes from The Rowans in Banbridge discovered she had the illness after returning home from the Oxegen music festival in Punchestown, which ran from July 10-12.
Emma, who has now fully recovered, said that after doctors confirmed she had it she was housebound and had to rely on the kindliness of neighbours for essentials.
“I returned home from Oxegen on the Monday after the event had finished and to be honest I thought it was just a bad hangover,” she said.
“But by Tuesday I was still feeling awful, so I rang my doctor. He said it sounded like flu and that I should just fight it off.
“Then I developed a chesty cough and started hallucinating. I had to get my friends and neighbours to leave bread and milk on my doorstep at this stage because I couldn’t leave the house.
“It was getting worse so I phoned the doctors again. This time I got to speak to my own doctor and he said it sounded like swine flu and put me on tamiflu.
“I felt terrible at the time, I couldn’t even walk from my living room to the kitchen without feeling tired and I had a horrible fever as well.”
Emma was amongst a group of friends who travelled down to the concert and she now fears that she could have passed it on to others at the festival.
“There was 15 or so of us who went down - I was the only one from Banbridge who went, the rest of the guys were all from Newry.
“As soon as I found out I had it I rang around all the other guys to see if they were OK. It turns out there are three others who were with us who are now also on tamiflu.”
She was so concerned that when she found out she posted on the Oxegen website’s message board to make others aware of her illness.
Despite all the recent hype surrounding swine flu Emma said that she was unphazed by the illness, unlike her parents who were on holiday at the time.
“I’m a fairly laid back person so I was alright about having it. My parents though were very concerned, they were constantly ringing me to see if I was OK and if I wanted them to come home.”
Swine Flu Diary: Caught in a Beijing Dragnet
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and OLIVIA ROBINSON
Published: July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/health/28flu.html?hp
Good Lord. Every disease is potentially lethal.
What's with journalists?
Swine Flu Shot in U.S. May Rely on Emergency Use of Additives
July 29 (Bloomberg) — Swine flu vaccine makers may rely on a U.S. emergency declaration to use experimental additives made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG to boost a limited supply of shots that will be available to fight the pandemic.
The ingredients, known as adjuvants, may be added for the first time to flu shots in the U.S. Health officials, meeting today at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, plan to discuss use of the additives, and may also recommend who should be first to receive the limited amount of vaccines drugmakers say they will begin delivering in October.
snip
CSL Ltd., which has a $180 million order to supply bulk H1N1 antigen to the U.S. government, decided against boosting its vaccine with an adjuvant, preferring to use a formulation more closely resembling the seasonal flu shot, said Mary Sontrop general manager of the Melbourne-based company’s biotherapies unit.
The U.S. has contracts with five companies to provide flu shots. Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, is responsible for 45 percent of the supply, while Sanofi will provide 26 percent and CSL will make 19 percent, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, in an interview last week.
The remaining doses will be made by Glaxo and London-based drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc.
I heard someone say that the swine flu striking pregnant women very hard reminded them about the bible verse ( Woe to them who are heavy with child in those days )
Do any of you have any thoughts or comments ?
CDC Study: Swine Flu Striking Pregnant Women Hard
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535251,00.html
Pregnant women infected with the new H1N1 swine flu have a much higher risk of severe illness and death, U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday, confirming a trend that has worried global health experts.
I think the Bible verse has MORE to do with having to travel pregnant or with a young child.
However, I suspect the verse will be applicable in a number of respects.
Thanks for the update :)
I hope your friend’s hubby get’s better soon .
Thanks , I appreciate your insight :)
British schoolgirl fights for life after contracting swine flu on holiday in Greece
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:36 AM on 30th July 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203177/British-schoolgirl-fights-life-contracting-swine-flu-holiday-Greece.html?ITO=1490
A schoolgirl is critically ill in a Greek hospital after becoming infected with swine flu while on holiday.
Natasha Newman, 16, a pupil at Gordonstoun public school, is on a life-support machine after suffering lung damage and other complications.
The teenager was admitted to hospital on the island of Cephalonia, but after her condition deteriorated and she lost consciousness she was flown to the country’s main children’s hospital in Athens on Tuesday.
Doctors at Ayia Sofia Hospital say Natasha had swine flu for at least eight days before seeking help.
Her parents Julian Newman, a businessman, and Nikki Broughton, a theatrical agent, were at her bedside.
Mr Newman said: ‘Natasha is very bad. She had chronic respiratory failure. She has complications like pneumonia.’
Dr Lina Sianidou, head of the intensive care unit, said: ‘There is no doubt that she is suffering from swine flu. She is in a critical condition and very much struggling.
‘It is clear she had this new virus for at least eight days before she sought help and that has made her condition worse.’
Natasha is believed to have developed a dangerously high temperature and severe breathing difficulties, before losing consciousness.
The family live in Highgate, north London, but Miss Newman is a pupil at prestigious Gordonstoun public school in Elgin, Scotland, where Prince Charles attended.
Natasha, a keen musician, flew out to Cephalonia three weeks ago with her family for a month-long holiday. She is not believed to have any underlying health problems.
She is one of three swine flu victims in intensive care in Greece, authorities revealed yesterday.
News of her condition sparked panic on Cephalonia, where doctors at the General Prefectural Hospital in Argostoli refused to treat her.
Officials have tried to play down publicity in her case over fears it could spread more panic in a country where tourists have been blamed for spreading the virus.
One official said: ‘Greece is particularly vulnerable not only because of its location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, but also because this is the tourist season when so many start arriving from northern Europe.’
Health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos has pledged to unveil an emergency plan.
“Cabin Fever
Trying to stop the spread of swine flu at summer camp.
By Marc Siegel, Posted Friday, July 10, 2009,”
http://www.slate.com/id/2222549/
“For three summers, my 12-year-old son, Joshua, has attended Camp Modin, a beautiful camp in rural Maine. This year, when we dropped him off at the northbound bus, something was different: The counselors were taking children’s temperatures before letting them onboard. It seemed a wise precaution, as the new influenza A H1N1 swine flu strain continues to spread and the weather in Maine in June was cool this year, which would facilitate an outbreak of the virus. But as a physician who has studied the flu for many years, I was still worried. An infected person can be contagious even if he doesn’t have a fever.
My concern was justified. Three days after camp started, I called the camp director, Howard Salzburg, and discovered that he was beside himself. One of the parents, another physician, had used Tylenol to deliberately suppress his child’s fever so he wouldn’t be held back.
There were already 16 cases of the flu, confirmed by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to be the H1N1 swine flu strain.
Desperate to contain the infection, Howard had created a quarantine bunk for the sick and was having all the bunks cleaned with hospital-grade disinfectant.
One other tool could help stem the spread of infection—but using it would go against CDC protocol”...
...”it seemed to me it was time for our public health authorities to employ a more aggressive strategy.
Clinical trials have shown that Tamiflu, when taken within 48 hours of exposure, is 92 percent effective at preventing flu in adults and 82 percent effective in children.
Since we don’t yet have a vaccine, it was clear that the best strategy was to use the drug, which decreases the severity and the duration of the illness and helps prevent people who are in contact with flu patients from getting sick themselves.
I e-mailed the camp parents to let them know that Tamiflu is well-tolerated and safe and that I was starting my son on a 10-day course of it; it would be wise, I recommended, for them to do the same.
Prescriptions were soon flooding the camp’s fax machine; out of the 350 campers, 250 campers were started on the drug, as were more than 100 staffers.
At the same time that the prescriptions were pouring in, the Maine CDC asked to speak to me, since this was not its usual protocol.
It was holding Tamiflu in reserve for the sickest cases.
But our children had no immunity to this new strain of flu. Though most of the stricken Modin campers were only mildly ill, we’ve seen that the majority of the severe cases and deaths caused by this strain are occurring among children with chronic illnesses like asthma. Since campers could have had those conditions but not yet have been diagnosed, it made a lot of sense to use Tamiflu to reduce the amount of circulating virus.
I also explained to the director that most of the studies using anti-virals as a preventative, conducted in nursing homes, were likely applicable to the camp environment, since kids were crammed in bunks just as patients in nursing homes live close together.
Andrew Pelletier, the head epidemiologist for the Maine division of the CDC, said that his caution was informed by federal directives.
The Tamiflu protocol was based in part on fear of a shortage.
Supplies in Maine were plentiful—the camp had been able to procure more than 400 courses of Tamiflu with ease.
But the CDC was reluctant to dip too far into the supply, worried that not enough would be available if and when the new flu becomes more widespread.
Runs on Tamiflu and premature use of the drug, as people attempt to hoard it in case they or their families became sick, were another cause for concern.
I’m sure you are also concerned about resistance developing from overuse of the drug, I told him, but with a vaccine not yet ready, using Tamiflu to control outbreaks at camps is exactly what we should be doing.
The CDC allowed Modin to proceed,” (would the CDC have forbidden doctors to give Tamiflu to their patients?) “and the results were even more dramatic than I’d anticipated.”...
...”Camp Modin was perhaps the first experiment in close quarters with Tamiflu against the new pandemic strain.
When the camp started using it, the total number of cases was 40, and the daily incidence was 14.
Two days later, the number of new cases was four.
(Look at the Modin statistics here.)
http://www.slate.com/id/2222549/sidebar/2222551/
“16 new cases of the influenza H1N1 swine flu strain, June 24-29
24 new cases on June 30
Tamiflu treatment and prophylaxis started on July 1 and 2
14 new cases on July 1
15 new cases on July 2
4 new cases on July 3
3 new cases on July 4
1 new case on July 5
1 new case on July 6
0 new cases on July 7
Overall, 6,000 screening temperatures were taken.
Five children stopped Tamiflu due to nausea.
Children were screened by the camp doctor, Dr. Marvin Lee, for ear, sinus, and throat infections that often accompany the flu, and antibiotics were prescribed for four children”
“There were soon more than 80 campers and staff with the flu—all cases were mild, and the first three were confirmed as H1N1 swine flu strain by the CDC—but no one on Tamiflu as a preventive measure became sick, not even the counselors and nurses who were caring for the quarantined bunk.
While my son took his daily Tamiflu dose and enjoyed the wilds of Maine, the quarantined kids watched TV and played video games for a week before being allowed to return to their regular bunks. “...
..”As cases of flu began to appear at other camps in Maine, word of Modin’s successful containment spread, and pediatricians were again asked to fax prescriptions to Maine for Tamifu.
It is clear that especially in advance of a vaccine, Tamiflu is an effective way to squash H1N1 outbreaks and protect the most vulnerable.
If we use it properly now, we may not need it as much in the future.
It is definitely time for the CDC to change its protocol. “
It doesn’t make sense that the CDC wouldn’t want to publicize the fact that Tamiflu is a safe drug to use to prevent the flu. What kind of “federal directives” could they have received?
And what would be the reason for not producing or have shortages of Tamiflu?
Isn’t it better to be proactive rather than reactive?
Why do I always have more questions than answers????????
And you.
Have you seen this ?
Have you seen this ? Do you know anything about the former official ?
Here’s more detailed info ...
Have any of you heard or know anything about the former Bush official ?
Financial permaculture and swine flu:
http://solari.com/blog/?p=3532
I think most everyone has more ???’s than answers with this flu .
New H1N1 medicine developed
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-31 12:54
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/31/content_8499147.htm
Chinese scientists have developed a new drug to battle the H1N1 influenza, the Beijing News reported Friday.
Led by Yang Zhanqiu, the Wuhan University’s Institute of Virology has successfully developed a medicine, Arbidol, with much fewer side effects than Tamiflu, the standard anti-flu drug.
The new medicine is currently undergoing clinical testing, and is expected to be put into production next year, Yang said.
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