SCHOOLS GIVE SHOTS
The H1N1 vaccine will be offered to public school students beginning Monday
Date published: 10/13/2009
BY JIM HALL
Local public schools will offer the H1N1 vaccine to their students beginning next week. Vaccination clinics start Monday, Oct. 19, in Stafford County and continue for two weeks.
Each school division in the area will host at least one clinic. More than 50,000 children in the region will be offered the injectable version of the vaccine. The mass immunization is part of a nationwide effort and recalls the inoculations of children for polio in the 1950s.
This time school systems are working with the Rappahannock Area Health District, which is supplying the vaccine at no cost.
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/102009/10132009/500125
MADISON, Wis. — Public Health — Madison and Dane County said it will begin immunizing Dane County school children against the H1N1 flu next week.
Officials said the schedule depends on vaccine supplies, but if all goes as planned, public health workers will be going to schools throughout Dane County starting Monday and continue for the next five weeks.
Parents will be given information about the H1N1 clinics and a consent form if they wish to have their child immunized.
Health officials said the effort includes 160 Dane County schools and some 80,000 children.
http://www.channel3000.com/health/21288459/detail.html
Some thoughts on Tamiflu -
The research that suggests that Tamiflu is not effective and does not do much for flu, is based on *seasonal flu* studies, not pandemic flu. For H1N1 and H5N1, my understanding is that Tamiflu actually reduces the viral load, which allows your immune system to fight off the virus and secondary infections.
Below are some studies regarding the efficiacy of Tamiflu with H1N1 (and one on H5N1). I believe, personally, the reason that the CDC has told doctors not to rx Tamiflu, is because there is not enough. If your doctor is telling you it doesn’t work, you might want to ask him on what he bases his opinion.
Having said that, there is a study or two (notably the one in Japan) that suggested that Tamiflu can cause depression and thoughts of suicide in teens. I would estimate thousands of courses of Tamiflu have been given to kids since April, and we are not hearing about a huge wave of overwhelming illness and side effects - and in 6 months, we’d be hearing reports by now.
So I suggest, watch what’s going on, and decide for yourself and your family which is the greatest risk, H1N1 or Tamiflu side effects. Decide based on what is happening currently with this flu, not 5 months ago, because flu is dynamic, not static.
Tamiflu is not a shot or vaccine, by the way. Don’t get the two confused. I understand the concerns about the vaccine but we need not to throw out the baby with the bath water.
I personally, will use everything in my “arsenal” if my kids get sick - from Vitamin D3 & C, Elderberry, Oscillium, Tamiflu, you name it because I believe in a multifaceted approach. My approach though, is to avoid infection in the first place, which is why we are SIP for the duration of winter.
Here are the studies:
New England Journal of Medicine, published Oct 12 - The studies were conducted between early March and late August in Canada, Mexico and Australia and New Zealand.
Many patients in all three regions were also given the flu medication oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu), with apparent benefit. In the Mexican analysis, critically ill patients who survived were seven times more likely to have received the drug than those who died. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/10/13/swine-flu-virus.html
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Tamiflu Cuts H1N1 Swine Flu Deaths In Half Vs. No Intervention
Treating the H1N1 novel influenza A Virus or Swine Flu using generic tamiflu and for chemoprophylaxis for those people in contact with infected patients is a most economical tactic for thwarting illness and fatalities in a pandemic of influenza. Research conducted by a Canadian University stated that utilizing supplies of generic tamiflu in enough quantities to treat sixty five percent of a population can potentially slash fatalities by fifty percent. http://www.oseltamivir2.com/tamiflu-deaths/
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Reports of Increased Survival in Bird Flu Patients Taking Tamiflu
BourSonews
3 mars 2008 (PARIS)
BASEL, Switzerland, March 3 /PRNewswire/ — Physicians from countries worst-affected by the deadly bird flu (H5N1 influenza virus) have reported an increased survival rate in patients treated with the oral antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir). These data reinforce the World Health Organization (WHO) advisory that Tamiflu is the only antiviral strongly recommended for the treatment of humans infected with the H5N1 virus. The physicians’ report was revealed this week at the International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections (ISRVI) in Singapore.(1) http://www.boursonews.com/increased_survival_118493_news-bourse.html