Swine flu kills girl and adult woman (Ireland)
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/swine-flu-kills-girl-and-adult-woman-1980950.html
December 18 2009 By Clodagh Sheehy
Two more people have died from swine flu — a young girl and a woman — bringing the number of deaths in Ireland to 22.
Those contracting the virus continue to fall, claims the Department of Health, amid reports that fewer than one-in-five healthcare workers have received the vaccination.
The latest victims, a woman from the east of the country and a girl from the west, had underlying health problems, which have been a feature in all but one of the deaths so far.
Intensive
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has expressed his condolences to the two families.
There are still 152 people being treated in hospital for the condition and nine of these are in intensive care.
In Northern Ireland, a child (9) has died from the virus. The child had underlying health conditions and died within the past few days.
Although more than 500,000 people have been vaccinated in the Republic against swine flu, nurses administering the vaccine have reported that the uptake among HSE medical staff has been particularly low.
The HSE has confirmed that “less than 30,000” healthcare workers have received the vaccine of the 111,000 employed by the authority.
This means that fewer than one-in-five workers have had the jab and it is an even smaller percentage for frontline staff.
A HSE spokeswoman said they had found that “in hospitals that have been dealing with cases of swine flu, staff are very aware of the impact the virus has on patients.
“As a result, the uptake among staff is much higher,” she said.
“We’d like to re-iterate why it’s so important to get it. We’re looking as high an uptake as possible.”
Dublin-based GP Juliet Bressan said many family doctors were not getting the vaccine for themselves. “GPs are very reluctant to take any vaccine but we don’t really know why,” she said.
She added that her husband caught the virus a few months ago, but she did not, despite not being vaccinated — and she has no intention of getting the vaccination.
Dr Bressan said the purpose of vaccinating healthcare workers was not to protect them but to stop the virus spreading.
Dr Joan Gilvarry, from the Irish Medicines Board, has confirmed that more than 500,000 people have received the vaccination, with 790 reports of adverse reactions.
Flu pandemic may change U.S. flu approach forever
http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20091218/NEWS01/912189993
Dec. 18, 2009
The H1N1 flu pandemic may have changed the U.S. approach to handling influenza forever and for the better, U.S. officials said Thursday.
While they said years of work were needed before vaccine production was up to the desired standard, some experiments such as vaccinating children in schools might work to help control seasonal influenza.
But there are still holes in the public health system that will take years to patch, and communication with the public could use a bit more polishing, they acknowledged.
“We still don’t have the domestic capacity to make as much (flu vaccine) as we need as fast as we need it,” Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told a news conference.
She said HHS had been forced by the H1N1 pandemic to work closely with state and local health officials to monitor the virus and deploy drugs and vaccines.
“I actually think our nation’s preparedness, our seasonal flu efforts and so on, will never be the same,” Ms. Lurie said.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said 100 million H1N1 vaccines will have been delivered or would be ready for order by the end of the week. She urged Americans to get vaccinated now and said everyone, not just people on the priority lists, should feel free to get one.
“This is a serious flu that targets people who normally don’t get seriously ill from the flu,” Ms. Sebelius told the news conference.
“We have a chance to lessen the impact or even prevent a big third wave...and we need to seize this opportunity right now,” she said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 47 million Americans have been infected with H1N1, nearly 10,000 have been killed by it and more than 200,000 hospitalized.
Ebbing second wave
“The number of children and young adults killed by mid-November was five times more than in the average flu season,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said.
“We have an ebbing second wave but we have an uncertain future.”
School vaccinations have worked well, and CDC may press to keep the programs for seasonal influenza, Dr. Frieden said.
“Not only will vaccinating kids in school reduce the number of kids who get sick...but may well also tamp down the spread of flu in a community,” he said.
But Dr. Frieden fretted about losses to public health. The CDC reported that in 2009, 10% fewer epidemiologists were working in state health departments than in 2006. Those specialists in the spread and pattern of disease are key to keeping track of viruses like flu, Dr. Frieden said.
“This virus was undoubtedly circulating for several months before it was identified,” Dr. Frieden said.
Had it been detected, he said, vaccine makers could have started work on a vaccine month earlier.
Dr. Frieden also noted there was confusion about how many vaccines would be available, and when. HHS has been criticized for at first saying 250 million vaccines would be produced, then rolling back on the numbers that could be delivered.
“Clearly we need to do better at managing vaccine expectations,” Dr. Frieden said.
Much work remains on improving vaccine technology, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The goal is a so-called universal vaccine that would not have to be reformulated as the virus mutates every flu season.
“We need to harness the science to be able to make an influenza vaccine that not only is good from season to season but ... that doesn’t change from season to season and from pandemic to pandemic,” Dr. Fauci said.
“It is going to be several years before we get there.”