H5N1

Belarus: H1N1 deaths in Minsk?

Via Charter '97: People dying from swine flu in Minsk? Excerpt:

Information about death of some people in hospital #5 has appeared on the Internet, but the Health Committee is unsure whether it was the swine flu. 

On October 28, Minsk blogger sammy_belarus wrote all doctors and nurses in the fifth clinical hospital wear face masks. “We have just been informed that two persons, 30 and 37 years old, died from the H1N1 influenza in the intensive care unit. Two persons are fighting for a chance to live. Symptoms are fever and fluid lungs...” the girl wrote in her blog. 

The website www.charter97.org phoned hospital #5 of Minsk, but the personnel refused to give any information and just advised to refer other persons. Finally, the deputy chief doctor of medical unit said she couldn’t discuss the theme and told we could get any information from the Health Committee of the Minsk city executive committee. 

Asked to comment on the situation about the death in hospital #5, Alena Rudkova, the head of the specialized medical aid of the Health Committee, shouted: “You are the tenth to call us! Do not spread panic! We don’t know if it was the swine flu virus!” 

To a question what caused the death, the doctor said: “They died from pneumonia” and hang up.

Ukraine bans public gatherings to stop swine flu

The turmoil in Ukraine has drawn the attention of the New York Times: Ukraine Bans Public Gatherings to Stop Swine Flu. Excerpt:

The Ukrainian government is taking some of the sternest measures in the world against the spread of the swine flu virus, ordering schools nationwide to close for three weeks, banning public gatherings and imposing restrictions on travel. 

Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko announced the measures on Friday in response to rising fears about swine flu, especially in western Ukraine. 

Federal health officials said 33 people had died from the flu across the country, although there was conflicting information about which type of the virus was to blame. 

The situation in Ukraine “has reached the epidemic threshold,” Ms. Tymoshenko said. The ban on public gatherings, she said, would apply to “all large-scale events, concerts, movie showings and any other gatherings of people for the next three weeks.” 

The World Health Organization said it would send a team to Ukraine to assist the authorities there. 

News reports from western part of the country said there were long lines at pharmacies as people sought medication and masks. 

With all rallies canceled, the anti-flu measures were expected to have an immediate impact on the campaign for Ukraine’s presidency. The election is on Jan. 17, and Ms. Tymoshenko formally registered as a candidate on Saturday. She said she did not expect that the voting would have to be postponed. 

The virus is spreading across Eastern Europe, but it was not clear why Ms. Tymoshenko chose to undertake stronger moves, like closing schools nationwide, than her counterparts in Russia and Poland. 

There were indications, however, that the government’s response was being influenced by electoral politics. Ms. Tymoshenko, one of the leading candidates, and her bitter rival, President Viktor A. Yushchenko, who is far behind in opinion polls in his bid for re-election, both sought to make clear that they were aggressively addressing the outbreak.

India: 472 deaths; Modi recovering

Via the Times of India: Three more swine flu deaths, nationwide toll reaches 472. Excerpt:

The condition of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is suffering from swine flu, improved today even as three more deaths due to the viral disease were reported from across the country, taking the toll to 472. 

A total of 77 cases were reported across the country today besides the three deaths. 

The health of Modi, who has been kept in isolation at his residence in Gujarat's Gandhinagar, has "relatively improved and he is responding nicely to the treatment", said virologist Dr Atul Patel, one of the five doctors treating him. 

"His (Modi's) temperature has started coming down and condition of cold and cough is also improving...There is no cause of worry," Patel said in a medical bulletin. 

The BJP leader had complained of cough, fever and body ache on Friday after his return from Russia and was tested positive for the H1N1 virus on the same day. 

The three deaths were reported from Maharashtra, Kerala and Puducherry, taking the total toll to 472.

A warning from last spring?

Thanks to the reader who sent the link to a May 19 news release from the American Thoracic Society: Flu shot not effective in preventing flu-related hospitalizations in asthmatic children. Excerpt: 

In order to determine whether the vaccine was effective in reducing the number of hospitalizations that all children, and especially the ones with asthma, faced over eight consecutive flu seasons, the researchers conducted a cohort study of 263 children who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined who had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness for flu vaccination preceding the illness and hospitalization during that illness.

They found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine. In asthmatic children, there was a significantly higher risk of hospitalization in subjects who received the TIV, as compared to those who did not (p= 0.006). But no other measured factors—such as insurance plans or severity of asthma— appeared to affect risk of hospitalization.

Bear in mind that this was a study of seasonal flu vaccine's effect, not of the new H1N1 vaccine. But it does raise some worries.

Mexico: 52,067 cases, 354 deaths

Via El Universal: Desde marzo, 354 decesos por A H1N1. [Since March, 354 H1N1 deaths] Excerpt, with my translation: 

La Secretaría de Salud informó que se tienen registrados, de marzo a la fecha, 52 mil 67 casos confirmados de influenza A H1N1 y 354 defunciones derivadas del virus. La Secretaría de Salud dio a conocer ayer un balance con fecha del 28 de octubre de 2009. De los fallecidos, precisó, 52% fueron hombres y 48% mujeres. De esas muertes, 70.3% se registró en personas de entre 20 y 54 años de edad.

The Secretariat of Health reports that it has recorded, from March to October 28, 52,067 confirmed cases of H1N1 and 354 deaths resulting from the virus. Of the dead, 52% were males and 48% females. Of the deaths, 70.3% were person between 20 and 54 years of age.

Iran to import vaccine in 2 months

Via Fars: Iran to Import Swine Flu Vaccine in 2 Months. Excerpt:

Iran plans to import several million doses of swine flu vaccine in the next two months to contain a sudden pandemic of the disease and the resultant high fatality rate in vulnerable groups specially in the cold season, informed sources said on Saturday. 

Iran has, thus far, been much successful in preventing a rapid spread of the disease which has claimed only 22 lives in the country. 

"The vaccine will be imported in the form of 50 million cc of low doses," Farzin Khorvash, a member of the Science Board of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences told FNA on Saturday. 

"In the first phase, vulnerable groups, specially patients with cardiac diseases and asthma, children, diabetics and the elderly over 65 years of age will be vaccinated," he added. 

The Iranian health ministry announced on Wednesday that the number of Iranians infected with the swine flu virus (H1N1) reached 1638. 

The ministry has advised people to adopt simple precautionary measures such as frequently washing hands, using a tissue to cover the mouth when coughing and sneezing and avoiding kissing to help contain the virus from spreading. 

Iran ordered the closure of at least 620 schools in the country as a precaution against the spread of the A/H1N1 flu among Iranian students.

Watching Ukraine

I've added a new Hot-Zone Source: Kyiv Post is an English-language site that seems to offer good local coverage of H1N1. 

Among its stories on Saturday: Swine flu fears on rise after numerous deaths; Javno: Ukrainians empty pharmacies in swine flu panic; Yushchenko: Ukraine soon to produce up to 1 million face masks a day to protect against flu; WHO mission to visit Ukraine on Nov. 2.

Cuba: Fidel weighs in on H1N1

Well, I never thought I'd be translating an excerpt from Fidel Castro, but here he is via Prensa Latina: Fidel Castro: Noticias relevantes. This is part of a long column in which he first brags about Cuba's medical development and then expresses concern about Barack Obama's allowing Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba:

Cuando el Presidente actual de Estados Unidos levantó las restricciones a los cubanoamericanos para los viajes a Cuba, en gran número de Estados de esa nación ya se había extendido la epidemia. 

When the president of the US lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans for travel to Cuba, many American states were already suffering from the epidemic of H1N1.

De esta forma resultó que los cuatro países que más generan turismo o viajes a nuestro país por otras causas, eran aquellos en los que, en mayor grado, se había extendido la epidemia en el mundo. Los primeros casos portadores del virus fueron viajeros procedentes del exterior. 

In this way, the four countries that generate the most tourism and travel to our country were those that had seen the spread of the epidemic. The first cases of the virus here were travelers from outside.

Las personas contagiadas en nuestro país eran relativamente pocas, durante meses no se produjo un solo fallecimiento. Pero a medida que el virus se extendió a todas las provincias, principalmente aquellas con un mayor número de familiares residentes en Estados Unidos, se hizo necesario adquirir nuevos equipos de análisis para el Instituto de Medicina Tropical "Pedro Kourí", y multiplicar el esfuerzo a la vez que se luchaba contra el dengue. 

Domestic infections in our country were relatively few, and for months we saw not a single death. But eventually the virus spread to all the provinces, especially those with a large number of relatives living in the US, so it became necessary to acquire new analytical equipment for the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine, and to increase our efforts while also fighting dengue.

Se produjo así el extraño caso de que Estados Unidos, por un lado, autorizó los viajes del mayor número de personas portadores del virus y, por otro, prohíbe la adquisición de equipos y medicamentos para combatir la epidemia. No pienso, desde luego, que esa haya sido la intención del gobierno de Estados Unidos, pero es la realidad que resulta del absurdo y vergonzoso bloqueo impuesto a nuestro pueblo.

This produced a strange case in which the US on the one side authorized the travel of the largest number of travelers carrying the virus, and on the other, prohibited our acquisition of equipment and medicines to combat the epidemic. I don't think this was the intention of the US government, but it is the reality that results from the absurd and shameful blockade imposed on our people.

More on the latest German H1N1 deaths

Via The Local: Three more swine flu deaths include one previously healthy patient. Excerpt:

Three more people died of the A/H1N1 virus in Germany on Friday, including for the first time, a person with no underlying health problems, authorities reported. 

Perhaps of most concern for the wider population is the death of a 48-year-old woman in Bonn, who died on Friday morning. She had not suffered from any other health problems, according to a spokesman for the Bonn University Hospital, where she was treated in the intensive care unit before she died. Doctors are so far unable to explain why the virus made her so ill. 

A five-year-old boy from Saarbrücken died in the afternoon, yet the health authorities in the state added that he was severely disabled and had suffered lung problems before becoming infected with the so-called swine flu. 

A 16-year-old boy also died on Friday, in the Augsburg Central Hospital, Bavaria. A report in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper said he was severely disabled.

Canada: Flu-haunted St. George turns into ghost town

Via the Globe and Mail: Flu-haunted St. George turns into ghost town. Excerpt:

Tonight could be the spookiest Halloween in the 225-year history of St. George, N.B. 

The spectre that stalks its tree-lined streets will keep teenagers indoors, set loose a flurry of small-town gossip and prompt the town to close public places. 

“Quite frankly, I'm worried about the whole thing,” said Lynn Farmakoulas, principal of Fundy High, the local secondary school. “I can see stores shutting down, restaurants closing.” 

She should know. That scourge – the H1N1 virus – prompted officials to close Fundy yesterday after a quarter of its teachers and half its students stayed home with the flu. Four other schools in the area were also closed. 

And now, on a weekend usually reserved for exchanges of sugar and fright, much of the region will hunker indoors until the virus passes. 

“My son was told not to trick-or-treat by the doctor,” said April Lomax. Her 14-year-old attends Fundy High. “It's shaping up to be a quiet Halloween.” 

Like hundreds of others in the 1,300-person town, Ms. Lomax's son came down with the flu early this week. By Thursday, Fundy High was deserted, with 340 of 640 students absent. Also among the missing were 11 of 42 teachers, two of six custodians, four bus drivers and half the teaching assistants. 

“If we had been open today, we would have had to double and triple class sizes,” Ms. Farmakoulas said. “It wasn't something we had ever planned for. We discussed what would happen if staff presented as ill, but we never went further and asked what would happen if a quarter of the staff was out.”