H5N1

More housekeeping

I spent a little time today cleaning up some resource links. You'll find fewer links in H1N1 Resources and H5N1/H1N1 Hot Zone Sources. The deleted links are to sources that I haven't used in weeks (or months), and to sources in countries where H1N1 has for the time being faded from the local media. If these countries see new outbreaks, I'll restore the links at once.

This is part of the gradual revision of the site that I expect to make over the next few weeks. I plan to drop some very old H5N1 links, to put a little more emphasis on new H5N1 resources, and to scale back on H1N1...unless we do indeed get a new wave of it. 

Expect to see some brand-new links to sites dealing with public health in general and infectious diseases in particular, like dengue, malaria, TB, and chikungunya. These are genuine problems in many countries, and they seem likely to become problems in North America and Europe as well.

I may also post some links to what might be called "political" diseases: those arising from social problems like economic inequality. 

If you have suggestions for worthwhile links in these subjects, please let me know.

New Zealand: Swine flu jabs start

Here in North Vancouver on the last day of January, our front yard is erupting with crocuses. (The anxiety of the Vancouver Olympic Committee, 12 days from the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, can be imagined.)

With spring already in the air, it takes an effort to remember that it's autumn in the southern hemisphere and a new flu season is looming. Via the Otago Daily Times: Swine flu jabs start. Excerpt:

Special clinics in Otago will begin delivering the free swine-flu vaccine from today for those considered most at risk of contracting the illness. 

The monovalent (single-strain) pandemic vaccine is expected to be offered to up to 150,000 people across New Zealand. 

Those eligible for the two-dose vaccine are health workers who may have direct contact with at-risk patients, pregnant women, or people under 65 with underlying health conditions including obesity, chronic, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, renal disease and cancer. 

The Ministry of Health is recommending that those in these groups have the vaccine, followed by the seasonal influenza vaccine which will be designed to protect against swine flu and two other flu strains. 

That vaccination is expected to be available in March. 

Those receiving the monovalent vaccine will have two doses three weeks apart. 

Otago and Southland medical officer of health Dr Marion Poore said the two district health boards were keen to offer early protection against swine flu to those who needed it most in case the next wave of the H1N1 virus arrived earlier than usual.

India: 5,000 doctors and paramedics to get vaccinated

Via The Times of India, a story datelined Mumbai: 5000 doctors and paramedics to get vaccinated. Excerpt:

The death of an 8-year-old girl in Pune on Friday rekindled fears in the minds of many doctors and paramedics who had earlier refused to get vaccinated thinking that the swine flu virus had lost its potency. Now, 5,000 doctors have given their consent for vaccination as against 100 doctors who have said no to it. 

The health department of the state has already drawn up a list of 5,000 doctors and paramedics, who will get vaccinated, when the first lot arrives next week. 

Additional chief secretary (health) Sharvaree Gokhale confirmed that more doctors have come forward asking for the vaccine following the death in Pune. 

These doctors are paramedics who man the 109 isolation centres for influenza H1N1 in Maharashtra. With 313 deaths, the state has topped the count of fatalities due to swine flu in the country. 

A senior state government officer, on condition of anonymity, said that all medical staffers were given forms wherein they were asked if they want to take the vaccine. 

Following the recent death in Pune, many doctors wanted to rework their forms, the officer said. Till the final count, only 100 doctors had replied saying they did not want the vaccine, he added.

H1N1: Coming back in the US?

Via Mystery Rays from Outer Space, a blog I'm adding to the H5N1/H1N1 Bloggers list: H1N1: I’m just saying. Excerpt:

OK, last time I thought H1N1 influenza was coming back (just after Christmas) it turned out to be just a blip.  But I notice that according to Google Flu Trends, 30 states are showing increases in flu activity this week, compared to last week. Mostly very small increases,(1) but 10 of the states have shown a sustained increase (at least two weeks of increasing numbers). Over the past two weeks, Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Oregon, and Utah have each shown a 10-20% increase in flu activity. 

This is pretty much the time that flu season normally begins, but there’s been very little evidence of the normal seasonal flu strains circulating this year, so odds are these cases are almost all H1N1 swine-origin influenza virus.

Indonesia: Another human H5N1 death

Via Ida at Bird Flu Information Corner, a report from Pos Kota: South Jakarta ::: Official conducts operation of healthy chicken transport. But the real story is in the last paragraphs.

Livestock and Fishery Sub-service of South Jakarta stopped about 17 from 26 units of truck to transport chicken meat from outside Jakarta. Those chicken meat trucks could not show animal health certificate. 

This action, Healthy Chicken Transport Operation (Operasi Transportasi Ayam Sehat/OTAS), was carried out at Jl. Raya Kebayoran Lama and Jl. Ciledug Raya, Kebayoran Lama, in particular to trucks carrying chicken carcass to be delivered to traditional markets, said official of Livestock and Fishery Service, South Jakarta, Chaidir Taufik. 

Total bird carcasses loaded in those 26 units of trucks were about 19,180 chickens and 800 ducks, which were coming from Subang, Bogor, Serpong and Sukabumi. 

OTAS action was done to anticipate bird flu outbreak in Jakarta, in particular South Jakarta. Chaidir also mentioned, 

OTAS action was done regarding to the death of bird flu suspect patient, Nurlalila, a resident of Jl. Pengadegan Barat V, on 26 January 2010 in Pasar Rebo hospital. 

Information mentioned that victim brought four chickens from Cibitung Tangerang on the former month. One chicken was slaughtered and then victim developed sickness at the following days. Victim was then treated and tested positive bird flu infection. The remaining three chickens were returned back to Cibitung.

Serbia: Pandemic not finished

Via B92: Health Minister: Pandemic not finished. Excerpt:

Health Minister Tomica Milosavljević told daily Večernje novosti that the swine flu pandemic has not yet ended. 

He said that the flu season lasts until April in the northern hemisphere. 

“Saying that the pandemic never was or that that is has passed is countering everything that has been done to protect the people,” Milosavljević said, adding that such behavior is “offensive to the victims” of the flu. 

 He said that 81 people have died—five pregnant women, five children, about 15-20 completely healthy people—who were infected with the H1N1 virus. 

“It is true that fatalities from this virus are similar to the ones from the seasonal flu, but the structure of dying is completely different. The seasonal flu never causes rapid pneumonia that leads to death in two days,” Milosavljević said. 

He said that 2.24 percent of the Serbian population has been vaccinated, which is “not a bad result, considering the strong anti-vaccination campaign.”

India: 1,229 deaths

Via NetIndian.in: 8 more H1N1 deaths in India, toll rises to 1229. Excerpt:

Eight more people have died of influenza A (H1N1) in India, taking the toll due to the swine flu pandemic in the country so far to 1229, an official statement said here today. 

Two of these deaths - one each in Maharashtra and Gujarat - were reported during the day. 

Besides, information about six deaths that occurred in recent days - five in Gujarat and one in Maharashtra - was conveyed by the state authorities concerned to the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare today, the statement said.

China reports smaller proportion of A/H1N1 in all flu cases

Via Xinhua: China reports smaller proportion of A/H1N1 in all flu cases.

A/H1N1 flu cases in the Chinese mainland last week took up 26.8 percent of all flu cases, down from 39.1 percent the previous week. 

According to a notice released Wednesday on the website of the Ministry of Health, from Jan. 18 to 24, the Chinese mainland reported a total of 1,074 A/H1N1 cases, 255 hospitalized cases and and 21 deaths related due to the A/H1N1 cases. 

The notice said that currently in most parts of the country, A/H1N1 flu virus were still spreading at a community level. 

As the Spring Festival is coming and a huge number of people would travel back home for family reunions, the ministry urged migrant workers and students to take full protection against the virus during their journey.

"There is no false pandemic"

Via The New York Times, an op-ed by Thomas Abraham, who worked for WHO last spring: There Is No 'False Pandemic'. Excerpt:

Not for the first time, the World Health Organization is under fire for its handling of the current H1N1 influenza pandemic. Initially, it was criticized for being too slow to alert the world when the disease, often called swine flu, first broke out in Mexico. Now, the organization faces a diametrically opposite charge: that it was influenced by the pharmaceutical industry to create a false pandemic when none existed, so that drug companies could sell more vaccines. 

The W.H.O.’s critics are barking up the wrong tree. This is a real influenza pandemic, not an imaginary disease cooked up by public health agencies around the world and the pharmaceutical industry. Though for the vast majority of people the disease has been mild, it has killed small children, pregnant mothers and otherwise healthy teenagers. 

This is not an innocuous disease. Take a look at the lungs of those whom it as killed: The virus has turned them into a wasteland of devastated tissue, in a way that the normal flu virus never can. 

The world has been fortunate that this virus has not mutated to cause more severe illness in larger numbers of people. This could still happen. 

In China, in less than a month’s time, one of the world’s great annual movements of people will take place as millions travel to their home towns and villages during the Chinese lunar new year holidays. Travel and the movement of people provides opportunities for the virus to spread to new environments and change to a more lethal form in the process. 

The changing flu seasons that see the focus of outbreaks move from the northern to the southern hemisphere, and then back again to the northern hemisphere later in the year, also bring risks of the virus changing to a more severe form. 

The non-debate over whether there is a new type of flu sweeping the world has detracted from a real issue: The world’s poorest countries have yet to receive the vaccine they were promised, while many of the world’s rich countries are wondering what to do with vaccine supplies their citizens do not want. 

Ninety percent of the world’s influenza vaccine production is concentrated in Europe and North America. With production well short of demand, governments in these countries had contracts in place to buy the bulk of the first year’s production. Most poor and middle income countries (with the exception of countries like China, which has built up its vaccine production capacity) would have had to wait for at least a year for their first supplies. 

If this pandemic had rapidly gained lethality and killed several millions of people, the imbalance in the supply of vaccine would have caused a major rift in society between those who had access to vaccines and those who did not. 

While those who lived in the world’s rich countries would have been largely protected, the majority of the world’s population would have borne the brunt of the pandemic, exposing the fault lines that divide the haves from the have nots in today’s globalized world.

India: Another H1N1 patient dies

Via The Times of India, a story datelined Nagpur: Another H1N1 patient dies. Excerpt:

A 28-year-old woman suffering from swine flu died of acute respiratory distress at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Friday midnight taking the H1N1 toll at the hospital to 21. Another five H1N1 deaths have been earlier reported from private hospitals. 

The victim Manisha Ramteke, a resident of Hiwri layout Wathoda, was admitted to the swine flu ward on January 21 and was put on ventilator on January 23 after she tested positive. 

GMCH dean Dr A Niswade, on Saturday, told TOI that 21 H1N1 patients admitted at the hospital had died. However, he did not mention anything about Ramteke's death. This apparently meant that either he was not aware of her death or did not want to divulge the information to the media. 

The total of 135 patients at GMCH have tested positive while as many as 5922 patients have got themselves screened till date. 

Another three suspected patients were admitted to the isolation ward on Saturday night