Poll – Flu Pandemic Preparedness or Survive A Hotel Terror Attack

Currently we’re working on a couple of featured articles, with a plan to post one of them early next week. The flu pandemic preparedness article is fairly lengthy and will actually be a 3-5 part series. The guide for surviving a hotel terror attack is much shorter; however we’ve had a number of requests for it in light of the Mumbai terror attacks and the Homeland Security bulletin/memo issued earlier this week.

So, we’ll put it to a vote. This poll will be up until Saturdayand we look forward to your responses.

Swine Flu Spreads Long After Fever Stops

When the coughing stops is probably a better sign of when a swine flu patient is no longer contagious, experts said after seeing new research that suggests the virus can still spread many days after a fever goes away.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been telling people to stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others until a day after their fever breaks. The new research suggests they may need to be careful for longer _ especially at home where the risk of spreading the germ is highest.

Swine flu also appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.

“This study shows you’re not contagious for a day or two. You’re probably contagious for about a week,” said Gaston De Serres, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in Quebec.

He presented one of the studies Monday at an American Society for Microbiology conference. It is the first big meeting of infectious disease experts since last spring’s emergence of swine flu, which now accounts for nearly all of the flu cases in the United States. More than 1 million Americans have been infected and nearly 600 have died from it, the CDC estimates.

via Studies: Swine Flu Spreads Long After Fever Stops.

Swine Flu Shots to Start in Three Weeks as U.S. Cases Spread

Swine flu vaccinations may begin in three weeks, earlier than previously anticipated, after the first U.S. tests found a single shot to be effective in eight to 10 days, U.S. health officials said.

The first shots may be available by the end of this month and administered to patients the first week of October, said Nancy Cox, director of the flu division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Health officials had previously planned for vaccinations to begin in mid-October, requiring two shots administered three weeks apart.

Swine flu outbreaks have rippled across U.S. schools and universities after pupils returned to classes in the past few weeks. Washington State University reported more than 2,500 cases, and the CDC last week reported a nationwide spike of influenza cases months earlier than the past three flu seasons. The test results are boosting hopes the vaccine may be available in time to curb the first pandemic in 41 years, Cox said.

“We were anticipating that it would begin mid-October,” Cox told reporters today at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco. “This was a conservative estimate but it was a necessary conservative estimate. We now feel that we will have vaccine for more people earlier and this is extremely good news.”

Source – Read Full Article

Swine Flu Preparedness – Meet the Flu Fighters

Once the H1N1 influenza outbreaks begin – and Maryland health officials have no doubt that they will – this series of nondescript scientific laboratories, located past security guards instructed not to let anyone in without an official escort, will certainly be humming.

Here, inside the state office complex on Preston Street in Baltimore, dozens if not hundreds of polyester swabs will arrive each week, containing what doctors believe is evidence of swine flu’s resurgence. Lab workers will then determine whether it is the flu – H1N1 or seasonal, or something else entirely – and whether the virus seems to be gaining strength. One of the most important roles these labs may play in the H1N1 pandemic will be determining whether this new flu has developed resistance to the antiviral medications stockpiled to make the sick well again.

Maryland is one of a dozen states that will be testing samples of the swine flu virus for hints that it has mutated. As summer turns into fall, what most worries flu experts is that the only tool to fight the H1N1 virus will no longer be available to at least slow the march of the disease that could affect as many as half of Americans.

“That information is very valuable,” said Dr. Robert A Myers, deputy director of the state public health laboratory. “We’re trying to get this information in quickly.”

Last week, in its first week of drug resistance testing, none of the 20 samples examined at the Maryland lab had become resistant to Tamiflu or the other antiviral medications. A handful of tests around the world have revealed a virus that is resistant to these drugs, but so far they have been isolated cases and do not appear to have spread.

via Read Full Article.

H1N1 Flu Serious Health Threat To U.S.- White House

The H1N1 flu poses a serious health threat to the United States, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in a report released on Monday.

“The report says the current strain ‘poses a serious health threat’ to the nation. The issue is not that the virus is more deadly than other flu strains, but rather that it is likely to infect more people than usual because it is a new strain against which few people have immunity,” the White House said.

Source

Napolitano Predicts Severe Flu for Fall

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that pandemic flu probably will flare up soon after schools open in the fall, before vaccine is available.

Napolitano also acknowledged that there would not be enough pandemic flu vaccine for everyone, at least in the early stages of the flu season. “There will be prioritization of vaccinations,” she told members of the USA TODAY editorial board.

The flu strain causing the pandemic, a new H1N1 virus also known as swine flu, is especially dangerous because it differs from every other known flu virus. As a result, most people are defenseless against it. That makes a vaccine the keystone of any effort to prevent illness and save lives. The first batches of the vaccine are due in mid-October.

Napolitano said this year’s flu season probably will be severe but not as severe as the 1918 pandemic, the world’s worst. In 1918, flu killed at least 675,000 people in the USA and up to 50 million worldwide. She said it’s more likely that the pandemic would mirror 1957, when flu killed about 70,000 people in the USA and 1 million to 2 million people worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Today – Webcast Latest Flu Information, Preparedness

On Tuesday, August 4, from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time, the Secretaries of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Homeland Security (DHS) will hold a webcast entitled “Know What to Do about H1N1 and Seasonal Flu.”

The webcast may be accessed by going to www.flu.gov. The webcast will provide the latest information on vaccine development; vaccine planning and preparedness efforts; federal funding support for state efforts and; progress on planning and preparedness for schools, child care centers businesses and communities.

To log on to the webcast that will feature HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan simply go to www.flu.gov on Tuesday August 4 at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. Registration is not required but Adobe Flash  must be installed on the computer to view the live video stream.

Prior to and during the webcast citizens will be able to submit questions to the secretaries about the role of local communities and governments in flu preparedness efforts. Questions can be e-mailed to Flu Questions. Be sure to include name, title, city and state.

Swine Flu Worst Case Scenario, Hundreds of Thousands Could Die

Hundreds of thousands of Americans could die over the next two years if the vaccine and other control measures for the new H1N1 influenza are not effective, and, at the pandemic’s peak, as much as 40% of the workforce could be affected, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That is admittedly a worst-case scenario that the federal agency says it doesn’t expect to occur.

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A Dire Prediction for Swine Flu H1N1 Virus

Public health officials brace for another, nastier wave of the H1N1 virus. Alarming new numbers outline the worst case scenario when H1N1 returns this fall. The World Health Organization predicts 2-billion people may become infected globally. That’s a third of the worlds total population. Here in the United States, 90-million people could become ill, with 10% ending up in the hospital.

Again, it’s a worst case scenario, but local health officials take these numbers seriously. They’re gearing up for what could be the largest vaccination campaign in decades. It’s a tiny bug expected to make a very big return. Health experts are already planning a major attack against the H1N1 virus. They’re worried it may mutate and pack a deadlier punch.

Dr. Dean Sienko, Ingham County Health Department: “We haven’t had something like this in quite a while, and the best way to be successful is to begin planning early.”

To beat the bug, public health officials are gearing up for a mass immunization campaign, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the polio outbreak in the 1950s. It’s an effort to protect those at highest risk- young children and teens.

Dr. Dean Sienko: “This is a major undertaking and that’s why planning now is critical.”

via A Dire Prediction for H1N1 Virus – WLNS TV 6 Lansing Jackson Michigan News and Weather – WLNS.COM |.

Swine Flu Bears A Disturbing Resemblance To 1918 Virus

The new H1N1 influenza virus bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, with a greater ability to infect the lungs than common seasonal flu viruses, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in several animals confirmed other studies that have shown the new swine flu strain can spread beyond the upper respiratory tract to go deep into the lungs — making it more likely to cause pneumonia, the international team said.

In addition, they found that people who survived the 1918 pandemic seem to have extra immune protection against the virus, again confirming the work of other researchers.

“When we conducted the experiments in ferrets and monkeys, the seasonal virus did not replicate in the lungs,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, who led the study.

The H1N1 virus replicates significantly better in the lungs.”

The new swine flu virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, infecting more than a million people, according to estimates, and killing at least 500. The World Health Organization says it is causing mostly moderate disease but Kawaoka said that does not mean it is like seasonal flu.

“There is a misunderstanding about this virus,” he said in a statement. “There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza.”

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Swine Flu Fear Isolates 84 Cadets At Air Force Academy

UPDATE:

The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado is dealing with the state’s largest outbreak of the H-1-N-1 virus, or swine flu.

The Academy says initial tests show 15 cadets with the virus.

—— Original Post ———

Colorado – Dozens of sick cadets at the Air Force Academy have been isolated over fears of H1N1, the Swine Flu.

A spokes-person for the Academy tells 11 News 84 cadets, mostly freshman recruits, started showing symptoms on Monday. Since then, they have been tested, and are being isolated from the rest of the Academy in a dorm on the base.

Officials say test reults she come back within 24 hours.

Test samples were sent to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

As protocol the Academy has been in touch with the El Paso County Health Department and the Centers For Disease Control.

Source

Swine Flu – Parts of Britain Near An H1N1 Epidemic

Fourteen Britons who had contracted H1N1 flu have died and the rapid spread of infection in two areas of the country is close to epidemic level, health officials said on Thursday.

The Department of Health said Britain now had 9,718 laboratory-confirmed cases, the third most in the world behind the United States and Mexico.

Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said the actual number of cases was likely to be higher.

All 14 who have died had underlying health issues and it was not clear in how many cases the patients had died as a direct result of the virus, known as swine flu.

“In London and the West Midlands we are getting pretty close to epidemic levels. We’ve seen big surges there,” Donaldson told

BBC TV.

“For the country as a whole, the average is about the level of the flu season but in some parts of the country the levels are getting pretty big.”

via Parts of Britain near an H1N1 epidemic; 14 dead | Reuters.

WHO Warns Swine Flu ‘Unstoppable’

The UN’s top health official has opened a forum in Mexico on combating swine flu by saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable.

World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit.

The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided.

As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer.

As the peak of the flu season approaches in South America, some areas have declared a public health emergency.

El Salvador reported its first death from swine flu, a day after Paraguay reported its first fatality.

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