Live H1N1 Briefing for Bloggers and Our Readers Today

Join the live Webcast to learn detailed information about influenza prevention and treatment, warning signs for parents, anti-viral medications, and vaccinations. A question and answer session will provide the opportunity to engage directly with leading communication and public health experts, including:

• Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, HHS
• Anne Schuchat, Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC

Viewers can participate in the Webcast by sending questions via email to hhsstudio@hhs.gov or via Twitter by including the hashtag #FluCast in their tweets.

FLU.GOV LIVE.

Iowa – H1N1 Deaths Understated, Finding Hemorrhagic Lungs

Is this cause for concern? I’m not sure, perhaps it’s common in severe cases of H1N1 that have progressed into a severe pneumonia. We attempted to contact the Polk County Medical Examiner on Sunday and were told to call back on Monday.

Iowa has officially recorded 21 H1N1 deaths, including seven in Polk County alone. But the county’s medical examiner said he has performed autopsies on some residents who were never diagnosed with H1N1, but actually had it.

“In the autopsy, what we’re seeing is very heavy, wet hemorrhagic lungs, lungs with a lot of blood in them,” said Dr. Gregory Schmunk.

He said the official count of seven H1N1 deaths is inaccurate, but patient rights laws prohibit him from giving specific numbers.

Source & Video

NC Reports Tamiflu Resistant Cases of Swine Flu

Not a good sign in the fight against Swine Flu. Health officials say four people in North Carolina have tested positive for a type of swine flu that’s resistant to the drug Tamiflu. It’s the first cluster of that many cases seen in the U.S.

Health officials said Friday the four cases were reported at Duke University Medical Center in Durham over the past six weeks.

Tamiflu is one of two medicines that help against swine flu. Health officials have been closely watching for signs that the virus is mutating, making the drugs ineffective.

About 52 resistant cases have been reported in the world since April, including 15 in the U.S. so far. Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say almost all the U.S. cases have been isolated.

via IndyStar.com | AP National | The Indianapolis Star.

Live – World Response Conference on Global Outbreak

The World Response Conference on Global Outbreak is being broadcast live on National Terror Alert in partnership with HSTV.   Watch Here

The World Response Conference on Global Outbreak is the first practical conference to highlight the first real-time test on global and domestic preparedness in the aspect of prevention, protection, response, and recovery.

The global and national critical infrastructure is threatened by the latest WHO declaration of Pandemic Level Alert Phase 6. WRCGO is a spearhead of convergence to address the leadership roles and responsibilities for an influenza pandemic, to test and exercise the mechanism of coordination, to strengthen the performance monitoring and accountability, between federal, state, and local governments and the private sector in preparing and responding for a pandemic.
Where the future of public health and global security will be decided.

Key discussions will include

• Balancing leadership, authority, & accountability on influenza pandemic
• Assignment of military, courts, & information technology on panflu
• Status update of the 17 critical infrastructure councils
• 2009 h1n1 flu guidance on current investors, policies & regulations
• Peer networking of government, suppliers, contractors

Watch

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.

[poll id="3"]

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.

Napolitano Expecting Big Influx of New H1N1 Cases

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that people should expect “a big influx” of swine flu cases this fall and prepare as best they can. “The best thing we all can do are the very simple things, the washing of the hands, the coughing into the sleeve,” Napolitano said in a nationally broadcast interview. ” … We’re in all likelihood going to have them (new infections) before the vaccine is available.”

Napolitano was among a host of Cabinet officers who briefed President Barack Obama Tuesday on the federal government’s preparations and planning for the fall. Another of those Cabinet members, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, said in a separate interview that it’s critically important to keep schools open and education uninterrupted.

“We got a little bit lucky” in the last school year, he said, because the H1N1 didn’t surface until very near the end of the academic year.

“We’re not going to be so lucky this year,” Duncan added, “so the more we’re prepared, the more we’re talking … the better we’re going to be able to handle this as a country, the more we’re going to be able to keep our schools open.”

There have been over 550 deaths in the United States from H1N1 and a scientific advisory panel recently sent the White House a report saying it was possible that anywhere from 30 percent to half the population could catch what doctors call “2009 H1N1″ and that it was also possible there could be between 30,000 and 90,000 deaths.

“Everything we’ve seen in the U.S. and everything we’ve seen around the world suggests we won’t see that kind of number if the virus doesn’t change,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a C-SPAN interview last week.

In her interview Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show, Napolitano was asked why the government isn’t requiring all Americans to get the swine flu vaccine, once it’s available. “Because health programs generally aren’t mandatory, and you get pushback to that,” she replied.

Source

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.

Read Full Article

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.

Read Full Article

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 |.

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