Today, I chose to post on swine flu, because scientists say the second wave (though it's actually 3d for Americas) will come in January-February so I figured the best way to be useful will be to give a little summary of what happened during the previous waves so that you know what to do during the next ones.
I think everyone by now knows that the swine flu isn't what the media panic told us it will be (luckily). Myself I managed to catch both the swine and the seasonal flu and well, they were both disgusting though if you ask me which one was worst - well, the swine flu!But still, it wasn't that different from the normal flu I get every year two times. But I must admit I also was quite scared by the medias. I even got my Tamiflu (which was a miracle since we didn't have that many in Bulgaria). Did it help? Not at all. In the end, I had to be on antibiotics for two weeks. Not very fun, indeed. So, my over all conclusion is that once again, we were all victim of media fun and heavy lobbying for the pharmaceutical companies. I mean how many doses of both Tamiflu and vaccines were ordered? A lot. Are they very effective - as you will see from the articles I posted - not really much. Then why did we have to order them on the first place?
Of course, this epidemic could have gone way worst than what actually happened. And preparing a vaccine isn't a bad idea, neither is having a medicament to fight the virus. The real problem wasn't in science - it was in media abuse of the public fears. Because as it is, the swine flu is more or less as lethal as the seasonal. I have my suspicions that the original virus was more lethal, which would explain the whole madness with the vaccines and also the interesting fact that it was targeting and killing pregnant women. But so far the virus is mutating in the better for us direction. And for me, this time should be used to think of better antivirals that can be used in the more complicated cases and also for better vaccines if the virus mutates in worst direction. And those studies should be government funded and used only if the situation gets worst. I know this goes against the holy principle of capitalism but let's be fair - such studies cost a lot, if a company invest in them, it won't profit unless the situation gets worst or they manage to manipulate the public into thinking the situation is already worst. Is it their fault that they want a return for their investments? No. But do we have to pay all those money if there isn't a need (or get unneeded shots of vaccines)? No. Then the only way to have the technology developed is trough non-profit studies.
One more important moral is that as the next article suggests, the vaccines were more available for some companies, than for people at risk. This is obviously wrong. The other wrong thing was to make vaccination obligatory for some people (or all). I don't know about you, but for me, my health should be decided only by me. If the disease isn't really pandemic and severely lethal, there is no authority to order me to vaccinate. I'm not against vaccines, don't get me wrong. I'm only against taking away my rights over my body.
Ok, finishing here, here are the articles. Enjoy!
- Confusion over giving antivirals to children with flu
- Corporate employers got scarce flu vaccine
- 5 million doses of nasal H1N1 vaccine recalled
- U.S. Reaction to Swine Flu: Apt and Lucky
Confusion over giving antivirals to children with flu
11 August 2009 by Andy CoghlanA new study casts doubt over whether all children with swine flu should be given antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza).
Some governments, including the UK's, insist that everyone with swine flu should be offered antivirals as part of a "safety first" strategy.
But the new study, published in the journal BMJ, suggests the strategy is misguided.
It concludes that treating children under 12 with antivirals does very little, shortening the duration of disease by just a day or so, and decreasing by just 8 per cent the likelihood that an infected child will spread it to others.
Also, Tamiflu causes additional vomiting in 5 per cent of children already vomiting because of their illness. Nor does it bring any benefits for asthmatics, as implied by advice from the UK government's Health Protection Agency.
His team's advice is for parents to treat mild flu symptoms with the usual medicines for controlling fever, plus plenty of rest and fluids. Even if complications develop, the value of giving antivirals to children is unknown, the researchers say. Another bonus of limiting treatment in children is that it will reduce the risk of the virus becoming resistant to the drugs, he says.
Responding, the British government's Department of Health said that the BMJ study is based on seasonal flu and so may not apply to swine flu.
Thompson accepts that his review only looked at seasonal flu. "But about two-thirds of the studies were influenza A, which is what the current strain is," he says. "So we would expect our results to be applicable to swine flu." (source)
Corporate employers got scarce flu vaccine
USA TODAY examined how state health departments distributed H1N1 vaccine after public outcry last month over Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs receiving doses while doctors and hospitals encountered shortages. The data show other companies got the vaccine in October and early November. In some cases, early doses went to people not deemed most at risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pallone said he would send the CDC a letter Tuesday asking it to revise guidelines to states on the use of corporate health clinics.
Each state health department must decide how to provide the vaccine to people most at risk, and employers are a legitimate venue, said Anne Schuchat, the CDC's immunization director. CDC's priority groups include pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions, health care workers and people ages 6 months to 24 years.
The Toyota Family Health Center in San Antonio, which got 2,120 doses, initially focused on the CDC's priority groups, but since Nov. 16 has offered the vaccine to any employee, contractor or family member, spokesman Craig Mullenbach said.
Of the 2.42 million doses in Texas and 2 million in Florida distributed through mid-November, fewer than 1% went to employers, according to USA TODAY's analysis of data obtained under state open-records acts. Thousands of registered providers — doctors, hospitals, schools, pharmacies — in Texas alone got no doses in that period.
Among companies that requested and received early doses and say they administered them to high-risk people:
• Florida: Walt Disney World got 2,200 doses for college-age theme park workers and members of its 100-person medical team. Universal Orlando Resort got 100 doses.
• Texas: Defense contractors Bell Helicopter got 100 doses and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, 80. Chevron got 190; ExxonMobil, 160; Dow Chemical, 170; ConocoPhillips, 110.
• Georgia: No doses went to companies. Ravae Graham of the state health department said people in the priority groups "are typically only a small fraction of workers in the corporate sector."
California, New York and New York City are still deciding whether to release data to USA TODAY. source
5 million doses of nasal H1N1 vaccine recalled
WASHINGTON - Drugmaker MedImmune is recalling nearly 5 million doses of swine flu vaccine because the nasal spray appears to lose strength over time, federal health officials announced Tuesday.
The vaccine recall is the second this month caused by declining potency and comes as public health officials urge millions of Americans to get vaccinated against swine flu.
The action affects more than 4.6 million doses, but the vast majority have already been used, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Agency officials said the vaccine was strong enough when it was distributed in October and November.
“The slight decrease in potency is not expected to have any effect on the protective effect of the vaccine,” said Norman Baylor, director of the FDA’s vaccine research office. “We are not recommending revaccination.”
The agency is looking into the problem but said it’s not uncommon for vaccines to lose strength over time. MedImmune’s vaccine has a recommended shelf life of about four months. The company has about 3,000 doses in its warehouses but does not know how many remain in the field, according to the FDA.
Last week, vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur recalled hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children because tests indicated those doses lost some strength. Most of those doses had already been used, too.
Maryland-based MedImmune, a subsidiary of London-based AstraZeneca PLC, voluntarily recalled 13 lots of its vaccine, “due to a slight decrease in potency” discovered through routine quality control testing, said spokesman Tor Constantino.
In a telephone news conference on Tuesday, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 60 million Americans have received swine flu vaccine, and said intense monitoring for side effects has not turned up any safety concerns.
The vaccine supply has increased so much in recent weeks that she urged parents of children 10 and younger to get them a second dose, because studies show this age group needs two for optimal protection. source
U.S. Reaction to Swine Flu: Apt and Lucky
Although it is too early to write the obituary for swine flu, medical experts, already assessing how the first pandemic in 40 years has been handled, have found that while luck played a part, a series of rapid but conservative decisions by federal officials worked out better than many had dared hope.
The outbreak highlighted many national weaknesses: old, slow vaccine technology; too much reliance on foreign vaccine factories; some major hospitals pushed to their limits by a relatively mild epidemic.
But even given those drawbacks, “we did a lot of things right,” concluded Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, chairman of the pandemic flu task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
About 10,000 people had died by mid-November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated; the pandemic seems unlikely to reach even the lower end of a forecast of 30,000 to 90,000 deaths made in August by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.
The virus and the vaccine cooperated. While the former proved highly transmissible in children, it was only rarely lethal, remained susceptible to drugs and has not thus far mutated into an unpredictable monster. Vaccine supply was a problem, but one small dose was enough. (By contrast, an experimental avian flu vaccine protected people only when it was six times as strong.)
For that reason, the relatively cautious decisions by the nation’s medical leadership contained the pandemic with minimal disruption to the economy.
For example, in the early days, they ignored advice to close the Mexican border and pre-emptively shut school systems. They released part of the national Tamiflu stockpile, but did not give it to millions of healthy people prophylactically, as Britain did. They ordered vaccine made with a 50-year-old egg technology rather than experimental methods. They bought adjuvants — chemical “boosters” — that could have stretched the first 25 million vaccine doses into 100 million, but did not use them for fear of triggering a backlash among Americans made nervous by the messages of the antivaccine movement.
To alert the public without alarming it, a stream of officials — from doctors in the navy blue and scrambled-eggs gold of the Public Health Service to a somber President Obama in the White House — offered updates, at least twice a week for months.
It is now clear that this is the least lethal modern pandemic. The flu appears to kill about one of every 2,000 people who get it, American researchers say. By contrast, the Spanish flu of 1918 killed about 50 of every 2,000, and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics killed about 4 of every 2,000.
The flu has reached more than 200 countries and is still peaking in places like Eastern Europe and Russia. Even though there was no vaccine yet, it killed fewer than expected during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, June through August.
Officials in the United States conceded that some mistakes were made.
For example, they could have spotted the new virus earlier if there had been better cooperation with Mexico.
Also, the government predicted in early summer that it would have 160 million vaccine doses by late October. It ended up with less than 30 million, leading to a public outcry and Congressional investigations.
Another controversial decision — sending a few early vaccine doses to Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and Citibank — was more of a bad public relations move than a bad public health one, experts said.
The government allotted vaccine to states based on population size. Some local health officials had thousands line up in parking lots for shots, some sent teams into schools and some relied on private doctors.
Distribution of the vaccine could have been focused more precisely, experts said, directing it to hospitals first, or to doctors treating children and pregnant women, or to cities with big outbreaks.
One real triumph, several experts said, was how little damage misinformation did.This time, both the C.D.C. and the World Health Organization responded quickly to almost every rumor. At the epidemic’s height, they held several news conferences a week, taking questions by phone from all over the world.
Dr. Frieden said he thought a victory over the antivaccine movement had been scored. Nearly 60 million people have been vaccinated, including many pregnant women and children, with no surge in side effects.
source
Be warned!
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