As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time — the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile.

“It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said.

At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state.

The victims included Raymond Cirimele, a 55-year-old Chicago man. He said no one asked for his shopper-card data, but he would have provided it if someone had.

“I don’t have any secrets, so I’m not worried about it,” he said. “It’s kind of like the whole airport security and all that. I’d rather fly on a safe plane.”

…

Some privacy advocates, though, are troubled.

Longtime shopper-card critic Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, said she worries that the practice could lead to a switch from a voluntary system to mandatory use of such cards.

“That sends chills down my spine,” she said.

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News

Another new swine flu virus has made the leap to humans, though U.S. officials say it seems almost certain the virus hit a dead end.

The Centers for Disease Control reported Friday that a child from Iowa became infected with a new swine flu virus in September, though the case didn’t come to light until November.

The unnamed boy didn’t need to be hospitalized and recovered fully from the illness.

Testing later showed he’d been infected with a swine influenza virus of the H3N2 subtype, different both from the pandemic H1N1 virus and from the seasonal H3N2 viruses that have been circulating in people for decades.
…
It isn’t clear how the boy became infected with the virus. He had no known contact with pigs, an eerie echo of the emergence last spring of the pandemic H1N1 virus. H1N1 was first spotted in two children from California who had had no contact with pigs or with each other.

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! Canada News

About 22 million Americans have become ill with pandemic H1N1 influenza in the past six months and 3,900 have died, according to new estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of pediatric deaths — about 540 — is four times as high as the number that physicians, hospitals and health departments had reported to the public health agency in Atlanta.

The new estimates, drawn from detailed surveillance and record-checking in 10 states, sketch the most detailed picture by far of the national toll from the new flu strain that emerged in California and Mexico in April.

“We feel we’re finally able to update the public on how big a toll this virus is having so far,” Anne Schuchat, a CDC physician helping to run the federal government’s pandemic response, said Thursday. “I am expecting all these numbers, unfortunately, to continue to rise.”

The total number of people who have been hospitalized is 98,000, with 36,000 of them age 17 and younger. The vast majority of deaths — about 2,920 — have been in people age 18 to 64.

In an average flu season, the seasonal virus contributes to the deaths of about 36,000 people — 90 percent of whom are 65 or older. Many are close to death, with flu being only one factor leading to their demise. That is not the case with H1N1’s victims, most of whom are much younger, and about 20 to 30 percent of whom were healthy before contracting the virus.

Source/Full Story: washingtonpost.com
Technorati Tags: H1N1

Just remember, “Social Distancing”, i.e physical separation from the public will be the most essential tool for avoiding infection, not a vaccine.

Swine flu is causing unprecedented illness for so early in the fall — including a worrisome count of child deaths — and the government warned Friday that vaccine supplies will be even more scarce than expected through this month.

Federal health officials said 11 more children have died in the past week because of the virus.

Manufacturer delays mean 28 million to 30 million doses, at most, will be divided around the country by the end of the month, not the 40 million-plus that states had been expecting. The new count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention means anxiously awaited flu-shot clinics in some parts of the country may have to be postponed.

It also delays efforts to blunt increasing infections. Overall, what CDC calls the 2009 H1N1 flu is causing widespread disease in 41 states, and about 6 percent of all doctor visits are for flu-like illness — levels not normally seen until much later in the fall.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about half of the child deaths since September have been among teenagers.

And overall for the country, deaths from pneumonia and flu-like illnesses have passed what CDC considers an epidemic level. About 6 percent of all doctor visits are for flu-like illnesses, levels not normally seen until later in the fall.

The CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat (SHU’-kit) says, “These are very sobering statistics.”

This new strain is different from regular winter flu because it strikes the young far more than the old, and child deaths are drawing particular attention. Eighty-six children have died of swine flu in the U.S. since it burst on the scene last spring — 43 of those deaths reported in September and early October alone, said CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat.

That’s a startling number because in some past winters, the CDC has counted 40 or 50 child deaths for the entire flu season, she said, and no one knows how long this swine flu outbreak will last. Half of those early fall child deaths are among teenagers, also surprising as preschoolers are thought to be most vulnerable.

Source/Full Story:  Yahoo! News
Technorati Tags: Swine flu, H1N1

Vaccinations against H1N1 swine flu will start on Oct. 6, CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said today.

Nearly all of the first 6 million doses of swine flu vaccine are the FluMist nasal spray vaccine. By mid-October, the government plans to deliver some 45 million doses — including more traditional flu shots — apportioned to states based on population.

“We have a vaccine and it is likely to be effective after a single dose for those over 10, and it is going to be rolling into doctors’ offices and clinics,” Frieden said at a news conference.

Because the FluMist vaccine cannot be given to pregnant women, kids under age 2, or to those with underlying health problems, the first vaccine doses will go to health care workers and to people caring for or living with infants under 6 months of age.

As flu shots arrive, priority vaccinations will go to pregnant women and to school-age kids. Different states are emphasizing different kinds of programs. Frieden said school-based vaccination programs are especially important.

Source/Full Story: webmd.com
Technorati Tags: H1N1, Vaccinations

Three state public health laboratories perform antiviral resistance testing and report their results to CDC. An additional two oseltamivir resistant 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses have been identified by these laboratories, bringing the total number to nine.

The above comments from the latest CDC update (week 34) describe two more cases of oseltamivir resistance in states that do their own antiviral resistance (CA, NY, WI). WI’s week 34 report had no resistance in swine H1N1 and NY has not updated its site since the end of seasonal flu reporting in April, so it is likely that the two new cases are from California. California has already reported resistance in an H1N1 hospitalized case in northern California, and the CDC has not identified a Tamiflu linkage, raising concerns that the H1N1 in this case is evolutionarily fit. Moreover, the first evolutionarily fit pandemic H1N1 identified in Hong Kong was from a traveler from San Francisco, increasing concerns that evolutionarily fit H1N1 with H274Y is circulating in northern California. The latest two cases are also likely form California, and although the week 34 report indicated these new cases had a Tamiflu linkage, the relationship between the collection date of the H274Y positive samples and the start of Tamiflu treatment remains unclear.

These nine cases in the US are in addition to three cases in Japan, three in Hong Kong and at least one each from Denmark, Canada, Thailand, China, and Singapore. Thus, 20 cases have been made public, including at least two were evolutionarily fit.

Source/Full Story @: recombinomics.com
Technorati Tags: oseltamivir, Tamiflu, H1N1

The week 33 CDC report has 5 pediatric (ages 0-18 years) deaths, and media reports describe 13 more in the past two weeks. Most of these cases do not have obvious underlying health problems and most are in the south or California, where the school year started in early August. In many cases, the fatalities are in school districts where the absentee rate exceeds 10%. However, these schools are remaining open, and the fatalities are soaring. Moreover, these pediatric cases will lead to more serious adult cases in teachers and parents since school serve as an efficient transmission environment.

These clusters are also appearing further north in Tennessee (see map) or Pennsylvania (see map). In Ringgold Middle School the absentee rate in the 6th grade reached 44% and now the 7th grade is following suit with 60 students out. The number of absentees for the middle school is over 200, representing more than 25% of the school’s population and media reports cite one student as more seriously ill. Other school districts have closed to break the cycle, but the number of schools with 10% or more absent is growing, so the breaking of the cycle is difficult.

Reports of 200 or more students out in local schools, including Universities, are widespread, and most of these schools have only been in session for a few weeks. It is likely that these numbers will increase dramatically as more schools open and large school gatherings, including sporting events, increase.

Source/Full Story: recombinomics.com

The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has already taken steps to head that off.

Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, government health officials said Friday.

Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. Instead, a federal court handles claims and decides who will be paid from a special fund.

The document signed by Sebelius last month grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies. It allows for a compensation fund, if needed.

The government takes such steps to encourage drug companies to make vaccines, and it’s worked. Federal officials have contracted with five manufacturers to make a swine flu vaccine. First identified in April, swine flu has so far caused about 263 deaths, according to numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.

The CDC said more than 40,000 Americans have had confirmed or probable cases, but those are people who sought health care. It’s likely that more than 1 million Americans have been sickened by the flu, many with mild cases.

The virus hits younger people harder that seasonal flu, but so far hasn’t been much more deadly than the strains seen every fall and winter. But health officials believe the virus could mutate to a more dangerous form, or at least contribute to a potentially heavier flu season than usual.

“We do expect there to be an increase in influenza this fall,” with a bump in cases perhaps beginning earlier than normal, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the regular winter flu vaccine, a final step before shipments to clinics and other vaccination sites could begin.

The last time the government faced a new swine flu virus was in 1976. Cases of swine flu in soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., including one death, made health officials worried they might be facing a deadly pandemic like the one that killed millions around the world in 1918 and 1919.

Federal officials vaccinated 40 million Americans during a national campaign. A pandemic never materialized, but thousands who got the shots filed injury claims, saying they suffered a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome or other side effects.

“The government paid out quite a bit of money,” said Stephen Sugarman, a law professor who specializes in product liability at the University of California at Berkeley.

Vaccines aren’t as profitable as other drugs for manufacturers, and without protection against lawsuits “they’re saying, ‘Do we need this?’” Sugarman said.

The move to protect makers of a swine flu didn’t go over well with Paul Pennock, a prominent New York plaintiffs attorney on medical liability cases. The government will likely call on millions of Americans to get the vaccinations to prevent the disease from spreading, he noted.

“If you’re going to ask people to do this for the common good, then let’s make sure for the common good that these people will be taken care of if something goes wrong,” Pennock said.

Source/Full Story:: World news Feed Article | World news | guardian.co.uk
Technorati Tags: swine flu, H1N1, lawsuits

There is a knock at the front door. Peeking through the window, a mother sees a man and a woman, both in uniform. They are agents of health-care reform.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” says the man. “Our records show that your eleven-year-old daughter has not been immunized for genital warts.”

“And your four-year-old still needs the chicken-pox vaccine,” says the woman.

“He will not be allowed to start kindergarten unless he gets that shot, you know,” says the man—smiling from ear to ear.

“So, can we please come in?” asks the woman. “We have the vaccines right here,” she says, lifting up a black medical bag. “We can give your kids the shots right now.”

“We are from the government,” says the man, “and we’re here to help.”

Is this a scene from the over-heated imagination of an addlepated conspiracy theorist? Or is it something akin to what is actually envisioned by the health-care reform bill approved this week by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

The committee’s official summary of the bill says: “Authorizes a demonstration program to improve immunization coverage. Under this program, CDC will provide grants to states to improve immunization coverage of children, adolescents, and adults through the use of evidence-based interventions. States may use funds to implement interventions that are recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force, such as reminders or recalls for patients or providers, or home visits.”

Home visits? What exactly is the state going to do when it sends people to “implement interventions” in private homes designed “to improve immunization coverage of children”?

The draft of the bill posted on the committee Web site provides more details.

Title III of the bill is entitled, “Improving the Health of the American People.” It includes four subtitles. They are: “Subtitle A: Modernizing Disease Prevention of Public Health Systems,” “Subtitle B: Increasing Access to Clinical Preventive Services,” “Subtitle C: Creating Healthier Communities,” and “Subtitle D: Support for Prevention and Public Health Information.”

The program authorizing home “interventions” to promote immunizations falls under “Subtitle C: Creating Healthier Communities.” This subtitle directs the secretary of health and human services to “establish a demonstration program to award grants to states to improve the provision of recommended immunizations for children, adolescents, and adults through the use of evidence-based, population-based interventions for high-risk populations.”

The bill lists eight specific ways that states may use federal grant money to carry out immunization-promoting “interventions.” Method “E” calls for “home visits” which can include “provision of immunizations.”

Says the draft bill: “Funds received under a grant under this subsection shall be used to implement interventions that are recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (as established by the secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) or other evidence-based interventions, including—“(A) providing immunization reminders or recalls for target populations of clients, patients, and consumers; (B) educating targeted populations and health care providers concerning immunizations in combination with one or more other interventions; (C) reducing out-of-pocket costs for families for vaccines and their administration; (D) carrying out immunization-promoting strategies for participants or clients of public programs, including assessments of immunization status, referrals to health care providers, education, provision of on-site immunizations, or incentives for immunization;(E) providing for home visits that promote immunization through education, assessments of need, referrals, provision of immunizations, or other services; (F) providing reminders or recalls for immunization providers;(G) conducting assessments of, and providing feedback to, immunization providers; or (H) any combination of one or more interventions described in this paragraph.”

Many vaccines routinely administered to children in the United States are utterly uncontroversial. But in recent years there have been controversies about the chicken pox vaccine and the vaccine for HPV, which causes genital warts, which can cause cervical cancer.

On March 15, 2007, Bloomberg news summarized a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which discovered that the chicken pox vaccine does not provide permanent protection against chicken pox, leaving children who have been immunized vulnerable to getting ill with the virus later in life when it can cause a more serious bout of the disease.

“Merck & Co.’s chickenpox vaccine weakens as children age, possibly leaving them vulnerable to a more serious infection as adults, a U.S.-sponsored study in California found,” reported Bloomberg. “The power of the vaccine, Varivax, the only one available in the United States against chickenpox, starts to fade after five years, according to the study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. The results suggest that children should get a second dose, which advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in June.”

Bloomberg quoted the study as saying, “Waning immunity is of particular public health interest because it may result in increased susceptibility later in life, when the risk of severe complications may be greater than that in childhood.”

In March of this year, the Washington Post reported about the controversy sparked when the Merck pharmaceutical company campaigned to have states mandate that school girls receive Gardasil, its vaccine against HPV.

“Merck also began an ambitious marketing campaign and lobbying push to persuade states to add the vaccine to the list of those required for children to attend school,” reported the Post. “But the company eventually abandoned the strategy in the face of an intense backlash from critics who argued that the decision should be left to parents. Although many states considered such mandates, so far only Virginia and the District have imposed one, and [a Merck official] said the company has no plans to pursue that strategy again.”

The Post’s report noted that at least some experts questioned the wisdom of promoting use of the vaccine when its long term impact is still unknown.

“Federal health officials, Merck and others say they are confident that the vaccine is safe,” reported the Post. “But some experts said they are concerned that there is insufficient evidence about how long Gardasil’s protection will last, whether serious side effects will emerge and whether the relatively modest benefits for boys are worth even the small risks associated with any vaccine.”

Source/Full Story:: CNSNews.com
Technorati Tags: immunizations, vaccines, CDC,

Swine flu has infected as many as 1 million Americans, U.S. health officials said Thursday, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban populations are infected. The estimate voiced by a government flu scientist Thursday was no surprise to the experts who have been closely watching the virus.

“We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert who was in Atlanta for the meeting of a vaccine advisory panel.

Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the 1 million estimate in a presentation to the vaccine panel. The number is from mathematical modeling, based on surveys by health officials.

Regular seasonal flu sickens anywhere from 15 million to 60 million Americans each year.

The United States has roughly half the world’s swine flu cases, with nearly 28,000 reported to the CDC so far. The U.S. count includes 3,065 hospitalizations and 127 deaths.

Source/Full Story: washingtonpost.com

Via Cryptome: CDC Fuzzes H1N1 Pandemic Reports 2

James Atkinson (www.tscm.com) sends:

More fuzzed up numbers being published by the CDC

Note the 20% increase over last week, even though the CDC falsely claims the numbers are dropping in Press Briefings and Announcements (when these charts show they are lying).

The outbreak of the new H1N1 flu virus has begun to wane with the start of summer in North America, and U.S. health officials said on Thursday they are looking to lessons learned as they prepare for its return in the autumn.

There are now 11,468 probable and confirmed cases of the new H1N1 swine flu in the United States, Dr Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers and Disease Control and Prevention told reporters in a telephone briefing.

So far, 770 people, or 2.5 percent of cases, have required hospitalization. California reported another death on Thursday, for a total of 21 U.S. deaths.

“Activity seems to be declining in the nation as a whole, but there are some areas where illness is ongoing,” she said.

Schuchat said the CDC will use the current lull to take stock of the nation’s response to the new H1N1 flu and attempt to patch any gaps in the public health safety net before flu season starts this fall.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

Are the governments of the world preparing to vaccinate the entire populace? It seems that may be the case. According to Reuters 4.9 billion vaccinations against the supposed swine flu could be ready shortly. Documents have been leaked that suggest the CDC is preparing to have a Day of Planning for an H1N1 Vaccination Campaign. The WHO” is also now saying that because of the outbreak in Japan they may be forced to declare a level 6 pandemic

Source/Full Story: YouTube

Download PDF at:  Wikileaks

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is the peak body for the controlling the spread of “swine flu”, or H1N1 Mexican influenza in the United States. This document presents information on the spread of the disease.

The confirmed numbers of influenza A (H1N1) cases reported are likely to fall far short of the actual numbers occurring within the community, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesperson.

“The individual numbers are likely a very great underestimate of how much virus is circulating or how many people are becoming ill from it,” said Anne Schuchat, MD, the Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, speaking at a media briefing today.

Source/Full Story:: medscape.com