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.
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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

The Supreme Council of Health has scotched rumours about the spread of a new pandemic known as Q-Fever. Q-Fever is a known infectious disease but it currently does not cause any concern worldwide, the SCHSCH said in a statement issued yesterday.

“Recently some news has been circulating about the spread of a new pandemic known as Q-Fever. The SCHSCH would like to inform the public that the disease is currently restricted to the Netherlands. Therefore it is not a disease that causes any concern right now,” said the statement.

Q-Fever is not a new disease and it was reported before in all continents. In 2009 around 2300 people around the world were infected with Q-Fever with 6 fatalities, added the statement.

The disease usually infects veterinarians, meat workers, dairy workers and farmers. The disease is caused by a species of bacteria known as Coxilla burnetii which comes out of cattle, sheep, goats cats, dogs and some wild animals.
Direct transfer of the disease from a human being to another is rare; however clothes of an infected person may transmit the disease. Symptoms are shown in high fever, severe headache, malaise, myalgia, confusion, sore throat, chills, sweat, non-productive cough, nausea, vomiting and stomach and chest pain.

Antibiotic treatment is quite effective, namely Doxycyclin. This treatment is most effective during the first three days of the illness. After full recovery the person may gain permanent immunity against the disease in the future.
Q-Fever outbreaks occur mainly due to occupational exposure involving veterinarians, meat processing plant workers, sheep and dairy workers, livestock farmers and researchers at facilities housing sheep.

Source/Full Story: meattradenewsdaily.co.uk

Biological warfare

Q fever has been described as a possible biological weapon.[18]

The United States investigated Q fever as a potential biological warfare agent in the 1950s with eventual standardization as agent OU. At Fort Detrick and Dugway Proving Ground human trials were conducted on Whitecoat volunteers to determine the median infective dose (18 MICLD50/person i.h.) and course of infection. As a standardized biological it was manufactured in large quantities at Pine Bluff Arsenal, with 5,098 gallons in the arsenal in bulk at the time of demilitarization in 1970.

Q fever is a category “B” agent.[19] It can be contagious and is very stable in aerosols in a wide range of temperatures. Q fever microorganisms may survive on surfaces up to 60 days.

Source:  Q fever – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Significance for Bioterrorism

Coxiella burnetii is a highly infectious agent that is rather resistant to heat and drying. It can become airborne and inhaled by humans. A single C. burnetii organism may cause disease in a susceptible person. This agent could be developed for use in biological warfare and is considered a potential terrorist threat.

Source: Q fever caused by Coxiella burnetii

In the rare cases when the H1N1 virus kills, scientists have found, it penetrates deep into the lungs, creating widespread damage — a pattern similar to what killed millions during previous flu pandemics in 1918 and 1957.

The New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner examined medical records, autopsy reports and microscopic slides of 34 people with H1N1 who died between May 15 and July 9, 2009, during the early days of the pandemic.

The report found that among those deaths, inflammation and damage in the lungs extended all the way to the alveoli, tiny sacs at the farthest end of the lungs’ airways.

“Generally, flu stays in the upper airways,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the national Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “What this shows is clearly this virus has capability of infecting and causing inflammation and destruction of cells from the trachea, all the way down into smaller cells of the lungs.

“The cells of the lung get directly attacked by the virus,” said Fauci.

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

In Ukraine, the alarm phase red has been declared. According to the health authorities, the country has been hit by a new influenza virus that’s more dangerous than the swine (H1N1) flu. It seems to be a new variant that has mutated from the California flu and two seasonal flu viruses. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is still treating it as ‘normal’ swine flu.

Ukrainian doctors who examined two victims spoke of “lungs as black as charcoal”. This description ties in with earlier reports from hospitals in the west of Ukraine. A record number of people have been admitted with very serious bronchial infections, especially pneumonia. Most of the patients reported to a doctor far too late, and died from the effects of the virus.

Life at a standstill
Public life has been at a standstill in the former Soviet republic for several weeks as a result of the severe outbreak of flu that has so far cost the lives of 189 people. All public events are forbidden, schools and universities are shut, and a number of border posts with Slowakia and Russia have been closed.

The WHO is trying to temper the alarming messages coming out of Ukraine. The first results of a WHO investigation into the ’superflu’ did not point to an abnormal situation. Genetic analysis showed that the H1N1 virus was the main cause of the problems. Furthermore, the WHO says it has not mutated, and currently available pandemic vaccine offers sufficient protection.

Government not prepared
The problem is only that Ukraine doesn’t have any vaccine. In the run-up to the pandemic the government didn’t pay sufficient heed to the warnings. The vaccine was not ordered, and the stocks of antiviral drugs are minimal. There has been absolutely no information provided to the public. For ordinary citizens, good healthcare is seldom available. Even domestic medicines are either unaffordable or sold out.

The opposition accuses President Yushchenko of misusing the flu epidemic. It says that by creating confusion and anxiety, he wants to divert attention from the poor state of the economy. In January, the people are due to go to the polls to elect a new president, but because of the flu political meetings are forbidden.

Source/Full Story: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

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

President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the “rapid increase in illness” from the H1N1 influenza virus.

“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities,” Obama said in a statement.

“Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response.”

The president signed the declaration late Friday and announced it Saturday.

Calling the emergency declaration “an important tool in our kit going forward,” one administration official called Obama’s action a “proactive measure that’s not in response to any new development.”

Another administration official said the move is “not tied to the current case count” and “gives the federal government more power to help states” by lifting bureaucratic requirements — both in treating patients and moving equipment to where it’s most needed.

Source/Full Story:  CNN.com

Cases of swine flu in the UK have almost doubled this week, the Department of Health revealed today, as the outbreak imposes increasing pressure on intensive care beds.

So far 122 people have died after contracting the H1N1 virus and more than 500 are being treated in hospital, of whom 99 are in critical care – the highest figure since the disease emerged. Children appear to be vulnerable to higher rates of infection.

Emergency planners have, however, downgraded the UK’s worst case scenario, calculating this month that as many as 1,000 people could die during the pandemic infection. Far more of the victims are likely to be younger patients, unlike the normal pattern of seasonal flu, which affects the elderly most severely.

Estimates of likely casualties have come down progressively over the past few months from an initial upper assessment of 65,000 deaths, later reduced to 19,000 and now cut back again.

Source/Full Story: The Guardian
Technorati Tags: H1N1

The Department of Health has ordered NHS bosses across England to ensure that frontline staff get immunised against swine flu amid growing signs that many doctors and nurses intend to shun the vaccine.

Chief executives and boards who run hospitals, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have been told to urgently maximise the number of workers having the jab. Leading DH figures including Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, have written to them six times in the last five weeks stressing the need for action before the second wave of the pandemic causes major problems.

Ian Dalton, the NHS’s national director of flu resilience, last week warned that vaccination of nurses, doctors and other frontline staff was “absolutely critical” and that widespread take-up of the jabs “will help us to save lives”.

The DH’s letters stress that patients’ health could be put at risk and the NHS left seriously short-staffed through virus-related absenteeism if senior managers do not overcome “perceived obstacles” to the vaccination of workers. Swine flu’s threat is so great that the NHS must avoid only small numbers of personnel getting immunised, as usually happens with seasonal flu every winter, the letters add.

They stress that vulnerable patients could be endangered if staff decide not to heed repeated urgings from Donaldson and other senior figures to have the vaccine. There are growing signs that large numbers of workers will shun the jabs because they see them as unnecessary and potentially unsafe.

Dalton wrote to the chief executives of local NHS organisations in England on 10 September telling them: “We all know that uptake of the seasonal flu vaccine among NHS staff is traditionally low. It is an NHS board responsibility that we do not find ourselves in this position with the swine flu vaccine.”

But hospital chief executives have told the Guardian that they expect as few as 10%-20% of their staff to get vaccinated and cannot fulfil the DH’s demands because the jabs, which are due to begin within days, are entirely voluntary.

Source/Full Story:  The Guardian
Technorati Tags: NHS, H1N1

In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, Washington’s Health Department on Thursday temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.

The preservative, thimerosal, has never been linked to any health problems, said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. But a vocal minority believes the compound could be linked to autism. The state Legislature adopted the limit in 2006.

Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, but it will be added to the bulk of the swine-flu vaccine being produced to stem a pandemic that health officials estimate could sicken more than a third of the state’s residents.

Pregnant women and young children are considered at high risk for swine flu, and lifting the mercury limits will give them quicker access to the vaccine, Selecky said.

Source/Full Story: Seattle Times Newspaper
Technorati Tags: thimerosal, H1N1, vaccines

Mexico was hit with 1,341 new swine flu cases since Monday, bringing the total to 26,338 ahead of the usual autumn flu season, health officials said on Friday.

The Health Ministry said one more person died from the A(H1N1) virus between Monday and Thursday, bringing the death toll to 218 in the country where the virus first emerged in April before becoming a pandemic.

In late August, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova estimated that nearly one million people could be infected by the virus during the winter, out of a total population of 100 million in Mexico.

The global flu death toll has reached 3,486, up 281 from a week ago, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has reported 296,471 known cases of infection.

That number is seen as far below actual figures as some countries lack systematic analysis.

The UN agency said the Americas region still has the highest death toll, at 2,625. The Asia-Pacific region reported 620 fatalities, while Europe recorded at least 140 deaths. In the Middle East, 61 people succumbed to the virus while in Africa, 40 people have died from it.

Source/Full Story: The Times of India
Technorati Tags: H1N1

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/Full Story:: Bloomberg.com
Technorati Tags: vaccinations, Swine Flu

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

Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients infected with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need hospital care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

“During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services,” it said.

“Preparedness measures need to anticipate this increased demand on intensive care units, which could be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in the number of severe cases.”

Earlier, WHO reported that H1N1 had reached epidemic levels in Japan, signaling an early start to what may be a long influenza season this year, and that it was also worsening in tropical regions.

“Perhaps most significantly, clinicians from around the world are reporting a very severe form of disease, also in young and otherwise healthy people, which is rarely seen during seasonal influenza infections,” WHO said.

“In these patients, the virus directly infects the lung, causing severe respiratory failure. Saving these lives depends on highly specialized and demanding care in intensive care units, usually with long and costly stays.”

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News

Healthy people who catch swine flu need not be given Tamiflu, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced. The advice appears to contradict the UK’s policy of making the antiviral drug readily available to those who call the national pandemic helpline or approach their GPs.

Hundreds of thousands of doses have been given to British patients although the majority have not been severely ill. Fears have been voiced that mass use of Tamiflu will make the virus resistant to it.

The latest advice from the WHO said: “Worldwide, most patients infected with the pandemic virus continue to experience typical influenza symptoms and fully recover within a week, even without any form of medical treatment. Healthy patients with uncomplicated illness need not be treated with antivirals.”

Previously the WHO had said antivirals should be given to patients with “serious progressive illness”. The new guidance is the first time it has specifically advised against otherwise healthy individuals being given the drug.

The recommendation is based on the conclusion of an international panel of experts that includes representatives from the UK. The advice added that Tamiflu, also called oseltamivir, and the similar drug Relenza, also called zanamivir, should be given quickly to seriously ill or deteriorating patients.

The WHO guidance said at-risk groups should receive the drugs. “For patients with underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of more severe disease, WHO recommends treatment with either oseltamivir or zanamivir.

“These patients should also receive treatment as soon as possible after symptom onset, without waiting for the results of laboratory tests. As pregnant women are included among groups at increased risk, WHO recommends that they receive antiviral treatment as soon as possible after symptom onset.”

Source/Full Story: guardian.co.uk

More than 13 million Britons will be offered the first doses of a vaccine against swine flu this autumn, in a dramatic move which the government says will save lives.

The initial stage of a mass immunisation campaign will see almost 11 million people in four priority groups, mostly those whose health puts them at risk from the pandemic, invited to have a course of two injections three weeks apart, probably starting in October.

More than two million health and social care workers, including GPs, hospital staff and care home personnel, will also be asked to have the jabs in a bid to help the NHS cope with the expected second big surge of the H1N1 virus.

The escalation of the fight against the pandemic will see the four most at-risk groups vaccinated in order of priority. They are people aged between six months and 65 with chronic conditions such as breathing difficulties, diabetes and heart disease, followed by pregnant women, then people living with those in the first group and finally people over 65.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the government’s chief medical officer, said that children and babies under six months old with no health problems would not be among those who would have the vaccine.

A decision about whether and how healthy adults will be offered the jabs will be made in a few months’ time, once health officials have studied how the pandemic is affecting health at that time. The immunisations are dependent on licenses being granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is expected in late September or early October.

Source/Full Story: The Guardian