Swine flu news and chat IV

[_Michael_]

U.S. swine flu epidemic shows signs of being over

ATLANTA (AP) — Is the U.S. swine flu epidemic over? Federal health officials won't go so far as to say that, but on Friday they reported for the fourth week in a row that no states had widespread flu activity.


U.S. cases have been declining since October. An official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says swine flu cases are still occurring and are likely to continue a while longer at some level.

[jtheb]

So we still have a pandemic I presume.

[Marianne]

I thought the epidemic was over, but.. it seems there are still some getting the swine flu..

[Lee]

Its probably never going to go away completely. Flu season is in the winter but people still get the flu in summer sometimes.

[Marianne]

H1N1 vaccine study investigating hints of complications from vaccine

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 2010; A04

Federal health officials are investigating the first hints of any possible significant complications from the H1N1 vaccine, but stressed that the concerns will probably turn out to be a false alarm.

The latest analysis of data has detected what could be a somewhat elevated rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis and death; Bell's palsy, a temporary facial paralysis; and thrombocytopenia, which is a low level of blood platelets, officials reported Friday. The data is being collected through five of the networks the government is using to monitor people who were inoculated against the swine flu.

Officials stressed that it is far too early to know whether the vaccine was increasing the risk of those conditions or whether there is some other explanation, such as doctors identifying more cases because of the intensive effort to pinpoint any safety problems with the vaccine.

Based on the preliminary report, the Health and Human Services Department's National Vaccine Advisory Committee, which has been charged with monitoring the vaccine's safety, voted unanimously to follow up on the findings. "We're at the first step of determining whether there is a problem," Guthrie S. Birkhead, who chairs the committee, said during a teleconference in which a subcommittee of experts presented its latest findings on the data. "There's a lot more work to determine whether there is."

Marie McCormick, who led the subcommittee, said there was a good chance the indications of problems could disappear with further analysis. Even if the link with Guillain-Barrésyndrome is confirmed, the committee calculated the vaccine at most could be causing one extra case per 1 million people vaccinated.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042304965.html

[jtheb]

I believe G B syndrome was associated with H1N1 vaccine the last time.

[jtheb]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...-vaccine-trial

Seems it is OK after all.

[Marianne]

Millions of swine flu vaccine doses to be burned

ATLANTA (AP) — About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired — meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million is being written off as trash.

"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The outdated vaccine, some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, more than twice the usual leftovers, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.

About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste.

Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu.

more
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ses-be-burned/

[jtheb]

Same problem in UK.

[SW7777]

Child dies from swine flu vaccine:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/quee...0425-tkym.html

Upto 50 children seriously sick in another Australian state after getting swine flu jab......and national ban on vaccine due to its danger......

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/fl...0423-tglp.html

Insane.....
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.
.
.

[Marianne]

WHO declares end to swine flu pandemic

The World Health Organization has declared an end to the swine flu pandemic.

The planet is no longer in Phase Six of pandemic epidemic alert, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday morning following a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee meeting in Hong Kong.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the new H1N1 virus "has largely run its course."

"As we enter the post-pandemic period this does not mean H1N1 has gone away," she said.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/...#ixzz0wDvPL5Ym