Measures to fight H1N1 swine flu in Europe
Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:39am EST

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Here are some details about measures taken to fight the new H1N1 swine flu, a mixture of swine, bird and human viruses and which has killed 6,500 people globally, according to the latest European Centre for Disease prevention and Control (ECDC) tallies. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an H1N1 pandemic on June 11, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 was under way. The H1N1 pandemic flu virus could kill up to 40,000 people across Europe and be followed by seasonal flu waves that could kill the same number, European health experts said last week. The WHO has advised governments to prepare for a long-term battle against the virus. Here are some details about those measures taken around Europe.

* LATEST MEASURES BY GOVERNMENTS:

BRITAIN - Britain started a vaccination programme from Oct. 21 for high-risk patient groups including hospitalised patients, frontline healthcare workers and young children with health
problems like asthma or other respiratory conditions.

BULGARIA - Bulgaria declared national epidemics on Nov. 6 due to the quickly rising numbers of the infected people. The health ministry has recommended organising public events be limited. All Schools across the country have been shut down for a week (to Nov. 13) to prevent further spread of the virus.

CROATIA - Says 50,000 additional doses of antiviral drugs will be distributed to doctors. Vaccination started on Nov. 5 and the health authorities are urging all citizens to take part.

FRANCE - France's mass vaccination campaign against H1N1 flu got off to a shaky start, with low take-up among hospital staff who were first in line and allegations that government advisers
received funding from pharmaceutical firms. Vaccinations began on Oct. 20 for front-line hospital workers. A general vaccination programme is to start on Nov. 12. -- France has ordered 94 million doses of anti-H1N1 vaccines, at a cost of 808 million euros ($1.2 billion), to cover its population of 64 million.

GERMANY - Germany began a campaign to vaccinate against H1N1 two weeks ago, but has been held back by a lack of doses. The federal states have ordered 50 million doses which are gradually being delivered.

HUNGARY - Hungary has started a school vaccination campaign and public officials, including the health minister and the prime minister, were vaccinated on TV. -- The country would be protected from a full-fledged epidemic if 60 percent of the population was vaccinated, authorities have said. The vaccine is produced locally by the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Omninvest.

IRELAND - Ireland launched a national vaccination campaign from Nov. 2, with priority given to people considered at risk of developing complications, including patients with a chronic disease and pregnant women.

NETHERLANDS - Health authorities started vaccinations of risk groups on Nov. 9, widening initial plans to also include children aged from 6 months up to and including four-year-olds. -- The government bought 34 million vaccine doses, enough to supply the population twice over, but now expects to only use 11 million doses. It plans to sell the excess to other nations.

ROMANIA - Romania's Supreme Defence Council has 1.3 million doses of vaccine that could be used starting at the end of this month. The interior ministry has intensified monitoring of
cross-border transit to identify potential cases of infections.

SERBIA - A government work group is discussing whether to recommend health minister Tomica Milosavljevic declare an epidemic throughout Serbia or in individual regions. The health
and education ministries extended a school holiday that started on Nov. 5 until Nov 16. -- Media has said the government is likely to purchase a total of 3 million vaccines from Novartis. If the deal happens, the first batch of 500,000 doses should be delivered in December and administered to priority groups (children, elderly, patients with chronic diseases and health workers).

SLOVENIA - Vaccination started Nov 2. Slovenia recorded its first death from swine flu on November 3.

SWITZERLAND - Expects vaccination campaigns against H1N1 flu to start in mid-November. It has ordered 13 million doses from GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

UKRAINE - Parliament has approved an additional $1 billion for medicinal supplies. Extra supplies of swine flu medicine have begun to arrive. -- The government has imposed measures such as a ban on public meetings, including political rallies ahead of a January presidential election, and closing schools for three weeks.

TX withholds details of flu vaccine distribution
© 2009 The Associated Press
Nov. 7, 2009, 7:21PM

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas health officials are defending a decision not to disclose the names of doctors in Dallas County who received large swine flu vaccine doses.

The state recently ordered a shipment of H1N1 vaccine doses as large as 22,600 to be sent to a doctor in Dallas County. But officials won't provide any details.

State health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams says it's not a good idea to disclose the names because officials don't want to create more confusion among the general public.

Dallas County health director Zachary Thompson disagrees, saying the process needs to be as transparent as possible. He says people are anxious because the vaccine is scarce and the public doesn't know where it can find it once the supply increases.

___

Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com

Another reason to cover your cough- pets at risk

Fri Nov 6, 2009 4:39pm EST

* Cat infection shows other species can get swine flu

* Owners urged to take care with sick animals

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - People who think they may have H1N1 flu need to stay away from work, avoid sneezing on their spouses and children and now, they have someone else to worry about infecting too -- their pets. U.S. vets reported this week that a pet cat had been infected with the pandemic swine flu virus, apparently by its owners, who had reported flu-like illness in the days before. Two pet ferrets also caught flu, again apparently from their owners, and several herds of pigs around the world have been reported infected.

Animals have long been known to be a source of new infections. Influenza itself originates in birds, possibly domestic ducks. AIDS appears to have come from chimpanzees and possibly gorillas. Ebola virus comes from bats while rabies is spread by many different species. And this strain of H1N1 very likely originated in pigs although it is now infecting almost exclusively humans. But with flu, at least, it can go the other way, too.

"This is just another illustration of why influenza viruses are so tricky and frustrating and interesting at the same time, is this ability to occasionally jump species," said Dr. Carolyn Bridges of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bridges said it is impossible to know how many pets may have been infected -- this particular cat lived near a sophisticated animal laboratory in Iowa where vets ran an influenza test out of curiosity. The good news is that the cat survived. Even for people, it is difficult to find out if a fever, cough and stuffy nose was the swine flu or something else because ordinary flu tests can miss H1N1 and doctors do not have easy access to the more sophisticated test needed to diagnose it.

NO KISSING

So no one knows how often pets might get infected. But if there is a season for it to happen, this would be it, says Bridges. "We have a great deal more disease now than we have in a typical flu season," she said in a telephone interview. "With the higher numbers of infected people, that increases the possibility of seeing these transmissions." Cats were known to get H5N1 avian influenza, which is still circulating and which has killed snow leopards and tigers that were fed infected chickens. A strain called H3N8 can sicken and kill pet dogs, Bridges added. "It is hypothesized that dogs got it from horses. There is potential, certainly, for cross-species infection," she said.

This is bad news for sick pet lovers.

"Even though I think when I am sick in bed the best thing I can have is my cats piling in with me, we realize that is no longer a risk-free activity," said Dr. Julie Levy of the University of Florida, a specialist in pet diseases. "When a pet is sick we should use common sense -- wash hands, not let them kiss us in the face," Levy added. According to the World Health Organization, H1N1 has killed at least 6,071 people worldwide and likely far more. The Sweden-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control projects the virus could kill up to 40,000 people across Europe and be followed by seasonal flu waves that could kill the same number. The international veterinary disease agency, the OIE, says it is compiling reports of H1N1 in animals. "It is very likely that there will be additional findings of other influenza strains," OIE Director Dr. Bernard Vallat said in a statement.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)


© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Official Endorses Workplace Clinics for Vaccine Distribution
November 7, 2009
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

-nytimes.com-

The federal health official in charge of immunization and respiratory diseases said Friday that swine flu vaccine should be distributed through many outlets, including workplace clinics, to get it to high-risk people as quickly and efficiently as possible. The official, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was responding to a furor caused by the revelation that the employee health departments of some big Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, had received small shipments of vaccine — while pediatricians, clinics and major hospitals waited for their full allotments.

“There’s nothing wrong with an employer-based clinic,” Dr. Schuchat said. “When you look at adults and where they get vaccinated, it’s a common place. It’s convenient.” Workplaces often have employees who are pregnant, have newborns at home, or have asthma or diabetes, she said, adding, “Our goal is put vaccine in the path of people who are in those priority groups to make it as easy as possible for them to be vaccinated.”

Goldman Sachs got 200 doses for its 8,700 New York employees, a spokeswoman said, and had signed an agreement saying they would all go to people in the high-risk groups specified by the disease control centers. Local health departments decide who gets each vaccine lot, and the centers sent a letter to all state, county and city health officers on Thursday reminding them to make sure it was going only to people at risk.

The agency itself had “no evidence that providers were giving vaccine outside the recommended priority populations,” Dr. Schuchat said. Independent flu experts noted that workplace clinics could control who got vaccine, while public vaccination campaigns have been plagued by reports of people begging vaccinators for shots or admitting having lied about being pregnant or asthmatic. Dr. Schuchat also praised the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District in Illinois for its program for disabled children. Nurses give shots in the parking lot “so when parents bring the kids in with special needs, they don’t have to get out of the car,” she said. Children with muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular diseases appear to be at the highest risk of dying from swine flu, she said, followed by children with severe asthma.

Flu is widespread in 48 states, and virtually every sample taken is swine flu rather than seasonal flu, Dr. Schuchat said. More than half of all hospitalizations are of people under 25. As of Friday, 129 children had died of swine flu since April, and others who were not tested have died from flulike symptoms. Almost one-third had been healthy, with no underlying problems. About 38 million doses of vaccine are available now, Dr. Schuchat said. Canada had its own swine flu vaccine distribution brouhaha this week, and on Friday, a second member of the Alberta provincial health administration lost his job over it, according to The Edmonton Journal. Members of the Calgary Flames hockey team and their families had been allowed to avoid long public lines and get vaccinated at their arena on Oct. 30, one day before the province canceled mass immunizations after demand created a shortage.

The flu is taking a toll on the National Hockey League. Members of the Boston Bruins, the New York Islanders, the Edmonton Oilers, the Colorado Avalanche, the Washington Capitals and the Detroit Red Wings have all been out sick recently, The Boston Globe reported. In Milwaukee, a truck containing 900 doses of swine flu vaccine was stolen as it idled outside a flu clinic Thursday night, The Associated Press reported. The police said it was found abandoned less than an hour later with the vaccine intact. But officials decided to throw the doses away; because the vaccine must be kept refrigerated and its sterility must be assured, it was considered compromised in that time outside the city’s custody.

Poll: One-third can find, get swine flu vaccine
By MIKE STOBBE (AP) – 2 hours ago

ATLANTA — Only about a third of adults who have tried to get a swine flu vaccine have been able to get it, according to a new national poll.

That's true even for people are at extra risk for severe complications and should be at the front of the line. The numbers are about the same for parents who tried to get the vaccine for their higher-risk children, the Harvard School of Public Health poll found.

Swine flu vaccine has been available in the United States for about a month. But supplies have been limited because of manufacturing delays. The shots are only supposed to be go to those at high risk of complications.

The Harvard School of Public Health telephone poll also found that half of those who tried couldn't find information about where to get the vaccine. The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted last weekend and the results released Friday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Swine flu is widespread in 48 states, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

CDC officials said 129 children have died from swine flu complications since the virus was first identified in April. The government does not keep a close count of all swine flu deaths, but estimates the number is above 1,000. Many millions of Americans have been infected with the virus, though most suffered only mild illness, health officials say.

On the Net:
CDC swine flu web site: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
Harvard School of Public Health: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.