34 Dies; May Have Had Swine Flu

It's about swine flu cases.

A 34-year-old Bell City Council candidate who died Friday at County-USC Medical Center may have had the swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, it was reported today.

A brother, Jorge, told the Bell Gardens Sun that Miguel Alejandro Sanchez had been sick for about a week when he went to the hospital Friday morning and may have had the H1N1 virus.

Sanchez, a part-time teacher's aide for the Los Angeles Unified School District and a part-time Bell Parks and Recreation Department employee, had hoped to replace former City Councilman Luis Artiga, who resigned last fall amid corruption allegations, is a special election set for Tuesday.

Sanchez was part of a "Justice for Bell' slate, along with council candidates Mario Rivas and Nestor Valencia.

His cause of death has not been made public.

His brother Jorge said Sanchez was diabetic and that could have complicated his flu-like symptoms.

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H1N1 Vaccine Launched in Cameroon

Article about Cameroon launches huge H1N1 vaccine campaign.

The government says it only has a restricted amount of the vaccine from the WHO and is targeting population segments with the highest risks of astringent the H1N1 virus.

Dr.Robinson Mbu is director of the Family Health Department of Health says that 1.3 million doses of vaccine available for children 5 to 15 years, people over 65, women at least the fourth month of pregnancy, labor health and people with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, sickle cell anemia and HIV.

The nationwide vaccination effort follows a government announcement in October that 75 cases of H1N1 had been detected. The Ministry of Health says no deaths have been recorded. A swine flu pandemic killed tens of thousands across the world last year.

H1N1 is a contagious respiratory virus containing a combination of different influenza viruses endemic in pigs. Scientists say transmission from animals to humans is not common. They say it is not contracted by eating properly cooked pork, although people who often come in contact with swine may be more exposed to the virus.

It is spread among people when infected persons cough, sneeze or speak. People can also get infected by touching contaminated surfaces and objects. Within a day, they may be contagious, even before they begin to exhibit symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue. Health care practitioners say the resemblance to flu makes early detection a problem and can facilitate its rapid spread.

Last May, 35 African countries formally notified the WHO of a combined total of 18,500 confirmed cases of the flu and a death toll of 168. South Africa alone accounted for more than two-thirds of the cases.

As a preventive measure; Cameroon inoculated a thousand supporters of its soccer team travelling to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. But the effort was not enough to prevent infections.

The renewed effort to eradicate the disease is being carried out by hundreds of health workers at public hospitals across the country. Others are going house-to-house and school-to-school to ensure its success amid concerns that pockets of resistance may emerge.

Previous vaccination campaigns for other diseases have met with resistance, especially from some religious groups that suspect a veiled scheme by the West to render parts of the population sterile.

But Dr. Tsafack Rose Ernestine, a vaccination team leader in Cameroon’s largest city, Douala, says the claims are unfounded.

She says she is counting on journalists to deflect such myths. In principle, the campaign should end on October 30 but will be extended if resistance emerges. She says about 65 million people around the world have received the vaccine and are not complaining of sterility.

The vaccine being administered in Cameroon is branded Paneza and is made in Spain. Health care practitioners say it provides immunity for between 9 and 12 months. They say its only known side effect is mild dizziness. But they warn that persons allergic to eggs should avoid getting the shot because some batches are made from them. In those who are allergic, the vaccine can provoke Guillain-Barre, a rare syndrome that can cause nervous and muscle disorders.

Local traditional rulers are joining the effort to inform the public about the vaccine. A Douala canton chief, HM Essaka Ekwalla, is calling on his subjects to ignore the skeptics and rush to be vaccinated.

He says there is nothing to lose because the vaccine is free and causes no pain. He says old people like himself will benefit hugely from getting vaccinated because if they are Suffer with the virus, it will become hard to breathe, and they could die. The vaccine, says the conventional rulers, is cover against premature death.

Meanwhile, the government has been applauded by WHO and its partners to provide the H1N1 vaccine for free. Health Minister, Andre Mama Fouda, says that poor countries like Cameroon could not afford to fund mass vaccines on their own.

Kerala largely hit by swine flu

Above about Kerala was hit by swine flu.

Monsoon this year did bring more of bad news than good, especially for people of Kerala where swine flu is set to widen its grip with each passing day. The state is worst hit due to the H1N1 influenza that spreads the highly contagious respiratory disease. The cases tested positive for the H1N1 virus are reported from the districts of Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kannur, Alappuzha, Erunakulam, Malappuram and Thrissur. The number of swine flu positive cases in one month has been increased by 40 by June 14 of this year. However the total number of deaths due to the deadly flu is reported to be more than 45 since its outbreak in the state last year in August.
Apart from swine flu cases, the state has also

reported other types of fever including dengue fever, rat fever and Chikunguniya. The spread of other types of viral fever has become a reason to worry for the health officials as the number of people reporting to various government and private hospitals has swollen to 9,700. The onset of monsoon has definitely triggered the number of fresh cases of swine flu in Kerala and its neighboring Tamilnadu in the last two days. The government has alerted the health authorities to take adequate preventive measures and be prepared.
With the report of 11 new swine flu cases from the neighboring Kerala, the government seems more concerned. The Health Secretary Mr. V K Subburaj informed that the increasing number of swine flu cases in Kerala and Tamilnadu is due to the arrival of monsoon in two states. Meanwhile the Kerala government has also asked Centre to send a team of experts to study the epidomology study of swine flu. It has also asked the centre to urgently send more H1N1 preventive medicines to the state.

H1N1 (Swine Flu)

Here’s about H1N1 nowadays.

The head of the WHO said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers’ links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in a critical journal article this month.

Three scientists out of 22 who worked on the guidelines were named as having received some money from pharmaceuticals. The scientists did not work at the drug companies, but were paid for things like speaking at meetings sponsored by them.

The guidelines recommend, among other things, that countries consider buying antivirals and vaccines to combat a pandemic. The authors of the BMJ article suggest, without providing direct evidence, that these scientists’ ties to pharmaceutical companies influenced WHO’s recommendation that countries buy drugs and vaccines — adding to those drug companies’ profits. “Our investigation has revealed damaging issues,” wrote Deborah Cohen of BMJ and journalist Philip Carter. “These conflicts of interest have never been disclosed by WHO.

WHO’s handling of the outbreak is being reviewed by a 29-member expert panel that will report its findings next year. Critics say many of those panelists are also trusted WHO advisers and government employees who could end up whitewashing any failures. “At no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.

Chan insisted she was open to the panel’s criticism. “Should this committee decide that the current definition of a pandemic and the phases leading up to its declaration need to be tightened or otherwise revised, this will be another recommendation that we will welcome, and act on.”

The U.S. Health and Human Services department defended the U.N. body. “WHO handled the outbreak in a very measured and appropriate manner,” said Bill Hall, an HHS spokesman. “Their decisions were driven by the existing and evolving conditions at the time.” He said there was “no indication whatsoever that any of their decisions were influenced by industry.” Other leading officials agreed.

“There was nothing in those guidelines that was not based on the best science available,” said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. on pandemic preparations. He said the scientists consulted were the world’s top flu experts and to not include them would have been a major flaw. Osterholm said that because flu viruses are unpredictable, it was impossible for anyone to predict last spring that swine flu would not evolve into a more lethal strain.

He slammed the BMJ article, calling it “irresponsible and reckless,” and said its authors had not substantiated their claims WHO behaved inappropriately during the pandemic. “It’s akin to shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre without regard to the consequences,” Osterholm said. He said while WHO should be subjected to the highest scrutiny, BMJ’s accusations had done “untold damage to the public health infrastructure of the world.”

Harvey Fineberg, the president of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, said the review panel which he heads will hear from critics of WHO when it next meets from June 30 to July 2. A report published by the Council of Europe last week said the guidelines from WHO, European Union agencies and national governments led to a “waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public.” The agency is not an EU body.

H1N1 cause cancellation of pilgrimage

Above about H1N1.

In Costa Rica, fears that swine flu might spread through the crowds of faithful walking to the Basilica de los Angeles in Cartago, the country’s Ministry of Health and Catholic Church agreed to suspend the annual pilgrimage.

Hundreds of thousands of people, some from outside the country, make the annual  August 2 pilgrimage to Cartago, the country's first capital. Authorities feared that up to 20,000 people could contract swine flu if the pilgrimage went ahead.

In Saudi Arabia and surrounding nations, the young, old and sick are banned from the hajj.

Health ministers from Arab states agreed to ban children, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses from participating in the hajj , an annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia that attracts 3 million people every year to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The ministers hope the ban, which applies to adults over the age of 65 and children under 12, will reduce the possibility of swine flu contagion during the hajj, which takes place in late November, following peak flu season. A 28-year-old Egyptian woman died from swine flu last week after returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca — the first such death from the swine flu virus in the Middle East.

The World Health Organization reports that deaths from swine flu worldwide have doubled in the past three weeks, from about 330 to over 700. Scientists are working on developing a vaccine before the flu season begins this fall in the northern hemisphere.

More H1N1 cases

Here are H1N1 cases.

Vietnam’s health ministry confirmed Friday seven more H1N1 cases, as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the pandemic was spreading at “unprecedented” speed and stopped releasing figures on numbers affected.

The six new cases in the south and one in the north took the country’s tally to 345 cases. 

The Ministry of Health also reported an increase in infections recently among people entering Vietnam on road, apart from those arriving on flights. 

The Center for Preventive Health in Dong Nai Province on Friday reported 17 locals of Viet Kieu Hamlet in Xuan Loc District had tested positive to influenza A (H1N1) and were being treated under quarantine at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Xuan Loc General Hospital. 

The patients include 49-year-old Vu Duc Yen, an overseas Vietnamese from the US, his wife Chu Thi Sen and his son Vu Minh Tuan.

Fourteen other patients were identified to have had direct contact with Yen’s family. 

Yen’s family had arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport on July 10 and two of their children had been quarantined as they had high temperatures. Subsequent tests found the two had contracted the H1N1 virus. 

Doctors of Xuan Loc General Hospital said they had quarantined seven others at Viet Kieu Hamlet for flu tests, after they recorded high body temperatures.

Twenty others were also encouraged to quarantine themselves at home to avoid the possible spread of the flu, which is also known as swine flu.

Second swine flu death reperted Indiana

Here’s about swine flu.

INDIANAPOLIS - State health officials say Indiana has had its second swine flu death.
The state Department of Health said Friday that a resident of Lake County in northern Indiana has died from complications related to the H1N1 influenza.
The agency won't release any other information about the resident for confidentiality reasons.
State health commissioner Judy Monroe says officials are working closely with Lake County health officials to investigate the case. She said her agency has already communicated with all close contacts and health care providers who might have been exposed in the fatal case.

A 19-year-old man from Dearborn County in the state's southeastern corner became Indiana's first swine flu death on July 5.

About Swine influenza

Above about Swine influenza.

Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of swine influenza virus. In 2009 the media labeled as "swine flu" flu caused by 2009's new strain of swine-origin A/H1N1 pandemic virus just as it had earlier dubbed as "avian flu" flu caused by the recent Asian-linage HPAI (High Pathogenic Avian Influenza) H5N1 strain that is still endemic in many wild bird species in several countries.

A swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is usually hosted by (is endemic in) pigs.^[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains are the influenza C virus and the subtypes of the influenza A virus known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Swine flu is common throughout pig populations worldwide.

Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, which allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded. Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. Pigs can also become infected with human influenza, and this appears to have happened during the 1918 flu pandemic.^[3]

The 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that contains genes closely related to swine influenza.^[4] The origin of this new strain is unknown. However, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs.^[5] This strain can be transmitted from human to human,^[6] and causes the normal symptoms of influenza.