Watchout: Pandemic Flu H1N1

[AL]

Trying to stay aware. I have to go to Sacramento next week. I am checking the flu conditions. Taking my N95 masks too.

AL

Sacramento health official calls for H1N1 flu emergency declaration
http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/2300558.html

By Bobby Caina Calvan
Published: Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 - 2:50 pm

Sacramento County's chief public health official said she will recommend that a state of emergency be declared in the county because of the dramatic rise in the number of cases of H1N1 flu.

Sacramento County's board of supervisors is expected to consider the request at its meeting tomorrow.

Increased concern over the spread of the novel flu comes on heels of the latest H1N1-related death in Sacramento County - the 15th since last April, when the virus first appeared in the region.

County officials could not provide specific details on that fatality.

On Monday Health Official Dr. Glennah Trochet said the flu matter is now "urgent" and expressed alarm at the accelerating rate of H1N1 flu infections. But Trochet stopped short of calling the situation a public health disaster.

Trochet explained the declaration would give her department flexibility in working with hospitals to address the spread of the virus. It would allow hospitals, for example, to put into play many of the planned emergency measures - such as increasing the number of beds in hospital emergency departments. It also grants the county health department authority to shut down schools, if necessary. Trochet said there are no immediate plans to do that, although the declaration would allow her to open discussions with school officials should the virus spread.

"If you see a train coming toward you, you want to slow it down," Trochet said of her request for an emergency declaration.

Trochet said she also is concerned about the delayed shipment of thousands of doses of anti-viral vaccine for the H1N1 virus.

The county was expected to receive at least 50,000 doses of the vaccine, but has yet to receive that amount. The county has already used up the initial 10,000 doses of spray vaccine it received to give to children. The vaccine has been trickling in, Trochet said, but the county is not sure the full number of doses now available.

The county is slated to open the first open H1N1 vaccine clinic on Nov. 16th, at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento.

The proposed declaration of an emergency also comes as the county health department is reeling from cuts forced by a dwindling Sacramento County budget. The department's staff has shrunk by 30 percent since June, and has relied on volunteers from area hospitals to cope with the increasing flu problem.

[stringtown]

Obesity puts swine flu sufferers at greater risk, study suggests

Obesity appears to be a risk factor on a par with pregnancy for developing complications from an infection with pandemic H1N1 influenza, according to the most comprehensive look yet at swine flu hospitalizations.

About a quarter of those hospitalizations have been for people who were morbidly obese, even though such people make up less than 5% of the population. That fivefold increase in risk is close to the sixfold increase observed in pregnant women, according to the report published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

When the merely obese are included with the morbidly obese, they make up 34% of the American population. Yet they accounted for 58% of the hospitalizations in the study.

"It makes intuitive sense," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who noted that obese people have a higher risk of many diseases and thus a lower life expectancy. "It should be added as one of the underlying conditions."

Read more...http://www.latimes.com/features/heal...,2242205.story

One fact I found interesting was that in a study on obese vs. lean mice, the obese mice failed to produce cytokine cells.

http://www.wildlandfire.com/docs/fai...disclaimer.htm

[stringtown]

H1N1 mutation found in some flu fatalities
Change in virus could cause severest symptoms, Norwegian scientists said

OSLO - Norwegian health authorities said Friday they have discovered a potentially significant mutation in the H1N1 influenza strain that could be responsible for causing the severest symptoms among those infected.

"The mutation could be affecting the virus' ability to go deeper into the respiratory system, thus causing more serious illness," the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said in a statement.

The concern over mutation of the H1N1 virus came as health officials said the H1N1 virus is moving eastwards across Europe and Asia after appearing to peak in parts of western Europe and the United States, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34065140...-cold_and_flu/

Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 cases reported in N.C.
First U.S. cluster of resistance; overall, swine flu may be peaking nationally

ATLANTA - Four patients at a single hospital tested positive for a type of swine flu that is resistant to Tamiflu, health officials said Friday.

The cases reported at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, over six weeks make up the biggest cluster seen so far in the U.S.

Tamiflu — made by Switzerland's Roche Group — is one of two flu medicines that help against swine flu, and health officials have been closely watching for signs that the virus is mutating, making the drugs ineffective.

About 52 resistant cases have been reported in the world since April, including 15 in the U.S. Almost all in the U.S. were isolated, said officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The BBC reported another cluster of five Tamiflu-resistant cases this week in Wales, in the United Kingdom.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34066494...-cold_and_flu/


http://www.wildlandfire.com/docs/fai...disclaimer.htm