"Although yearly vaccination with the flu vaccine is the best way to prevent the flu, antiviral drugs can be effective for prevention and treatment of the flu." 04-09
"We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems." 04-09
"The CDC is actively investigating isolated human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) in several states (CA, TX, OH, KS, NY) and is working closely with Canada and Mexico and with the WHO. The CDC is continuously updating investigation information." 04-09
"Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below." 04-09
"Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below." 04-09
"U.S. health officials expressed concern Friday that a swine flu virus that has infected eight people in the United States matches samples of a virus that has killed at least 68 people in Mexico."
"Sixty-eight people have died in Mexico City, Cordova said at a news conference. More than 1,000 other people have gotten sick...." 04-09
"The U.S. is declaring a public health emergency to deal with the emerging new swine flu."
"The precautionary step doesn't signal a greater threat to Americans. But it allows the federal and state governments easier access to flu tests and medications." 04-09
"The WHO declared this event a public health emergency of international concern Saturday, but the death rate for swine flu tends to be low, around 1 to 4 percent, the agency says." 04-09
Swine flu is not currently a pandemic. If it became one, this is what could happen: "The disease would skip from city to city over an 18- to 24-month period, infecting more than a third of the population. World Health Organization officials believe that as many as 1.5 billion people around the globe would seek medical care, and nearly 30 million would seek hospitalization. Based on the last pandemic and current world population, as many as 7 million people could die, epidemiologists said." 04-09
"This story discusses findings of a meta-analysis, or review of many studies, of anti-viral medications conducted by European researchers and published in the Lancet. According to this review of 51 randomized controlled trials, antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu are only effective in reducing symptoms of influenza type A and B by about 50%, and not as effective in the cases of "flu-like" illnesses. Doctors can and should test patients to determine if they have influenza type A and B viruses before prescribing anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu; the drugs should not be taken for flu-like symptoms and non-life threatening influenza." 04-09
"Pandemic flu plans aren’t just for governments: Families need them too, says Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a family doc in Boise, Idaho. And parents need to prepare now." 04-09
"The data matches computer models run by biostatisticians like Longini, who found that even the strictest limits on air travel would only slow the start of a flu pandemic, not stop its spread."
"What works better are social-distancing actions on a local level — closing schools, having employees work at home and limiting public gatherings where the flu can spread easily. Such methods worked during the deadly 1918 Spanish flu — cities that acted quickly to close schools and theaters early in the pandemic had peak death rates 50% lower than cities that acted more slowly. Today doctors could also prophylactically administer antiviral drugs to the close contacts of any swine flu patients, a strategy that has been shown to help prevent the spread of the flu. 'Until you start to see really massive clusters, that can be a really effective method,' says Longini." 04-09
"Mexico is telling citizens to stay home, urging businesses to close for five days and suspending government services as the World Health Organization warns the swine flu outbreak is on the brink of becoming a global epidemic." 04-09
"You can prepare for an influenza pandemic now. You should know both the magnitude of what can happen during a pandemic outbreak and what actions you can take to help lessen the impact of an influenza pandemic on you and your family. This checklist will help you gather the information and resources you may need in case of a flu pandemic." 04-09
" 'Containment is no longer a feasible option,' Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director general of the World Health Organization, announced Monday night in Geneva after a meeting of the agency’s emergency committee on the spreading swine flu virus. 'The world should focus on mitigation. We recommend not closing borders or restricting travel.' " 04-09
"The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent." 04-09
"With the first reported death from the 2009 H1N1 flu, or swine flu, in the U.S., the Federal Government and flu-vaccine manufacturers are preparing for the possibility that a new vaccine will be necessary to control the outbreak. Should the call for vaccine production come from health officials, both traditional and newer, faster vaccine-making methods could be employed."
"But even if the CDC's seed stock of virus were to be released to vaccine makers today, it would take the companies anywhere from four to six months before the first inoculation could be ready for public use."
"At the biotech company Novavax, researchers are testing the use of virus-like particles (VLP), instead of the virus itself, to stimulate a flu immune response. Using this method, a vaccine for the 2009 H1N1 virus could be in production in 10 to 12 weeks, rather than the usual four to six months." 05-09
"Still confused about what's going to happen with swine flu shots next month? You're not alone. The federal government and individual states still haven't told us how they're going to distribute the vaccine, or when. Yesterday's chirpy press release from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases made it easy to think that all children will need just one swine flu immunization, but that's not true. The younger a child is, the less well his or her immune system responded to the swine flu vaccine in clinical trials. So children under age 10 will need two doses of swine flu vaccine, one month apart, according to the NIAID itself." 09-09
"The first doses of H1N1 flu vaccine were given to children today, a day after health care workers began getting doses in what is likely to be the largest flu vaccination campaign in U.S. history." 10-09
"The virus can cause life-threatening viral pneumonia much more commonly than the typical flu, prompting the World Health Organization on Friday to warn hospitals to prepare for a possible wave of very sick patients and to urge doctors to treat suspected cases quickly with antiviral drugs."
"Experts stress that most people who get the H1N1 virus either never get sick or recover easily. But some young adults, possibly especially women, are falling seriously ill at an unexpectedly rapid pace and are showing up in intensive care units and dying in unusually high numbers, they say."
"Although why a minority of patients become so sick remains a mystery, new research indicates that H1N1 is different from typical seasonal flu viruses in crucial ways -- most notably in its ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and cause viral pneumonia." 10-09
"New doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine will arrive across the country this week. But what about those who are already infected?"
"The virus can make healthy people suddenly very ill. Some doctors say they'd use an experimental drug to help rescue patients on the brink - if only they were allowed, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports." 10-09
"There are four influenza antiviral drugs approved for use in the United States (oseltamivir, zanamivir, amantadine and rimantadine). The swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses that have been detected in humans in the United States and Mexico are resistant to amantadine and rimantadine so these drugs will not work against these swine influenza viruses. Laboratory testing on these swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses so far indicate that they are susceptible (sensitive) to oseltamivir [Tamiflu ®] and zanamivir [Relenza ®]." 04-09
"This may be just the first weeks of a three-to-five-year pandemic, with wave after wave of sickness and death."
"This virus causes 1.4 to 1.6 new cases of flu from each infected person, on average, which is similar to or lower than the pandemics of 1918, 1957, and 1968."
"These numbers mean that swine flu/H1N1 is acting like a pandemic flu, and that we should act as if it’s a pandemic, too." 05-09
The Partnership is designed "to improve surge capacity and enhance community and hospital preparedness for public health emergencies in defined geographic areas." 04-09
"From Mexico to China, people around the world have worn face masks to protect against swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus. The problem? Experts could never say for sure whether such masks actually help you stay healthy."
"Now, the largest study to date on the subject suggests they do. When sick people and their families wear surgical face masks and wash their hands within the first 36 hours of symptoms, healthy family members are indeed less likely to get seasonal flu, researchers say. They think the results may apply to H1N1 as well."
"However, those who started using masks or washing their hands after the 36-hour time period had passed saw no benefit." 09-09
"Experts say that flu activity is higher-than-normal for this time of year and almost all of it is due to H1N1."
" 'From what I've seen, I actually believe it to be more contagious,' [than seasonal flu] says Litman. [Dr. Nathan Litman is the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, in New York City.] Often with the seasonal flu that's circulating, a percentage of the population has some immunity to it. With H1N1, it looks like most people -- other than the elderly -- have no immunity to it, and that may be why it appears more contagious, he says."
"People who are older than 60 may have been exposed to a swine-flu-like virus in the distant past, which is giving them an edge with this pandemic."
" 'Get immunized, wash your hands, cover your mouth and nose if you're sneezing or coughing, stay home if you're sick, and if any warning signs come up -- difficulty breathing, not responsive as usual, unable to take fluids, or after a day or two of the fever coming down and having more fever and cough again -- see the doctor,' says Litman." 10-09
"The Food and Drug Administration approved the new swine flu vaccine Tuesday, a long-anticipated step as the government works to get vaccinations under way next month." 09-09
"Genes included in the new H1N1 (swine) flu have been circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade, according to researchers who have sequenced the genomes of more than 50 samples of the virus."
"The findings suggest that in the future pig populations will need to be closely monitored for emerging influenza viruses, according to the report, released Friday by the journal Science." 05-09
On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the pandemic level from Phase 5 to Phase 6, signifying that there is sustained spread of the novel 2009 H1N1 strain in 2 or more regions. This geographic implication means that a pandemic has begun, but the severity of the pandemic and which populations will be most at risk remains unknown."
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be working with international health agencies (WHO, the Pan-American Health Organization) to monitor the influenza activity in the Southern Hemisphere, which entered its flu season in early June (opposite seasons as Northern Hemisphere), for clues as to how the pandemic strain of H1N1 will behave." 06-09
"The strain of flu virus that is alarming the world is so new and poorly understood that it justifies the U.S. government's multi-pronged efforts to fight it, President Barack Obama said Saturday." 05-09
"The N95 rating [for face masks] meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for protection against tuberculosis and anthrax spores, as well as the most foreseeable bioweaponry, which ranges in size from 1.0 to 5.0 microns. So the N95s are more than capable of preventing their inhalation."
"Even in a biological attack, the masks have major shortcomings. Like fit."
" 'Does it have a nose piece like a metal clip you can bend over your nose? That's a better model because the big kicker here is getting a good fit,' Utgoff says."
"Bad fits are deadly. Contaminated air breathed from around the unfiltered edges instead of through the N95-rated material undermines the purpose of a mask."
"And, got a beard? 'Shave it,' says Breysse, who recommends duct-taping the mask to your face to make a good fit." 07-07
"Perhaps I should take a hint from a coworker who yesterday forwarded me a study showing that H1N1, the virus that causes swine flu, remains contagious long after those first few can't-get-out-of-bed days."
"The study, published last week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that H1N1 is most contagious within the first three days after symptoms appear but that infected individuals could still spread the disease after a week."
"Bottom line: If you've got flulike symptoms, do your best to avoid close contact with others for several days or even a week. Skip family gatherings, especially if you know that certain high-risk individuals may be present: kids younger than 5 years old; seniors over 65; pregnant women; and those with asthma, diabetes, impaired immunity, or heart or lung conditions. While the CDC no longer recommends that we stay home from work or school until all our symptoms are gone, the agency does still have this recommendation in place for healthcare workers or those visiting relatives in the hospital." 10-09
"Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans, however, human infections with swine flu do occur, and cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu viruses has been documented." 04-09
"Swine influenza (Swine flu) refers to influenza cases that are caused by Orthomyxoviruses endemic to populations of pigs. The viruses are referred to as Swine influenza viruses (SIV). The distinction is not based on phylogeny. SIV strains isolated to date have been classified either as Influenzavirus C or one of the various subtypes of the genus Influenzavirus A.[1]" 04-09
"The swine flu virus that has sparked fear and precautions worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, U.S. officials said Monday."
"There are still concerns that the virus could return in the fall, in the typical flu season, as a stronger strain." 05-09
"Despite the risk of such unforeseen consequences, there are three major actions the government needs to take now that will shape what happens in the fall." 05-09
"Whether you decide to get a flu shot this year or not, it's important to take steps to prevent yourself from getting the seasonal flu, as well as H1N1, commonly referred to as swine flu." 10-09
"The Air-Aid Mask protects you from noxious odors, chemicals, paint odors, and communicable diseases." Awesome Library does not endorse these products, but provides them as examples. 03-06
Provides sources for N95 respirators or face masks. The 3m 8210 Plus N95 should be considered. Awesome Library does not endorse these products but provides them as examples. 04-09
