Influenza A/H1N1 Update

Flu Cases Increase but there is Some Optimism - click blue links to original articles

"The worrisome things about this virus...is that it is new, so few people can be expected to have resistance to it, and that it is behaving unusually, flaring up and taking hold at a time when the flu season is normally just about over."

Google Flu Tracker with data compiled by Dr. Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher, moved here

(Update) As of May 16, more than 6,000 cases in the US - 5,000 confirmed; more than 7,000 in Mexico - 3771 confirmed

Swine flu goes person to pig

Pigs on a Canadian farm found with the new swine flu virus, infected by a man back from Mexico. Man and 200 pigs are recovering from mild cases.

Can it jump back? No one can say. If it did, it could mutate and be milder, or it could be stronger. Swine flu infects the respiratory tract, but Avian flu H5N1 infects blood, organs, and tissue. That increases the risk of humans getting infected which is why surveillance has been much stronger. "...the past three flu pandemics - the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957-58 Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 - were all linked to birds...."

Mexico changes reporting of H1N1

From now on they will only report confirmed cases. Previously gave suspected cases (think sudden and severe pneumonia). While they work on a backlog of samples, numbers will rise.... Until late on Thursday, the number of "suspected" deaths stood at 176 with more than 2,500 people having gotten ill with symptoms linked to the virus. They later scaled down the number of suspected deaths to 100..... As of Saturday, the new count looked very different: 443 confirmed infections and only 16 deaths.

You can find Mexico's up-to-date numbers here.

The Cochrane Library review on Tamiflu and Relenza

The generic name of the medication is oseltamivir and zanamivir. They need to be given within 48 hours of onset.

Not a miracle cure: “The time in which flu symptoms were alleviated was assessed by nine trials. The group treated with zanamivir were 24% more likely to have their flu symptoms alleviated than the placebo group, at a given time point. For oseltamivir the figure was 20%.” ”Overall, oseltamivir reduced the average time to alleviation of symptoms by 0.68 days. For zanamivir, the figure was 0.71 days.”

For prevention: “A 75mg daily dose of oseltamivir was 61% effective compared with a placebo, and 73% effective when the daily dose was 150mg, while Relenza was 62% effective.”

For prevention: "A 75 mg daily dose of oseltamivir was 61% effective compared with a placebo, and 73% effective when the daily dose was 150mg, while Relenza was 62% effective."

Swine flu born on US factory farms 1998 (click link)

On the surface: the HxNx Nomenclature for those interested in the science.

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Piggies

by the Beatles

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