H5N1

Switzerland: Health Office records steep rise in swine flu cases

Via Swissinfo.ch: Health Office records steep rise in swine flu cases. Excerpt:

The swine flu pandemic is continuing to spread across Switzerland, according to health authorities. 

"We have recorded an exponential increase in cases. The number of confirmed cases doubled over the past week," said Patrick Mathys of the Federal Health Office. 

The number of people who consulted a doctor also grew and about 15 patients were taken into intensive care over the past eight days, he added. 

Mathys estimates several tens of thousands of people across the country have been infected with the H1N1 influenza virus. There is also a marked increase in cases among the 0-19 age group.

Ukraine: 16 deaths

Via the Kyiv Post: Swine flu death toll in Ukraine reaches 16. The whole report:

Eighty-five swine flu (A/H1N1 virus) cases have been confirmed in Ukraine and 16 people have died from the disease," Liubov Nekrasova, chief doctor of the Central Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, has said.

"The tentative conclusion is as follows: we can say that this type of virus [A/H1N1] now prevails on the territory of the country, and the majority of cases are caused by this type of virus. But there also other viruses, including seasonal flu and respiratory viruses," Nekrasova told a press conference in Kyiv on Nov. 12. 

We remind that two days ago, Nov. 10, Ukraine has recorded 67 cases of swine flu, with 14 dying from the virus.

Thailand: B2B H5N1 outbreak?

Via Xinhua: Thailand's North alerted of bird flu outbreak. It's suspected, not confirmed. Excerpt:

Thailand's North has alerted of the bird flu outbreak after almost 100 poultries died recently in a northern province of Nan.     

As Thailand's North is now experiencing the winter, during Oct.7 to Nov. 5 some 79 poultries died in six districts of Nan province, a senior official at Nan's livestock department said Thursday, Thai News Agency reported.     

The department collected some examples of the dead poultries and sent them to a nearby province of Lam-pang, where a regional office of the National Institute of Animal Health, is located, to examine, the official said.

Branswell: Rethink usage of Tamiflu, expert warns

Via the Chronicle Herald, Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press writes: Rethink usage of Tamiflu, expert warns. Excerpt:

Doctors should be cautious about giving Tamiflu to people to prevent them from becoming ill after they’ve been exposed to H1N1, an antiviral expert said Wednesday as he reported details of North America’s first reported case of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 viruses. 

Dr. Guy Boivin said people who’ve been exposed to the virus may already be in the process of becoming ill, a circumstance that can foster the emergence of Tamiflu-resistant viruses. 

As of late last week the World Health Organization was reporting that 42 cases of Tamiflu-resistant pandemic H1N1 viruses had been seen globally since the pandemic began. The case Boivin reported on in the New England Journal of Medicine was the third, from late June. 

"I have to admit I would have expected more cases, considering . . . the large volume of Tamiflu that has been used in the last few months, certainly more than in the last five years, probably," said Boivin, who is based at Laval University in Quebec City. 

"But I’m still concerned that the same situation that has occurred with the seasonal H1N1 could be . . . repeated with the pandemic H1N1." 

Seasonal H1N1 viruses developed resistance to Tamiflu a couple of years ago for reasons that remain unclear.

Canada: Forget poppies – vets deserve flu vaccine

André Picard, the medical reporter at the Globe and Mail, has a wonderful article today: Forget poppies – vets deserve flu vaccine. Excerpt:

Public-health officials tell us that relegating older people to the bottom of the priority is not ageism but good science. 

But all evidence requires an element of interpretation and all public policies involve tough choices. 

There are data that suggest that older people – those born prior to 1957 – have some immunity to H1N1 because most of the flu strains that circulated between 1918 and 1957 were of the H1N1 variety, cousins to the current pandemic strain. 

Practically, this means that older people have a lesser risk of contracting H1N1. 

But the cold, hard data on hospitalizations and deaths also tell us that, when seniors contract H1N1, they have the highest rate of hospitalization and death. 

Yet, we hear incessantly that this pandemic strain of influenza is a public-health priority because of the risk it poses to children and young adults. In these groups, flu deaths are normally very rare and now they are merely rare. 

The unspoken but implied calculus here is that the death of a senior is less of a tragedy than the death of a child or an adult in the “prime” of his or her life. 

We see this attitude in our influenza policies writ large. Governments and public-health authorities have pulled out all the stops in response to H1N1. This may or may not be appropriate. 

What is unquestionable is that we pay far too little attention to seasonal flu, the run-of-the-mill disease that comes round each winter, strikes down 4,000 to 8,000 people and results in the hospitalization of tens of thousands more. 

Let's be frank: We treat this recurring public-health disaster with casual indifference because deaths and severe illness occur almost exclusively in older people. 

When nursing homes are being decimated by influenza, when thousands of grandmas and grandpas are hospitalized with “regular” life-threatening flu, we don't see almost daily press conferences by the Minister of Health, full-page newspaper ads urging vaccination, unprecedented mobilization of public health and hysteria. 

We see a collective shrug of the shoulders.

Picard has put his finger on a very, very big problem: the contempt of the young for their elders. 

As North America's baby boomers hit 65, a generation that has always considered itself the center of the world will find itself dismissed--or simply regarded as a tiresome and expensive problem. I hope the boomers fight back.

Mexico: Senators demand explanation for rise in flu cases

Via Excélsior: Senadores solicitarán información a SSA sobre aumento en casos de influenza. [Senators demand information from Health about rise in flu cases] Excerpt, with my translation:

Frente al incremento de casos y de decesos por el virus de la influenza A ‘H1N1’, senadores de la República indicaron que solicitarán información a la Secretaría de Salud (SSa) para que explique el por qué de este aumento. 

Facing the increase of H1N1 cases and deaths, senators have demand information from the Secretariat of Health to explain the reason for this increase.

El senador del Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) e integrante de la comisión de salud, Guillermo Tamborrel, aseguró que un factor que puede ser determinante para este rebrote es que la ciudadanía relajó las medidas preventivas, destacó que hemos perdido el respeto al virus y esto significa que no continuamos con las medidas higiénicas recomendadas o bien que debido al periodo invernal la ciudadanía se confió creyendo que se trataba de una gripe común y no llegó a tiempo con el médico o a los hospitales.  

Guillermo Tamborrel, senator of the National Action Party and member of the health committee, said that one factor influencing this resurgence is that the public has relaxed preventive measures; he emphasized that we have lost respect for the virus and therefore are not continuing with recommended hygiene. Or else the public, because of the winter season, thinks that cases are seasonal flu and people don't go to their doctor or hospital in time.

Senator Tamborrel is likely right: You can't keep a hundred million people at battle stations indefinitely, especially when they're also fighting dengue, a nasty recession, and a civil war with drug cartels.

Swine flu deaths in Europe doubling by the week, agency says

Via the Washington Post, a Bloomberg report: Swine flu deaths in Europe doubling by the week, agency says. Excerpt:

Swine flu deaths in Europe doubled in three of the last four weeks, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Wednesday. 

Eighty-four people in 31 European Union and European Free Trade Association countries died from swine flu last week, compared with 43 the week before, Stockholm-based ECDC said in a bulletin on its Web site. 

Two weeks ago, 49 people died, up from 24 and 12 the previous weeks, the agency said. 

"We are globally entering the acceleration phase" of the pandemic, Denis Coulombier, head of the ECDC's unit of preparedness and response, said in a telephone interview late Tuesday. "We are heading toward the peak for sure."

Canada: Family charges negligence in swine flu death

Via CBCnews.ca: Negligence in swine flu death: family. Excerpt:

An investigation has been launched into one of B.C.'s latest swine flu deaths as the family of the asthmatic victim alleges negligence on the part of Richmond Hospital. 

Mae Mah, 51, of Richmond, went to the emergency room Oct. 31 while suffering an asthma attack and was treated by doctors and sent home, her family told CBC News.  

The next day, Mah had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance after experiencing shortness of breath, this time accompanied by fever. Doctors gave her Tylenol and again sent her home. 

Later on Nov. 1, Mah collapsed at home and was again taken by ambulance to hospital. 

Doctors admitted Mah to the intensive care unit and put her on a ventilator. She died later that day. 

The hospital later told the family Mah, a chronic asthmatic, had the H1N1 virus. 

"Deep down, I'm angry and frustrated that this had to happen to my mom," said Mah's daughter, Tiffany Yung, 22. 

"She phoned me and she was joking around with me and saying, 'I'm not dead yet,' and, 'I'll see you soon.' But I never saw her again, alive," said Yung.

This is another reason why our health authorities should reconsider their "privacy" policy about H1N1 deaths: When the family of a victim goes public, the authorities instantly lose the initiative. 

When Evan Frustaglio died, countless frightened Canadian parents headed for the vaccination clinics. In effect, one ordinary family determined the success of our vaccination program.

With the death of Mae Mah, families will start looking for lawyers who are prepared to amaze and astound our health authorities. Such lawyers will not be hard to find.

Paying people to stay home when they're sick

Via Mexico's NTRZacatecas.com: Dará Cuba trato salarial a enfermos de influenza hospitalizados. [Cuba will pay salaries to workers hospitalized with flu] Excerpt, with my translation:

El gobierno cubano dispuso que los trabajadores afectados por la pandemia de influenza recibirán el salario básico correspondiente a su puesto laboral si están hospitalizados o recluidos en sus viviendas por prescripción médica. 

The Cuban government has said that workers infected with pandemic flu will receive their basic salaries if they are hospitalized or staying home on medical advice.

Este tratamiento diferenciado que corresponde aplicar al Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social se extenderá durante el aislamiento del diagnosticado con la enfermedad que ha causado hasta ahora siete muertos y unos 800 contagios, informó el diario Granma. 

According to the daily Granma, this policy will be in effect as long as the patient is isolated with the disease, which so far has caused seven deaths and some 800 infections.

El vocero oficial indicó este miércoles que las madres trabajadoras imposibilitadas de asistir al trabajo porque el hijo menor a su cargo contrajo la enfermedad o es sospechoso de padecerla cobrarán también el salario básico mientras dure ese proceso.

The official spokesperson said Wednesday that working mothers who can't go to work because their dependent child has contracted the disease, or are suspected of having it, will also receive their basic salary for the duration of the child's illness.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, the Obama government is endorsing the Healthy Families Act, guaranteeing 7 sick days every year to workers in companies with 15 employees or more.

Moldova: Up to 200,000 antivirals to be distributed starting November 12

Via Moldpres News Agency: As many as 200,000 doses of anti-viral medication to be distributed in Moldova starting from 12 November. Excerpt:

As many as 200,000 doses of the anti-viral medication Tamiflu, bought from a Swiss pharmaceutical company, will be brought to Chisinau today and will be distributed through medical institutions starting from 12 November. 

Health Minister Vladimir Hotineanu made this statement at a today's meeting focused on the epidemiological situation concerning the A (H1N1) flu virus. 

Leaders of the local public administration, heads of territorial anti-epidemic commissions and of preventive medicine centres participated in the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Filat. 

Minister Hotineanu said that, presently, to treat the sick people, four Chisinau-based clinical hospitals were re-adjusted, and hospital beds were set in another four municipal institutions and a maternity hospital from Chisinau. 

Also, resident doctors from the N. Testemiteanu Medicine and Pharmacy University were sent to villages where there are no family physicians to provide medical assistance.

For details about Moldova, see Wikipedia.