H1N1 Flu Perspective
by ilene - November 23rd, 2009 12:45 pm
H1N1 Flu Perspective
By Ilene at Phil’s Stock World
Below are excerpts from a number of articles regarding the H1N1 flu pandemic in the Ukraine and the Norway mutation. The "Norway" mutation was found in three cases in Norway, and throughout other countries as well. Due to its ability to bind to receptors deeper in the respiratory tract, it is speculated that it may confer greater virulence to the H1N1 virus. It has not been proven to be spreading wildly throughout the Ukraine and other regions – it may be endemic however, as part of the mixture of circulating flu. More research needs to be done to learn the extensiveness, communicability of, and significance of this form of the H1N1 virus.
First, for perspective, here’s a entry in Wikipedia about deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic:
The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but it is estimated that 10% to 20% of those who were infected died. With about a third of the world population infected, this case-fatality ratio means that 3% to 6% of the entire global population died. Influenza may have killed as many as 25 million in its first 25 weeks. Older estimates say it killed 40–50 million people while current estimates say 50—100 million people worldwide were killed. This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the Black Death.
As many as 17 million died in India, about 5% of India’s population at the time. In Japan, 23 million people were affected, and 390,000 died. In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died. In Britain as many as 250,000 died; in France more than 400,000.[18] In Canada approximately 50,000 died. Entire villages perished in Alaska and southern Africa.[which?] Tafari Makonnen (the future Haile Selassie) was one of the first Ethiopians who contracted influenza but survived, although many of his subjects did not; estimates for the fatalities in the capital city, Addis Ababa, range from 5,000 to 10,000, with some experts opining that the number was even higher, while in British Somaliland one official there estimated that 7% of the native population died from influenza. In Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), around 1.5 million assumed died from 30 million inhabitants. In Australia an estimated 12,000 people died and in the Fiji Islands, 14% of the population died during only two weeks,
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Ukraine Flu Death Toll Hits 400
by ilene - November 22nd, 2009 11:15 pm
Flu News
Ukraine Flu Death Toll Hits 400
The flu outbreak in the Ukraine, which is possibly the result of some virulent H1N1 mutation, continues to grow more alarming.
The Guardian: A flu pandemic in Ukraine that has triggered a nationwide panic is worsening this weekend with up to 400 deaths already reported.
The arrival of the virus, suspected by the World Health Organisation to be swine flu but possibly a combination of the H1N1 strain and a respiratory illness, has paralysed the country’s fragile health system and could even lead to the postponement of the general election which is scheduled for 17 January.
Seven people died and 35,000 new cases were reported on Friday, said the health minister, bringing the total number of people infected to 1.6 million out of a population of 46 million.
Meanwhile, the issue of H1N1 mutations is not just confined to The Ukraine. A new cluster of Tamiflu-resistant cases showed up at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.
Also another virulent strain is showing up in Norway.
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Source: additional excerpt, with my yellow highlighting – Ilene
Panic over hundreds of flu deaths exploited by Ukraine’s politicians
The Guardian
The onslaught of the virus has seen all the major political figures eagerly exploiting the outbreak. Prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced the arrival of an epidemic on 30 October, when only one case had been reported, and has closed all schools and banned public gatherings – including campaigning political rallies – for the past three weeks…
"This is very dangerous,’ said Igor Shkrobanets, chief of the health ministry in the western district of Chernivtsi. "One or another politician will gain from this situation, but the doctors and their patients certainly will not."
He said the level of fear was such that people were calling out ambulances when they felt the first touch of a fever and hospitals were "overloaded".
In such uneasy times, bloggers and conspiracy theorists have whipped up fears by suggesting that bubonic plague, or a new, more lethal strain of the flu, was sweeping Ukraine and that there was a massive cover-up of the numbers of deaths.
"We are seeing reports of bodies lying in the streets," said one. Others claim
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In Germany, A Better H1N1 Vaccine For Politicians?
by ilene - October 27th, 2009 4:14 am
For additional reading on the swine flu vaccine situation in Germany, see the article at the end translated by my friend Bob, in red. Thank you Bob. - Ilene
In Germany, A Better H1N1 Vaccine For Politicians?
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By Tristana Moore / Berlin, Courtesy of TIME
Critics are calling it a two-tier health system — one for the politically well-connected, another for the hoi polloi. As Germany launched its mass vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus on Monday, the government found itself fending off accusations of favoritism by offering one vaccine believed to have fewer side effects to civil servants, politicians and soldiers, and another potentially riskier vaccine to everyone else. The government had hoped that Germans would rush to health clinics to receive vaccinations against the rapidly spreading disease, but the rising anger over the different doses may now cause many people to shy away.
Amid growing fears over a possible global flu pandemic, the German government prepared for its mass vaccination campaign earlier this year by ordering 50 million doses of the Pandemrix vaccine, which would be enough for a double dose for 25 million people, around a third of the population. The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, contains an immune-enhancing chemical compound, known as an adjuvant, whose side effects are not yet entirely known. Then, after a report was leaked to the German media last week, the Interior Ministry confirmed that it had ordered a different vaccine, Celvapan, for government officials and the military. Celvapan, which is made by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Baxter, does not contain an adjuvant and is believed to have fewer side effects than Pandemrix.
Anger at the news was widespread in Germany. "If mass vaccination is considered to be necessary, then everyone should be treated the same way," says Birgitt Bender, the health spokeswoman for the Green Party. Ulrike Mascher, head of the VdK social welfare association, said giving government officials a different vaccine from the rest of the population sent the "wrong signal" and gave many people "the impression that they are second-class patients." A story on the front page of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper accused the government of giving "second-class medicine" to regular Germans.
Doctors and medical experts are divided over the safety of Pandemrix. While some say it’s the best vaccine available, others have serious misgivings about it. "The Pandemrix vaccine can’t be recommended…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site