At least 154 cases of a new strain of swine flu were detected across several states. The number of victims had been 29 one week ago, but the five time increase has officials concerned about another mass outbreak.

The original strain of swine flu, H1N1, killed at least 17,000 people between 2009 and 2010. This was highly contagious and moved so fast that countries only reported the number of deaths and clusters of unusual outbreaks.

This new strain, H3N2v, a variant of the H3N2 common influenza, so far has only effected people in direct contact with pigs. The states that are most affected also come in most contact with traveling fairs, complete with petting zoos and shows; people that work around pigs on a regular basis are high at risk. Indiana reports at least 113 cases, Ohio 30 cases, and one case each in Hawaii and Illinois.

Dr. Joseph Bresee of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that “This is not a pandemic situation.” The CDC states that the disease must transfer easily between humans before it is considered a pandemic. However, they told ABC News that they are also concerned that “the new strain has a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do.” H3N2v could become another worldwide problem.

Bresee admits that the number of cases is expected to continue to rise, and a few human-human transmissions wouldn’t surprise anyone.

The good news is the cases are mild compared to other virulent flus, and no one has died so far. The two cases that resulted in hospitalization both fully recovered and were discharged.

The flu vaccine from this year doesn’t cover the new strain, so all are urged to be careful and take precautions by careful hand washing and avoiding eating and drinking around infected humans and animals. The CDC suggests seeking medical care for suspected infection.

While adults may have antibodies for H3N2v from similar flus in the 1990′s, parents should take extra care into account for children, who are the most affected so far. The CDC also warns those over 65, pregnant women and individuals with chronic diseases not to attend traveling fairs this year.

Fair officials are keeping an eye out for any pigs that exhibit flu symptoms. These include a runny nose, coughing and sneezing. In the meantime, Bresee is working on finding a vaccine for the virus in the chance it becomes a pandemic.

Image Courtesy of   Diego Cupolo [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The article New Strain of Swine Flu Detected appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

On September 2, the Center for Disease Control reported that two children from Pennsylvania and Indiana, a boy and a girl respectively, were infected with a previously unknown flu virus that included a gene from the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus. Fortunately, both children recovered and there has been no evidence that the virus had spread to anyone else.

Thus, it does not appear to pose a significant public health concern, officials state. “We wanted to provide some information without being alarmist because people have contact with pigs at fairs this time of year and doctors should watch for possible flu cases” said Lyn Finelli, the CDC’s flu surveillance chief. “We’re always concerned when we see transmission of animal viruses to humans.”

Both the children are two years old and had previously attended county fairs where they were exposure to pigs. The boy from Indiana was apparently infected by a caretaker who had been showing pigs at the fair a few days prior to the boy taking ill. He had developed a fever, cough, shortness of breath and diarrhea on July 23.

Since he had other chronic health problems, doctors hospitalized him for three days. On the other hand, the girl from Pennsylvania appeared to have been infected after she had touched a pig at the petting zoo. She too had developed a fever and cough as well as fatigue on Aug 20. However, she was not hospitalized, but rather sent home to recover.

Only 21 cases have been documented in the last five years of people getting the flu from pigs. Samples from both children were sent to state laboratories, which determined they were unusual and sent them to the CDC for further analysis.

CDC scientists found the viruses were a strain known as H3N2 but had picked up a so-called M, or “matrix” gene, from the 2009 H1N1 virus that caused the 2009-10 swine-flu pandemic. Since the report of the initial children, two more have been reported in Pennsylvania, raising the total of three children in that state.

Like the other child, the two children attended the same county fair in southwestern Pennsylvania in the week of Aug 13. The Pennsylvania Department of Health (PDH) reported that the first girl had fully recovered while the new cases are recovering. PDH and CDC are still unsure how these children were infected by the novel strain. The only link between the three was the county fair.

Brandi Hunter-Davenport, a PDH spokesperson said no information was available yet on whether the pigs at the fair were infected with the novel virus. “We’re still investigating what the linkages are here, if it’s human-to-human or animal-to-human transmission,” she said.

Both organizations are increasing surveillance in southwestern Pennsylvania and setting up information booths at agriculture fairs, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is monitoring the health of animals at fairs, according to the PDH release.PDH is not telling people to avoid public venues or fairs, but are informing the public to be aware of the novel flu and to take proper precautions to protect their health.

They also urge those who are experiences flu-like symptoms to immediately contact their local health care provider or call the health department.

The article U.S. Children Affected by Novel Swine Flu Strain appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A report released by the Institute of Medicine found that few adverse effects are caused by or linked to eight vaccines. The scientific evidence also veers more in the direction of rejecting the connection and causal relationship between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

An 18-member committee of experts convened by the IOM analyzed more than 1,000 research articles, analyzing the evidence behind each of these as to the amount of adverse effects caused by the eight vaccines.

The committee made 158 conclusions that made up four categories, ranging from supporting a casual relationship between the vaccine and the adverse effect to favoring rejection of the causal relationship.

One hundred thirty-three out of the 158 decisions were in the category labeled as evidence inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship. One such includes that of concerns over the HPV vaccine.

This inadequate evidence comes from the lack of data, due to the short amount of time it has been on the market. This category, however, varies in its findings, since evidence is labeled inadequate for a variety of reasons.

Fourteen of the outcomes were found to be convincingly linked, including fainting and febrile seizures.

However, as the press release states, cause and effect relationships can only be established with significant and solid evidence. The conclusions reached by the committee reflect the “strengths and weakenesses of several types of evidence, including biological, clinical, and epidemiological research,” the press release says.

The IOM was asked by the Health Resources and Services Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to examine the eight vaccines. HRSA also chose the adverse effects to be studied.

These effects are ones “for which people have submitted claims – successful or not – “ to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, according to the report brief.

The article Report Finds Few Adverse Effects From Vaccines appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Independent experts from 24 countries gathered during the past month to discuss and assess the World Health Organization’s handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009. The panel reviewed the W.H.O. harshly, despite not affirming controversial accusations that it exaggerated its reactions to help vaccine companies get rich during the outbreak.

In its draft report released Thursday on the W.H.O.’s website, the panel claimed that the world has always been unprepared to handle severe cases of pandemics, and if a more fatal virus arises, millions of lives will again be risked.

The disease was interpreted to be severe in the spring outbreak last year. It was not until the summer, past the assumed climax of the disease when countries felt the need to place orders for the vaccine, that the mildness of the situation was clarified and confirmed.

Also the 78 million doses of vaccine donated by rich countries to poor ones were not distributed, since the W.H.O. was tangled in liabilities and costs conflicts with vaccine manufacturing companies.

This resulted to millions of vaccines going unused and wasted. Despite this trouble, the panel said that there is “no evidence of malfeasance.”

The panel, led by Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, criticized how complex the health organization defines a pandemic, how it describes the level of a pandemic depending on how geographically wide it spreads and not on how severe the pandemic in one place is.

It also criticized how the W.H.O.’s expert advisers’ names were held in secret to avoid pressure and thus produced “suspicions that the organization had something to hide,” as well as how potential conflicts of interest “were not managed in a timely fashion.”

How the disease’s severity was communicated was also inefficient, the panel concluded, and the pandemic produced confusion in people with W.H.O.’s “ill-advised” communication and how it responded “with insufficient vigor.”

The panel did not offer only plain criticism. Members of the panel also praised how W.H.O. identified the swine flu virus quickly with the help of national health agencies of countries including Canada and the United States.

Although the draft is already published, the W.H.O. will not respond to the report until the final version of it is released at the assembly of the world’s health ministers in May, a spokeswoman for the organization said.

The article W.H.O. Criticized for “Exaggerated” Reaction toward H1N1 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.