Geneva | November 6

Reuters - H1N1 swine flu is on the rise in China and Japan after triggering an unusually early start to the winter influenza season in Europe, Central Asia and North America, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

According to the U.N. agency's latest official toll, which is thought to underestimate the total spread of the virus, at least 6,071 people worldwide have died as a result of an H1N1 infection since its discovery earlier this year in Mexico and the United States.

Some 359 deaths were recorded in the past week, which saw a big outbreak in Ukraine as well as ongoing spread of the virus across the northern hemisphere.

The death toll in Ukraine is rapidly rising. In a country of 45 million people more than 60 people have died in a week because of some respiratory illness which could be mutated swine flu. Worse still, the epidemic area covers only a small fraction of Ukraine.

No Ukrainian laboratory is capable of testing for the presence of swine flu

If the banking crisis and the bailout wasn't enough to piss you off, watch this.

That just about sums up the Agricultural Industrial Complex's effort to take over the Ohio Constitution on Tuesday, so they can self-regulate, because, you know, it worked out so well on Wall Street and with Enron (to name 2 of, oh, a trillion examples)...

In any case, Facebook group here. Video below. Happy Monday all!

October 31

AFP - The United States released Friday its entire stock of children's Tamiflu antivirals, a top health official said, as the pediatric swine flu toll spiked well above the annual toll for kids from seasonal flu.

"Up until now, there have been 114 laboratory-confirmed deaths among children," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Frieden, told a press conference, referring to swine flu.

The highest pediatric death toll from seasonal flu in the past three years was 88.

Along with the spike in child (A)H1N1 flu deaths, the US has seen "more hospitalizations in people under the age of 65 than in most entire flu seasons," Frieden said.

On November 3rd, there will be a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in Ohio. This is no ordinary ballot initiative. Its very existence and marketing has been bought and paid for--to the tune of millions of dollars-- by national and international agri-business corporations and their front groups, such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International (owned by DuPont and grantee of 100K to the effort),the National Pork Producers Council (113K), and the United Egg Producers (200K!).

(You can join the anti-Issue 2 Facebook Group and help us stop this underhanded effort)

Michael D. Shear | Washington | October 24

WaPo - President Obama Saturday declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, clearing the way for legal waivers to allow hospitals and doctors offices to better handle a surge of new patients.

The proclamation will grant Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius the power to authorize the waivers as individual medical facilities request them, officials said.

It says that Obama does "hereby find and proclaim that, given that the rapid increase in illness across the Nation may overburden health care resources and that the temporary waiver of certain standard Federal requirements may be warranted in order to enable U.S. health care facilities to implement emergency operations plans, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States constitutes a national emergency."

White House officials played down the dramatic-sounding language, saying the president's action was not prompted by a new assessment of the dangers posed to the public by the flu.

related articles here

Swine flu virus in Norway seems to kill 10 times more than in Australia.

In Germany, politicians receive a safer vaccine than ordinary citizens.

Two people died in Sweden after receiving their vaccine dose.

Chicago | Oct 17

AFP - Pigs in the state of Minnesota may have become infected with swine flu, officials said on Friday, citing preliminary tests taken at a state fair.

If the initial results are confirmed it would be the first case of the pandemic virus detected in US hogs.

"We currently are testing the Minnesota samples to determine if this is 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

"I want to remind people that they cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products."

The pigs sampled at the fair showed no sign of illness and were apparently healthy, the agriculture department said.

However an outbreak of swine flu occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair around the same time the tests were conducted from August 26 through September 1.

"Information available at this time would suggest the children were not sickened by contact with the fair pigs," the agriculture department said.

Final test results are expected in a few days.

Steve Sternberg | Oct 10

USA TODAY - Swine flu is believed to have killed 19 children the week ending Oct. 3, bringing the number of pediatric deaths to 76 since the pandemic began in April, health officials reported Friday.

Sixteen of the children were confirmed to have H1N1 flu; three were believed to have died of the disease. Over the past three flu seasons, total pediatric deaths ranged from 46 to 88, says Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

"We've already had 76 children die and it's only October," Schuchat says. Flu season usually runs from December through May.

SWINE FLU CENTRAL: Latest news, videos, CDC tracking on interactive U.S. map

Thomas H. Maugh II | Washington | October 9

LAT - New figures show H1N1 in 10 more states than a week ago, up to 37 now, and a rise in pediatric deaths. But areas of earlier outbreaks may be seeing some relief.

Pandemic H1N1 influenza "is here . . . in virtually the entire country," Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news conference this morning. Swine flu activity is widespread in 37 states now, up from 27 states last week, said Schuchat, who is director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

The figures suggest a leveling off last week was an aberration.

Budapest | Sept 24

DPA - A 34-year-old man who died suddenly of a lung haemorrhage was found to be infected with the A(H1N1) virus, the Hungarian health minister said Thursday.

Istvan Szekely told the local news agency MTI that the death was particularly worrying, as the young man did not fit any of the risk groups described by the World Health Organization.

He had showed no sign of fever when he unexpectedly fell ill and died at home. An autopsy revealed infection with the A(H1N1) virus.

It was 10th week in the USA when the epidemic was in decline. But the number of people hospitalized increased slightly. Either there is virus around which is slightly more dangerous than earlier or those becoming sick are more vulnerable because they should be now older than the first ones who became sick.

In Sweden the epidemic is in the very beginning but the country already run out of equipment needed in treating very difficult cases which require ECMO. 60% of the infections are still acquired abroad, mostly from Spain and the UK.

All the stories in the news quote experts assuming that swine flu cases will increase soon. This is not at all certain. The 2nd wave might require a mutation in the virus.

Sudeep Chand | Aug 28

BBC -

The discovery of swine flu in birds in Chile raises concerns about the spread of the virus, the UN warns.

Last week the H1N1 virus was found in turkeys on farms in Chile. The UN now says poultry farms elsewhere in the world could also become infected.

Scientists are worried that the virus could theoretically mix with more dangerous strains. It has previously spread from humans to pigs.

However, swine flu remains no more severe than seasonal flu.

Chilean authorities first reported the incident last week. Two poultry farms are affected near the seaport of Valparaiso.

Juan Lubroth, interim chief veterinary officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said: "Once the sick birds have recovered, safe production and processing can continue. They do not pose a threat to the food chain."

Chilean authorities have established a temporary quarantine and have decided to allow the infected birds to recover rather than culling them.

It is thought the incident represents a "spill-over" from infected farm workers to turkeys.

Valparaiso, Chile | August 23

Sydney Morning Herald - Two Chilean poultry farms are under quarantine after swine flu was detected in turkeys, the first case of the virus being found in birds, the nation's health ministry and US health officials said yesterday.

Scientists are concerned the virus may combine with the H5N1 bird flu virus, making a more dangerous and easily transmitted strain.

Gennady Fyodorov | Moscow | Aug 4

Reuters - Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whisky on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said Monday.

"We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whisky as a form of disinfection," VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters.

"That should cure all symptoms of the disease."

Russia's Health Ministry has issued a public warning against traveling to Britain because of the spread of the H1N1 virus but Shprygin said he expected at least several hundred fans would go to Wales for the September 9 qualifier in Cardiff.

"Health officials say this virus is very dangerous but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team," said Shprygin, who also sits on the executive board of the Russian FA.

"Russian fans don't fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team."

Jeremy Laurance | UK | July 18

The Independent - Vaccine will be rushed out before results of health checks are known as licensing is accelerated for 132m doses of vaccine

The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be given to the public before full data on its safety and effectiveness become available, doctors confirmed yesterday.

The aim is to provide maximum protection against the pandemic in the shortest possible time.

But, unlike seasonal flu vaccine, the pandemic version will be spread over two doses in a higher quantity, and one brand is expected to contain a chemical additive to make it go further, potentially increasing the risk of side-effects.

Children, who are most vulnerable to swine flu and are likely to be among those first in line for the jab, may get the vaccine more than a month before trial results are received.

A fast-tracked report published on Monday in the journal Nature by an international team of researchers led by a professor of pathobiological sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, have provided a detailed examination of the pathogenic qualities of H1N1.

The new study conducted with samples of H1N1 obtained from patients in California, Wisconsin, the Netherlands and Japan showed that virus has a propensity for infecting cells deep in the lungs leading to pneumonia and at worst death, a trait shared with the 1918 virus.
_{The pandemic H1N1 flu virus (red) has been shown to be more virulent than scientists previously believed. The filamentous shape of the virus, which in this image have recently budded from infected cells, is also unusual.Image: courtesy Yoshihiro Kawaoka}

Tan Ee Lyn | Hong Kong | July 12

Reuters - Flu viruses that sparked the three worst pandemics in the last century circulated in their near-complete forms for years before the catastrophes occurred, researchers in Hong Kong and the United States have found.

The H1N1 virus that sparked the Spanish flu of 1918-1919 circulated in swine and humans well before the pandemic started, and it did not come directly from birds as previously thought, they added. Instead, it was probably generated by genetic exchanges between flu viruses from swine and humans.

This contrasts sharply with previous studies which suggested that the H1N1 virus of 1918 was a mutant that jumped direct from birds to human and ended up killing as many as 50 million people.

Phil Serafino | July 7

Bloomberg - The World Health Organization will recommend in coming days that countries stop trying to test all suspected cases of swine flu, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said on a conference call with reporters.

A new H1N1 swine/human influenza strain is found in Canada.

PharmaLive - The White House today announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan will host an all-day H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit with states to further prepare this nation for the possibility of a more severe outbreak of H1N1 flu. The Summit will be held on July 9, 2009 at the Natcher Conference Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

EU to develop common strategy for influenza.

Xinhua - comprehensive world update.

According to CDC, swine flu cases went down last week. Have circumstances changed or is wave I ending?

170 deaths in the USA when 1% of the pandemic has passed (ignoring future vaccinations).

Three Tamiflu resistant infections have been reported from Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan.

Europe exceeded 10 000 cases. 4 deaths. The UK stopped counting of cases.

About 1/10000 of the pandemic has passed in the world (ignoring future vaccinations).

Cancun | July 3

BBC - The UN's top health official has opened a forum in Mexico on combating swine flu by saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable. World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided. As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer, and informed the ECDC that the country has changed its response strategy, acknowledging that containment of the virus is no longer possible.

The disease, which the WHO declared a full-fledged pandemic on Jun. 11, is now spreading fast in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, fuelled by the southern hemisphere winter.

<sub>* The United States, with nearly 34,000 confirmed cases, remains the most affected country, followed by Mexico at about 9,000 and Canada with about 8,000 cases.
* 337 people have died from swine flu, which has also sickened 80000 others in 121 countries
* 1970's lab accident may have caused pandemic
* Obama to launch "national influenza campaign"
* WHO update 56 1/7</sub>

- With the total number of cases in the USA estimated to have passed a ballpark one million we can be re-assured that in its present makeup the swine flu has a very low fatality rate.

The UK is seeing numbers rise above 4,500, but the methodology of diagnosis and reporting is fluid across England and Scotland.

Sunshine, especially its ultra-violet properties, usually prevent the spread of influenza in summer as people are outside. However, it is obvious that the virus is continuing to spread. WHO's latest confirmed figure globally is approaching 60,000 as at June 26.

June 19

MSNBC - Worldwide, the number of confirmed cases reached 44,287, the WHO reported Friday. WHO says cases increased by more than 10 percent in two days. In Europe, the ECDC on Friday reported 348 new cases in EU and EFTA countries.

CDC tele-conference June 18.

In Australia the total of confirmed H1N1 Influenza 09 cases as at 1200 AEST on 20 June is at 2376, up 46 since this morning, with one H1N1 09 related death. The national breakdown is: ACT 93, NSW 409, NT 56, Qld 249, SA 139, Tas 62, Vic 1230, WA 138. One death has been recorded in SA in a person with confirmed H1N1 Influenza 09, together with a range of other chronic diseases.

Canberra | June 17

Agonist Exclusive - Over the next 48 hours Australia is moving into a new national pandemic level, "protect".
Following consultation with state and territory health officials and WHO, the consensus is that many Australians will contract the virus over the winter months. The new "protect" level is a solution on how to deal with a mild pandemic

Officials are hoping that the majority of cases will only have a mild influenza illness. Therefore the Australian health authorities have requested that anti-virals such as Tamiflu and Relenza are not to be prescribed to those with the illness, in order to maintain the stockpile of anti-virals. The stockpile is only to be used if a second more serious wave of infections occurs.