Testing It Up

A CNN report shared that Federal officials are urging Americans to get vaccinated against swine flu. Lately, states have been reporting “sporadic or local flu activity,” but that should not make people complacent, according to the Head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anne Schuchat. Dr. Schuchat stressed that “the virus is still a threat.”

To date, 70 million Americans, a figure that comprises 23.4% of the population, have been vaccinated against swine flu, according to the CDC. This figure is satisfactory, according to Dr. Schuchat; nevertheless, she continued to urge those who have yet to get vaccinated to do so. She was quoted with the following statement: “Individual cases of H1N1 continue to occur and people are being hospitalized and they’re dying.”

The comment thread to the CNN article, though, seems to indicate that the public is not all too convinced about the need to get swine flu vaccines. Some readers went as far as saying that only the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the vaccine are benefiting from the drive to get vaccines.

Doctors in Indiana are getting worried about the fact that a majority of children – roughly two-thirds – who have received their first dose of the H1N1 vaccine have yet to receive their second dose. Without the second dose, children are still not fully protected from the H1N1 flu strain.

It may be a good time as any to remind parents about this fact. It is imperative that children are brought back for the second dose in order to become fully protected from getting sick with swine flu.

In Indiana, an estimated 300,000 children have received the H1N1 flu vaccine. Only 85,000, however, received both doses.

Dr. Joan Duwve, the medical director for public health and preparedness for the Indiana State Department of Health, explained how the flu vaccine doses work in children. The first dose only serves to “wake up” the immune system, introducing it to a virus that it has not seen before. It is the second dose, also known as the booster shot, which serves to protect the child.

In order to remind its citizens of the need to bring their children back for the second dose, the Health Department will be mailing postcards to the parents of children who have already received their first dose over the next few weeks. The postcards will remind them to take their child to the local clinic or their doctor for the booster shot.

The State Department of Health will continue to provide its free public clinic on Tuesdays at the Carew Medical Park through the end of February.

As cases of (A)H1N1 flu continue to rise in countries across the globe, albeit mostly mild and requiring no treatment, World Health Organization Chief Dr. Margaret Chan has expressed that a pandemic may already be under way. An announcement towards this end, though, will only be made once the WHO receives “indisputable evidence” that the outbreak has indeed reached that phase.

Dr. Chan has already spoken with eight countries that have large numbers of cases to evaluate whether a global pandemic needs to be declared. Thus far, (A)H1N1 cases have been reported in 74 countries across the globe, with a total of more than 27,000 reported cases and 141 deaths.

News reports continue to follow developments of the outbreak in various countries and cities. In the Philippines, where June marks the beginning of the academic year as well as the rainy season, classes in Universities in the capital city of Manila as well as in other key cities such as Davao City were pushed back, amid reported cases of (A)H1N1 among university students. As of Wednesday, 23 new cases brought the country’s case count to 77, the highest in Southeast Asia. The cases, though, have been rather mild, and the Department of Health cautions against overreacting to (A)H1N1 and implies that the illness is rather benign when compared to dengue fever. Some confirmed cases have travel histories to Japan and the United States.

In Australia, there are 1,263 reported cases of (A)H1N1 flu, and five patients have been admitted to intensive care. Australian authorities, however, are crediting the high incidence of cases to pro-active testing. Over the last couple of weeks alone, 5,500 people were tested. Australia is among the countries with the highest incidence of A(H1N1), trailing behind Chile. The highest number of cases is in the United States, followed by Mexico, Canada and Chile.

The declaration of a pandemic is expected to trigger large-scale vaccine production. It could, however, take six months before large quantities of vaccine will become available.

The outbreak of H1N1 flu may have already peaked in the United States, except for the states of New York, New Jersey and New England. According to Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the occurrence of influenza nationwide is starting to decrease.

This does not mean, though, that the country can relax. Dr. Anne Schuchat adds that they are keeping a close tab on the lessons that history has to offer. Lessons that can be learned from the flu epidemic of 1918 are being kept in mind; the epidemic claimed around 20 million lives in the United States alone. During that year, the epidemic began with mild cases in the spring, followed by devastating illnesses in the fall.

The CDC has the following statistics regarding this year’s H1N1 outbreak — there were 6,764 confirmed or probable cases and 10 deaths nationwide. This figure is more than half of the total figure of 12,954 cases reported worldwide as of Tuesday. It is for this reason that US health officials are bracing themselves for what fall may bring.

Since it looks like the flu is starting to decline in North America, the CDC is trying to negotiate for the monitoring of the behavior of the virus in Latin America and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere during the winter flu season, which usually peaks in June or July. Negotiations are being conducted with the Pan American Health Organization and health ministries of the countries involved. According to Keiji Fukuda of the WHO, the behavior of the flu in these countries over the next few weeks may be used as an indicative factor in the determining whether there is a need for a vaccine or not.

The CDC and the WHO are currently working on a vaccine against the H1N1 flu.

New York Health Screening

Health Day News reported yesterday that the US is making progress towards coming up with a viable H1N1 flu vaccine. Experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly have two promising candidate viruses that can be used to vaccinate against H1N1.

During a news conference held last Friday, Dr. Anne Schuchat, Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program of the CDC, revealed that the CDC received a candidate vaccine virus from an institution that was not named on the feature. She explained further that the strain was created by “combining the genes of the novel H1N1 virus with other parts from other viruses.” This hybrid virus will reportedly grow more easily in eggs, which was described in the feature as an “essential part of the vaccine production process.”

The second candidate virus was created by the CDC along with the US Food and Drug Administration using reverse genetics, according to Schuchat.

The CDC is currently testing both viruses in order to ensure that they are able to stimulate an optimal immune response. Schuchat estimated that by end of May, testing may already be completed and suitable viruses may be sent to manufacturers.

Last Friday, we shared about the meeting among key stakeholders that discussed the production of H1N1 vaccine at the headquarters of the World Health Organization.

In that feature, we mentioned in passing how the WHO is working on ensuring that poor countries are able to purchase H1N1 flu vaccines once it is produced and in the event of a pandemic. This is to protect the interest of poorer countries that will not be able to afford to pay the prices those rich countries such Canada, Denmark, France and Switzerland can pay. Most countries who can afford to do so already have signed deals with manufacturers that will give them guaranteed supply of pandemic vaccines as soon as these are available.

The WHO is encouraging manufacturers to reserve a portion of their future production of pandemic vaccines for the purpose of donating or selling these vaccines at a discounted rate to poorer countries. There have been few offers, though, which is being attributed to the fact that an effective H1N1 flu vaccine is months away from production.

What the WHO is asking from companies is to donate at least 10% of their production or offer their products at a discounted rate for poor countries. Some companies are yet unsure about what these commitments mean to their business.

There are some victories as British company GlaxoSmithKline PLC has reportedly committed to donating 50 million doses of vaccine in the event of a pandemic and has agreed to offer more on top of the initial donation that the WHO can buy at a cheaper rate for the benefit of poor countries.

There is also reportedly a second deal in the works, where a yet unnamed manufacturer who has limited production capacity might share half of its vaccine doses. There are also several small manufacturers who have agreed to sell 10% of their vaccines to the UN at a discounted rate.