Influenza Virus Mashup

Via The Guardian: Britain sends South Africa 42m condoms in HIV fight before World Cup. This is more worrisome than swine flu breaking out during the Hajj. Excerpt: Britain is to give 42m condoms to South Africa in response to a request for an extra billion as part of an HIV prevention drive before the World Cup, the government will announce today.  The request for British help in stockpiling sufficient condoms for the expected influx of thousands of football supporters in three months’... more

Via Viet Nam News: Experts call for bird flu control strategy. Excerpt: The latest outbreak of bird flu has affected the provinces of Dien Bien and Nam Dinh in the north, Nghe An and Khanh Hoa in the central region, and Soc Trang and Ca Mau in the south, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development representative Hoang Van Nam told a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday. “Bird flu has continued to spread in these provinces and killed thousands of poultry since its re-emergence in December, despite... more

Via Daily News Egypt: Swine flu on the decline in Egypt. Excerpt: Swine flu cases in Egypt are substantially declining, with the rate of weekly reported cases falling to almost half, the Ministry of Health announced.  “Swine flu in Egypt is declining, the number of reported cases this week went down to 22, in comparison to 44 cases reported last week,” said Amr Kandil, deputy Minister of Health for Preventive Medicine.   The total number of cases is 16,125, according to... more

Via The New Times: Swine flu reported in Burera. Excerpt: One month after the situation had stabilized; new cases of the influenza A, H1N1 commonly known as Swine flu have been confirmed in Burera district, Northern Province.  This was revealed yesterday, by Dr. Justin Wane, the Head of the Swine flu response team in the Ministry of Health. According to Wane, at the beginning of February, the infection rate went down completely with only one or two cases reported in a week.  However,... more

Via Mauricio Beltran’s Precavido blog: Estado do Pará tem pelo menos 9 mortes pela gripe suína (H1N1) apenas neste ano. [State of Pará has at least 9 H1N1 deaths so far this year] Excerpt, with my translation: Segundo dados de diversos jornais da região, com informações coletadas por colega leitora do blog que gentilmente enviou os links, o estado do Pará já possui ao menos 9 casos confirmados de óbitos causados pela gripe suína (H1N1) apenas neste ano. According to data from... more

(Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:57:00 +0000)     # 4413     Amid word this weekend that a 31st bird flu Fatality (details are sketchy) has been announced  by the Egyptian Ministry of Health, we get this brief report from IRIN News on Egypt’s attempts to combat the virus.   First the IRIN report, then what we know about the latest fatality.   IIn Brief: New plan to fight bird flu in Egypt Photo: Doaa Shaarawy/Save the Children Specialists raise awareness of bird flu... more

Via the Indian government’s Press Information Bureau: Consolidated status of influenza A H1N1 as on 8th March 2010. It reports 29,837 confirmed cases with 1,395 deaths.  Read More →

Via The Ottawa Citizen: Prevention post-mortem. Excerpt: …Canada resisted pulling out all the stops for H1N1. This was not the full pandemic flu plan in action. That plan, adopted in 2004 but not yet used, is far more sweeping. It involves setting up 165 mobile hospitals that hold up to 200 patients each, and using refrigeration trucks or even hockey arenas as makeshift morgues.  So the impression that the Canadian response to H1N1 was a gross overreaction is mistaken. Besides, there... more

Via IRIN: New plan to fight bird flu in Egypt. Excerpt: Egypt is moving to curb the spread of avian influenza (H5N1) after a recent upsurge in infections, the Egyptian Health Ministry says.  The sale of poultry between any of Egypt’s 29 governorates is to be banned, and a major Health Ministry-led awareness campaign will alert the public to the dangers of raising birds at home, Sabir Galal, deputy chief of the Veterinary Medicine Section at the Health Ministry, told IRIN.  “Bird... more

(Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:56:00 +0000)     # 4412       Twice since the emergence of the novel H1N1 virus (once in May and again in October) I’ve written an essay entitled An Appropriate Level Of Concern where I attempted to outline my sense of the seriousness of the pandemic, and the logical things people should be doing to prepare for it.   While the pandemic of 2009 has yet to play its final card, early on indications were that we were facing a high morbidity-low mortality... more