Via CBCnews.ca: Swine flu leads to N.B. prison lockdown. Excerpt:
A New Brunswick prison is under a lockdown due to the spread of swine flu.
The Westmorland Institute in Dorchester has one confirmed case and a number of suspected cases, according to officials with Correctional Service of Canada.
A lockdown has been implemented at the minimum-security facility and all visits have been cancelled until further notice. There are about 250 male offenders at Westmorland.
Via the Times of India: Swine flu brings govt to a standstill. Excerpt:
Confusion prevails in the top corridors of power as to who runs the Gujarat government at a time when Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been quarantined because of swine flu.
Chief secretary D Rajagopalan, who flew with Modi to Russia and remained with him for four days, has decided to avoid any public appearance as a precautionary measure. Also, there is an advisory from state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas to his colleagues to avoid public interaction.
Sources in the CM office said as Modi is in isolation, he is not seeing any files. Even urgent files are being kept in abeyance till he gets well. “Even otherwise Modi does not see files on Saturdays and Sundays,” a senior bureaucrat said.
State home minister Amit Shah, known to be close to Modi, said, “There is no need to appoint an acting chief minister. The CM office is perfectly capable of handling all issues.”
On Friday, when Sachivalaya was functioning, no minister attended office. Shah was in the CM office for some time, but he left after a while.
A crucial meeting called for Modi’s campaign for improving the quality of education, Gunotsav, in which all class one and two officials are to participate by reaching out to all government secondary schools, was to be held on Friday. All Gandhinagar-based class one and two officials were called to tell them what they should do for Gunotsav.
The Gunotsav meeting was cancelled, as Modi could not come to it. Officials in the state education department wondered why state education minister Ramanlal Vora and principal secretary (education) Hasmukh Adhia, who is known for his proximity to the CM, could not hold the meeting.
Explanation was as Vora and Adhia interacted with Modi on Thursday afternoon to prepare for the Gunotsav meeting, they decided to undergo routine check-up and avoid public appearance.
Via CBCnews.ca: Quebec urges patience in flu shot campaign. Excerpt:
Quebec health officials say there will be enough of the H1N1 vaccine for everyone who wants to be inoculated, but people will have to be patient.
The demand for Arepranix H1N1 has skyrocketed across the province in recent days, according to Quebec’s public health agency.
On Saturday, Health Minister Yves Bolduc asked Quebecers to remain calm as the province rolls out its vaccination campaign. He said the number of Quebecers wanting the vaccine has doubled to 80 per cent of the population this past week.
The demand increase is good news, Bolduc said, and there is no reason to panic, because everyone who wants a shot will eventually get one, as long as they wait their turn.
Quebec is adamant about following its priority list for vaccination, starting with health professionals, chronically ill people, small children and pregnant women.
Since the second wave of the flu began in September, 167 people have been hospitalized across Quebec, with 125 being admitted in the last week, said Alain Poirier, director of Quebec’s public health agency.
Via Charter ‘97: People dying from swine flu in Minsk? Excerpt:
Information about death of some people in hospital #5 has appeared on the Internet, but the Health Committee is unsure whether it was the swine flu.
On October 28, Minsk blogger sammy_belarus wrote all doctors and nurses in the fifth clinical hospital wear face masks. “We have just been informed that two persons, 30 and 37 years old, died from the H1N1 influenza in the intensive care unit. Two persons are fighting for a chance to live. Symptoms are fever and fluid lungs…” the girl wrote in her blog.
The website www.charter97.org phoned hospital #5 of Minsk, but the personnel refused to give any information and just advised to refer other persons. Finally, the deputy chief doctor of medical unit said she couldn’t discuss the theme and told we could get any information from the Health Committee of the Minsk city executive committee.
Asked to comment on the situation about the death in hospital #5, Alena Rudkova, the head of the specialized medical aid of the Health Committee, shouted: “You are the tenth to call us! Do not spread panic! We don’t know if it was the swine flu virus!”
To a question what caused the death, the doctor said: “They died from pneumonia” and hang up.
The turmoil in Ukraine has drawn the attention of the New York Times: Ukraine Bans Public Gatherings to Stop Swine Flu. Excerpt:
The Ukrainian government is taking some of the sternest measures in the world against the spread of the swine flu virus, ordering schools nationwide to close for three weeks, banning public gatherings and imposing restrictions on travel.
Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko announced the measures on Friday in response to rising fears about swine flu, especially in western Ukraine.
Federal health officials said 33 people had died from the flu across the country, although there was conflicting information about which type of the virus was to blame.
The situation in Ukraine “has reached the epidemic threshold,” Ms. Tymoshenko said. The ban on public gatherings, she said, would apply to “all large-scale events, concerts, movie showings and any other gatherings of people for the next three weeks.”
The World Health Organization said it would send a team to Ukraine to assist the authorities there.
News reports from western part of the country said there were long lines at pharmacies as people sought medication and masks.
With all rallies canceled, the anti-flu measures were expected to have an immediate impact on the campaign for Ukraine’s presidency. The election is on Jan. 17, and Ms. Tymoshenko formally registered as a candidate on Saturday. She said she did not expect that the voting would have to be postponed.
The virus is spreading across Eastern Europe, but it was not clear why Ms. Tymoshenko chose to undertake stronger moves, like closing schools nationwide, than her counterparts in Russia and Poland.
There were indications, however, that the government’s response was being influenced by electoral politics. Ms. Tymoshenko, one of the leading candidates, and her bitter rival, President Viktor A. Yushchenko, who is far behind in opinion polls in his bid for re-election, both sought to make clear that they were aggressively addressing the outbreak.
(Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:24:00 +0000)
# 3922
A translation today of a Chinese language article appearing on Xinhuanet, where the Health Minister of China, Chez Zhu, calls the epidemic situation there `grim’.
While no mutation of the virus has been detected, he warns that increased levels of `severe disease and deaths’ are inevitable.
It was only 2-weeks ago in the WHO Pandemic update # 70 that we were advised:
Of note, nearly half of the influenza viruses detected in China are seasonal influenza A (H3N2) viruses, which appeared prior to and is co-circulating with pandemic H1N1 2009 virus.
Today’s report indicates that:
Influenza A H1N1 positive samples accounted for the proportion of all influenza-positive specimens has reached more than 70%.
Which would suggest that the pandemic H1N1 virus is rapidly crowding out other seasonal contenders. Whether that will continue to be the case later in the year, or in subsequent flu seasons, is unknown.
A hat tip to Florida1 on Flutrackers for finding, translating, and posting this article.
Xinhua Beijing October 31 (Xinhua Zhou Ting-yu)
“At present, although not Influenza A H1N1 influenza virus mutates, the majority of patients with mild disease, but the increasing cases of severe and death is an inevitable trend.” Minister of Health Chen Zhu has do a good job in the overall prevention of influenza A H1N1 influenza vaccine immunization work, said the mobilization of the General Assembly.
Informed the Ministry of Health, as of October 30, China’s mainland had reported 44,981 cases of Influenza A H1N1 influenza confirmed cases, 33,184 cases had been cured.Total 82 cases of cases of severe disease has been cured in 29 cases, 6 died.
Chen Zhu said that in the October, the nation’s ever-increasing cases of severe disease, the epidemic situation is quite grim.
According to the National Influenza Surveillance Network, monitoring data, Influenza A H1N1 positive samples accounted for the proportion of all influenza-positive specimens has reached more than 70%.
This suggests that influenza A H1N1 influenza virus in China has been widely taken root and become the dominant virus, influenza virus.
World Health Organization believes that the current global real number of cases and deaths are higher than the reported number of influenza A H1N1 influenza virus transmission power significantly higher than other seasonal influenza, the epidemic continued to show a rapid upward trend.
“Vaccination with the Influenza A H1N1 influenza vaccine is to do specific prevention and control work, and the most effective means of.” Chen Zhu stressed that the influenza A H1N1 influenza vaccines do work, for the maintenance of our public service system functioning, reducing specific population outbreaks from occurring, reduce morbidity and mortality, reduce the hazard of an influenza pandemic in order to effectively prevent and control the second wave of the epidemic of great significance.
Local health departments with the joint prevention and control mechanisms for close cooperation between relevant, clear responsibilities, implementing the responsibility to ensure that H1N1 influenza vaccine immunization work successfully completed.
Via the Times of India: Three more swine flu deaths, nationwide toll reaches 472. Excerpt:
The condition of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is suffering from swine flu, improved today even as three more deaths due to the viral disease were reported from across the country, taking the toll to 472.
A total of 77 cases were reported across the country today besides the three deaths.
The health of Modi, who has been kept in isolation at his residence in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, has “relatively improved and he is responding nicely to the treatment”, said virologist Dr Atul Patel, one of the five doctors treating him.
“His (Modi’s) temperature has started coming down and condition of cold and cough is also improving…There is no cause of worry,” Patel said in a medical bulletin.
The BJP leader had complained of cough, fever and body ache on Friday after his return from Russia and was tested positive for the H1N1 virus on the same day.
The three deaths were reported from Maharashtra, Kerala and Puducherry, taking the total toll to 472.
Thanks to the reader who sent the link to a May 19 news release from the American Thoracic Society: Flu shot not effective in preventing flu-related hospitalizations in asthmatic children. Excerpt:
In order to determine whether the vaccine was effective in reducing the number of hospitalizations that all children, and especially the ones with asthma, faced over eight consecutive flu seasons, the researchers conducted a cohort study of 263 children who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined who had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness for flu vaccination preceding the illness and hospitalization during that illness.
They found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine. In asthmatic children, there was a significantly higher risk of hospitalization in subjects who received the TIV, as compared to those who did not (p= 0.006). But no other measured factors—such as insurance plans or severity of asthma— appeared to affect risk of hospitalization.
Bear in mind that this was a study of seasonal flu vaccine’s effect, not of the new H1N1 vaccine. But it does raise some worries.
Via El Universal: Desde marzo, 354 decesos por A H1N1. [Since March, 354 H1N1 deaths] Excerpt, with my translation:
La Secretaría de Salud informó que se tienen registrados, de marzo a la fecha, 52 mil 67 casos confirmados de influenza A H1N1 y 354 defunciones derivadas del virus. La Secretaría de Salud dio a conocer ayer un balance con fecha del 28 de octubre de 2009. De los fallecidos, precisó, 52% fueron hombres y 48% mujeres. De esas muertes, 70.3% se registró en personas de entre 20 y 54 años de edad.
The Secretariat of Health reports that it has recorded, from March to October 28, 52,067 confirmed cases of H1N1 and 354 deaths resulting from the virus. Of the dead, 52% were males and 48% females. Of the deaths, 70.3% were person between 20 and 54 years of age.
(Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:22:00 +0000)
# 3921
While the true scope of the flu outbreak in the Ukraine is anything but clear, the news coverage of the past few days has been sufficient to drive many people to local pharmacies to stock up on masks and other flu supplies.
Consequently, pharmacies have reportedly raised prices, and some shelves are now empty.
This report from http://www.javno.com
Ukrainians empty pharmacies in swine flu panic
- In Lviv in the western region, some pharmacies ran out of flu medicines and masks on Saturday after worried customers made bulk purchases.
Ukraine residents emptied pharmacies of masks and flu medicines on Saturday after the government ordered a three-week closure of schools and cinemas to combat swine flu.
In Lviv in the western region, some pharmacies ran out of flu medicines and masks on Saturday after worried customers made bulk purchases.
Residents complained pharmacies were profiting from the panic.
“Look at the lines there, how much medicine they’ve sold and how much they’ve put prices,” said pensioner Maria Teodorovich. “People are buying up everything they see.”
In Kiev, residents said flu medicines were hard to find.
“I’ve been to so many pharmacies and can’t find medicines anywhere. And flu is on its way,” said pensioner Yelena Mikhailova, covering her face with a paper tissue.
As of this writing, there are reports of as many as 48 deaths attributed to this `pneumonia’, and as many as 150,000 influenza cases.
Admittedly not a huge number of deaths given the number of cases, but deaths are generally under-counted and are often a `trailing indicator’ in an outbreak. Additionally, there have been media reports of a few cases involving a `hemorrhagic pneumonia’, which has also raised concerns.
Whether this outbreak constitutes anything out of the ordinary is impossible to tell at this juncture, but it has aroused enough interest that the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) team will travel to the Ukraine next week.
You’ll find earlier coverage of these events in:
WHO Dispatching Team To Ukraine
Ukraine Update: H1N1 Quarantine
