Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu

Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu.
The tale H1N1 flu seems to percentage many characteristics with the seasonal flu it has basically replaced, a new study indicates. "Our results are further confirmation that 2009 pandemic H1N1 and seasonal flu have nearly the same transmission dynamics. People seem to be similarly transmissible when ill with either pandemic or seasonal flu, and the viruses are likely to spread in similar ways," said Benjamin Cowling, precedent author of a study appearing in the June 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The solid news is that this means the preventive measures health authorities have been recommending, such as usual hand washing, should be equally effective against pandemic flu. "Influenza is very difficult to contain, but in the know measures including the availability of pandemic H1N1 vaccines should be able to mitigate the worst of any further epidemics," added Cowling, who is an deputy professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong.

Cowling and his colleagues followed 284 household members of 99 individuals who had tested pigheaded for H1N1. Eight percent of the household contacts also level ill with the H1N1 virus, about the same transmission rate as seen for the seasonal flu (9 percent), the researchers found.

Viral shedding (when the virus replicates and leaves the body), as well as the stencil of genuine sickness, were also similar for the two types of flu. The "attack rate" (meaning the poise of people in the entire population who get sick) for H1N1 was higher than that for seasonal flu and the inconsistency was most pronounced among children. The authors hypothesized that this might be due to the fact that younger race seem to have lower natural immunity to the virus.

Tamiflu Reduces The Number Of Cases Of Pneumonia In 'Swine Flu' Patients

Tamiflu Reduces The Number Of Cases Of Pneumonia In 'Swine Flu' Patients.
When captivated tersely after the onset of symptoms, the antiviral cure-all Tamiflu seems to have protected otherwise healthy swine flu patients from contracting pneumonia during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Chinese researchers say. Tamiflu may also have shortened the epoch that patients were contagious and reduced the duration of their fevers, the dig into team said.

However, reporting in the Sept 29 result of 'bmj dot com', the study authors stressed that their findings should be interpreted with caution given that the conclusions are based on an after-the-fact study and on a pool of patients not uniformly given chest X-rays at the time of illness. The chew over team, led by Dr Weizhong Yang and Dr Hongjie Yu from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, note that in 2009 the fast-spreading influenza A (H1N1) virus killed more than 18000 forebears in over 200 countries.

Influenza Vaccine In The USA Is Not Enough

Influenza Vaccine In The USA Is Not Enough.
Sporadic shortages of both the flu vaccine and the flu remedying Tamiflu are being reported, as this year's burning flu opportunity continues, according to a top US health official. "We have received reports that some consumers have found splodge shortages of the vaccine," Dr Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said on her blog on the agency's website. Hamburg said that the instrumentality is "monitoring this location and will update you at our website and at flu dot gov".

So far, more than 128 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed, Hamburg said, but not all the doses have been administered to man yet. She said that proletariat who already have the flu may also be experiencing local shortages of Tamiflu, a drug that can help treat influenza. "We do prophesy intermittent, temporary shortages of the oral suspension form of Tamiflu - the bright version often prescribed for children - for the remainder of the flu season.

However, FDA is working with the industrialist to increase supply," she said. Hamburg also noted that "FDA-approved instructions on the label specify directions for pharmacists on how to compound a liquid form of Tamiflu from Tamiflu capsules". Flu mature typically peaks in January or February but can extend as late as May.