More than 100 million Chinese have been vaccinated against A/H1N1 flu, Health Minister Chen Zhu said Friday.

“We have achieved progress in the fight against A/H1N1 influenza,” Chen said at a meeting in Beijing, at which health workers were rewarded for their research into A/H1N1 flu vaccine.

So far, about 800 deaths from A/H1N1 influenza had been reported in China, far below the death rate in the U.S. considering the large population of China, Chen said.

U.S. authorities have confirmed more than 10,000 deaths from the flu.

But Chen warned it was still too early to say the virus had passed as cases were reported occasionally in other countries and places.

“China has more than 20 million doses of A/H1N1 vaccines in store, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are always ready for production,” Chen said, adding that was enough to cope with any new epidemic situation.

The A/H1N1 virus was first identified in Mexico in April 2009. More than 211 countries and regions have reported laboratory confirmed cases of the flu, including more than 18,000 deaths.

The government will introduce an indigenous vaccine for the H1N1 virus that causes swine flu by mid-May, said Sujatha Rao, Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare last week.

“The indigenous vaccine should be out by the middle of May,” said Rao on the sidelines of the International Conference on Health Systems Strengthening, being held in Kelambakkam, Tamil Nadu.

The reason for this is that there may be new cases or incidence of H1N1 virus, Rao said.

“We’re expecting another one in September. We’re going to be prepared. We don’t want to be taken by surprise. We got away easy this time. It was a mild form of flu,” she said.

The indigenous vaccine has already been sent to health workers “to inoculate their own frontline workers.” The government is “advising” health care workers “to take the injection” for their own protection, she said adding that the government is monitoring the situation carefully.

As of March 28 this year, 1,443 people died in India because of swine flu, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Globally, swine flu has caused 18,001 deaths as of May 2 this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

-hindustantimes-

The H1N1 flu pandemic remains moderate and its effects are probably closer to those of 1957 and 1968 than the far more deadly 1918 version, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

Scientists have asserted that H1N1 virus epidemic is not yet over and is probable to revisit in the winter, when flu is usually expected.

It has been found that in some regions of the nation, 85% have not yet got H1N1.

Scientists have said that usage of the vaccine has differed from around 10% to 30%, of those offered a lot of the most weak are not protected.

According to Prof Neil Ferguson, Director of the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, Dept of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, there has been a renaissance of cases in the southern states of America.

It is said that H1N1 seems to be hitting people this time.

Prof Peter Openshaw, Director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at the National Heart and Lung Institute, at Imperial College London, stated, “In London and the West Midlands up to 40 per cent of schoolchildren have had it but they are the exception. In most regions it was about 15 per cent so there are still a lot of people still to be infected”.

Prof Ferguson said that the number of people who died from swine flu was perhaps miscalculated in England because of the method the statistics was composed.

-Topnews.us-

The Influenza A (H1N1) virus still remains a threat to the Philippines, the Department of Health (DoH) Thursday said.

Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government is not letting its guard down against the flu virus even in the wake of delivery of 1.9 million doses of donated vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It still remains a threat. We want to prevent an outbreak, particularly in high-risk population. It exists all the time,” she said, in an ambush interview, shortly after the awarding rites of the Presidential Award for Child Friendly Municipalities and Cities, led by President Arroyo at Malacañang’s Heroes Hall.

She said the Philippine government is expecting the remaining 90 percent of the 9 million doses of flu vaccines pledged by the WHO to arrive within the year. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan made the pledge in November 2009.

Nearly half a million heath workers are set to receive the vaccinations following the delivery of the 1.9 million doses of vaccines.

Health workers have been identified as among the most-at-risk population, along with pregnant women, people aged six months to 59 years old with chronic medical conditions, children five years old and below and adults 60 years old and above.

Sophomore Lindsay Olson went to bed one night after developing a sore throat, but woke up in the middle of the night with the chills and an even worse sore throat. She took some Advil, but it didn’t work.

“I went to the health center at like two in the morning by myself, just walked there. It was terrible,” she said.

At Welty Health Center, like many Whitman students this year, Olson was diagnosed with influenza-like illness and sent home with a care packet of painkillers, masks and other supplies for caring with the flu; and they directed Olson to isolate herself in her dorm room. Because the health center did not screen Olson, or many others, for swine flu, it’s hard to be sure that what she and other students experienced was the H1N1 pandemic and not another type of illness, like the seasonal flu. However, Whitman, along with other colleges, did experience a outbreak of ILI, with many students falling ill, missing class and isolating themselves.

“It was the CDC and the American College Health Association’s suggestions that we don’t run a check on every single student who comes with these types of symptoms,” said Director of the Health Center Claudia Ness.

Checking for swine flu would have involved taking a swab and analyzing it, and doing it for every student who came in to the health center would have cost too much, and since the treatment for swine flu is the same as for other flues and flu-like diseases—treating the symptoms—tests would not have changed policy. The exceptions were students who had prior health concerns, like asthma, that made swine flu especially dangerous. These were also the students who the health center contacted to get the first chance at the early vaccines. However, of those tests that the health center ran, none came back positive for H1N1.

Olson, however, still believes that the disease she got was swine flu.

“I’ve had the regular flu before, and this is definitely different,” said Olson.

According to Ness, the outbreak this year last year was different from years before. The major outbreak at Whitman lasted from mid-October to early-December, petering out several weeks or so before winter break. In years past, the flu cases tended to be less concentrated, with fewer cases at one time but with a longer-lasting outbreak than this past year, where the outbreak was much more concentrated in time. The concentration of the flu cases likely increased the visibility of the recent flu epidemic compared to years past.

During the height of the outbreak, the flu was highlighted in the media every day; even The Pioneer declared its importance with headlines like “Flu hits Whitman campus hard, H1N1 vaccine near” and “Flu increases at Whiman, strain unknown.” While no stories directly raised fears of swine flu complications, most detailed the severe outbreak during the fall, where many students were sick and isolated.

In fact, the isolation policy promoted by the Health Center prompted senior Galen Bernard, former news editor, to write an editorial in November. Bernard argued that isolation was not necessary, hadn’t been used in previous years and lead to psychological consequences as a result of the lack of human contact.

After the visibility of the flu in the fall, the CDC predicted a possible outbreak of H1N1 in March and April, but according to Ness, the flu did not break out at Whitman or at other campuses. Another outbreak next year is possible, however, especially if the virus undergoes significant evolution between years.

American colleges are not the only ones worried about swine flu. According to Olivia Jones, a junior who studied abroad in Beijing, China, her university would check student’s temperature with “temperature guns” before letting students into the dorms. She experienced similar precautions at Chinese airports.

“It was mostly paranoia. One kid in the program did legitimately get swine flu. I definitely got the flu in the beginning, but I was afraid because this was right after the other kid got the swine flu and he went to the hospital and they put him in quarantine, and nobody had heard from him in a few days, so once I got the flu symptoms I didn’t tell anyone,” said Jones.

She theorized the heavy precautions in China about swine flu trace back to China’s experience with bird flu, a more dangerous type of influenza.

While swine flu can lead to dangerous complications, they are not that common. According to Ness, no Whitman students developed complications that necessitated hospitalization, and most recovered within a few days.

College living, however, does lead to increased illness, due to the close living conditions.

“Let’s face it, when you’re sharing bathrooms with other people, and you’re brushing your teeth, and turning the faucet on and off, there’s a lot of hand-nose-face contact—washing your face, putting your contacts in, all these sorts of things—that makes it very easy for these germs to thrive,” said Ness.

-whitmanpioneer-