Swine Flu in Japan May 18, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Infectious Disease.Tags: health, japan, news, swine flu
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May 19 (Bloomberg) — Dozens of swine flu cases in Japan may prompt the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic, a former WHO adviser said, spurring demand for vaccines to fight the contagion.
Japan reported its first locally-transmitted case on May 16, and the number of people infected with the virus, formally known as A/H1N1, has jumped to 135 from 4 in less than two weeks. Evidence of human-to-human transmission in a region outside North America may prompt the WHO to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level, said Hitoshi Oshitani, the former head of the agency’s Western Pacific region.
“Japan is definitely having human-to-human transmission,” Oshitani said yesterday in a telephone interview. “The WHO will have to take the Japanese cases into consideration when deciding whether to raise the pandemic alert.”
Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon are scheduled to broker an accord with executives from drugmakers such as Sanofi-Aventis SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc in Geneva today to ensure developing countries can gain access to pandemic vaccines.
The outbreak worldwide extended to 8,829 infections in 40 nations as health officials from more than 190 countries began a meeting yesterday of the World Health Assembly in Geneva to debate whether swine flu is spreading widely enough to upgrade the threat to level 6, and declare it the first pandemic since 1968…read rest of story…
H1N1 Flu Cases Rise- 72 Now Dead May 17, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Infectious Disease.Tags: family, flu, h1n1, infection, news, swine
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H1N1 is on the move. The 1918 Flu epidemic was a Swine Flu which is known to have killed between 20 million to 100 million people worldwide. The 1918 flu started in the spring, was fairly calm during the summer and then took off with a vengeance during the fall and winter. Until recently, few understood the seasonal variation of the flu. However, recent evidence by Dr. John Cannell suggests that vitamin D deficiency plays a role. Let me explain. Vitamin D blood levels start trending downwards during the fall and winter. Studies show that vitamin D increases immunity by making White Blood Cells more effective. Since vitamin D blood levels tend to be higher during the summer, when people spend more time in the sun, they are less likely to become susceptible to the virus when exposed. To read more about vitamin D and influenza, check out the new book, Vitamin D Presciption- The Healing Power of the Sun by Eric Madrid MD.
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ZURICH (Reuters) – The number of confirmed cases of the new Influenza A (H1N1) flu has climbed to 8,480 and the death toll has remained static at 72, the World Health Organization said in its latest update on Sunday.
The confirmation of cases in India, Malaysia and Turkey brought the number of countries with confirmed cases of H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, to 39, the WHO said.
The vast majority of cases have been in Mexico and the United States. The spread of the disease has led the WHO to declare a pandemic is imminent. On April 29 it raised its pandemic alert to 5 on a 6-level scale.
The virus is behaving much like a seasonal influenza strain, which kills 500,000 annually, by spreading rapidly and causing mainly mild disease, but severe illness in some people.…read more here…
The Dangers of the Flu- May 3, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Infectious Disease.Tags: epidemic, family, flu, health, news, pandemic, swine
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THE FLU VIRUS DANGERS
Complacency. Many people think Influenza is just a seasonal nuisance. It is not just a nuisance . It is ONE OF THE WORST VIRAL INFECTIONS KNOWN TO MAN!
Even with modern Man’s advanced medical technology, it kills over a million people world wide every year with over 200,000 birth defects and with over 35,000 deaths in the US alone! For some unfathomable reason it is not A REPORTING DISEASE as designated by the CDC. No accurate records are kept. The worldwide economy also loses over a TRILLION….that is a thousand BILLION dollars a year in unrealized productivity yearly.
If H5N1 mutates to become the next pandemic ( this has happened three times in the last hundred years ) it could destroy the entire world economy for years.
It remains one of the top ten causes of death in the United States. During an ordinary flu season in the USA, over 25% of the population is infected with ordinary type A Influenza in spite of Flu shots . That is in a good year. The shots are only 50% effective for Americans 50 or older and that is if the yearly vaccine components are accurately gauged against the prevalent strains coming from Asia. The chicken egg vaccine production is also outmoded and incapable of ramping up for any extraordinary Public Health threat such as human to human transmissible Avian Influenza like H5N1. This ancient vaccine formulation method developed about 50 years ago, depends on GUESSES by the epidemiologists and is composed of a cocktail of three or four dominant strains based on the viral coatings of these strains which change each year. If they guess wrong as has happened then there is minimal protection.
None of these Methods are applicable to N5N1 as Humans have no resistance to this new emerging disease.
H5N1 virus has over 52% mortality. It can become airborne and it is rapidly mutating to become the next worldwide PANDEMIIC. There is now a raging scientific/medical controversy whether in fact any of the anti viral medicines work against this killer virus.
1918 PANDEMIC
Avian flu struck in 1918 and wiped out over 50 million people in less than six months. This was the worst epidemic in human history and it happened in the 20th century. It was far worse than the BLACK DEATH in Europe. Sars has a mortality of about 10%, 1918 flu about 15%. H5N1 about 52%.
If it happens again as most epidemiologist say it will , we will be almost defenseless. WE ARE RIPE FOR ANOTHER PANDEMIC RIGHT NOW
VIRULENT INFLUENZA MUTATIONS CAN KILL IN HOURS!
In 1918 a person could wake up feeling fine and be dead that evening and turning blue...read more here…
The Age Of Pandemics- May 3, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Infectious Disease.Tags: family, health, pandemics, Survival, viruses, Wellness
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The Age of Pandemics- Wall Street Journal
The threat of deadly new viruses is on the rise due to population growth, climate change and increased contact between humans and animals. What the world needs to do to prepare.
By LARRY BRILLIANT
In 1967, the country’s surgeon general, William Stewart, famously said, “The time has come to close the book on infectious diseases. We have basically wiped out infection in the United States.” This premature victory declaration, perhaps based on early public health victories over 19th-century infectious diseases, has entered the lore of epidemiologists who know that, if anything, the time has come to open the book to a new and dangerous chapter on 21st-century communicable diseases.
Indeed, to the epidemiological community, the Influenza Pandemic of 2009 is one of the most widely anticipated diseases in history. Epidemiologists have been shouting from rooftops that a pandemic (or, a world-wide epidemic) of influenza is overdue, and that it is not a matter of “if” but “when.” The current pathogen creating the threat is actually a mixture of viral genetic elements from all over the globe that have sorted, shifted, sorted, shifted, drifted and recombined to form this worrisome virus.
No one knows if the 2009 swine flu will behave like the 1918 Spanish flu that killed 50 million to 100 million world-wide, or like the 1957 Asian flu and 1968 Hong Kong flu that killed far fewer. This 2009 flu may weaken and lose its virulence, or strengthen and gain virulence — we just do not know.
Here’s the good news: Compared with a few years ago, the world is somewhat better prepared to deal with pandemic influenza. There have been training meetings, table-top exercises, dry runs and preparedness drills at virtually every level of government and civil society. World Health Organization member states have agreed on a set of regulations that require all members to report the status of diseases of global significance within their borders. We have two effective antiviral drugs, at least for the time being. There have been some breakthroughs to reduce the time required to get effective vaccines into the field, and there is even a small chance that last year’s seasonal vaccine will help protect lives from H1N1. In the U.S. at least, influenza surveillance has improved…read more here…
Swine Flu – Phase 6 Alert May Be Called by WHO May 2, 2009
Posted by healthandsurvival in Infectious Disease.Tags: alert, health, news, phase 6, swine flu, who
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Swine Flu Update- Get the latest as of May 3rd, 2009—
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By Tom Randall and Dermot Doherty
May 3 (Bloomberg) — The World Health Organization may designate the outbreak of H1N1 influenza as a pandemic by raising its six-stage alert level to its highest step even as many cases of swine flu show symptoms no more severe than seasonal flu, health officials said.
The WHO isn’t seeing sustained community transmission of the virus, known formally as influenza A H1N1, outside of North America, said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s director of global alert and response, at a news conference yesterday in Geneva where the UN health agency is based.
Ireland became the 17th country yesterday to confirm swine flu and the new virus may be spreading in five nations among people unconnected to Mexico, where cases were first reported. The health minister in Mexico said yesterday the country had no new deaths attributed to the virus.
“At this stage we have to expect that phase 6 will be reached; we have to hope that it won’t be reached,” Ryan said. “I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent.”..read more here…
