Word: flu
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...with a low mortality rate. On Aug. 5, Argentina reported that deaths from H1N1 had more than doubled to 337 from 165 two weeks earlier, with around 700,000 suspected cases of the disease so far. The impact has been widespread. Attendance has dropped at Patagonian ski resorts, and flu fears have crippled the Buenos Aires theater business. Across the region, countries are reporting that H1N1 has become the dominant strain of the season, but has remained stable genetically. The lack, so far, of a mutated virus is crucial for vaccine manufacturers, who have been working since April...
While the World Health Organization concocts the recipe for the flu vaccine, private companies manufacture and sell the doses, mostly to governments. At current capacity, they can produce around 900 million doses of H1N1 vaccine a year: a total that is "woefully inadequate for a world of 6.8 billion people," according to WHO head Margaret Chan. While some companies have donation schemes for the developing world - British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, for example, is donating 50 million doses to WHO - the lion's share will go to wealthy countries, despite the fact that underlying health conditions make populations in the developing...
Places such as Japan, Hong Kong and Western Europe, which are planning mass vaccination programs, face different challenges. These programs are difficult to implement. Last year, for instance, only 40% of the U.S. population took the time to get a regular flu shot, despite its widespread availability. Most forms of the H1N1 vaccine are going to require health officials to administer at least two shots spaced four weeks apart. What's more, because the serum won't be ready until at least mid-October, full immunity may not kick in until early December - after the second doses are administered...
...virus doesn't mutate into something more deadly, health officials in the northern hemisphere face another decision: whether to keep schools open. Young students are known by influenza epidemiologists as "super spreaders" because they shed more flu virus when ill, are unlikely to practice good hand hygiene, and are in close contact with parents and peers. Writing in the August edition of British medical journal the Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers from Imperial College in London predicted that early and prolonged school closures could ease the burden on hospitals by reducing the number of cases at the peak of the pandemic...
...pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine flu...