Word: virus
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World health officials are carefully watching the H1N1/09 swine-flu virus as it makes its way through the Southern Hemisphere, which is currently in the thick of its flu season. They are particularly interested in seeing how severely the virus affects infected people in parts of Africa, South America and Australia, since their illnesses could be a good predictor of how aggressive the virus will be when flu season returns to the rest of the world in the fall...
...H1N1/09 flu appears to be mild overall and treatable with existing antiviral therapies. But given that the virus continues to cause some serious cases of illness and death, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) isn't taking any chances. On Wednesday, July 29, the agency called an urgent meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which decides who gets vaccinated against which diseases and when. The committee was asked to generate guidelines for H1N1/09 vaccination, if and when the agency determines that such immunizations become necessary, in addition to those for seasonal flu. (Read "The Year...
...Northern Hemisphere's flu season returns with a vengeance. (Southern Hemisphere nations are currently in the early weeks of their flu season, and H1N1/09 has caused real trouble in Argentina, which has more than 130 confirmed deaths - second only to the U.S.) There is always a chance that the virus could become more virulent when it returns in the fall - just as the deadly 1918 pandemic did. Key to the world's defense against the flu will be an effective vaccine, and vaccine companies have been gearing up to produce hundreds of millions of doses. Production is already under...
...biggest question will be what to do about schools. Because the virus has struck the young at such unusually high levels - some 60% of the world's confirmed cases have occurred in people age 18 or younger - schools have become a major locus of infection. Outbreaks incubate among children in schools, then spread to the community when those kids go home. A study in the journal Lancet found that closing schools as a preventive measure in the early stages of a pandemic could sharply cut the number of cases initially, which would reduce the later surges of infections that...
...simple fact that flu cases are still being recorded in the U.S. this summer, during a time when the virus should be virtually dormant, is a sign that things will get worse once the weather cools. The question is whether or not we'll be ready. "We're taking this virus very seriously, and I think it's important for the public to be thinking ahead," says Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This virus is not going away...