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Scared about catching the H1N1 flu? Looking for protection? Have I got just the thing for you: a shampoo that can safeguard users from H1N1 infection. Or how about a dietary supplement - specially designed for children and infants - that can stop transmission of the virus? Or for on-the-go use, perhaps a hand spray that leaves a layer of ionized, virus-killing silver on your hands...
Although the pandemic alert is a formal sounding of the alarm for H1N1, it does not reflect any increase in the severity of illness. The alert criteria drawn up by the WHO specifically include transmissibility of a new virus but not severity, since it is difficult to gauge accurately the deadliness of a newly emerging infection in real time. "The declaration of a pandemic does not suggest that there has been any change in the behavior of the virus," said Dr. Thomas Frieden in his first press conference as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
Frieden noted also that since the first swine flu cases emerged, the U.S. has essentially been operating under the assumption of a pandemic. "In the U.S. and the Americas, we have already had widespread and continued transmission of the virus for some time, so this doesn't change any of our actions," he said. "Our key goal is determining where the virus is spreading and to reduce its impact, particularly on those who are most vulnerable...
...young, the very old and the immuno-compromised, the new flu strain seems to affect young, often healthy people; 57% of the cases reported in the U.S. have occurred in those 5 to 24 years old. Why that's so is still unknown, as is the origin of the virus, although a genetic analysis published today in the journal Nature suggests that H1N1 may have been circulating among humans as early as last August. So far, in the U.S., 13,000 cases of H1N1 have been confirmed, including more than 1,000 hospitalizations and 27 deaths...
...Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The Department of Health and Human Services has allocated $1 billion to the development, testing and production of an H1N1 vaccine, and five different companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis, currently have the seed virus from CDC that will form the core of the immunization. But a vaccine won't be ready until September at the earliest, and even then, it won't be clear whether that shot will be a good match against the H1N1 influenza virus that will be circulating in the fall, since...