On Monday (January 4), China stated that it had logged down 659 swine flu death cases in 2009, with almost all of them were occurred in the last 2 months of the year. Even until now, China still warned its people about the danger of mass outbreaks that is still occurring in some specific areas.

“The danger of an explosion of outbreaks in some places exists, and the number of fatalities and serious cases will remain at a rather high level,” said Liang Wannian, director of the ministry’s emergency response office.

Children are twice as likely as adults to catch swine flu, according to a joint UK-US study. Imperial College London researchers and a team from the US looked at how the virus spread among families. Their experiment involved more than 800 people as their experimental objects, and the result showed that although children catch the swine flu easier than adults, they are not more contagious than older people or “super spreaders”.

What is more, there is thought to be a large pool of children who have been infected but not displayed symptoms.  This research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed that children were more likely to become infected.

They said it meant suggestions at the start of the pandemic that people should stay at home for up to seven days when ill was probably unnecessary. Lead researcher Dr Simon Cauchemez said: “If they are only likely to transmit the virus to other people for the first few days of their illness, keeping people off work for a week may be unnecessary and could be detrimental to the economy.”

A Department of Health spokesman said, “All further information continues to add to our knowledge and understanding of the virus.”

H1N1 has been an authentic concern to most of the people across the globe, most recently ones in Massachusetts. Now, a review of disease surveillance records by Massachusetts health authorities has found that one chronic condition is far more common than any other among patients hospitalized with H1N1 infections: asthma.

“H1N1 has gotten a lot of attention, but I think maybe the regular flu gets slighted,’’ said Doug Brugge, a Tufts University School of Medicine researcher who has studied asthma in Boston’s neighborhoods. “It’s not as flashy because we’ve been living with it for so long, but it does something very similar. So putting people who have asthma toward the front of the line for immunizations makes a lot of sense.’’

On Thursday (January 7), California State Health officer said that practically all districts in California now have a profusion of H1N1 vaccine. Through a conference call, Dr. Mark Horton announced that the area has accepted about 15 million prescribed amount of the vaccine, just about two-thirds of the supply the state is anticipated to get of the H1N1 vaccine this term.

Nearly all authorities are confirming that they have sufficient vaccine to give a vaccination to the common community, instead of merely the precedence categories most at jeopardy for H1N1. The plentiful manufacture setbacks in previous year distressed world’s population, being in charge for the long line ups and grievances of inadequately proceeded immunization clinics until supply held up with demand.

Source link: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-h1n18-2010jan08,0,1791240.story

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Another manufacturer, Novartis, in February recalled five lots of seasonal flu vaccine packed in pre-filled syringes under similar circumstances. Sanofi Pasteur bills itself as the No. 1 manufacturer of flu vaccines in the world. It makes flu vaccine at sites in France and in Pennsylvania.