With a continuous rise in the H1N1 activity in the US that has now spread to 48 states, need for adequate vaccine doses is being constantly felt. With an increase in the supply of vaccines, the situation is expected to improve.
Ample supplies procured
11 million doses were made available in the last week of October and nearly 22 million in the week before. Another eight million are expected to arrive in the coming week. Talking about the H1N1 situation and effectiveness of the vaccine, a CDC official said, “Virtually everything is H1N1 now. As supplies increase, things should go better.”
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that almost 91 million doses of the flu vaccine have been shipped and another 114 million are expected to be shipped this season.
The number of patients visiting the hospitals with flu-like symptoms is much higher than what is usually seen around this time of the year. While 7.7 percent of visits to doctors were due to influenza-like symptoms last week, the number stood at 8 percent the week before.
On Thursday, the CDC said that it is spending a whopping $ 2.25 million in order to procure 10,000 doses of peramivir - an intravenous anti-viral drug. The anti-viral drug is being ordered for CDC’s national stockpile. In addition to this, use of experimental drugs for critical patients was approved by the Food and Drug Administration a fortnight ago.
Shortage still persists
Despite a large number of vaccines being made available, officials acknowledge that the shortage still persists as there are discrepancies between the number of people who are getting the vaccine and those who need it.
Meanwhile, health officials in New York City have been drawing flak for releasing the swine flu vaccine to organisations like the Goldman Sachs. Talking about the incident, Dr Schuchat commented, “The workplace is a very common place for adults to get vaccinated.”
The availability of the vaccine has also brought up the issue of it being administered to high-risk groups that includes caretakers of children, pregnant women, and adults with a complex medical history.
According to the CDC, 15 paediatric deaths in the last week were attributed to H1N1 virus. Another three were caused due to a certain influenza A virus that is yet to be sub-typed.
Since Aug. 30 this year, at least 672 deaths and 18, 000 hospitalizations due to swine flu have been reported across various age groups, the CDC said.
Swine/Bird Flu - The Drugs strategy thinking totally wrong
Swine/Bird Flu - The Drugs strategy thinking is a totally ineffective Strategy for 99.9% of the population
There will never be enough vaccine unless we wait at least 12 months after a vaccine has been created. The reason, there is not the manufacturing capacity to produce it quicker in the world-at-large and the distribution logistics make this a very slow process. Overall the drugs strategy, if ever the real killer virus emerges as in 1918, will be of no real use whatsoever to the vast majority of people as it will arrive too late. The Spanish flu which killed between 20 million and 100 million (equivalent today to between 68 million and 340 million taking in people numbers now and then) did its worst in the first six-months of its outbreak. Therefore time is just against the whole drugs strategy and governments as usual are deceiving us. It is common sense really unfortunately for all of us except the chosen few – Wall Street bankers et al.
The only answer is to address the problem at source and never let it happen in the first place - http://avian-influenza.cirad.fr/content/download/1931/11789/file/Kennedy...
very informative indeed ,:-)
very informative indeed ,:-)
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