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    Red face Bird, Seasonal & Swine Flu

    Brits don't believe Tamiflu works...

    British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu
    12 Nov.`12 — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.
    The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche. "I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

    Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug. Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu. "We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

    In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization. In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza. "Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

    In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions. "Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said. Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement. Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

    http://news.yahoo.com/british-medica...--finance.html

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    Georgia Bulldogs come up with vaccine for multi-strain swine flu...

    Early success in vaccine against multiple strains of influenza
    Wednesday 30th March, 2016 - Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, in collaboration with University of Georgia has developed a vaccine that protects against multiple strains of both seasonal and pandemic H1N1 influenza in mouse models.
    The study, ‘Design and Characterization of a COBRA HA vaccine for H1N1 influenza viruses’, to be presented Wednesday at the World Vaccine Congress US 2016 in Washington, D.C., raises potential for a flu vaccine that covers more than a few strains at a time, and is not affected by the careful guesswork currently used to determine the strains each year's vaccine contains. "One of the problems with current influenza vaccines is that we have to make predictions about which virus strains will be most prevalent every year and build our vaccines around those predictions," said Ted Ross, director of UGA's Center for Vaccines and Immunology and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Infectious Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine. "What we have developed is a vaccine that protects against multiple different strains of H1N1 virus at once, so we might be able to one day replace the current standard of care with this more broadly cross-protective vaccine."

    The H1N1 influenza virus caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009. When it was first detected, it was called swine flu because the virus was similar to those found in pigs, but the virus now circulates as a seasonal form of influenza. The study, published in the Journal of Virology, states that the vaccine has been developed using a technique called Computationally Optimized Broadly Reactive Antigen, or COBRA, UGA researchers Donald Carter, Christopher Darby and Bradford Lefoley, along with Ross, created nine prototype synthetic compound vaccines constructed using genetic sequences from multiple influenza virus strains.


    The COBRA vaccines were designed to recognize H1N1 viruses isolated within the last 100 years, but many of the experimental vaccines produced immunity against influenza strains not included in the design. This means that scientists may be able to produce a vaccine that not only protects against recognized seasonal and pandemic influenza strains, but also strains that have yet to be discovered.

    While the newly developed vaccine has only been tested with mice, success in the lab has raised expectation of a universal vaccine being developed at some point in the future. "We still have some work to do before we get a truly universal flu vaccine," said Ross. "But the COBRA vaccine we've developed for H1N1 virus subtypes is a major step in the right direction." The scientists said the strategy for designing and using the vaccines could provide a model for designing much more broad, potentially multi-year protection for people.

    Additionally, the scientists emphasized the need to identify strains posing the greatest threat as the process of stopping, tweaking and restarting production of the vaccine slows down its production. With a broadly-applicable vaccine, it could be produced continuously and more cheaply, while protecting more people from infection. "What we have developed is a vaccine that protects against multiple different strains of H1N1 virus at once, so we might be able to one day replace the current standard of care with this more broadly cross-protective vaccine," said Ross in a statement.

    http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/2...s-of-influenza
    Last edited by waltky; 03-30-2016 at 04:48 PM.

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    Bird flu in Bulgaria a big problem...

    Bulgaria reports virulent bird flu at over 50 farms, culling 430,000 poultry
    Sunday 15th January, 2017: A virulent bird flu virus has spread to 55 poultry farms in Bulgaria prompting the veterinary authorities to announce a cull of some 430,000 birds since it was first detected in the middle of December, agriculture minister Dessislava Taneva said on Saturday.
    The Balkan country has also registered four cases of bird flu in wild ducks since mid-December.

    Bulgaria has imposed a nationwide ban on poultry markets and on the hunting of game birds, and has already spent over a million levs (US$543,714) to cull birds in a bid to contain the outbreak. "In Bulgaria, we have usually registered bird flu in wild birds in the past few years. It is the first time we have had so many outbreaks in farms," Taneva told Bulgarian Darik radio.

    The southern region of Plovdiv was most affected by the highly pathogenic virus H5N8, she said, pointing out that some 300,000 birds, mainly ducks, were culled and another 130,000 were to be killed on Saturday. The authorities have imposed quarantine zones around the affected farms. Taneva said over 800 bird flu outbreaks have been detected in Europe since October, with Germany and France being most affected.

    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...0/3438658.html

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    The flu shot is useless.
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    Susan Rice includes "pandemic flu" in the list of her biggest nightmares...

    ‘A Pandemic Flu, Frankly, Is a Major Concern’
    January 19, 2017 | Outgoing National Security Adviser Susan Rice includes "pandemic flu" in the list of her biggest nightmares.
    In a lengthy interview earlier this week, NPR’s Charlie Rose asked Rice, “What’s your biggest nightmare? What has kept you up of late?” Rice said she has “a number of worries,” and she listed them: “I think anybody in my position would worry about a catastrophic attack on the homeland or on American personnel abroad. So that's nightmare number one. And particularly if it were, God-forbid, to be combined with some form of weapon of mass destruction.” Second, Rice said she worries about the potential for Russia to “miscalculate” and provoke a conflict in Europe.

    “And then there are the less probable but catastrophic scenarios,” Rice continued. “A pandemic flu, frankly, is a major concern. North Korea continuing to advance and perfect its nuclear missile program, or even an unforeseen conflict between India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed nations that are constantly skirmishing in Kashmir.” At the end of the interview, Charlie Rose returned to the topic of world instability and threats facing the United States. And Rice once again mentioned pandemic flu: “We have threats that we knew of in 2008, but they could arise at any moment like pandemic flu, which we've also discussed. That's not new, but is persistent and the risk remains.” “How serious do you see that?” Rose asked Rice.

    “I think it's a real risk,” Rice said. “It's a fact. It will happen. We have seen it historically over periods of years going back -- the most grave instance was in 1918, where, you know, many, many people died. Hundreds of thousands, millions had the potential to die from something like this because now our world is that much more interconnected through trade, through commerce, through air connectivity. “And therefore, what happens in one part of the world can quickly spread to another. One of the things that this administration has done which is little known, and we did this frankly -- we started this before the Ebola epidemic, was to work with countries around the world to put in place in the weakest links, the poorest, weakest countries of the world, much improved global health infrastructure so they can detect and surveil disease, they can contain it before it spreads.

    “We have called this the global health security agenda and we got 50 countries or so that are actively part of this. And that's the kind of long-term effort that we're going to need to build and sustain around the world to diminish the risk of pandemic, but we're not going to eliminate it.” Rice said most of the threat facing the U.S. “are going to require effective collective action. “That means that the United States has to lead. We have to rally other countries to work with us. They need to see it as in their interest to act whether it's to combat the Ebola epidemic where we brought the world together to do that, whether it's to confront aggression through sanctions on Russia when in Annex Crimea, or whether it is dealing with a new emergent terror threat like ISIL.”

    http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...-major-concern

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    Granny says, "Dat's right ladies - get yer flu shot an' protect yer baby...

    Study: Flu Shot While Pregnant Protects the Baby
    May 03, 2016 - Getting a flu shot while pregnant appears to “significantly” reduce the risk of the baby getting influenza in its first six months, according to a new study.
    Writing in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine found babies, whose mothers were vaccinated while pregnant, had a 70 percent reduction in laboratory-confirmed flu cases and an 80 percent reduction in flu-related hospitalizations. The study's lead author, Pediatrician Julie H. Shakib said, "Babies cannot be immunized during their first six months, so they must rely on others for protection from the flu during that time. When pregnant women get the flu vaccine there are clear benefits for their infants."


    Getting a flu shot while pregnant protects the baby, too.

    Researchers say their findings are important because “pregnant women and young infants are among those at highest risk for dying from flu.” The researchers came to their conclusions based on data from more than 245,000 health records of pregnant women and more than 249,000 infant records covering flu seasons from December of 2005 to March 2014. The data also showed that from among the 658 babies who got the flu, 97 percent came from mothers who had not been vaccinated during pregnancy. Of those babies 151 were sick enough to require hospitalization, and 148 of those babies were born to women who had not been vaccinated.

    To make sure the results were “not related to change” the researchers also examined cases of another sickness, respiratory syncytial virus, which often occurs in colder weather. They found that flu vaccinations had no effect on the number of babies getting sick with RSV. The researchers said only about 50 percent of pregnant women reported getting flu shots last flu season and that these findings reveal more expecting mothers should get vaccinated. "We just really hope more pregnant women get the vaccine," Shakib said. "That's the take-home message of the study."

    http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-a...y/3313837.html

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    Lightbulb

    Uncle Ferd thinks he got the bird flu `cause his g/f always hen-peckin' him...


    WHO warns of worrisome flu in China
    Fri, Jan 27, 2017 - CAUSING CONCERN: Avian influenza typically infects people who raise, slaughter, sell or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases
    After a spate of deaths from bird flu among patients in China, the WHO has warned all nations to watch for outbreaks in poultry flocks and to promptly report any human cases. Several strains of avian flu are spreading in Europe and Asia this winter, but the most worrisome at present is an H7N9 strain that has circulated in China every winter since 2013. China has reported more than 225 human cases since September last year, an unusually high number. As the nation’s Lunar New Year vacation starts, live poultry shipments increase and holiday travelers often spread the flu.


    The fatality rate is not yet known, because some victims are still hospitalized, but WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said this week that China had more than 1,000 cases in the past four years, of which 39 percent were fatal. “All countries must detect and report human cases promptly,” she said. “We cannot afford to miss the early signals.” The flu typically infects people who raise, sell, slaughter or cook poultry, but human-to-human transmission is suspected in two cases that worry health officials.



    Travelers rest on a bench at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station ahead of the Lunar New Year in China on Wednesday. China has reported more than 225 human cases of avian flu since September last year and holiday travelers often spread the disease.


    Both were older men with a history of poultry contact. One apparently infected a daughter who cared for him and the other his hospital roommate. The Hong Kong Department of Health this week warned residents traveling to mainland China to avoid live poultry markets. More than 9 percent of samples from markets in Guangdong Province contained the H7N9 virus, a “substantial” reading, the department said. The swabs are typically taken from cages, sewage gutters, feeding troughs, and chopping and defeathering machines.


    Since November last year, nearly 40 nations have reported finding potentially dangerous flu strains in poultry flocks or in captured or dead wild birds. They include a new H5N6 strain, H5N8 and H5N5. There have also been sporadic cases of H5N1, a strain with a 60 percent fatality rate that caused great alarm more than a decade ago. It has caused almost 400 confirmed deaths since 2003, but has not evolved the ability to transmit easily between people. Since the highly contagious, but relatively mild H1N1 “swine flu” circled the globe in 2009, “the world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic, but not at all well enough,” Chan said.


    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../27/2003663903

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    Sure give your baby a does of mercury.
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    Red face

    Dat's why Granny tells Uncle Ferd not to be doin' sex with Burmese womens...

    Amid Myanmar Swine Flu Outbreak, Atmosphere of Mistrust Prevails
    August 04, 2017 — Myanmar’s government has repeatedly appealed for calm in recent weeks as the death toll from an outbreak of swine flu, or H1N1 influenza, has risen to 14 since the first cases were reported last month.
    Officials have pointed to the fact that the strain of the virus, which was part of a global pandemic in 2009 that originated in pigs, is now considered a normal seasonal flu, and infections – if not deaths – have occurred in the country as recently as last year. But a lack of faith in the Myanmar government’s ability to handle a health crisis and a seemingly slow initial response have nevertheless created a disconnect, allowing an atmosphere of mistrust to prevail and pushing many to take matters into their own hands. Companies have given surgical face masks to employees, while some entrepreneurs are even selling them on the internet.

    Educating the public

    Activist Thet Swe Win was one of many volunteers to take part in an awareness effort over the weekend on the streets of Yangon that consisted informing members of the public to wash their hands and wear masks when outdoors. “The reason for doing this campaign is that our government is not announcing any accurate information about this and people are afraid,” he said. The government, however, disputes allegations of passivity and obfuscation.


    A street vendor sells masks to motorists to protect against the swine flu, July 25, 2017, in Yangon, Myanmar.

    Dr. Than Htun Aung, the deputy director of the public health department with Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and Sports, said the government has made announcements and continued to share protection methods while collaborating with the World Health Organization. “We did risk assessments about this, and responded rapidly to the patients, whether they were severely diagnosed or not,” he said. “We have to wait and see to tell whether it will get larger or disappear.”

    The government has also recommended avoiding crowded places, hand washing and recognizing tell-tale symptoms as some of the first lines of defense rather than emphasize the use of face masks, which have not proven to be an always reliable safeguard against the virus. Dr. Than Htun Aung said that people don’t understand how influenza is spread, and they panicked because “they didn’t get correct information about this.” He did not specify what details were wrong or where they were being disseminated, except to say that “social media and media are responsible for providing correct information to people.”

    Response to outbreak

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    Granny says get yer flu vaccination ladies, so's ya'll have happy, healthy babies...

    Study: Pregnant Women Pass On Flu-fighting Antibodies to Newborns
    July 12, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Your muscles ache. Your nose is stuffed up. You don’t want to get out of bed. You can’t get warm. You have the flu.
    Expect to be out of commission for a couple of days if you get hit with this nasty virus. Most of us can get a vaccine to lower our chances of infection, but there is one population too young to get this protective shield - newborn babies. For the first six months of their lives, babies born during flu season are at high risk of contracting the disease. Flu shots are always recommended, but doctors say they're even more important for anyone who will be in close proximity to a newborn.


    Flu vaccinations for pregnant women protect their newborns, as well

    Doctors also recommend pregnant women get vaccinated to protect themselves. Pregnancy is already tough but having the flu on top of it can have serious effects, and even lead to hospitalization. Now, research shows that the benefits of flu vaccines not only protect mom, but are transferred to her baby through the placenta and protect it from flu during the vulnerable first two months of life outside the womb.

    Passing on protection

    Marta Nunes, a research scientist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, focuses primarily on protecting newborns from vaccine-preventable diseases. Since the flu vaccine is not recommended for babies younger than six months, she is very interested in ways to protect them until they can receive a vaccine. “Vaccinating pregnant women is a strategy that we wanted to study, if it could work to protect these babies during the early period,” Nunes explained to VOA.


    Babies of vaccinated moms are highly protected from contracting the flu during the first two months of life

    In her study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, she looked at the number of antibodies present in women who received a flu vaccine and those who received a placebo. After their babies were born, Nunes followed them for six months, comparing the number of antibodies in the mothers to those in their infants. She found that babies born to vaccinated moms were “highly protected” during the first two months, a much higher level than she had seen in a previous study.

    Vaccination recommendations

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