M.D.s, U.S. Government Stressing Flu Vaccination Next Week
It's certainly not too late to get your flu shot. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is emphasizing the week of November 27 to December 2 as National Influenza Vaccination Week.
According to a news release from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), stressing the importance of getting vaccinated against influenza now may stem off last-minute rushes to the doctor if this year's flu season should be a bad one.
And unlike the situation in 2005, there is enough vaccine for everyone in the united States, despite age or physical condition, officials from the CDC and AAFP say.
The AAFP is also emphasizing Tuesday, Nov. 27 as Children's Flu Vaccination Day, with a reminder that more than 20,000 children under age 5 are hospitalized every year as a result of influenza.
A letter to all AAFP members from AAFP President Dr. Jim King and Board Chair Dr. Rick Kellerman, urges doctors to stress the importance getting a flu shot, and the vaccine is not just for patients. "Immunization of health care workers protects not only the worker but also those around them," the letter says. "For example, influenza can be transmitted to patients and co-workers from an infected person 24 hours before symptoms appear."
A complete list of vaccination schedules is available on the AAFP Immunization Resources Web page .
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New Bird Flu Outbreak Reported in South Korea
Avian flu has returned to South Korea for the first time in eight months.
However, this strain, which forced the extermination of thousands of ducks in the southern part of the country, was not the deadly H5N1 strain that scientists fear could mutate into a pandemic among humans, the Associated Press reports.
Rather, it was described by government health officials as a "low pathogenic" H7 strain that so far, has not shown up in humans. About 17,000 ducks were slaughtered on a poultry farm 205 miles southwest of Seoul, the wire service reports. Cases of the H5N1 virus have occurred seven times in South Korea during the past year, the A.P. says.
From December 2003 to mid-July 2007, 319 cases of H5N1 bird flu in humans were reported to the World Health Organization. Among these cases, 60 percent (192) were fatal. To date, no human cases of bird flu have been reported in the United States.
All human cases were reported from Asia (Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam) and Africa (Djibouti, Egypt, and Nigeria).
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UK Plans to Vaccinate Entire Population if Bird Flu Pandemic Occurs
Although there hasn't been a single confirmed case of human-to-human infection, the possibility of an avian flu pandemic has prompted the British government to announce it intends to provide its entire population with vaccinations if such an outbreak should occur.
According to the Associated Press, the United Kingdom's health secretary Alan Johnson characterized the possibility of a bird flu pandemic as being "one of the most severe risks" facing the country. Johnson told English lawmakers he had signed an agreement for the delivery of enough pandemic flu vaccine to immunize every British citizen against avian flu.
So far, its only a plan, the wire service quotes government officials as saying. No vaccine can be produced until -- and if -- an actual epidemic occurs, and the virus is identified.
"We don't believe an influenza pandemic is imminent," a UK government official told the A.P., but the danger of repeating the type of casualties that occurred in a 1968 influenza outbreak do exist, she added. In that instance, more than 1 million people died worldwide, 80,000 in Britain, the wire service reports.
In terms of the H5N1 bird flu virus, from December 2003 to mid-July 2007, 319 cases of bird flu in humans were reported to the World Health Organization. Among these cases, 60 percent (192) were fatal. To date, no human cases of bird flu have been reported in the United States.
All human cases were reported from Asia (Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam) and Africa (Djibouti, Egypt, and Nigeria).
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FDA Review Recommends Warnings on Kids' Flu Drugs
Reports of neurological problems in children taking the flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza mean the medicines need a warning label on their packaging, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety review released Friday.
According to the Associated Press, the safety review follows 25 deaths among Tamiflu users under the age of 21, most of them occurring in Japan. In five cases, children fell from windows or balconies or ran into traffic, the AP said.
The FDA began its review in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing hallucinations, convulsions and other neurological problems while on Tamiflu.
Data from the review will be considered by a special panel of outside experts that will meet on Tuesday to mull the agency's proposed label changes. The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its advisory panels, but usually does.
According to the AP, there have so far been no child deaths linked to Relenza, but regulators say some children taking the drug have shown similar neurological symptoms.
Neurological side effects may come from a rare strain of the flu, or a rare genetic reaction to the flu drugs, according to the FDA.
Relenza's current label makes no mention of neurological problems. Tamiflu's labeling currently mentions the potential for self-injury or delirium, but does not say these incidents could prove fatal. The proposed labeling change would add that warning to Tamiflu, the AP said.
In a statement, Tamiflu's maker, Swiss-based Roche, said there's no hard evidence linking the drug to neurological trouble, which the company says can also be caused by the flu. However, referring to a proposed label change, Roche said it is "open to that consideration."
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Leg Vein Clots Boost Heart Attack, Stroke Risks
Patients with clots in the veins of the legs, known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), face higher risks for heart attack or stroke in the year after a clot, according to a study in the Nov. 24 issue of The Lancet.
These clots have been noted in passengers on long-haul flights and have been dubbed "economy class syndrome," although they do occur in other settings.
In the study, researchers at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, tracked one-year outcomes for over 25,000 people with DVT, almost 17,000 people with pulmonary embolism (clots that travel to the lung), and close to 164,000 healthy controls.
They found that DVT boosted the 12-month risk of heart attack and stroke by 60 and 119 percent, respectively, compared to controls. Pulmonary embolism boosted the odds for heart attack over the following year by more than two-and-a-half times compared to controls, while nearly tripling a patent's risk of stroke.
The increase in risk was roughly equivalent to that of conventional cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes and smoking, the team noted.
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Rotavirus Vaccine Could Help Prevent Child Diarrhea
A new vaccine against rotavirus -- a gastroenteritis bug responsible for sometimes lethal diarrhea in infants and young children -- shows promise in a new trial and might help save children's lives, experts say.
A team from the University of Tampere, Finland, tested the RIX4414 vaccine in almost 4,000 infants six to 14 weeks of age, living in six European countries.
After receiving two doses, children showed more than 90 percent protection against severe gastroenteritis over two seasons. The shot was also 96 percent effective in preventing illness requiring hospitalization, the researchers report in the Nov. 24 issue of The Lancet.
In an accompanying editorial, experts caution that diverse strains of rotavirus circulate in Africa and Asia, so no global recommendations on the vaccine's use can be made until it is tested in those populations.
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Britain Would Vaccinate All Against Pandemic Flu
U.K. health officials on Thursday announced they are planning to stockpile enough pandemic flu vaccine to protect the entire population, the Associated Press reported.
A flu pandemic was "one of the most severe risks" facing Britain, Health Secretary Alan Johnson told lawmakers. He said he had signed an agreement that would assure the delivery of enough vaccine to protect every citizen.
Experts can only formulate a vaccine once the strain of the pandemic virus had been identified, however. Health officials said it remains impossible to predict when a pandemic might strike or how widespread it might be.
According to an unnamed department of health spokeswoman, the last global flu epidemic occurred in 1968 and killed over one million people worldwide. She told the AP that "we don't believe an influenza [pandemic] is imminent."
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