Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu

Protection From H1N1 Flu Is The Same As From Seasonal Flu.
The blockbuster H1N1 flu seems to appropriate many characteristics with the seasonal flu it has pretty much replaced, a new study indicates. "Our results are further confirmation that 2009 pandemic H1N1 and seasonal flu have nearly the same transmission dynamics. People seem to be similarly transmissible when ill with either pandemic or seasonal flu, and the viruses are likely to spread in similar ways," said Benjamin Cowling, escort author of a study appearing in the June 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The favourable news is that this means the preventive measures health authorities have been recommending, such as ordinary hand washing, should be equally effective against pandemic flu. "Influenza is very difficult to contain, but in the air measures including the availability of pandemic H1N1 vaccines should be able to mitigate the worst of any further epidemics," added Cowling, who is an helper professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong.

Cowling and his colleagues followed 284 household members of 99 individuals who had tested incontestable for H1N1. Eight percent of the household contacts also hew ill with the H1N1 virus, about the same transmission rate as seen for the seasonal flu (9 percent), the researchers found.

Viral shedding (when the virus replicates and leaves the body), as well as the prototype of tangible sickness, were also similar for the two types of flu. The "attack rate" (meaning the suitableness of people in the entire population who get sick) for H1N1 was higher than that for seasonal flu and the balance was most pronounced among children. The authors hypothesized that this might be due to the fact that younger tribe seem to have lower natural immunity to the virus.

Influenza Vaccine In The USA Is Not Enough

Influenza Vaccine In The USA Is Not Enough.
Sporadic shortages of both the flu vaccine and the flu healing Tamiflu are being reported, as this year's powerful flu period continues, according to a top US health official. "We have received reports that some consumers have found speckle shortages of the vaccine," Dr Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said on her blog on the agency's website. Hamburg said that the instrumentality is "monitoring this picture and will update you at our website and at flu dot gov".

So far, more than 128 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed, Hamburg said, but not all the doses have been administered to men and women yet. She said that subjects who already have the flu may also be experiencing local shortages of Tamiflu, a drug that can help treat influenza. "We do obviate intermittent, temporary shortages of the oral suspension form of Tamiflu - the transparent version often prescribed for children - for the remainder of the flu season.

However, FDA is working with the maker to increase supply," she said. Hamburg also noted that "FDA-approved instructions on the label contribute directions for pharmacists on how to compound a liquid form of Tamiflu from Tamiflu capsules". Flu mature typically peaks in January or February but can extend as late as May.