Swine Flu Anti-virals and Children

Research has shown that anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza can cause more negative side-effects in children than the symptoms of the disease they are supposed to prevent.

The side-effects can be quite severe resulting in vomiting and dehydration which can result in other complications. But anti-virals only work if administered early during the onset of flu and only shorten the duration of disease by a day. The work in the British Medical Journal did their study on the normal seasonal flu but say that the results of the study could just easily be applied to swine flu.

This evidence flies against the general policy of giving anti-viral drugs to children. The drugs are the first line of defence against swine flu until vaccines become available in September.

But shouldn’t all this have been investigated beforehand? It doesn’t make sense; antiviral drugs have been around for years why haven’t clinical trials established that they are more damaging to children than the symptoms they are supposed to alleviate? Again poor planning and an eagerness to seem as if something is been done is clouding the authorities capacity to make sure everything is alright.

For more information visit:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

The Rush for Swine Flu Vaccines

The swine flu situation is becoming urgent and so the race for the vaccines has become more intense and more urgent. The promise for an early September release now seems very unlikely now.

The race for a new vaccine began in earnest in April when institutes in the UK, Japan and the US began work to produce a ‘seed strain’.

The reconstructed virus created after using reverse genetics techniques, will be safe for humans and will be able to trigger an immune response that will protect people against swine flu disease.
But some countries need the vaccine... now. The US, the UK, New Zealand Chile and Australia seem to be suffering more from swine flu than the rest of the world and are pressing for the vaccines to go through clinical trials.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

Pregnant women risk of Swine flu confirmed

Pregnant women are to be given priority when it comes to swine flu treatment after a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that they are four times more likely to need hospital treatment than the general population.

Without anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu or Relenza pregnant women are likely to develop complications. In study that looked at 34 confirmed cases of swine flu infection among pregnant women, 11 had to be admitted to hospital. This was more than four times the rate seen in the general population. Six of the eleven women eventually died. Which on reflection is a shocking statistic. None of the women were given anti-viral drugs during the first 48 hours of getting the infection.

It seems that we do indeed need to worry for a small yet incredibly significant section of the population. Tamiflu needs to given out to women that are at various stages of their pregnancies so that they are prepared for the worse. We need to do all we can to protect the carriers of our young from the growing impact of swine flu.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

Swine Flu vaccine still months away

The World Health Organization has confirmed that vaccines will not be available until the end of September-early October. Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, confirmed that a vaccine will be available soon but not one that has been proven safe. Clinical trial data (that is needed before the vaccine can be distributed for general) use will not be available until another two to three months.

The vaccine still needs to be studied to find out if one or two doses are required to ensure immunity and to find out if there are any unforeseen side-effects.

The U.S may have as many as 160m doses of vaccine by October but they still don't know how far these doses will go. If more vaccine is required in each dose and two doses are required to ensure immunity then the 160m will only serve a fraction of the population.

However, swine flu is spreading faster in some countries than the experts predicted. So far it has infected more than a million people in the U.S and has killed more than 700 people globally.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

Swine Flu panic and pregnant women

Some specialist organizations (like the UKs National Childbirth Trust) is advising women to consider postponing trying to become pregnant until the swine flu pandemic is over.

Expectant mothers seem to be at a greater risk from swine flu because their immune systems are slightly suppressed to make sure the baby isn't rejected. Also from evidence gathered so far it seems that pregnant women have more severe symptoms and take longer to fight off the disease.

This advice is seen by many to be scaremongering even though there is some truth in the claim. From the hospital figures so far the pregnant women and very young children are the most at risk groups.

But the likelihood of swine flu complications occurring to the majority of pregnant women is still incredibly remote.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/index.html

Whose at most risk from Swine Flu?

In some countries, the disease is spreading faster than the scientists anticipated. And with such high numbers of people suffering from swine flu, health-care specialists are now in a position to start assessing the behaviour of the disease.

It is now generally accepted that swine flu seems to affect young children more than the elderly. Even though the mortality rate is still quite low, a disproportionate number of children seem to be catching the disease and they seem to show the worst symptoms.

This is a worrying fact. Some sources say that more than one-third of all children will be infected with the swine flu virus. With a mortality rate of about 0.5%, that could result in a lot of swine flu related childhood deaths.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

Mortality Rate of Swine Flu is still too difficult to Predict

Scientists have had difficulty in predicting the mortality rate of swine flu because they say they don't have enough accurate information. Apparently, they need more information concerning the true numbers of deaths related to swine flu and not deaths that could be attributed to other underlying medical issues.

From the limited information gathered so far it seems that swine flu has a mortality rate similar to that of normal seasonal flu, giving us a figure of 0.5% or 1 in 200. This is much lower than the mortality rate of one of the worst pandemics of last century, the Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed about 2% of the people it infected.

However, this is the first phase of swine flu. It is very likely to get more virulent later as the disease continues to spread and develop.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/