The next update will be on Tuesday, October 6th, at 0830 hrs PST.
The WHO Pandemic Alert level remains at Phase 6
Influenza A (H1N1) Cases and Deaths
*Cases reported by The World Health Organization (WHO) are as of 20th September, 2009
Local/National News
A Canadian principal teaching in a Hong Kong school may have died of swine flu. Alan Dick, 55, a Toronto-educated lower school principal at the Canadian International School of Hong Kong, died in hospital on September 28th. Lab tests on respiratory specimens taken from Dick posthumously were confirmed positive for the influenza A H1N1 virus. The school has more than 1,600 students ranging in age from three to 18. About half of those students are Canadians. The Star
A Winnipeg doctor, Dr. Anand Kumar, is working with Cangene, a world-renowned and Winnipeg-based biopharmaceutical company, hoping to develop an alternative treatment for those who contract the H1N1 virus. Until now, the only treatment options for people with the H1N1 flu virus have been the antiviral drug Tamiflu and to put people with serious respiratory problems on ventilators. Cangene is now searching for former H1N1 patients to donate their plasma. The idea is that antibodies from those who have already recovered from H1N1 can be used to help flu patients. CBC
The Canadian Forces reserves the right to order its soldiers deployed in Afghanistan to take the vaccine meant to prevent swine flu, says the military's Surgeon General, Commodore Hans Jung. The current plan is to make the H1N1 vaccine, expected to be available in November, voluntary for soldiers, sailors and aircrew throughout the Canadian Forces, including those on duty in Kandahar and elsewhere around the world. But the Chief of Defence Staff does have the legal authority to order soldiers to take the shot. Jung said the possibility of a swine flu pandemic, with an army fighting in the field, presents National Defence and the military's health services branch with a unique challenge. One of the complicating factors in that equation is that Canadian troops share the airfield with more than 15,000 other NATO troops and patrol through regions where Afghans have little access to basic medical care and sanitation. CTV
International News
U.S. hospitals are opening drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat a swelling tide of swine flu patients. People pull up, park and go through three tents, where they undergo an exam that includes having their temperature taken. Under a program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, many flu patients will not even have to leave their cars. The nurse near the ER stops cars and sends appropriate cases to the drive-thru. Signs tell families to tune the radio to a public broadcasting station that describes what happens next. The patient's automobile acts as a self-contained isolation compartment, the hoods of the cars make excellent places to write notes and medical records are slid under the windshield wipers. Through the car window, a doctor uses a device that clips on a finger to measure blood pressure, pulse and breathing rates. Fingerstick blood tests can be done. In nearby tents, diabetics can get a urine test for blood sugar, and heart patients can get an EKG. The last stop has a pharmacy to get vaccine, medicines or a prescription to fill. CTV
A study of 77 patients who died of the new pandemic H1N1 virus in the United States showed 29 percent of them had so-called bacterial co-infections, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. About half of these had Streptococcus pneumoniae, which can be prevented with a vaccine. Wyeth's Prevnar is part of the routine series of immunizations that children should get, and another vaccine against so-called pneumococcal bacteria is available for elderly adults. Reuters
Vaccine News
Australia has launched its H1N1 vaccination campaign for adults and children aged 10 and over, one of the first counties to do so. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said 5.5 million doses of the swine flu vaccine have been delivered across the country, enough to vaccinate about 30 per cent of the population. Those most at risk from the H1N1 virus — such as health-care workers, pregnant women, indigenous Australians and people with chronic diseases — are encouraged to get the pandemic flu shot as soon as it is available locally.CBC
Some injectable swine flu shots will become available earlier than expected, reported an executive of Sanofi-Aventis, the pharmaceutical company based in Europe, which has a flu vaccine plant in Swiftwater, PA. This is because Sanofi-Aventis has been able to finish making its vaccine nearly two weeks ahead of schedule. Until recently, nearly all the first vaccine batches were expected to be of the nasal spray form, a live virus that is not recommended for pregnant women, children under 2, adults over 50 and people with health problems. New York Times
Every year, there are 1.1 million heart attacks in the United States, 795,000 strokes and 876,000 miscarriages, and 200,000 Americans have their first seizure. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine and health officials from the CDC are urging Americans not to associate all illnesses that occur in the following months with the H1N1 vaccine. Officials are particularly worried about spontaneous miscarriages, because they are urging pregnant women to be among the first to be vaccinated. Memories of the 1976 vaccine campaign surface- when what was believed to be the freakishly coincidental deaths of three elderly Pittsburgh residents after receiving the flu shots was attributed to the flu shot and the ensuing media storm derailed the program. New York Times
Week’s Feature
Listen to survivors of the H1N1 virus as former patients talk about their experiences with the pandemic flu. CBC
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