The next update will be on Thursday, October 15th, 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 October 4th, 2009
National News
According to a new study, more than two-thirds of those who have fallen critically ill and died of H1N1 influenza in Canada are younger women. The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, highlights that there are two distinct forms of the disease: In 99 per cent of cases, people get sick, stay home for a few days, and get better. But in about one in every 1,000 cases, patients become gravely ill and require staggering amounts of care. In fact, the research reveals that the large majority of those who became seriously ill had no serious underlying health conditions, contrary to what is often stated. The Globe and Mail
A new poll indicated that Canadians don't seem to see the H1N1 virus as a personal threat, and few currently plan to get vaccinated against the virus. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll suggests interest in the swine flu vaccine has declined in Canada, with only a third of people now saying they will get the shot, compared to 45 per cent in late August. “They're certainly disappointing and maybe a bit dismaying,” Dr. Perry Kendall, British Columbia's chief medical officer of health, said of the findings. Canadian Press
Google has unveiled a Canadian version of Google Flu Trends, a sophisticated flu-tracking Web tool that gathers data from the company's search engine and crunches it down to create a near real-time picture of the level of influenza infection in a given area. Google developed Flu Trends to provide public health agencies with a new means of tracking trends during flu season as a way of preventing outbreaks. Google Flu Trends first launched in the United States last November, with subsequent versions appearing in Mexico in April and in Australia and New Zealand in June. National Post
International News
In the Northern Hemisphere, transmission of influenza virus and rates of influenza-like-illness (ILI) continue to increase marking an unusually early start to fall and winter influenza season in many countries. In Europe and Central and Western Asia, early transmission of influenza virus continues to increase in many countries, with more intense focal activity being reported in a few. In the tropical regions of the Americas and Asia, influenza virus transmission persists, however influenza activity remained variable. In the temperate regions of the southern hemisphere, influenza transmission has largely subsided (Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand) or continues to decline substantially (South Africa and Australia). WHO
Egypt has closed two schools and two university departments in Cairo and began putting lessons on television in an effort to contain swine flu after several cases of the disease among students. A boys school and a girls school in two Cairo suburbs and the language and arts faculties at Ain Shams University are being closed for two weeks. A classroom at the American University in Cairo was also shuttered after a student came down with the H1N1 virus over the weekend. Bloomberg
Health authorities in Jordan have recently confirmed the country’s first death of influenza H1N1. The victim, a 26-year old man, was admitted to the state-run Prince Hamzah Hospital late on Sunday after exhibiting symptoms of the H1N1 virus. In remarks to the Jordan's official News Agency Petra, Jordan's Health Minister Nayef Fayez said the young man had suffered from unrelated health problems prior to his infection. Xinhua
Cuba has acknowledged its first deaths from swine flu, saying three pregnant women succumbed to the virus and many more have been treated for symptoms. Deputy Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said a total of 2,100 pregnant women were treated for symptoms of the disease, with 110 of them seriously ill, in comments reported by the official Communist Party newspaper. The report does not say how many women remain hospitalized, nor make clear whether all of the 2,100 cases were confirmed to be H1N1. Associated Press
Vaccine News
The World Health Organization has said that it hopes to begin shipping 60 million doses of swine flu vaccine to poor countries in November as part of an effort to protect their fragile health systems from the pandemic. WHO wants to provide doctors and nurses in about 100 countries with vaccines over the coming four to five months, using a stockpile provided by drug companies and donor countries. WHO has warned that poor countries risk being overwhelmed as health workers fall ill and are unable to care for patients with other diseases. Associated Press
The largest vaccination programme in Swedish history got underway as health workers in the south of the country received the first shots to protect against the swine flu. Hospital workers lined up at Malmö University Hospital to be among the first people in Sweden to receive vaccinations against the AH1H1 virus. The swine flu vaccine arrived in the area on Monday morning before being distributed in refrigerated trucks to ten nearby hospitals. The Local
The UK Department of Health (DH) has ordered health officials across England to ensure that frontline staff get immunized against swine flu amid growing signs that many doctors and nurses intend to shun the vaccine. Chief executives and boards who run hospitals, primary care trusts, and strategic health authorities have been told to urgently maximize the number of workers having the jab. Leading DH figures, including Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, have written to them six times in the last five weeks stressing the need for action before the second wave of the pandemic causes major problems. Guardian
Weekly Feature
Check out global flu trends through Google by clicking here.
Posts
