News Reports for May 19, 2012

US: Florida doctor sees a spike in flu cases

TAMPA - Your kids may be getting ready to get out of school, but there's a bug going around that parents need to worry about.  One local doctor says the flu has arrived late and is hitting hard at an unusual time of the year.

Seven year old Analys has a smile on her face, finally.  She's been hospitalized at Florida Hospital Tampa after a suffering a fever of almost 105 degrees, along with seizures. Mom Yamaira Toledo says, "I didn't think flu.  She rarely gets sick.  I really didn't know what to think until the very next morning I found her by her bed and she was shivering with symptoms of what I thought was a seizure."

Mom rushed her to Florida Hospital. Doctor James Orlowski tells us her diagnosis. "She had the Influenza A virus, which is the one that seems to be circulating right now."

That's unusual, Doctor Orlwoski says, because flu season typically ends in March. Still, he says, "We're seeing a spike in flu cases here in Florida.  In just the last weekend, we had five cases of influenza and in the last two weeks we've had two cases that were hospitalized." Continued: http://www.abcactionnews.com/d...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 05:36:14 AM UTC

US: 1st pediatric flu death of the year (Arizona)

PHOENIX - A child in Arizona has died from the flu, marking the first pediatric flu death of the year. (**Note: First one in Arizona.)

The 6-year-old girl from Gila County died last week. We know she had some pre-existing medical conditions. Last year, there were only 5 flu deaths in Arizona.
(Snip)
"While this has been a relatively mild flu season and we are seeing decreasing statewide flu activity, we are seeing flu activity, so we want to make sure we remind everybody to wash their hands, stay home if they are sick," says Dr. Cara Christ. (Snip) http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/st...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 05:44:26 AM UTC

Pakistan: Cough, cold, flu drugs prices shoot up by 200pc

ISLAMABAD: An acute shortage of essential medicines across the country has developed into a national crisis, causing up to a 200% increase in the prices of cough, cold and flu medicines.

DG Health Dr Kazi Abdul Saboor Friday told The News that the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) is likely to release the pseudo ephedrine quota for 2012 to pharmaceutical companies in its joint committee due to meet on May 22 (Tuesday).

The price of 10 tablets of Panadol-CF have skyrocketed by approximately 200 percent --from Rs17.50 to Rs50 in Karachi alone. A spokesperson for the pharmaceutical companies association explained that pseudo ephedrine HCl 60mg was used widely in the manufacture of Panadol-CF.
(Snip)
Pharmaceutical companies across Pakistan currently possess no pseudo ephedrine which is the main input material used in the manufacturing of essential medicines. DG Health explained that his ministry was assisting the NCB, but it was the responsibility of the Board to provide pseudo ephedrine to companies.

The Narcotics Control Board (NCB) has frozen the release of the pseudo ephedrine quota for 2012 following allegations of corruption in the chemical's allocation by the Ministry of Health back in 2010 as well as the consequent investigation of the case by the Anti Narcotics Force on the orders of the Supreme Court. Pharmaceutical industry sources contend that the entire crisis is simply based on a misunderstanding. They assert that the ANF is currently investigating the case, whereas the crisis and shortage is the result of pseudo ephedrine being withheld instead of being released to legitimate manufacturers. Continued: http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.as...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 05:52:14 AM UTC

H1N1 H274Y Tamiflu Resistance Spreads to California and Illinois

Recombinomics Commentary

The CDC has released another series of H1N1pdm09 sequences at GISAID.  The newly released sequences confirm and extend the clonal expansion of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) resistance due to H274Y.  Earlier sequences had H274Y in the five most recent sequences from Texas, as well as the four most recent sequences from Mexico, including cases from Mexico City.  The newly released sequences include four Texas isolates collected in March (Snip) and all four had H274Y and were closely related to each, other as well as the earlier cases in Texas and Mexico.

In addition, two recent isolates from California (Snip) and Illinois (Snip) also had H274Y and were also closely related to the sequences from Texas and Mexico, signaling a broader clonal expansion.

The CDC's week 19 Fluview notes that most of these isolates from cases not receiving anti-viral treatment, as well as two cases where family members were receiving treatment.  These observations support transmission of H274Y.

(Snip) two of the recently released sequences (Snip) also had D225G raising concerns of increases in severe Tamiflu resistant cases. http://www.recombinomics.com/N...

(Note: I think the D225G mutation on the receptor binding domain is thought to allow the virus to grow deeper in the lungs and cause more severe cases and deaths. I also think it is associated with "cytokine storm" occurring due to high viral load.)

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 06:12:41 AM UTC

Transmitting D225G Tamiflu Resistant H1N1 In Texas / California

Recombinomics Commentary

The recently released H1N1pdm09 sequences confirm and extend clonal expansion of H274T tamiflu (oseltamivir) resistance in Mexico, Texas, California, and Illinois.  All of these cases are closely related to each other, signaling clonal expansion.  Moreover, the week 19 FluView confirms that 13 of the 16 cases had no exposure to Tamiflu, while two cases were family members of patients being treated with Tamiflu, confirming clustered transmission of H274Y.

(Snip) two of the cases (60F and 19M) also had D225G (Snip), raising concerns that D225G and H274Y are transmitting.  The genetic background of these cases matches a dominant 2012 H1N1pdm09 genotype that is widespread in the United States, indicating the sub-clade is well adapted for spread and raising concerns that H274Y and D225G are circulating as mixtures, and the true level is markedly higher than the recently reported cases.

More information on the clinical picture of the two D225G cases would be useful, as well as minor signals in sequences that have been presented as wild type for HA position 225 and NA position 274. http://www.recombinomics.com/N...

(Note: The H1N1 swine flu virus with the mutation H274Y (Tamiflu resistant) and the mutation D225G (higher viral load in the deep lung, which may lead to a cytokine storm), tells me it will be a very mean flu virus to have circulating! JMO)  

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 06:35:39 AM UTC

remembering the 1918 sequence of events

That 1918 flu started off relatively mild, then came back super strong, almost like a different virus. So who's to say we're out of the woods with H1N1.  

Afew Questions to ponder (hopefully one of our experts can answer)

Question 1:  About what percent of the world population was actually infected by H1N1 in the past two seasons who would thus have some acquired immunity?

Question 2:  Since a pandemic occurs when there is a novel virus to which no one has been exposed, would a third go round with H1N1, even in a mutated form, no longer be called a pandemic?

Question 3:  Would these mutations above (and/or other mutations as yet unforeseen) make the H1N1 a novel enough virus that previous exposure to the original pandemic form would not confer sufficient immune resistance to keep one from falling seriously ill with the mutated form?

Always have a plan B.

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by: maryinhawaii @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 18:15:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Australia: Ballarat prepares for flu season

BALLARAT should brace itself for the onset of flu season with two nasty virus strains emerging from the woodwork this year. Influenza Specialist Group chairman Alan Hampson said the Perth H3 strain and the B Brisbane strain were back on the detection radar after fading from prominence for a couple of years. Dr Hampson said while always hard to predict, time would tell if immunity to the strains had been diminished. "We wouldn't expect anything to be really starting until June," he said.

"The H3 virus is generally the one that has the greatest impact in the community. "When you get a major outbreak it's the one that causes hospitalisation and death. It affects mainly older people in the community." He said the B-virus had its greatest impact in kids.

Dr Hampson said swine flu, which was predominant in Australia during 2009 to 2011, was currently fading, but would not disappear completely. "What I expect to see is some changes in that virus and it reappearing in a different form," he said. Continued: http://www.thecourier.com.au/n...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Sat May 19, 2012 at 08:15:04 AM UTC

Please post new news stories to ...

News Reports for May 20, 2012

Thank you!

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by: AlohaOR @ Sun May 20, 2012 at 04:09:06 AM UTC