Eideard

Vaccinating children aged two to four years against seasonal influenza resulted in a 34% decline in flu-like illnesses, found a study in Canadian Medical Association Journal. Preschool-aged children have influenza infection rates of 25%-43%, higher than other age groups. Vaccinating healthy children can help prevent spread of infection in the home and the community.

In 2006 through 2007, the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices expanded its recommendations to give the seasonal flu vaccine to children beyond the current target group of 6 months to 23 months of age. However, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization did not, allowing a comparison of vaccination practices between the two countries.

Researchers from the Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and McGill University and the Montreal Public Health Department in Montréal, Quebec evaluated the impact of the expanded US policy on influenza-related visits to the emergency department at the Children’s Hospital Boston compared with Montreal Children’s Hospital. They looked at visits to the emergency department in 2000/2001 through 2008/2009 at the two hospitals…

…The researchers analyzed the visits associated with flu-like illnesses and found that “both hospitals had strong seasonal fluctuations in visits related to influenza-like illness in younger age groups, with more subtle seasonal patterns in older pediatric age groups and similar seasonal epidemic increases, declines and peak timing of the epidemic curve,” write Drs. John Brownstein and Anne Hoen, Children’s Hospital Boston, with coauthors.

“Following the policy change in the United States, we observed a decline in the rate of emergency department visits for influenza-like illness at Children’s Hospital Boston relative to the Montreal Children’s Hospital in the target age group, children two to four years old,” they state.

They also saw declines of 11%-18% in other nontarget age groups (ages 0-1 year, 2-4 years, 5-9 years and 10-18 years), which may be related to an overall reduction of influenza in transmission at home and in the community because of vaccination of two to four year olds…

“…Our findings provide evidence that, in our US study community (i.e., Boston), the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to routinely vaccinate preschool-aged children against seasonal influenza is improving pediatric influenza-related outcomes,” conclude the authors.

Not only seems reasonable; but, overdue. I have no idea why it’s taken either nation so long to get round to this level of vaccnation – but, I’m glad they finally did.

After all, half my North American kinfolk live in the GWN.

The first human antibody that can knock out all influenza A viruses has been shown effective in lab mice, an exciting step forward in the hunt for a universal vaccine.

The broadly neutralizing antibody, called FI6, could help vaccinate people against the flu without scientists struggling to piece together a new cocktail each season to match the often-changing strains.

Antonio Lanzavecchia, lead author of the study published this week in the US journal Science, described the finding as “significant,” but noted it may be five years before it can be made into a widely available treatment.

“The antibody works not only by neutralizing the virus, which we knew, but also by recruiting killer cells to the virus-infected cells,” Lanzavecchia, director of Switzerland’s Institute for Research in Biomedicine, told AFP in a phone interview.

“This suggests that once tested in a human system, the antibodies should work even better.”

The antibody was found in plasma cells from a human donor. When given to mice heavily dosed with flu viruses, it was able to knock out the illness, offering hope for use as a remedy in people who get infected with the flu…

“We are convinced that this is a very rare specificity but it is a very potent antibody,” said Lanzavecchia…

The next steps are to try to develop the antibodies into a treatment for flu-infected people, while scientists use the findings to work toward developing a vaccine that could coax the body into producing such antibodies.

Bravo!

Anti-vaccination silliness fills all those categories.

A study of antibodies from people infected with H1N1 swine flu adds proof that scientists are closing in on a “universal” flu shot that could neutralize many types of flu strains, including H1N1 swine flu and H5N1 bird flu.

U.S. researchers said people who were infected in the H1N1 pandemic developed an unusual immune response, making antibodies that could protect them from all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the deadly “Spanish flu” strain from 1918 and even a strain of the H5N1 avian flu.

“It says that a universal influenza vaccine is really possible,” said Patrick Wilson of the University of Chicago, who worked on the paper published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine…

Wilson’s team started making the antibodies in 2009 from nine people who had been infected in the first wave of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic before an H1N1 vaccine had been produced. The hope was to develop a way to protect healthcare personnel.

Working with researchers from Emory University School of Medicine, the team produced 86 antibodies that reacted with the H1N1 virus, and tested them on different flu strains. Of these, five were cross-protective, meaning they could interfere with many strains of flu including the 1918 “Spanish flu” and a strain of H5N1 or avian flu…

And some of these cross-protective antibodies were similar in structure to those discovered by other teams as having potential for a universal flu vaccine.

“It demonstrates how to make a single vaccine that could potentially provide permanent immunity to all influenza,” Wilson said in a telephone interview.

Good news – and something we’ve been hearing from a number of sources. I’m encouraged enough to believe that, as in a few classic examples with other diseases, we may end up with more than one universal vaccine against flu.

If you like the idea, you can even buy buttons, neckties, etc. to spread the word.
A cause for every fool?

Medical students secretly watched hundreds of people cough or sneeze at a train station, a shopping mall and a hospital in New Zealand…

The work was done in the capital city of Wellington over two weeks last August…

The good news is that about three of every four people tried to cover their cough or sneeze, in at least a token attempt to prevent germs from flying through the air.

The bad news is that most people — about two of three — used their hands to do it.

“When you cough into your hands, you cover your hand in virus,” said study author Nick Wilson, an associate professor of public health at the Otago University campus in Wellington.

“Then you touch doorknobs, furniture and other things. And other people touch those and get viruses that way,” he explained.

Health officials recommend that people sneeze into their elbow, in a move sometimes called ‘the Dracula’ for its resemblance to a vampire suddenly drawing up his cape. But only about 1 in 77 did that.

Using a tissue or handkerchief is another preferred option, but only about 1 in 30 did that…

The study was presented Monday at an infectious diseases conference in Atlanta.

When you begin to think that there is only one right way to cough, it’s time to go out and pet a puppy dog or something. At least in my world.

An unusual study done in 49 remote Hutterite farming colonies in western Canada has provided the surest proof yet that giving flu shots to schoolchildren protects a whole community from the disease.

Although previous studies have demonstrated what scientists call “herd immunity,” none have been so incontrovertible, because they were done in less isolated places with more sources of flu passing through. Also, only one other study, done 42 years ago, immunized over 80 percent of a community’s children, as this one did. Success repeated in many separate communities with very high vaccination rates implies that the shots themselves — rather than luck, viral mutations, hand-washing or any other factor — were the crucial protective element…

“Not only was that clearly needed to protect the kids, but they probably wound up protecting the older people, too,” Dr. Fauci said…

Although they frown on television and radio, Hutterites drive cars and modern tractors. More important from a medical point of view, they live in communities of up to 160 people, own everything jointly, attend their own schools, eat in one dining hall and have little contact with the outside world. Each community governs itself, but, in Dr. Loeb’s words, “after one very with-it Alberta bishop recognized the study’s benefit to the rest of the world and backed it,” almost 50 communities voted to participate.

Hutterites have no religious objections to Western medicine, that very “with-it” bishop, John K. Stahl, 76, said in a telephone interview. While deliberately cut off, they perform acts of generosity — for example, many donate blood frequently…

There was a 60 percent “protective effect” for the whole community, the study concluded. It implies, Dr. Bridges said, that giving flu shots only to schoolchildren would protect the elderly just as well as giving flu shots to the elderly themselves.

The C.D.C. would never recommend that, she cautioned, “because you still should vaccinate high-risk people.”

Anyone who ever worked in an office setting populated by folks with schoolkids in their family knows what happens even with the common cold – much less the flu. Everyone brings it to work after they catch something from their kids.

RTFA. The study was fortunate to connect with religious communities that aren’t anti-science from the gitgo. Down here in the lower 48, we’re still hampered by political winds blowing out the butts of pundits, demagogues and populists who use every excuse in the book to hinder ordinary medical science.

In fatal cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza, the virus can damage cells throughout the respiratory airway, much like the viruses that caused the 1918 and 1957 influenza pandemics, report researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

The scientists reviewed autopsy reports, hospital records and other clinical data from 34 people who died of 2009 H1N1 influenza infection between May 15 and July 9, 2009. All but two of the deaths occurred in New York City.

A microscopic examination of tissues throughout the airways revealed that the virus caused damage primarily to the upper airway—the trachea and bronchial tubes—but tissue damage in the lower airway, including deep in the lungs, was present as well. Evidence of secondary bacterial infection was seen in more than half of the victims…

“This study provides clinicians with a clear and detailed picture of the disease caused by 2009 H1N1 influenza virus that will help inform patient management,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “In fatal cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza, it appears the novel pandemic influenza virus produces pulmonary damage that looks very much like that seen in earlier influenza pandemics.”

The new report also underscores the impact 2009 H1N1 influenza is having on younger people. While most deaths from seasonal influenza occur in adults over 65 years old, deaths from 2009 H1N1 influenza occur predominately among younger people. The majority of deaths (62 percent) in the 34 cases studied were among those 25 to 49 years old; two infants were also among the fatal cases…

“This pattern of pathology in the airway tissues is similar to that reported in autopsy findings of victims of both the 1918 and 1957 influenza pandemics,” notes Dr. Taubenberger.

You’ll find a range of support info about influenza over here.

It’s not like we have too many regular readers here at Eideard.com – please get your flu shot!

Catholic churches in Italy are installing automatic holy water dispensers to help reduce the risk of spreading swine flu.

The outbreak of the H1N1 virus has led many churches to suspend the tradition of having holy water in open fonts into which people dip their hands.

The new machine works like an automatic soap dispenser, squirting water when a hand is passed under the tap.

Father Pierre Angelo Mota, from Capriano Briosco, north of Milan, said squirtable holy water had surprised some of his parishoners at first.

“People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it,” he added.

“Some people had stopped dipping their hand into the holy water font as they were afraid of infections,” he told Reuters.

This is all absurd to the point of being hilarious.

There is no one more foolish than someone dedicated to religious self-delusion?

The new pandemic H1N1 influenza was circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade before it jumped to people, and much better surveillance is needed among both pigs and people.

Molecular tests show the swine flu virus made a mutational jump as it passed from pigs to humans, which apparently happened recently, Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona told a meeting of flu experts sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.

“This virus most likely has been circulating under the radar in pigs for the better part of 10 years,” Worobey, who specializes in tracking viruses using a so-called molecular clock, told the meeting.

“Once it jumped into humans it probably circulated for months under the radar. There is lots of room for improvement of our surveillance of swine flu in pigs…”

Influenza viruses mutate regularly and are easy to trace using their rate of change, Worobey said. He collaborated with researchers around the world who dug out samples from freezers.

By comparing recent gene sequences to older samples, Worobey was able to track the evolution of the pandemic…

The new strain has some bird-like genetic sequences but jumped from birds to pigs a long time ago, Worobey said.

Once it made the jump into people, the genes changed quickly. “They seemed to be evolving at something like 1.5 times the rate they evolved in swine,” he said.

Right now, the version of pandemic H1N1 circulating is not mutating — a relief to doctors and companies preparing for a global vaccination campaign. But experts expect it eventually will begin to change.

Ready for yet another remake of the Andromeda Strain?

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Many people suffering from swine influenza, even those who are severely ill, do not have fever, an odd feature of the new virus that could increase the difficulty of controlling the epidemic, said a leading American infectious-disease expert who examined cases in Mexico last week.

Fever is a hallmark of influenza, often rising abruptly to 104 degrees at the onset of illness. Because many infectious-disease experts consider fever the most important sign of the disease, the presence of fever is a critical part of screening patients.

But about a third of the patients at two hospitals in Mexico City where the American expert, Dr. Richard P. Wenzel, consulted for four days last week had no fever when screened, he said.

“It surprised me and my Mexican colleagues, because the textbooks say that in an influenza outbreak the predictive value of fever and cough is 90 percent,” said Dr. Wenzel. While many people with severe cases went on to develop fever after they were admitted, about half of the milder cases did not; nearly all patients had coughing and malaise…

RTFA. Understand there will likely be a second wave of the Mexican Flu this autumn. Dunces who didn’t get sick the first time around will presume their God is protecting them and do nothing preventative.

Health and agricultural officials agree, pigs have much more to fear from people humans than the other way around. Pigs, it turns out, can contract the virus from infected humans.

“We’re trying to minimize human traffic into our hog operation so our hogs do not get the disease from humans, which is probably a little bit of a twist from what most people have heard about,” said Elwyn Fitzke, a pork producer in Glenvil, Neb.

“This is a very big concern for us,” he added.

The National Pork Board sent an advisory counseling pork producers to implement what it called “biosecurity practices” — not to protect visitors, but to protect pigs.

Among the recommendations: Ban or limit outside visitors, double-check facilities’ ventilation and vaccinate all workers against seasonal flu viruses, so they don’t get sick and potentially weaken the pigs’ immune systems.

Let’s keep our priorities straight.

Thanks, Helen