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Swine flu still out there, officials caution
Two women wear face masks as they queue with other people outside Matei Bals hospital to take shots against the H1N1 flu virus in Bucharest, January 9, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Radu Sigheti
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - H1N1 swine flu is still circulating around the world and still killing people, although it is on the decline everywhere, global health officials said on Friday.
The H1N1 strain is the dominant form of influenza globally, but some seasonal strains are starting to emerge in China and Africa, the World Health Organization reported.
The United States remains one of the hardest hit countries, but many Americans seem unconcerned and most have rejected the vaccine, according to a poll by the Harvard School of Public Health released on Friday.
"Many people believe the outbreak is over and I think it is too soon for us to have that complacency," Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters in a telephone briefing. "This pandemic isn't over yet."
The CDC said nine more children had been reported killed by H1N1 last week. It estimates that as many as 80 million Americans have been infected with swine flu and about 11,000 people have died.
Schuchat said 70 million Americans had been vaccinated against H1N1, which leaves the U.S. government with millions of unused doses because 155 million have been shipped and 229 million ordered from five makers -- AstraZeneca unit MedImmune, Sanofi Aventis, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and CSL.
Schuchat said it is easy to be vaccinated now, after severe shortages of vaccine last year, and she urged Americans to get the vaccine.
"It's just impossible for me to say whether we will have a very large peak in disease," she said.
"But we don't seem to be seeing the disappearance of this virus, and we haven't seen the emergence of the seasonal strain ... so I think this virus is going to be finding susceptible people."
The Harvard poll found that 44 percent of Americans believe the H1N1 flu outbreak is over.
It also found that 40 percent of parents had gotten the vaccine for their children and 13 percent more planned to.
Schuchat said only 37 percent of children who needed to get two doses for full protection had received the second dose.
Sixty-one percent of the 1,400 adults polled by Harvard at the end of January said they had not received a swine flu vaccine and had no intention of getting one.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Thanks for the warning but I believe I will rely on my immune system and my resistance to illness which has served me well for 73 years (and counting).
I believe the people most in danger of contracting any of the diseases around are the ones who are constantly “demanding” antibiotics and other medications from their doctors.
When “The Officials” demonstrate they are out of tune with the facts, it is time those “Officials” be removed from office.
H1N1 According to CDC numbers that compare any other Flu year demonstrates an extremely mild year.
The “Officials” mentioned herein sound like the “Officials” Mike Wallace interviewed on 1976 60 Minutes segment “Swine Flu Scare”, available for viewing on youtube. In the 60 minutes segment, the “Officials” put their foot in their mouths and look as foolish as they do in 2010.
The more things change the more they stay the same. The “Swine Flue Scare” of 1976 is documented with results and fan fare scare tactics much like this one.
Its time to replace these “officials” who are clearly a profound liability to those they claim and serve.
I was a healthy 50 year old who contracted H1N1 in December. After 28 days in intensive care, 21 in an induced coma, I finally survived. There were 7 people in the hospital with this flu while I was there. Two died and four others suffered kidney or liver damage. I was the only one who walked out of the hospital in tact. This disease is killing people. Don’t be stupid. Get the vaccine.
Every Flu year 20,000+ people die.
They die because like 50Year olds they have a weak system.
(i.e. Subjective experience does not make for objective reality). The I need Dentures therefore all children need Dentures mentality is Weak as is the logic that just because you fell for it, others will. Subjective Experience does not make for objective reality.
H1N1 is a weak Flu and the numbers prove it. Jack
Since the beginning of the H1N1 epidemic, the CDC, public health officials and the media have constantly been preaching “get the vaccine,” even when there were vaccine shortages and even when it was clear that many people would refuse to get it. They have acted out of ignorance when they should have been focused first on primary prevention: changing people’s behavior. I’m appalled that Anne Schuchat would be quoted as saying I think this virus is going to be finding susceptible people.” The virus doesn’t “find” susceptible people. We know exactly how it is transmitted, when someone with the virus sneezes or coughs into the air or their hand and touches a surface which another person then touches, and then touches their eyes, nose or mouth, or shakes hands with someone else and that person touches their eyes, nose or mouth. It would have been simple at the start of the epidemic to conduct a large public information campaign to get people to sneeze and cough into their elbow instead of their hand, to wear a face mask and stay home if they are sick, and so forth. But the media and CDC chose to focus only on the vaccine. Well, tragically, now more children have died, and this tragedy could easily have been prevented with some basic public health measures.
