Tag: seasonal flu

Swine Flu Vaccine Close To Reality According to Experts

Officials of the Federal government believe that the swine flu vaccine that would protect all Americans from future H1N1 outbreaks would be available by January or late November at the earliest.

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wever, countries outside the United States and other nations that manufacture vaccines would take several years to generate sufficient vaccines to meet global demands.

Although manufacturing of the vaccine is faster than it was a few years back, it may still not be enough to prevent death and illness if the dreaded virus begins to spread and becomes virulent, experts predict.

In the United States, the main obstacle despite long years of effort remains to be the 50-year old technology they use in manufacturing flu vaccines. The Federal government had invested time and billions of dollars shifting to a quicker and more reliable method.

One such procedure involves cultivating the vaccine viruses in vats of cells instead of hen’s eggs. There are several small companies that are developing new methods that would pave the way for the creation of large volumes of vaccines in a span of weeks.

Dr. Greg Poland, who is the head of the vaccine research program at the Mayo Clinic, admits that the cell-based cultivation technology is not yet available while the never technologies have not yet been proven to satisfy most experts.

In addition, government officials have also not yet decided on whether or not H1N1 is a potential risk that demands production of vaccine. However, they are implementing the initial steps. Andrin Oswald, Chief Executive of the Vaccine Division of Novartis, revealed that one possible problem would be the manufacture of vaccines for swine influenza could hamper the production of seasonal flu vaccines for the coming winter. The most likely thing to do is to compromise, according to Oswald.

However, Robin Robinson, who manages the Emergency Preparation Research Program of the Department of Health and Human Services, believes that majority of manufacturing efforts of vaccine makers would have been completed by June.

According to Dr. Robinson, if the manufacture of the H1N1 vaccine would commence after that, the first 50 million to 80 million would be ready by September.

Dr. Robinson continued by saying that the entire 600 million doses, which are sufficient to give the required two shots for every American would be available by January. Adding the immune stimulant adjuvant to the vaccine could greatly reduce the required dosage, paving the way for the availability of the doses by the latter part of November.

The vaccine industry in the country is now very much capable of responding to the outbreak than it was five years back, when there were only two vaccine manufacturers and encountered a severe shortage. At present, there are five manufacturers supplying vaccines to the domestic market. The vaccine industry, which is used to be the backwater of the pharmaceutical industry, is generating new investments, as a result of government subsidies and higher cost for vaccines.

Despite of this, a World Health Organization and International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations revealed that it would still require four more years of manufacturing to meet global demands for a vaccine that would provide protection against bird flu strain that has been the major concern of health officials over the last few years.

Finally, the Federal government is encouraging manufacturers to shift their production in the United States, since all except Sanofi Aventis is now importing swine flu vaccines.

H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu)

Responsible for binding the virus to host cells is called the HA (hemagglutinin) peplomer while the virus that allows to break its bonds to the host cell once it is ready to move on is called the NA (neuraminidase) peplomer. This type is also called H1N1 Flu or well-known as Swine Flu. Swine flu is a type of virus infected from pigs. Humans do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen.

But, randomly, the human race got infected with Swine flu. Most frequently, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs (example: owner and or workers in the swine backyard or industry or even the children near pigs at a fair).

The virus is contagious and can spread from human to human. Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu such as cough, fever, body aches, sore throat, chills, fatigue and headache.
Swine Flu is a respiratory track infection from the hogs. This kind of virus can kill the human race just like what happen to a pregnant woman and another individual in Texas with also reported death in Washington. This infection is a worldwide virus outbreak that started in Mexico and eventually spread from one country to another continent including China.

A flu deadly disease occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity at all and those whom their hospitals are more than 10 to 20 miles from their community can easily infected with the Swine Flu. The transmission of human to human of Swine flu can also be done.

This is thought to happen in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus to an uninfected individual will be infected also. People may also become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then they touch their mouth or nose. The disease spreads easily by human to human transmission and can be cause with serious sickness, and can spread to other individuals in your community, spread out across the country and even worldwide in a very short period of time.

A big NO-NO to some individuals who think that swine flu can also get from foods we eat. Take note that influenza viruses cannot be transmitted by food by means of eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and properly cooked pork is safe.

Swine Flu can be monitor if you consult to your health officer directly if you are not feeling well for more than 24 hours especially if you have a hog race industry in your backyard. They will advice you on how to plan, prepare and prevent the Swine Flu virus that spread out worldwide.

An Introduction To Swine Flu

Swine Flu-Is a respiratory track infection from the hogs. This kind of virus can kill the human race. This infection is a worldwide virus outbreak. A flu deadly disease occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity and for which there is no vaccine. Those whom their hospitals are more than 10 miles from their community can easily infected with the Swine Flu.

The disease spreads easily person-to-person, and can be cause with serious illness, and can spread out across the country and even worldwide in a very short span of time. An influenza pandemic may be caused by either swine (pig) or avian (bird) flu viruses.

Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. But, randomly, the human race got infected with Swine flu. Most frequently, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs (example: owner and or workers in the swine backyard or industry or even the children near pigs at a fair).

Human-to-human transmission of Swine flu can also occur. This is thought to happen in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus to an uninfected individual will be infected also. People may also become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then they touch their mouth or nose.

Some think that swine flu can also get from foods we eat. Take note that influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You cannot get the influenza virus by means of eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork is safe. Proper cooking of pork or pork products with an internal temperature of 160F will kill the swine flu virus as it does with other bacteria and viruses.

Fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and coughing are some of the following symptoms of swine flu in people.

In diagnosing influenza infection, a respiratory specimen would generally need to be collected within the first 3 to 4 days of illness (when an infected person is most likely to be contagious). However, some persons, especially children, may be infectious for 10 days or longer.

If you get sick, there are two antiviral drugs (Tamiflu and Relenza) available with prescription can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious influenza complications. In treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started as soon after getting sick as possible, and might not work if started more than 2 days after illness starts.

There are a number of things that you can do to prepare yourself and those around you for a flu pandemic. It is important to think about the challenges that you might face, particularly if an epidemic is rigorous.

The effects of a pandemic can be lessened if preparation is made ahead of time. Planning and preparation information and checklists are being prepared for various sectors of society, including information for individuals and families.

Different agencies are providing funding, advice, and other support from different rich nations to every country to assist with Swine Flu epidemic planning and preparation. Reading articles like this can help you plan against the spreading of the Swine Flu.

Vaccinations of Swine Flu

Vaccine against seasonal influenza strain H1N1 is not believed to protect us. Vaccines against the Swine Flu to cope with seasonal flu to minimize infection rates are typically developed, and yet annually it still kills around half a million of the worlds population. Today, they use an injection of “killed virus”, the worlds flu vaccines. Manufacturers are asked to produce a vaccine for H1N1, they are unlikely to be able to respond quickly enough if a global pandemic is declared.

About a billion doses of any one vaccine each year is the only they can produce, so that even if all the capacity was switched to fight a pandemic flu, as opposed to a seasonal flu. Few years ago, the supply of the vaccines they have produced were enough to epidemic but now is not enough for the total populations outbreak.

Deadlier wave of a new H1N1 strain they forecast will reappear this fall and they have to produce pandemic vaccines as early as now to prepare for a turn out as the vaccine may not be as effective will be sure to a big waste of resources with serious results, and there would also be a shortage of seasonal flu vaccine available. Only a few more weeks were needed for the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) CDC to develop a “seed strain” of the pandemic virus on the first days May, but producers would then need four to six months before they could create large volumes of vaccine.

In other point of view, the WHO will attempt to make sure that a substantial amount is available and should a pandemic be declared and a vaccine produced, for the benefit of developing countries. Vaccine manufacturers and countries with standing orders, such as the U.S. and some European countries will be asked to share with developing countries from the moment the first batches are ready if an H1N1 vaccine is made.

2009-2010 flu seasons are ineffective against the new strain with the previous influenza vaccines for the north and south hemispheres. The WHO claims that two separate immunizations will be required for seasonal and swine flu, but no decision would be made on whether to begin producing a swine flu vaccine. The board will receive inputs from manufacturers (e.g. GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and Baxter International) regarding when they are able to finish manufacturing the seasonal shot and begin production of the swine flu vaccine, waiting from the WHO of their recommendations and “seed virus”, and some may be ready to proceed with production at that time.

There also antiviral drugs available for treatments of influenza, the virus is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine but sensitive to the oseltamivir and zanamivir. There remains concern that this strain may mutate develop resistance to oseltamivir in the future. For the treatment and prevention of the Swine Flu, the CDC recommended the use of Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir). Studies shows that the medication continues to maintain its effective that why the U.S. government had already extended the shelf life of federally stockpiled Tamiflu from their original five years to seven years.

Buying medications from online sources is not recommended by the WHO because they believed that half of the drugs they sold are counterfeited. Others are thinking if they grab up antiviral drugs for their safe even if they have no symptoms, the health officials warned them may eventually lead them to the Swine Flu virus developing drug resistance.