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(CIDRAP News) – States will begin receiving their first injectable doses of the pandemic H1N1 vaccine next week and can look forward to plentiful and steady supplies over the next 2 weeks, federal officials said today.

This information may help firm up mass vaccination schedules and clear up the public's confusion about when they can get the shot, the officials added.

UN officials call for more donated vaccine

(CIDRAP News) – The nation's first doses of the pandemic H1N1 vaccine were administered today, mainly to a limited group of healthcare workers and emergency medical service workers, while some physicians' offices fielded calls about when the vaccine would be more widely available.

Oct 2, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – In findings sure to renew the continuing controversy over respiratory protection for healthcare workers, surgical masks appeared to protect hospital nurses from influenza about as well as N-95 respirators did in a randomized trial conducted in Ontario.

(CIDRAP News) –Many states and some cities will receive their first pandemic H1N1 vaccine doses on Oct 6, and most will distribute the first doses to healthcare workers, though some have included young children in the very first groups to be immunized.

Oct 1, 2009

We face real uncertainty about the future of the H1N1 pandemic. No one knows today if the virus will mutate or reassort into a more effective killer or cause milder illness over the next 4 to 6 months. Even if the genetic makeup of the virus remains unchanged, the days ahead will not be easy.

(CIDRAP News) – Though the nation is going into its second wave of the H1N1 pandemic armed with crucial improvements such as better vaccine capacity, remaining challenges in medical surge and vaccine distribution could hamper response now and into a third wave, preparedness experts said today.

(CIDRAP News) – The first 600,000 doses of pandemic H1N1 vaccine—all of them the nasal-spray formulation—are on their way to 25 states and major cities and should arrive by Tuesday, Oct 6, matching earlier predictions, federal health officials said today.

Sep 30. 2009 (CIDRAP News) – As pandemic flu activity picks up speed across the nation, groups that serve older adults are shoring up plans for both seasonal and pandemic flu vaccination and are preparing backup plans in case absences hit key services such as Meals on Wheels, government officials and senior groups said today.

Sep 30, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – As more pregnant women enter hospital delivery rooms sick with pandemic H1N1 flu, health professionals and their patients are struggling with some of the elements in federal guidance—such as having patients wearing masks during labor—that will soon be revised, experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.

Sep 29, 2009

(CIDRAP News) – The current public health advice that Americans should get their seasonal flu shots early this year has prompted some to voice concern that their protection will fade later in the season. But medical literature and disease experts indicate there is no good evidence that immunity conferred by the shots wanes so quickly.

(CIDRAP News) – While there is evidence that the live nasal-spray vaccine for seasonal influenza works better than injectable vaccine in children, the injectable vaccine was found to be more effective in a trial in close to 2,000 young adults, according to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Editor's note: This story was revised Sep 29 to correct a detail about when pneumonia cases were diagnosed.

Zambian district bans social gatherings

(CIDRAP News) – Business officials who attended a conference this week on how the business world can cope with the H1N1 influenza pandemic said employee absenteeism was far and away their leading concern.

In live polling conducted during a conference plenary session, 81% of the attendees said their greatest concern about the pandemic was absenteeism. Only 13% said they were most worried about disruption of critical supply chains.

(CIDRAP News) – The pandemic H1N1 virus is spreading widely through the United States, and as health officials feverishly prepare to distribute the first vaccine doses due to arrive in early October, the public should expect some initial bumps in the road, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.