Canadian advisors push seasonal vaccine
Canada's vaccine advisory group yesterday recommended against delaying seasonal flu shots, a move that many provinces made after an unpublished study suggested the vaccine might raise the risk of contracting pandemic flu, the Canadian Press reported. The panel concluded that even if the finding is valid, the risk of skipping the seasonal shot outweighs the risk seen in the studies. The group also endorsed giving both seasonal and H1N1 shots at the same time.
Canada's H1N1 vaccine production lags
GlaxoSmithKline is expected to ship far fewer doses of H1N1 vaccine to Canadian provinces this week than was expected, prompting provinces to postpone the rollout of the vaccine for at least 2 weeks, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. The company was expected to ship 436,000 doses this week, instead of the roughly 2 million previously anticipated, because it had to interrupt production to make an unadjuvanted version of the vaccine for pregnant women, the story said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadians-should-expect-depleted-stocks-of-h1n1-vaccine-next-week/article1346246/
Oct 30 Globe and Mail report
Saudi Arabia to vaccinate hajj participants
Saudi Arabian health officials said the country will immunize healthcare workers, hajj workers, and domestic pilgrims who will attend the hajj against the pandemic H1N1 virus, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today. Vaccination won't be mandatory. About 1 million residents typically attend the hajj, which peaks near the end of November this year. The country recently received the first 11 million doses of its pandemic vaccine order.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iCMtbri8Vh4wV9o79q6Siju7ZKKg
Nov 2 AFP story
Turkey launches vaccination campaign
Turkey today launched its pandemic vaccination campaign with healthcare workers receiving the first doses, Today's Zaman, an English-language newspaper based in Istanbul, reported. The country received its first 500,000 doses last week. The next groups slated to be immunized are the morbidly obese, pregnant women, children younger than 2, those with chronic lung or heart conditions, and people older than age 65.
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-191734-100-turkey-starts-vaccinations-against-killer-swine-flu.html
Nov 2 Today's Zaman report
Afghanistan closes all schools
The Afghan government yesterday ordered the closure of all schools for 3 weeks in the wake of the country's first death from H1N1 flu, AFP reported. Education Minister Farouq Wardak said the closure was ordered "to safeguard the health of all Afghans." An engineer from Kabul was the flu's first victim in Afghanistan.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=international&xfile=data/international/2009/November/international_November46.xml
Nov 1 AFP report
