UN officials call for more donated vaccine
Though some vaccine companies and affluent nations have already donated supplies of pandemic flu vaccine to developing nations, more is needed, officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations said yesterday, according to a Reuters report. Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert at the WHO, said more readiness is needed in developing countries, especially if a different pattern is seen when big outbreaks hit poorer countries.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE59326120091004
Oct 4 Reuters report
NYC's schools hold pandemic vaccine drill
New York City health and education department will hold vaccination clinics at five of the city's schools next week to prepare for school based pandemic H1N1 vaccine clinics. Parents will start receive consent forms to sign if they want their children to receive the vaccine. The city said it will begin an 8-week school-based vaccination effort in late October at the elementary schools. In November and December vaccine clinics will be held at middle schools and high schools on weekends.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2009/prj63-09.shtml
Oct 3 NYC Department of Health news release
Researchers derive formula for closing schools
For optimal social distancing in a flu outbreak, schools should consider closing when they reach 5% absenteeism on a single day, 4% on 2 consecutive days or 3% on each of 3 days, researchers in Boston and Niigata, Japan, say in an Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) article. The group based its recommendation on absentee data gathered over four flu seasons from one 54-school district in Japan.
http://tinyurl.com/EID100209school
EID article
WHO will not act on unpublished Canadian data
A teleconference convened Friday by the WHO to assess the validity of unpublished data linking seasonal flu vaccine and development of H1N1 flu did not find the association persuasive, according to the Canadian Press. The data by Canadian researchers, contained in an article that is in press at an unnamed medical journal but apparently has circulated widely, has led to almost universal scaling back of seasonal flu shot campaigns in Canada.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gPz7AwhAlmZF7pAyHmP0GWejWPHg
Oct 4 Canadian Press report
CDC issues treatment algorithm for flu-like illness
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emory University School of Medicine have developed a treatment algorithm to guide healthcare professionals and their surrogates on when and how quickly to steer adult flu patients to care. The algorithm, on the CDC's flu Web site, progressively assesses patients by age, vital signs, symptoms of severe disease, presence of underlying conditions, and membership in a high-risk group.
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/clinicians/pdf/adultalgorithm.pdf
CDC/Emory treatment algorithm
