WHO committee may meet to decide to end pandemic
The Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) may meet next week to review infection data from the Southern Hemisphere and recommend that the agency announce an end to the pandemic, sources "familiar with the matter" told Bloomberg News. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said that Director-General Margaret Chan will decide on whether to declare a post-pandemic phase guided by how the virus behaves, adding that the agency hasn't set a date for an announcement.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-19/swine-flu-fizzles-out-who-may-declare-end-to-pandemic-alert.html
Jul 20 Bloomberg News story
UK media reports aided public calm, prevention steps
UK public service ads and media coverage of the H1N1 pandemic helped alleviate public concern and improved protection measures like using hand sanitizer, according to a new study. Telephone surveys of more than 38,000 people between May 2009 and January 2010 found the levels of those who were very or fairly worried varied between 10% and 33%, with those exposed to media messages less likely to worry. Among protection steps, 33% reporting carrying tissues with them and 10% bought sanitizer.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/195186.php
Jul 20 Medical News Today release
Tamiflu helped blunt household transmission
A study exploring the use of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) in preventing household transmission of pandemic H1N1 flu found that early treatment reduced the odds of secondary infection by 42%s. In the study of 362 Milwaukee households, 135 had information about oseltamivir use, 25 of which reported early use of the drug. The authors concluded that the findings may have implications for future pandemic flu control efforts.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/10/211
Jul 20 BMC Infect Dis abstract
