Blogs

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter
HealthDay / MSN on line

MONDAY, June 1 (HealthDay News) -- Swine flu cases have now been reported in all 50 states, with the total number of people infected probably surpassing 200,000, U.S. health officials said Monday.

"It's accurate to say that there are probably several hundred thousand people that have been impacted by this flu," said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But that's in line with what we would see with seasonal influenza if we had the number of cases we are reporting right now."

Regardless of the current economic crisis, "developed countries must not overlook the particular vulnerability of the world’s poor," a New York Times editorial says, pointing to a recent WHO health statistics survey that found many developing countries are falling short of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.

__ A good focus on social and economic determinants of health __

When first lady Michelle Obama travels to Ghana with the President in July she has the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the "disproportionate impact of AIDS on women and girls" worldwide, in turn helping to "strengthen the AIDS response – at home and abroad," Janet Fleischman, senior associate at the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies writes in an allAfrica.com guest column.

News reports on swine flu / H1N1 are showing no slow down in the virus. Bloomberg.com reports flu cases in Australia are doubling about every two days, with 401 confirmed cases as of June 01. This has risen from 20 on May 25. Most cases are in the colder southeastern state of Victoria with 306 cases, up from 173 two days earlier.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

WHO statistics released on Monday show that Angola has significantly reduced the number of cholera cases this year compared with data from the previous year, AFP/IOL reports. Since the beginning of the year, the WHO has recorded cholera in five of Angola's 18 provinces with 681 cases and three deaths. During the first five months of 2008, 7,740 cases of cholera and 198 deaths were recorded.

ednesday, May 27, 2009

The WHO will continue to monitor the spread of the H1N1 (swine) flu before issuing a decision on whether drug makers should begin the production of an H1N1 vaccine, acting WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda said Tuesday, Reuters/Washington Post reports. Fukuda said the WHO will hold off on an H1N1 vaccine recommendation until "sometime during the summer" (MacInnis, Reuters/Washington Post, 5/26).

Swine Flu Lessons: Gaps were exposed in pandemic preparedness.
Monday, May 25, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052401927.html

Voice of America - May 21, 2009
Joe DeCapua
Washington D.C.

http://www.aegis.org/news/voa/2009/VA090509.html

The head of the International AIDS Society (IAS) says concern over a new strain of flu or the current economic crisis should not distract from the long-term fight against HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Julio Mantaner is calling the World Health Assembly members, meeting in Geneva this week, to meet their commitments on the epidemic. From Vancouver, Canada, he says the gains made against AIDS must not be lost.

Many experts on how to contain the spread of flu have questioned the efficacy of school closures. The following article in the New York Times from May 21, 2009 reminds us that students whose schools were closed will not always stay

at home.

Flu Closings Failing to Keep Schoolchildren at Home
By JULIE BOSMAN

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report
Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Opinion Piece Examines Efficacy of Foreign Aid
"President Obama signaled recently a major shift in the way the United States tries to help poor countries," Philip Stevens, policy director at the International Policy Network, writes in a Providence Journal opinion piece, adding, "Whereas the Bush presidency pushed to spend enormous sums on individual high-profile diseases such as AIDS, Obama says he will broaden U.S. aid to improve health more generally."

May 20, 2009 edition of the Washington Post has over ten items of interest:
see http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/NewsSearch?st=flu&

1. Article 05/20/2009
WHO seeks swine flu vaccine help for poor nations
FRANK JORDANS and MARIA CHENG (AP Online)
...to reserve some of their pandemic swine flu vaccine for poor countries, but received...offers as experts disclosed that...

2. Photo 05/20/2009
Graphic shows swine flu cases by state P. Santilli

3. Article 05/20/2009
Swine Flu Spreads in Japan, Despite Quarantine Inspections
Blaine Harden, A13 (Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/swineflu/index.html
The Resources are live links to the following very informative sites:

World Health Organization
Pandemicflu.gov
Pan American Health Organization
Centers for Disease Control: Swine Flu and You
Centers for Disease Control: Interim Guidance for Patients
National Institutes of Health: Timeline of Flu Pandemics
On Leadership: How to Calm a Panicked Public

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2009/May/19/51909-Swine-Flu-Update.aspx

Monday, May 18, 2009

Over the weekend, the numbers of H1N1 (swine) influenza cases and related-deaths around the world continued to climb, the New York Times reports (McNeil, New York Times, 5/17). Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura on Monday said during a press briefing that Japan has 125 confirmed cases of swine flu, Bloomberg reports. (Lauerman/Pettypiece, Bloomberg, 5/18).

Sanitation vs. Vaccination in Cholera Control

May 14, 2009

Only weeks away from the launch in India of an oral cholera vaccine significantly cheaper than available vaccines, community workers and health officials are still sceptical of whether a vaccine is the best way to control cholera, according to the International Vaccine Institute (IVI).

IVI’s director John Clemens told IRIN some water and sanitation programme managers argue that the focus in cholera control should be on safe water access rather than vaccine development.