By Stephen Smith
Globe Staff / June 15, 2009

The arrival of swine flu in the United States exposed gaps in the supply chain that delivers medication, masks, and even testing swabs to hospitals and doctors' offices - shortcomings that could prove vastly more worrisome if a deadlier strain returns in the fall, officials say.

Article from: The Australian

SWINE flu could infect one in five Australians, kill up to 6000 and hospitalise up to 80,000 if left unchecked and untreated, according to the first official modelling of the disease's potential spread.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday announced a hasty redesign of Australia's pandemic management plan and alert phases to keep the toll from the H1N1 flu strain below those levels, but acknowledged the disease had spread beyond her power to contain it.

Susan Walsh / Associated Press
An insurance company "is supposed to honor its commitments and stand by you in your time of need," Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said.
Lawmakers ask three executives if they'll stop dropping customers except where they can show "intentional fraud." All say no.

By Lisa Girion
June 17, 2009

Disease-control software in cell phones is touted as boon to global public health

More than half of world's cell phones are in developing countries

Health workers in Kenya stopped spread of polio in '07 using EpiSurveyor

Kenyan health care worker: Relaying information at appropriate time is life-saving

updated 7:38 a.m. EDT, Tue June 16, 2009
Next Article in Technology »

By Azadeh Ansari
CNN

Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, their institute said Tuesday. The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of the A(H1N1) swine flu from California. The genetic sequence of the new sub-type of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team lead by one of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a statement.

For more information:

For local guidance, poiicies, planning tools, training modules, capacity maps, communication, and advocacy, see:

http://pandemicpreparedness.org/

Colleagues,

Now that the global SO-H1N1/2009 outbreak has overwhelmed our capacities to track and report on the number of cases, one of the mission critical activities is monitoring clusters of severe illness, Please note the cluster of severe cases in Northern Canada in the article below. These populations were also hit hard with high mortality rates in 1918.

Trigger Point 1: WHO Alert 3: Pathogen proven to cause human to human transmission
Trigger Point 2: WHO Alert 4: Pathogen creating human to human spread in 1 country
Trigger Point 3: WHO Alert 5: Pathogen creating increasing cases in at least 2 countries
Trigger Point 4: WHO Alert 6: Pathogen spreading worldwide
Trigger Point 5: Disease spreading within one’s own country
Trigger Point 6: Disease spreading within one’s own region, or where you have traveled
Trigger Point 7: Disease spreading within one’s community, or where you have traveled

The World Health Organization last declared a pandemic 41 years ago
A sharp increase in swine flu cases in Australia may mean the infection has become a pandemic, the World Health Organization says.
For that to happen, officials would have to verify that the disease had become established outside North America, where the crisis began.
"Once I get indisputable evidence, I will make the announcement," said WHO director general, Margaret Chan.
More than 1,200 people have contracted the virus in Australia - none fatally.
The total means Australia has seen a four-fold increase in a week.