Swine flu- deconstructing H1N1 virus

[oldpaganfreak]

Originally Posted by Northern Boy

I`m giving my shot of tamiflu away willing to scarifice my self to save another anyone want it ?

i heard on cbc this morning, that the canadian govt has 55 million doses on hand. how many tax dollars did we spend on that?
is tamiflu a cash cow for some high end lobbyists?

[Northern Boy]

Originally Posted by oldpaganfreak

i heard on cbc this morning, that the canadian govt has 55 million doses on hand. how many tax dollars did we spend on that?
is tamiflu a cash cow for some high end lobbyists?

heck we don`t have 55 million in the country ....... maybe mass immigration headed our way

[oldpaganfreak]

Originally Posted by Northern Boy

heck we don`t have 55 million in the country ....... maybe mass immigration headed our way

ya, i thought that was strange. 36 million canucks. 55 million doses?

I did watch the Mary video (the transcript is on Project Camelot) - wow, lots of night truck movement according to this video, picking up loads of refrigerated cargo, either "antigen or antibody," from silos in Albany, into which the trucks are lowered for loading. The drivers get cash via Bank of America code; freight delivery is apparently financed by Homeland Security.
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H5N1 is avian flu
H1N1 is a combo swine, avian, human. It shares characteristics with spanish flu (1918-20), which Deagle said was a strain made worse by contaminated vaccines - toxic serum story

Gilead Sciences - NYSE:GILD
http://www.gilead.com/corporate_history


http://investors.gilead.com/phoenix....rol-stockquote
........................................

Don't fear the swine flu . . . trade it
Posted Apr 27th 2009 1:00PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Walgreen Co (WAG), Novartis AG ADS (NVS), Baxter Intl (BAX), CVS Corp (CVS), Hormel Foods (HRL), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Smithfield Foods (SFD), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Agriculture

Flu vaccine makers could make an even better bet. At least 20 companies make flu vaccines including Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi Aventis Group (NYSE: SNY), Australia's CSL Ltd, London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc (NYSE: GSK), Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS), Baxter (NYSE: BAX), nasal spray maker MedImmune, acquired by AstraZeneca Plc. (NYSE: AZN) and Swiss based Roche (Other OTC: RHHBY) to name a few.

The main products that currently seem to work against this strain of flu are GSK's Relenza and Roche's Tamiflu, which was originally invented by Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) and gets royalties from its sales. There are concerns, however, that Tamiflu -- taken orally in the form of a tablet -- might be less effective than Relenza, which is inhaled.

Currently, it takes months to make a flu vaccine and it could take years for drug makers to meet global demand. It's no surprise then that stocks of vaccine makers shot up globaly and in the U.S., especially those with licenses to make the aformentioend two drugs. GSK was the highest gainer.
....................................

About ALDA Pharmaceuticals Corp.

ALDA is focused on the development of infection-control therapeutics derived from its patented T36(R) technology. T36(R) has been proven to be effective against the H1N1 and H3N2 strains of swine flu and against SARS-like viruses. The company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "APH", and is quoted on the OTCBB under the symbol "APCSF".
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/...0News/2293151/

[Angel in Disguise]

Speaking of Baxter... again...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,3579388.story

[peaceandlove]

Don't Panic! 'Flu' season starts late - be ready!

April 27, 2009

Mike at Fever I Am commentates and posts relative articles to origins, alerts, effects on world markets and historical references.

Articles on right side of youtube page under (More Info).

Video (9:15): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMj3E...e=channel_page

[Steve_A]

Hi Everybody,

I'm suprised that the world governments are talking so much about this problem. I'm even more suprised that BBC World, CNN and Fox News are almost exclusively covering this since at least yesterday.

So here's the thing. Typically only 1% of people die from this "type" of flu, which brings us to the following one of two hypothesis.

In Mexico there are at least 15,000 cases of Swine Flu walking around the streets, or the strain of this virus is killing almost 60% of its' victims.

If Mexico is, and it appears to be, the focal point of this virus, why not lock down just that city? If the virus gets out, specially in the African nations, there is a possibility of a huge problem which will be out of control for some time.

I'm not sure if I share Ron Pauls opinion about the problem as, although I agree that more people die of other illnesses, an outbreak of a spectacular illness could and would cause havoc in so many commercial sectors that the whole would will just collapse beyond anything even the worst doomsdayer would have thought about.

Nip it in the bud I say.

Best regards,

Steve

[Lorien]

Originally Posted by Steve_A

Hi Everybody,

I'm suprised that the world governments are talking so much about this problem. I'm even more suprised that BBC World, CNN and Fox News are almost exclusively covering this since at least yesterday.

So here's the thing. Typically only 1% of people die from this "type" of flu, which brings us to the following one of two hypothesis.

In Mexico there are at least 15,000 cases of Swine Flu walking around the streets, or the strain of this virus is killing almost 60% of its' victims.

If Mexico is, and it appears to be, the focal point of this virus, why not lock down just that city? If the virus gets out, specially in the African nations, there is a possibility of a huge problem which will be out of control for some time.

I'm not sure if I share Ron Pauls opinion about the problem as, although I agree that more people die of other illnesses, an outbreak of a spectacular illness could and would cause havoc in so many commercial sectors that the whole would will just collapse beyond anything even the worst doomsdayer would have thought about.

Nip it in the bud I say.

Best regards,

Steve

As far as why they aren't locking down anything, it's because they WANT it so spread. Their goal after all is to kill off as many of us as they can. And as far as Paul's response, he is assuming that this is just a regular run of the mill swine flu like they ran into decades ago, not some genetically modified eugenics berserker virus.

I find it especially interesting that this seems to be happening right when many people worldwide are out of jobs and money so they can't pay for health care, and lots are on the streets with no home.

[Myplanet2]

Was going to point out the disparity between 55 million doses and 35 million Canadians, but see the connection already made. never mind.

Ground Zero... ?

Mexican farm swine flu's 'ground zero': residents
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | 8:37 AM ET Comments16Recommend24
The Associated Press
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/...gin042809.html

Residents in a Mexican community of 3,000 say they believe their town is ground zero for the swine flu epidemic, even if health officials aren't saying so.
....

Officials with the company say they've found no sign of swine flu on its farms, and Mexican authorities haven't determined the outbreak's origin.

[alyscat]

I'm not buying it. LOL Ground zero? Nah. This hybrid flu has too much in it to be a 4 year old in some small mexican town.
alys

Originally Posted by alyscat

I'm not buying it. LOL Ground zero? Nah. This hybrid flu has too much in it to be a 4 year old in some small mexican town.
alys

Maybe. But I'm interested in a dispersal trail here, too.

"Martinez and Bertha Crisostomo, a liaison between the villagers and the municipal government of Perote to which La Gloria belongs, say half of the people from the town live and work in Mexico City most of the week, and could easily have spread the swine flu in the capital, where the largest number of cases have been reported.

"Granjas Carroll de Mexico, 50 per cent owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Inc., has eight farms in the area. Smithfield spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said the company has found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in its swine herd or its employees working at its joint ventures anywhere in Mexico.

"Residents say they have been bothered for years by the fetid smell of one of the farms, which lies upwind of the community, and they suspect their water and air has been contaminated by waste."

From the aforementioned article:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/...gin042809.html

[Malletzky]

Just heard the news that Mexico City was stroke by an earthquake today (6° on a richter scale).

I wouldn't ask if this is just a coincidence, as it is not. They're just tryin to get as many people as they can out of their homes...to speed up the process...

malletzky

[WiNaDeYo]

In reference to the number of doses of prophyilactic (medicine i.e. Tamilflu or whatever) which each of our gov'ts are saying is readily available to combat this swine flu, I'd like to mention that if you get this flu, you must take ten (shots, pills, days of pills, etc.) to have what is considered a complete cycle of treatment.

Now, let's put on out thinking caps....

The Italian gov't said today that it has 40m doses...that means for only 4m cases of flu...and the population of Italy is now over 61m!

Guess the pharmas need to get to work, huh?

[marisa manning]

Hi everyone
think everyone has forgot the miracle minerals best u all get some before u can't love and light

[Unified Serenity]

I just ran across this anti-viral formula on Steve Quayle's site, it has an interesting story:

This blend was created from research about a group of 15th century thieves and grave robbers who rubbed oils on themselves to avoid contracting the plague while they robbed the bodies of the dead and dying. When apprehended these thieves disclosed the formula of herbs, spices and oils they used to protect themselves in exchange for more lenient punishment.

This blend of therapeutic-grade essential oils was tested at Weber State University for its potent antimicrobial properties. Thieves oil was found to have a 99.96% percent kill rate against airborne bacteria. The oils are highly antiviral, antiseptic,antibacterial,anti-infectious and help to protect the body against such illnesses as flu, colds, sinusitis,bronchitis,pneumonia, sore throats, cuts etc.

Apply few drops to bottom of feet or stomach and rub into skin

Here is the receipt for the mixture place into a small brown bottle and add the amounts of herbs listed below

* Clove oil (syzgium aromaticum) 200 drops or 1/2 ounce.

* Lemon oil (Citrus limon) 175 drops

* Cinnamon Bark oil (Cinnamoomum verum) 100 drops

* Eucalyptus oil ( Eucalyptus radiata) 75 drops

* Rosemary oil (Rosimarinus officinalis ) 50 drops

You can also use in small spray bottle and mist the air in home and car, I also place mixture in a pan of water and place on wood stove during the fall, winter and spring.

http://www.stevequayle.com/News.aler...0427.oils.html

[peaceandlove]

Originally Posted by marisa manning

Hi everyone
think everyone has forgot the miracle minerals best u all get some before u can't love and light

I reposted some information under the Miracle Mineral Supplement Thread on this link:

The FDA is starting to come down on the word Supplement right now so you may also see it listed as Miracle Mineral Solution.

http://projectavalon.net/forum/showt...t=4781&page=30

Post #731

From Northern Boy:

Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus
This comes from the Toronto Sun Saturday, May 2, 2009

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.

And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.
...
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.
...
http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13608

Novavax, Inc. (NVAX:NASDAQ) - May 3, 2009

To date, it looks like the symptoms are quite mild for cases outside of Mexico. Preliminary studies suggest that if the 'swine flu' is coupled with another ailment, e.g. diabetes in a Mexican fatality, or with another flu strain (in addition to this one), it can be more serious - for Mexicans. It appears to be fizzling out there now, but the Mexican government ceased tracking Apr 28-09.

This is a first human to pig transmission case I've seen. The animals do recover. The cooking process for pork eaters out there kills the virus. It's more of a containment issue ...

A worker returning from Mexico may have infected a swine herd in Alberta.
"Alberta pig herd quarantined; H1N1 infection suspected"
May 2, 2009 7:01 PM
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Health/...118/story.html

The CDC does not fully understand why the U.S. cases' symptoms were primarily mild disease while the Mexican cases had led to multiple deaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_H1...s_and_severity

Scientists seek clues to flu in Mexico, Mild Canadian cases leave doctors puzzled Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Experts baffled by the conflicting evidence around a new swine flu are hoping a Canadian epidemiologist and other medical detectives on the ground in Mexico can shed more light on the mysterious virus, and help predict what shape it might yet take around the world.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1543202

Here's another article on the original Mexico swine flu, called H2N3, which may be the one responsible for the deaths:

Are We Ignoring H2N3? News Outlet Speculates About A Different Influenza In Mexican Deaths
By News Staff | May 1st 2009 09:33 AM | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
News Outlet Speculates About A Different Influenza In Mexican Deaths
Everyone is blaming H1N1, but could a different strain of Influenza be the cause of Mexican deaths? Clinica - a news source for the medical technology industry - wonders what implications that would have for Mexico and the rest of the world... Clinica is investigating the details and significance of Mexican health ministry statements that the H2N3 influenza virus was responsible for the majority of cases tested in an influenza outbreak in early April, three weeks before H1N1 came on the scene.

The existence of an additional strain of the disease would raise fundamental questions concerning the management of the swine flu epidemic internationally. Comments made by Mexican health minister José Angel Córdova Villalobos during an April 27 press conference refer to the investigation of an outbreak reported in Perote, Veracruz, on April 2. The response on that day is said to have triggered a local alert and that in looking for the influenza virus, the majority of cases tested were H2N3.
Northern Sactuary post: Re: Insider Swine Flu Info
http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13592

The vaccine contract in Canada
Canada has a contract with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to produce two million doses of new vaccine a week, at the company's Ste-Foy, Que., plant. Until the vaccine is available -- something that could take up to six months -- Canada will use its stock of 50 million doses of antivirals, as the first line of defence if the first wave of a pandemic strikes. About 90% of the stock is Tamiflu, with Relenza making up the rest. Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of Tamiflu for instance, but Canadian officials remain confident it will work.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Scienti...604/story.html

[Swanny]

Looks like its coming to an end
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8031267.stm

Mexico has now confirmed 19 fatalities from the virus, which is now present in 18 countries around the world.

But Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said it appeared that the outbreak could be levelling off.

"Each day we're seeing fewer serious cases and therefore the mortality rate is dropping," he said.

Doesn't sound bad to me

This is an interesting background story of happenstance, lightening storms, people, agencies, testing. Hmm, was there a contaminant in the Navy lab?

Sleuthing Swine Flu
Chance Test Led CDC Investigators to Link Cases in U.S., Mexico
By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 3, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...src=newsletter

ATLANTA Nancy Cox's phone connection to Mexico kept cutting off. Rain came down in sheets above the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On the other end of the line the night of April 23, Mexican Health Ministry officials anxiously awaited results on a batch of samples they had sent to Atlanta that morning. They were trying to solve a mystery Cox's team had been wrestling with for more than a week: Was the sickness killing young Mexicans related to a strange new flu popping up in the United States?

People across the border were sick and dying, and, in the United States, a novel virus had surfaced in the San Diego area. Using samples from the California cases, the CDC was getting close to determining whether the cross-border illnesses matched.

"I could hear the cracks of thunder," recalled Cox, director of the CDC influenza division, describing the long silent minutes as she and the Mexicans waited for the results.

The answer she delivered was both satisfying and troubling to disease detectives at the CDC, the sleuths who unravel the puzzles surrounding outbreaks of illnesses in the United States and abroad. Yes, she told them, the viruses matched.

What began as a scientific anomaly in this country was now a deadly binational outbreak. And it was spreading fast. In the course of nine days, the virulent bug would jump swiftly from the Americas to Europe, New Zealand, the Middle East and Asia. It would lead to school closures across the United States, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs in Egypt, and the quarantining of 300 people in a Hong Kong hotel after the disease was diagnosed in a guest.

Although the disease detectives were operating without a health secretary in Washington or a permanent CDC director, Cox, an Iowa native with a love of science and travel, had years of intense preparation for just such an outbreak.

After hanging up the phone, she followed the pandemic playbook, notifying her bosses, who ordered the agency's Emergency Operations Center to ramp up to its highest response level. Within days, CDC would dispatch medical investigators to Mexico, ship new flu-test kits to state health laboratories in the United States and release pharmaceutical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile to all 50 states.

Then Cox's cellphone rang again, with a call from home. There was more bad news for the soft-spoken blond virologist who had grown the CDC's flu division from 14 people to more than 100 scientists. Her 1916 Tudor house in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta had been struck by lightning. Her husband and daughter were safe, but their lovingly restored home was burning to the ground.

A Fortuitous Test

The medical detective work that unearthed the 2009 outbreak of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) -- more commonly known as swine flu -- began with a bit of happenstance.

On March 30, a 10-year-old boy in Southern California developed a cough and fever. Normally, doctors wouldn't have bothered testing for the flu; they would have given him medicine and sent him home.

But the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego was participating in a clinical trial of new, 30-minute flu tests, so they took a nasal swab and tested it the next day.

The boy had a flu strain that the virologists, skilled at identifying the seasonal flu, didn't recognize. Following the study protocols, they shipped the specimen to a research lab at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, which also concluded that the boy, who would become known as Patient A, was infected with an unrecognizable influenza virus. Next it was sent to the state health lab.

Since the 2003 bird flu outbreak, the public health community has been on the lookout for problematic new viruses. When the boy's nasal swab reached the Wisconsin state lab shortly after 3 p.m. on April 10, just as the office was closing for the Easter weekend, lab chief Peter Shult asked whether it was a high-risk case.

"The concern always is, could this be avian?" he said. "You are always worried that one of those might sneak in."

Once Shult learned that the specimen was from a child who hadn't been out of the country and had recovered from the mild illness, he decided the test could wait. He suspected the youngster had contracted swine flu, rare but not unheard of, he said later.

Swine flu in pigs is common, but only rarely does it spread to humans. Nationwide, health officials see a few cases each year, with the last major public health crisis occurring in 1976, when 40 million people were vaccinated after an Army recruit died of the illness in New Jersey. People cannot be infected by eating pork. Twice on April 13, Shult ran the lab tests, confirming that what he had on his hands was an influenza strain he could not pinpoint. "We sent it immediately to CDC," he said.

As that first San Diego sample made its way to Atlanta, the naval lab got its second curious case, a 9-year-old girl. Again, the scientists diagnosed influenza but couldn't be more specific. The only thing they knew: The child's flu was not the normal variety.

This time, the specimen was shipped to Atlanta, and Patrick Blair, the director of the Navy lab, alerted the CDC that something was amiss. CDC officials paid attention because Blair was known in the medical detective world, having spent much of his career as a virus hunter in Indonesia.

"That's the trick with catching something early," said Michael Shaw, the CDC's associate director for laboratory science. "You need a person in the field with a good eye and a bit of paranoid suspicion to send it along."

Unidentifiable Samples

As Shult ran tests in Wisconsin and Blair puzzled over the second atypical virus to pass through his lab in less than a week, Mexican authorities grappled with a late-season wave of flulike illness.

At the White House, President Obama prepared for his first trip to Mexico, on April 16, with advance teams already on the ground.

CDC analysts scour daily for early warning signs of a disease outbreak or natural disaster. With computer search tools, they scan news reports, online blogs and the data that pours into the operations center.

"We're picking up thousands of signals every day," said Scott F. Dowell, head of global disease detection at the CDC. "The challenge is in interpreting them."

The next day, the CDC lab got the specimen from Patient A, the 10-year-old boy, and a day later identified it as the new H1N1 virus.

Interesting but not stunning, thought Daniel B. Jernigan, Cox's deputy in the flu division. As the person overseeing the rapid-flu-test project in San Diego and other sites, Jernigan makes his living tracking influenza cases. He had seen a dozen swine flu cases in recent years, most often a child who had visited a petting zoo or a farmer who had come in contact with a sick pig.

"The kid gets a fever, mom doesn't feel too good, they take some medicine, and it's all over," Jernigan said. The swine influenza, in other words, typically dies out quickly.

When the second San Diego specimen arrived and it, too, was determined to be swine influenza, Jernigan's team started digging. In the lab, "we blast-sequenced it against our entire pig laboratory," he said, describing the hundreds of swine virus samples the CDC has collected over the years. "There was no match."

Despite their confidence in Blair, they wondered whether a contaminant had landed in the Navy lab.

Then came the call from Texas -- two teenage boys in Guadalupe County with an unrecognizable flu virus.

Then San Diego. Another influenza virus they couldn't identify.

By Thursday, April 16, as Obama's Air Force One landed at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, CDC officials were struggling to "connect the dots," as Cox put it. She called Mexico, requesting specimens.

"We thought there might be a possibility but not necessarily be a connection between the situation in California and what was unfolding in Mexico," she said.

Unbeknownst at the time, a member of Obama's advance team -- dispatched to Mexico on April 13 -- had contracted the swine flu and brought it home to the Washington area.

Making the Connection

Over the weekend of April 18, CDC officials began drafting an urgent public health dispatch describing a pair of novel swine flu cases in the San Diego area. In a Saturday night conference call with California health officials, they launched a gumshoe-style investigation. Although they now knew what the virus looked like, its origins remained a mystery.

"We were thinking there had to be some contact with pigs," said state epidemiologist Gil Chavez. They came close; the boy had visited the zoo; the little girl had been to a county fair. But no luck.

"We absolutely couldn't establish any links with swine whatsoever," Chavez said. Furthermore, the children lived 120 miles apart and had never met.

On Monday, April 20, Veratect, a private firm based in Kirkland, Wash., that conducts disease surveillance, contacted the CDC, concerned about the respiratory illness in Mexico. But in an e-mail, medical director James Wilson acknowledged, "I suspect this is probably a false alarm."

North of the border, Canada also was picking up nervous chatter. After its devastating experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003, Canada's public health apparatus is highly attuned to potential outbreaks. Through the international laboratory grapevine, U.S. public health workers heard that Mexico was shipping samples to Canada.

But it wasn't adding up, Jernigan said. The situation in California -- children with mild cases of swine flu who had fully recovered -- didn't match the dire picture in Mexico.

By the time Richard E. Besser, acting director of the CDC, convened the weekly pandemic flu meeting at 8:30 a.m. on April 22, CDC lab technicians had confirmed that the viruses that infected two teenagers in Texas identically matched the California bugs.
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"The first case of swine flu, you think: No big deal," Besser said in an interview. "The second is a little less common. But then when the Texas cases came in, the epidemiologist in me knew the probability of those being unrelated events has gone way down."

From a polished wood conference table next to the CDC's 24-hour Emergency Operations Center, Besser said the agency would step up its pandemic preparations, increasing the center's staffing from 10 to 70.

The next day, the CDC convened a teleconference with the 50 state public health labs in the United States and urged extra vigilance.

By evening, as the rain began to fall, Cox's team was completing its analysis of the specimens from Mexico. The genes were identical to the H1N1 swine variation found in California and Texas. Finally, she recalled, "we were really putting together a couple of major pieces of the puzzle."

One mystery had been solved. But for Cox, whose house would be torn down to the studs, the marathon was just beginning.

[freespirit]

Atchoo !!

"flu" h1n1 or h5n1 need to keep there host mobile in order to spread.It is not in the best interest for the virus if it kills it's host.

This from the New York Times

Swine flu versus avian flu

The avian flu, A(H5N1), is found among birds and humans and is highly lethal but not very transmissible. Scientists believe this new flu is more transmissible but less lethal.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...u-graphic.html

Here is an explanation from The Pig Site

Bird Flu in Pigs

UK - Some scientists believe the H5N1 virus may be replicating into weaker variations. One of the reasons they take this view is that the virus appears to have adapted to operate in pig populations.


Pigs have cells in their trachea that allow for both avian and human flu infections. If pigs carry both human and avian strains at a given time replication detail can be traded among the flu species and within the pig host new combinations could arise.

So although the pig variety may be less virulent than its avian-oriented relatives, virologists believe transference to the pig population may be a precursor to human infection.

When H5N1 viruses were isolated from pigs in Indonesia and were tested on mice the pig-oriented variation was found to be much less devastating to the exposed mice than the avian H5N1 species.

In growing in pigs, the virus may have become less harmful to mammals in general but it might also mean the virus is one step closer to turning into a human pandemic strain.

However pig infections are thought to happen only occasionally and it is not clear at present whether the H5N1 virus has truly adapted to pigs.

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/...rd-flu-in-pigs

Now before i go to bed, many of the deaths reported will be due to existing
health problems which make the individual open to infection.

Goodnight atchoo !

First there's this kind of news (no vaccine, or a vaccine can take from 3 to 6 months to prepare), like this:

Vaccine production a slow process
LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service - Tuesday, April 28, 2009
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/ap...-slow-process/

"... It takes some 900 million eggs to make 300 million doses of the annual flu shot, or for that much vaccine against a new strain. It's a slow and sometimes difficult process, with the potential for contamination or for egg shortages to interfere. And it's not yet known how well the new virus grows inside eggs.

"There are several alternatives to egg-based vaccines in the works. Most advanced is cell-based vaccine production, which utilizes lab-grown cell lines, often from kidneys, that are used to host a growing virus. The virus is injected into the cell, where it multiplies. Then the cell's outer wall is removed and the virus harvested, purified and inactivated before being put into serum."

And it's also a cell-not-egg technology success story!

Swine flu: Baxter seeks swine flu sample to begin work on vaccine
Deerfield-based Baxter has a speedier way to make vaccines than old method
By Bruce Japsen | Tribune reporter - 3:34 PM CDT, April 27, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,3579388.story

"Baxter confirmed over the weekend that it is working with the World Health Organization on a potential vaccine to curb the deadly swine flu virus that is blamed for scores of deaths in Mexico and has emerged as a threat in the U.S. Shares of Baxter were up 2.4 percent, or $1.16, to $49.23 a share in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

"... Baxter has a cell-based technology that allows the company to produce vaccines more rapidly in the event of a pandemic than a decades-old method that uses eggs and can take weeks or months longer. Although the egg-based method has produced safe and effective vaccines, analysts say Baxter's method can cut production times in half compared with the older process."

-----------------------------

Also: Swine flu prompts California 'state of emergency'
28 Apr 2009 18:12:58 GMT - Source: Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28344841.htm

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Reuters) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday declared a "state of emergency" for the state over an outbreak of the swine flu that has killed 149 people in Mexico.

So far state and local officials have confirmed 13 cases of the swine flu in California. None has been fatal, although Los Angeles County Coroner's officials were investigating two deaths as possibly related to the disease.

Schwarzenegger's proclamation allows the state to deploy additional resources to the Department of Public Health and more quickly and easily purchase equipment and materials.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared a federal public health emergency on Sunday. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, editing by Patricia Zengerle)

[Lt Ripley]

Just received this via email today.

Source: winhs.org

Whether fact or fiction, the U.S. government has officially declared the 'swine flu outbreak' a national public health emergency. Swine flu has sickened at least 91 people in the U.S. by the CDC's latest count. "We are declaring today a public health emergency," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said on April 26th at a White House news briefing. That declaration is "standard operating procedure," Napolitano said. "It is similar to what we do when we see a hurricane approaching a site. The hurricane might not actually hit, but this will allow us to take a number of preparatory steps. We really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."

As part of the emergency, the Department of Homeland Security is releasing 25% of stockpiled antivirals -- Tamiflu and Relenza -- to the states. Here's what officials want you to do: Stay home if you're sick, avoid close contact with people who are sick, wash your hands often, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, cover your mouth or nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing, and keep up with health information in your own community.

All of the swine flu cases reported in the US have so far been relatively mild, although one person was briefly hospitalized and one person has now died, according to Keiji ***uda, MD, Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment at the World Health Organization. Eight swine flu cases in New York City involved students at Saint Francis Preparatory School in Queens. All have recovered fully, according to a news release from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

So far, U.S. cases of swine flu have been milder than those seen in Mexico, where the World Health Organization has confirmed that at least 20 people have died from swine flu; health officials are investigating dozens more deaths in Mexico that may be related to the disease.

SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS
Symptoms of swine flu seen in U.S. patients so far have been relatively nonspecific -- high fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, possibly vomiting and diarrhea in some cases.

EDITOR’S NOTE:
The seriousness of this flu notwithstanding, just 20 people found sick resulted in an unusually fast declaration of a national Public Emergency by the U.S. Government--this while a study by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles found 1,473 major adverse events and 564 deaths from Viagra reported to the FDA, most of them from cardiovascular causes, yet nothing is done for years! It begs the question as to why deaths caused by a drug company warrant such a different policy approach.

Go figure!