Nov 6, 2009
WHO: Global flu transmission persists
In its weekly update today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said intense, persistent H1N1 flu transmission continues in North America with an unusually early flu season under way across Europe and central and western Asia. Countries in northern and eastern Europe, as well as eastern Russia, are seeing increasing activity. Mongolia, China, and Japan are reporting surges in cases. Seasonal H3N2 viruses are waning, though some have been detected recently in sub-Saharan Africa.
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_11_06/en/index.html
Nov 6 WHO pandemic update
HHS orders IV antiviral drugs
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced yesterday that it has awarded contracts for up to 120,000 treatment courses of intravenous (IV) antiviral drugs to help treat hospitalized novel H1N1 patients. HHS ordered 10,000 courses each of IV oseltamivir, zanamivir, and peramivir, totaling $31.5 million, with possible additional orders of up to 30,000 additional courses for each drug over 2 years.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/11/20091105a.html
Nov 5 HHS statement
Poland takes anti-vaccine stand
Poland will not buy H1N1 vaccine that has not been properly tested or from manufacturers that won't take responsibility for side effects, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said today. Tusk said that vaccine producers were pressuring governments to buy but without taking responsibility for possible negative effects, according to the Associated Press (AP). He said expectations are to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on vaccine "while no one wants to guarantee that it has no side effects."
http://www.khou.com/news/world/69365722.html
Nov 6 AP article
All Beijing to get H1N1 vaccine
Beijing health officials said today that they would extend H1N1 vaccine from high-risk citizens to all the city's 16 million residents as the H1N1 death toll in the country rises, according to Xinhua, China's news agency. The city will offer free vaccine to all people older than 3 years. A public health official said Beijing now has 3.63 million doses but will receive more.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/06/content_8926833.htm
Nov 6 Xinhua story
H1N1 found in 160 Chinese piglets
More than 100 piglets on a farm in Chinese Taipei have tested positive for pandemic H1N1 flu, according to a report filed with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Of 3,346 piglets on the farm in T'ai-Tung County, 160 started showing clinical signs such as coughing and diarrhea on Oct 19, and tests revealed H1N1 flu. The sick pigs have recovered, and swine farms within a 3-km radius are being monitored.
http://www.oie.int/wahis/reports/en_imm_0000008616_20091105_161914.pdf
Nov 5 OIE report
WHO: H1N1 in animals needs monitoring
Pandemic H1N1 virus infections in pigs, turkeys, and other animals underscores the need for close monitoring but have not changed pandemic dynamics, the WHO said yesterday. Limited evidence suggests the pig illnesses followed human transmission to pigs, and as human infections increase, the WHO said it expects to receive more reports of animal H1N1 infections. A novel H3N2 virus found recently in Danish minks did not spread to humans but signals a need for increased vigilance.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/briefing_20091105/en/index.html
Nov 5 WHO statement
