 | | | | Infectious Diseases Headlines | | | (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The Food and Drug Administration is investigating companies nationwide that are advertising and selling unauthorized H1N1 products.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Only about a third of adults who have tried to get a swine flu vaccine have been able to get it, according to a new national poll.
LONDON (AP) -- In Britain, there are no long lines of people seeking swine flu vaccine. Doctor's offices aren't swamped with desperate calls. And there are no cries of injustice that the vaccine is going to wealthy corporations or healthy people who don't really need it.
(USA TODAY) -- Efforts to require flu shots for health care workers in order to protect vulnerable patients are being abandoned by some major health systems because of legal challenges and vaccine shortages.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- A medical aid group says funding for AIDS is threatened, and that could set back "dramatic" progress in decreasing HIV illness and death.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Some of New York City's largest employers -- including Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and big universities -- have started receiving doses of the much-in-demand swine flu vaccine for their at-risk employees.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A 13-year-old Iowa cat has been infected with swine flu, veterinary and federal officials said Wednesday in what is believed to be the first case of the H1N1 virus in a feline in the United States.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy - penicillins - appear to be the safest.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia and Slovakia tightened their borders with Ukraine on Tuesday as the World Health Organization began investigating a suspected swine flu outbreak.
SIAYA, Kenya (AP) -- A mother watched with dread as a nurse inserted a tube in her baby's head. Blood streamed into the anemic 4-month-old who already has malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills a million African children every year.
OAKLAND (USA Today) -- Tiffany Lee, 16, is the worst-case swine flu scenario every doctor fears. On July 7, she started to cough and feel dizzy. "I thought it was allergies," she says from her hospital bed.
(USA Today) -- John Stevenson hasn't stopped patronizing the local gym, but after his workout, he is wiping down his machines with spray disinfectant and paper towels. Sales associate Janet Lininger is having customers swipe their own credit cards (she's relieved to have recently shifted from the intimate-apparel section to the far-less-cozy handbag department).
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Independent health advisers begin monitoring safety of the swine flu vaccine on Monday, an extra step the government promised in this year's unprecedented program to watch for possible side effects.
LONDON (AP) -- To fight pneumonia, the world's top killer of children, United Nations officials say they need $39 billion (euro26.35 billion) over the next six years.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Urging its citizens not to panic, Ukraine on Monday closed down all schools nationwide for a week to avoid the spread of swine flu and suggested that nightclubs, cinemas and food markets in the west also shut down.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A single dose of the swine flu vaccine works well for almost all pregnant women, but young children will still need two doses for best results, federal health officials said Monday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Heath officials say swine flu has caused at least 19 more children's deaths -- the largest one-week increase since the pandemic started in April.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Newborns whose mothers got seasonal flu shots during pregnancy were less likely to be born premature, underweight, and in need of hospital care for respiratory illnesses, three new studies found.
GENEVA (AP) -- A single dose of swine flu vaccine is enough to immunize adults and children over 10 against the pandemic strain, the World Health Organization said Friday.
(USA TODAY) -- Some time-honored traditions -- working sick, flying sick, going to school sick -- are in question as the nation seeks to fend off the spread of swine flu.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Halloween can be a scary night for children.
(Associated Press) -- With Dad a world leader and Nobel Prize winner, Malia and Sasha Obama surely could have been first in line when vaccinations began for swine flu. They weren't, the White House says. But that hasn't stopped complaints that President Barack Obama's daughters got preferential treatment.
LONDON (AP) -- Dutch scientists ignited a controversy Friday by suggesting that children would be better off skipping the seasonal flu vaccine this year -- a proposal flatly rejected by other health experts.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It was bound to happen: Some people who aren't at high risk for swine flu complications got the much-in-demand vaccine.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some of the millions who travel to Saudi Arabia next month for the annual hajj will be greeted with face masks, hand sanitizer and fever checks as health officials strive to stem the spread of swine flu during the world's largest pilgrimage.
(Associated Press) -- Doctors may have a new treatment for swine flu that's already on pharmacy shelves -- cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials think that as many as 5.7 million Americans were infected with swine flu during the first few months of the pandemic.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- H1N1 vaccinations are being offered at clinics throughout Sacramento County. Neighboring counties haven't released their schedules, which The Bee will publish as they become available.
LONDON (AP) -- Swiss drug-maker Novartis AG says it will deliver about 30 million doses of swine flu vaccine to the United States by the end of November.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Mention swine flu to a young child, and odds are pretty good you'll get a blank stare.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The number of students staying home sick with the flu is multiplying nationwide and normally quiet school nurses' offices suddenly look like big city emergency rooms, packed with students too ill to finish the day.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vaccinating more children might help slow the evolution of the constantly changing flu virus, government scientists reported Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With more than 23 million doses of swine flu vaccine now available, health officials are visiting vaccine plants to check for any more pending interruptions to what appears to be a slowly but steadily growing supply.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- The University of South Florida is participating in two national studies to find out whether the H1N1 vaccine can protect children and pregnant women who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from also contracting swine flu.
BERLIN (AP) -- A debate over two different swine flu vaccines overshadowed Germany's launch of a public inoculation program against the pandemic on Monday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- More than 22 million doses of swine flu vaccine are available now, and most Americans should soon find it easier to get their dose, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP) -- China will give swine flu vaccinations to thousands of Muslims about to make the annual pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, state media said, as authorities reported the mainland's third death from the illness.
BERLIN (AP) -- A debate over two different swine flu vaccines overshadowed Germany's launch of a public inoculation program against the pandemic on Monday.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)-- State health officials are tracking the spread of swine flu through electronic prescription records, developing what they believe is a model that could help doctors more easily identify and respond to an outbreak of the illness.
ENCINO (The New York Times News Service) -- Hundreds of people came from as far away as San Diego Friday to stand in long lines for swine flu vaccine at the Balboa Sports Complex -- one of the first of 64 free clinics that will open over the next three weeks in Los Angeles County's largest ever vaccination campaign.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Grappling with low supplies of swine flu vaccines, President Felipe Calderon persuaded drug makers this week to sell him 30 million doses, while 1,000 Mexicans lined up for an experimental vaccine they hope can speed up supplies.
ATLANTA (AP) -- About 1 in 5 U.S. children had a flu-like illness earlier this month -- and most of those cases likely were swine flu, according to a new government health survey. About 7 percent of surveyed adults said they'd had a flu-like illness, the survey found.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The government's latest figures show swine flu is widespread across the country and increasing in almost every state. It's now caused at least 95 children's deaths since April.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Federal health officials say swine flu is more widespread now than it's ever been.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York state health officials have suspended a ruling that would have forced health care workers across the state to get vaccinated against the swine flu by the end of November or risk losing their jobs, saying in a decision issued Thursday that they did so because the vaccine is in short supply.
SWIFTWATER, Pa. (AP) -- The federal government originally promised 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine by now. Only 13 million have come through.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Thousands of American kids are getting sick from the swine flu epidemic, which has hit months before the traditional flu season.
(Associated Press) -- Federal officials have warned promoters of more than 140 products sold over the Internet about fraudulent claims that they can prevent, treat or diagnose swine flu.
(USA TODAY) -- As health care workers around the country work frantically to accommodate the millions seeking protection against the H1N1 strain of influenza, they have to contend with a countertrend: significant numbers of Americans who don't plan to vaccinate themselves or their children.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Visiting a loved one in the hospital? Better check on new flu limits first. Hospitals around the country are turning away visiting children and tightening restrictions on adults, too, in hopes of limiting spread of swine flu in the hallways - although there's little science the limits work.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The latest government information shows swine flu continues to be most dangerous to kids and younger adults and is largely bypassing the elderly.
MIAMI (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The most important statistic for the Heat, and, for that matter, the NBA this season will be 98.6.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide, researchers report.
(Associated Press) -- Giving babies Tylenol to prevent fever when they get childhood vaccinations may backfire and make the shots a little less effective, surprising new research suggests.
ATLANTA (AP) -- It was six months ago that scientists discovered an ominous new flu virus, touching off fears of a catastrophic global outbreak that could cause people to drop dead in the streets. Doomsday, of course, never came to pass.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The swine flu is causing an unprecedented amount of illness for so early in the fall -- and federal health officials said Friday that 11 more children have died in the past week.
(Associated Press) -- Test results of its swine flu vaccine suggest that children under 10 may need two shots to be fully protected, vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur said Wednesday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The largest U.S. analysis of hospitalized adult swine flu patients has found almost half were healthy people who did not have asthma or any other chronic illnesses before they got sick.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Max Gomez was a bright-eyed 5-year-old happy to have just started kindergarten when he developed sniffles and a fever. His mother figured it was only a cold. Three days later, the Antioch, Tenn., boy was dead, apparently from swine flu. At least 76 American children have died from the new virus, and doctors are urging parents to watch for warning signs that the flu has become life-threatening.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Rapidly worsening breathing problems in the sickest swine flu patients in Mexico and Canada present a scary worst-case scenario and could foreshadow what U.S. doctors face as winter flu season sets in, new reports suggest.
Kuwait (McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Following the debate on whether academic season should be resumed due to the swine flu infection scare, attention has now shifted to the Hajj season. Many Hajj convoy owners are now claiming that the season has been hit by the scare.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization hopes to begin shipping 60 million doses of swine flu vaccine to poor countries in November as part of an effort to protect their fragile health systems from the pandemic, it said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top U.S. health official says the risks from not getting the swine flu vaccine are greater than any potential risks associated with the vaccine.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials said Friday that 76 children have died of swine flu, including 16 new reports in the past week -- more evidence the new virus is unusually dangerous in kids.
(Associated Press) -- One quarter of Americans sick enough to be hospitalized with swine flu last spring wound up needing intensive care and 7 percent of them died, the first such study of the early months of the global epidemic suggests. That's a little higher than with ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said.
ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. health officials have lost track of how many illnesses and deaths have been caused by the first global flu epidemic in 40 years.
OUANAMINTHE, Haiti (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter traveled to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to meet political leaders, health workers and malaria victims Wednesday in hopes of jump-starting efforts to eradicate the disease in the Caribbean.
WASHINGTON (AP)-- The people who most want the swine flu vaccine are older people, who will be last in line, says a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The nation's third-largest drugstore chain is no longer making pregnant women show a prescription to get a flu shot.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wondering if swine flu's bad enough to require a doctor's attention? An interactive Web site may help you decide, using the same type of triage calculations that doctors at Emory University use.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The initial swine flu vaccine doses this week will be the nasal spray version, and arm injections will begin next week to help meet demand, health officials said Tuesday.
GENEVA (AP) -- Vaccine is the best tool against swine flu despite reports of a few minor side effects from the initial campaign in China, the World Health Organization said Monday.
(USA TODAY) -- The first doses of swine flu vaccine arrived Monday as more than half the USA reported widespread flu cases.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- And we're off: Swine flu vaccinations begin this week, after months of preparations and promises. But don't start bugging your doctor about an appointment just yet.
(USA TODAY) -- Vaccine for the H1N1 flu will begin arriving in the nation's hospitals, clinics and schools as early as Tuesday, the start of an effort to protect Americans against a swine flu virus that emerged this past spring and quickly circled the globe.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The long-awaited first vaccinations against swine flu -- the squirt-in-the-nose kind -- begin early next week in parts of the country, and states are urging people to be patient until more arrives.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- Swine flu arrived at the Berger home a few weeks ago.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- Jennifer Bomgaars felt it like just another annoying shot in the arm. But her flu vaccine at the Take Care retail clinic in suburban Denver hit some vital nerves in the much-debated American health system.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- If a third of people wind up catching swine flu, 15 states could run out of hospital beds around the time the outbreak peaks, a new report warns Thursday.
(Associated Press) -- The largest U.S. supplier of seasonal flu vaccines said it is running behind on shipping those vaccines -- partly because of the crunch to produce millions of doses of the swine flu vaccine.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Twenty-five cities and states have ordered swine flu vaccine, and the first doses should be administered Tuesday, officials said Thursday.
LONDON (AP) -- United Nations health officials estimate about 4 million people who need AIDS drugs worldwide are now getting them, according to a report issued Wednesday.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- When the first shipments of swine flu vaccine begin arriving in coming weeks, federal officials want only people on priority lists to line up for the first 45 million doses, but there won't be "vaccine police" enforcing it.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's hard for pregnant women to escape the message: You're at extra risk from swine flu -- it could trigger premature labor, hospitalize you for weeks, even kill you -- so be among the first in line for vaccine next month. But only about one in seven pregnant women gets a flu shot each winter.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. If you're one of them the day after your swine flu shot, will you worry the vaccine was to blame and not the more likely culprit, all those burgers and fries?
LONDON (AP) - The European Union's drug regulator recommended Friday that two swine flu vaccines be licensed in the 27-nation bloc to ensure their availability before the start of the normal flu season.
BANGKOK (AP) -- For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The maker of Tamiflu on Wednesday said there's a shortage of the children's version of the drug -- the first-line treatment for swine flu and seasonal flu.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hate to get flu shots? A new comparison of flu vaccines gives adults a good reason to roll up their sleeves and get a jab in the arm instead of a squirt in the nose.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Some pharmacists are seeing a shortage of the children's version of the flu drug Tamiflu.
ATLANTA (AP) -- It's lurking in that awesome party just off the quad, hiding in the shot glasses passed from person to person and in the make-out sessions in the hallway.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Studies of the new swine flu vaccine show children 10 and older will need just one shot for protection -- but younger kids almost certainly will need two.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The first doses of swine flu vaccine may all be the nasal spray version, government health officials said Friday.
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