Nearly 8,000 H1N1 flu deaths worldwide, WHO says

At least 7,826 people worldwide have died from laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza, an increase of more than 1,000 in the last week, but the actual number is probably much larger than that, the World Health Organization said today. Most countries have now stopped counting every case, and the totals do not reflect all the deaths linked to the virus, so the actual number is probably substantially larger. In the United States, for  example, a little more than 1,000 deaths have been firmly linked to the swine flu virus, but officials estimate that about 4,000 people have actually died from the virus and its complications.

The agency said that the current wave of infection appears to have peaked in the United States and the Caribbean region, but that it has plateaued in Canada and appears to be increasing relatively rapidly in Europe. Very high levels of activity have been seen in Sweden, Norway, Moldova and Italy in the last week, and more than 99% of the flu cases have been typed as swine flu. Healthcare services have been exceptionally strained in Albania and Moldova, the WHO said. In France, that country's health ministry said, the number of deaths in the outbreak jumped by 22 last week, bringing the total of laboratory-confirmed deaths to 68.

In a news conference Thursday, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, special advisor on pandemic influenza to the WHO's director-general, said that 40 countries have now distributed at least 100 million doses of swine flu vaccine with no serious side effects. He also said that about 75 patients with a virus resistant to the antiviral agent Tamiflu have been identified, but there is no evidence that the resistance is spreading through the population at large. Many of the cases have been observed in patients who were severely immunocompromised, he noted.

Fukuda also said that about six cases of a severe allergic reaction have been observed in Canadian patients receiving one batch of a GlaxoSmithKline swine flu vaccine. Normally, about one such reaction would be expected from a single lot of the seasonal flu vaccine. He said the remaining doses of the 170,000-dose lot of the vaccine are being withheld while officials determine whether there is a problem, but he suspects the unusually high number is simply a coincidence.

In other flu news:

-- If you are traveling through Chicago this weekend, you might be able to get your swine flu vaccine there. O'Hare International Airport opened a kiosk Wednesday where travelers who fall into high-risk groups could receive the vaccine, and Chicago Midway Airport is expected to begin offering the vaccine Saturday. The kiosks, which will also offer seasonal flu shots, are run by the University of Illinois-Chicago.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Comments

[Stan Lippmann]

Notice that Fukuda says there were 'no' severe reactions, but then there were a few sentences later. There are only about 500 deaths in the U.S., look at the CDC website. The 4000 number comes from Dr. Ira Longini at the University of Washington. He is the statistician who came out with the 4000 number the day after a visit from Nancy Pelosi here in Seattle. I can just imagine her ordering him to somehow use statistics to make it seem worse than it is, otherwise not enough people would take the vaccine. So what is her ulterior motive, one might ask?

[Natural Hair Loss Shampoo]

Although 8,000 people have died from H1N1, how many people have died from the average flu. And although many people seem to find issue with the way the WHO and others are handling the distribution and actual roll out of handling this problem. Every vaccine is going to have bad reactions and given the scale of the H1N1 issue it is to be expected. Thanks for the great post

[Dr David Hill]

This vaccination strategy is the reactive strategy. What ever happened to the prevention is better than cure thinking that doctors have always based their best medical advice on?
The large pharmaceuticals will not address the problem at source as they will never make mega-billions in profits. Therefore we are all lumbered with the high costs our government’s pay out of our taxes for constant drugs. I say constant, as this virus is constantly mutating and then another drug is needed to combat the new strain - just look what is happening to Tamiflu which will be defunct before not too long. This is the great difference with viruses that don't mutate like smallpox et al. So all those harping on about smallpox as an equivalent evidence that a drug’s strategy will work I have to say that the swine or avian flu viruses are completely different and where vaccination will never eliminate them! Therefore the big drug companies just love the reactive system as we have to pay out indefinitely. Stop the problem at its source and this would all stop. Simple things like giving the farmers in the tropics (Mexico et al) heaters and fuel so that they do not sleep with their pigs, chickens, ducks, etc, etc, thus preventing the long-term flu incubator that these viruses need to jump into man. Simple really, but which the drug giants do not want at any cost.
Therefore the only answer lies in the strategy at source and never allowing the virus to happen in the first place.
But I am afraid we are all being taken for a very big ride, the ride of the big pharmaceuticals that are just reaping it in from something that will fund their corporations in perpetuity.
Sick really ! As it is the biggest money spinner of all time considering that it will never end for either supplier or the taxpayer ! The reason, these viruses will never be defeated by a drug’s strategy as they constantly mutate into something else and make the current drugs totally redundant. I am afraid that our naïve thinking will evetually despatch hundreds of millions, if not a billion, to their deaths, including many of our loved ones, as we shall have nothing to stop the ‘real’ killer virus when it does show it's ugly head ! For the present drugs will be useless in this event. Indeed as a postscipt, the Spanish flu that killed up to 100 million did its worst between week 16 and week 24, thus not allowing a vaccine ever to be created and manuafactured in time. For it takes at least 6 months alone to get a vaccine in place and the mass manufacturing required is not even an option, taking literally years to supply the whole world. Indeed, even in rich countries it would be at least 12 months before everyone got the vaccine, 18 months in total and where according to the Spanish flu we would all predominantly be dead that caught the virus.

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity
Bern, Switzerland

[sam]

This article is crazy, i am so confused. Certain medical personal say it nothing more then the flu and the rest say it is a pandemic?

[Don]

I haven't had the flu since I before got out of the Marines way back in 1976. That was the year people got sick from the last so-called "swine flu" vaccine that killed folks. I didn't get that shot, and I haven't gotten one since then.

How did I do it? I eat natural foods without all those chemical additives. I drink raw milk, eat raw milk cheese, and have two tablespoons of raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar a day. I also get about a half-hour of sunlight a day on as much bare skin as I can legally expose, which allows the body to turn cholesterol into vitamin d-3, which in turn boosts the immune system, among other things.

In other words, folks, the the CDC and the WHO are lieing to us all.

To your health!

[David McCarthy]

If you thinkit's bad now wait until he government has control of the health care and orders, with the advice from the professionals and their bank rollers the pharma companies, you all to take whatever type of posion the pharma companies want to sell.

Talk about grants of exclusive monopolies.... Lets see the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments are right out. They are our "penumbra" of privacy the Supreme Court said when they were discussion contrception and abortion. I guess everyday medical treatment and choices of what we choose are deserving.

[samin]

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