Friday, July 31, 2009

Times Online: Tamiflu causes sickness and nightmares in children, study finds

More than half of children taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu experience side-effects such as nausea and nightmares, research suggests.

An estimated 150,000 people with flu symptoms were prescribed the drug through a new hotline and website last week, according to figures revealed yesterday.

Studies of children attending three schools in London and one in the South West showed that 51-53 per cent had one or more side-effects from the medication, which is offered to everyone in England with swine flu symptoms.

Times Online: Tamiflu causes sickness and nightmares in children, study finds

Queensland Country Life: A/H1N1 flu found in New South Wales piggery

News from Australia:
Swine flu, or the influenza A/H1N1 (2009) virus, has been detected in a NSW piggery as a result of human-to-pig transmission.

Australian Pork Ltd has moved quickly to reassure consumers that the transmission holds no implications for Australian consumers.

APL chief executive Andrew Spencer says consumers can 'have the utmost confidence in pork as a safe and healthy meat to eat'.

Mr Spencer said experts in Australia and overseas, including state and federal health departments, the Australian Medical Association, Australian Veterinarian Association, the World Health Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health, have agreed there is no food safety risk associated with the flu virus.

Queensland Country Life: A/H1N1 flu found in New South Wales piggery

CDC H1N1 Flu | Novel H1N1 U.S. Situation Update


Total U.S. Novel H1N1 Flu Hospitalizations and Deaths as posted July 31, 2009, 11:00 AM ET

Reporting States and Territories* - 47
Hospitalized Cases 5,514
Deaths 353
*Includes the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The number of hospitalized novel H1N1 cases and deaths presented in this table are an aggregate of reports received by CDC from U.S. states and territories and will be updated weekly each Friday at 11am.

For state level information, refer to state health departments.

CDC discontinued reporting of individual confirmed and probable cases of novel H1N1 infection on July 24, 2009.

CDC will report the total number of hospitalizations and deaths weekly, and continue to use its traditional surveillance systems to track the progress of the novel H1N1 flu outbreak.

For more information about CDC’s novel H1N1 influenza surveillance system, see Questions & Answers About CDC's Novel H1N1 Influenza Surveillance.

CDC H1N1 Flu | Novel H1N1 U.S. Situation Update

WHO | Pandemic influenza in pregnant women

Research conducted in the USA and published 29 July in The Lancet [1] has drawn attention to an increased risk of severe or fatal illness in pregnant women when infected with the H1N1 pandemic virus.

Several other countries experiencing widespread transmission of the pandemic virus have similarly reported an increased risk in pregnant women, particularly during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. An increased risk of fetal death or spontaneous abortions in infected women has also been reported.
Increased risk for pregnant women

Evidence from previous pandemics further supports the conclusion that pregnant women are at heightened risk.

While pregnant women are also at increased risk during epidemics of seasonal influenza, the risk takes on added importance in the current pandemic, which continues to affect a younger age group than that seen during seasonal epidemics.

WHO strongly recommends that, in areas where infection with the H1N1 virus is widespread, pregnant women, and the clinicians treating them, be alert to symptoms of influenza-like illness.

WHO | Pandemic influenza in pregnant women

BBC NEWS - 'Swine flu liner' docks in France

A cruise ship carrying dozens of victims of swine flu among its 5,000 passengers and crew has docked in the south of France, officials have said.

Sixty crew members have so far been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, while 70 of their colleagues were also showing signs of being infected, they added.

They will be treated on board the ship while it docks at Villefranche-sur-Mer.

On Thursday, officials said a 14-year-old girl infected with H1N1 had become France's first fatality from the virus.

However, they cautioned that it did not appear that her death, at a hospital in the north-western city of Brest, had been directly linked to the virus.

BBC NEWS - 'Swine flu liner' docks in France