Netherlands to sell surplus flu shots

The Dutch government is going to sell its surplus swine flu vaccine doses to countries who are experiencing acute shortages. Some two million doses will be sold.

They are no longer needed next month for the national vaccination drive.

Another 18 million doses may be sold in the first months of next year. The cabinet says it wants to help countries unable to inoculate all of their risk groups. Health Minister Ab Klink expects no other groups in the Netherlands need to be vaccinated.

The number of people to visit their general practitioner with flu complaints has begun dropping. Eight people, however, died of the A H1N1 virus last week.

All of them had been suffering from other complaints by the time they contracted the flu.

Netherlands to sell surplus flu shots

H1N1 Re-infections Raise Pandemic Concerns

Dr. Debra Parsons, a pediatrician at Kid Care West in Cross Lanes, was met with reactions of doubt from local health officials last month when she said two flu tests had come back positive for H1N1, or swine flu.

Parsons first came down with the virus, complete with all the telltale symptoms, in August.

Her son became ill at the same time with the same symptoms. Figuring they had the same bug, Parsons tested herself to see what it was.

The test came back positive for Influenza A, so the lab at Charleston Area Medical Center sent it to be sub-typed. Parsons was positive for H1N1.

Parsons and her son recovered, but in October they started having the same symptoms, but they became much worse.

They were both tested this time, and the results were the same -- they were positive for Influenza A and then H1N1.

'It was swine flu both times,' Parsons said.

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H1N1 Re-infections Raise Pandemic Concerns

AAP: Two deaths in France from mutated H1N1

Two patients who were infected by a swine flu mutation that was also recently detected in Norway have died in France, health officials say.

'This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue,' a statement from the French government's Health Surveillance Institute (InVS) said on Friday.
'For one of these patients, this mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to oseltamivir,' it added, referring to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, under the brand name Tamiflu.

The case was the first drug-resistant strain found in France among the 1,200 strains experts have analysed here, the InVS said, adding that 'the effectiveness of vaccines currently available is not being questioned'.
The two patients were not related and had been hospitalised in two different cities in France, it said.

The death toll in mainland France now stood at 76, the InVS statement said.
The World Health Organisation said on Thursday it was investigating reports of mutations in the swine flu virus, after half a dozen countries recorded cases in which the virus was transforming.

AAP: Two deaths in France from mutated H1N1