W.H.O. Reports A/H1N1 ‘Swine’ Flu Pandemic is Unstoppable
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a report finding that the pandemic spread of the influenza A/H1N1 virus, known as “swine flu”, is now “unstoppable”. The WHO is calling on governments to speed efforts to develop a vaccine and select which segments of their populations will be given priority, based on public health considerations, after health workers.
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), a body of the WHO set up to examine vaccine availability and procedures, including targeted patterns of vaccination to yield the optimum contagion-arrest effect in the spread of epidemic or pandemic diseases, says it has recognized the “unstoppable” spread of the new multiple-reassorted swine flu virus, and that all nations should have an adequate supply of vaccine and vaccination plans.
The epidemiology of the A/H1N1 virus has yielded some troubling new information since the initial outbreak. The new virus strain exhibits behaviors that vary from the traditional behaviors of the flu, which usually targets the very young, very old or immune-compromised. This virus strain, however, appears to be less effective than expected against the elderly and is potentially dangerous to healthy adults and particularly to obese people.
The apparent resistance exhibited by some elderly people is owing to their having survived the 1918 “Spanish flu”. As reported by Reuters:
The elderly seem to have some extra immunity to this new H1N1, which is a mixture of two swine viruses, one of which also contains genetic material from birds and humans. It is a very distant cousin of the H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 pandemic that killed 50 million to 100 million people.
A study published in the journal Nature on Monday confirmed that the blood of people born before 1920 carries antibodies to the 1918 strain, suggesting their immune systems remember a childhood infection.
There is also evidence that the H1N1 swine flu deviates from the normal preference of influenza for infection in the nose and throat and easily migrates deep into the lungs. Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka has done research that shows the virus replicates more easily in the lungs, a development which could make the virus more dangerous than other flu strains. There is also evidence it may lead to gastrointestinal impacts.
Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, of the WHO’s Initiative for Vaccine Research, also speaking for SAGE, said obesity appears to be a risk factor. She added, however, that it remains unclear if obese patients might have undetected underlying health issues, or if obesity itself is somehow a risk factor with A/H1N1.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 9 out of 10 patients treated for the virus in an intensive care unit there were obese. None of the 9 have yet recovered and 3 died. The CDC now estimates that as many as 1 million people in the US are now infected. The US counts 211 deaths, the WHO reports 429 deaths to date.
Numerous firms are working on developing vaccines, including Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Baxter, Schering-Plough’s Nobilon, GlaxoSmithKline, Solvay, CSL and AstraZeneca’s MedImmune. The WHO says it will work on providing better quality viruses for the firms working to develop the best vaccines to work against the spreading pandemic.
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[...] collaborative in preparing to confront outbreaks of the virus and combat the pandemic, though the WHO now says its global spread is “unstoppable”. The southern hemisphere is now entering its winter and the peak flu season, so officials there are [...]
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