Tag Archives: swine flu symptoms Hyderabad Mumbai pune
.Govt taking steps to tackle spread of swine flu, dengue: Rosaiah
.Hospitals let H1N1 flu patients die
.H1N1 toll climbs to 9
AP allows pvt hospitals to treat swine flu patients
AP allows pvt hospitals to treat swine flu patients
HYDERABAD: The State Government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with private hospitals including Apollo Hospitals at Jubilee Hills and Global at L B Nagar here for allocating ten beds for treatment of swine flu patients.
According to the District Health and Medical Officer (DHMO), Hyderabad, Dr Jayakumari, as per the MoU, the private hospitals will allocate the ten beds for swine flu patients.
As on today, 417 persons were screened at the 8 screening centres and five samples have proved to be suspects which have been sent to the Institute of Preventive Medicine for test.
Superintendent AP Chest Hospital Dr S V Prasad said that a total of 4 cases were presently under treatment with the hospital. They include two confirmed cases and two are suspects awaiting their reports. All others have been treated and sent home, he add ed.
He stated that the new guidelines were helping the hospital to take care of serious patients better.
On lot of people sporting masks and whether it was necessary, Dr Prasad said that there was no need for people to wear masks.
However, people suffering from cough and cold should sport a mask and not others, he advised.
Five more swine flu cases confirmed – HYDERABAD
Five more swine flu cases confirmed
HYDERABAD: The health authorities on Wednesday confirmed five more cases of swine flu in the city .
All the positive cases were local cases and do not have any travel history. With this, the total number of positive cases went up to 231 in A.P.
Out of the five positive, three were admitted to the Chest Hospital while one each at Gandhi and OGH.
The patients admitted to Gandhi and OGH hail from Jangaon and old city respectively, the officials said.
Meanwhile, DH&HO Dr. Ch. Jaya Kumari asked private hospitals including Care, KIMS, Kamineni, Image and Yashoda to set up isolation rooms, as local cases of swine flu were rising.
Rosaiah tells officials not to be lax on swine flu
Hyderabad: Chief minister K Rosaiah on Monday held a review meeting with the minister for health and other senior officials on the prevalence of swine flu and the measures needed to be taken to contain its spread.
While assuring the people that there was no need for panic, Rosaiah asked the officials to take all necessary steps for early detection and treatment of the disease. The chief minister said the officials should always be alert and take all measures to see that there is no let up in the drive against swine flu.
He said funds would not be a problem in tackling swine flu and asked the health department to re-appropriate funds if needed and not to hesitate in seeking additional funds as and when required. The meeting decided to continue the preventive checks at the Shamshabad airport and, if needed, strengthen facilities at gateway hospitals on inter-state routes. He said awareness should be created among people about early symptoms if the flu.
Rosaiah told the officials that there were complaints from doctors about shortage of masks and directed them to solve the problem. He also advised the health minister to call for a coordination meeting of the GHMC officials and health department officials to review the health and hygienic conditions in the city following heavy rains and water stagnation at many places and waterlogging in the low lying areas. He said immediate steps should be taken for fogging in these areas. Rosaiah said ten ventilators have been sanctioned for Gandhi Hospital.
The total positive cases reported are 215 so far of which 200 have been discharged and 11 are in critical condition. There were 4 deaths.
Chest Hospital shuts doors on non-swine flu cases
Hyderabad: With as many as 80-100 patients pouring in a day with suspected swine flu symptoms, the AP General and Chest Hospital has little manpower and machinery to attend to other routine healthcare services. Among the services now closed for ‘non-swine flu patients’ is the Critical Care Unit (CCU), which is being used only for critical H1N1 cases.
However, on an average, the hospital gets at least six critical cases with acute, life-threatening illness or injury and these cases are being referred to Gandhi Hospital or Osmania General Hospital as the CCU beds are being reserved only for swine flu cases.
What is more, of the 36 doctors in the Chest Hospital, 27 are devoting their time to attending to the swine flu unit. The ‘noentry’ for other patients is being attributed to manpower and space crunch.The move to cut down on other services is questionable as the footfall in other outpatient wards is around 800 per day.
Officials say that they are in any case witnessing a drop in general out-patients with people avoiding to step into the hospital in view of the swine flu scare.
Hospital authorities also admit that the H1N1 influenza is their current focus. They said that other than this, the hospital is not in a position to handle the extra load.
The hospital is the only one in the city doing sleep studies but has now decided to put its Sleep Lab services to bed due to the shortage of manpower.
“We have cut down on our services by 25 per cent because the admission period for other critical cases is comparatively longer. So we are not in a position to admit them. We are referring non swine flu cases to OGH and Gandhi Hospital. The daily swine flu OP cases are between 80 and 100,” said Dr S V Prasad, superintendent, AP General & Chest Hospital.
He added that the hospital has a capacity to handle six emergency cases and two more for oxygen therapy. The eight beds are all full with flu cases, he said. Explaining the reason for more cases coming to the hospital, Dr Prasad said that treatment of critical cases costs Rs 20,000 per day in a private hospital and thus people prefer to come here.
The hospital is turning down at least 10 requests a day from private hospitals for admitting acute pneumonia cases.
Dr Prasad said that swine flu has already reached a pandemic proportion and if the situation persists, then the hospital would require further funding and expansion would become essential.
However, on an average, the hospital gets at least six critical cases with acute, life-threatening illness or injury and these cases are being referred to Gandhi Hospital or Osmania General Hospital as the CCU beds are being reserved only for swine flu cases.
What is more, of the 36 doctors in the Chest Hospital, 27 are devoting their time to attending to the swine flu unit. The ‘noentry’ for other patients is being attributed to manpower and space crunch.The move to cut down on other services is questionable as the footfall in other outpatient wards is around 800 per day.
Officials say that they are in any case witnessing a drop in general out-patients with people avoiding to step into the hospital in view of the swine flu scare.
Hospital authorities also admit that the H1N1 influenza is their current focus. They said that other than this, the hospital is not in a position to handle the extra load.
The hospital is the only one in the city doing sleep studies but has now decided to put its Sleep Lab services to bed due to the shortage of manpower.
“We have cut down on our services by 25 per cent because the admission period for other critical cases is comparatively longer. So we are not in a position to admit them. We are referring non swine flu cases to OGH and Gandhi Hospital. The daily swine flu OP cases are between 80 and 100,” said Dr S V Prasad, superintendent, AP General & Chest Hospital.
He added that the hospital has a capacity to handle six emergency cases and two more for oxygen therapy. The eight beds are all full with flu cases, he said. Explaining the reason for more cases coming to the hospital, Dr Prasad said that treatment of critical cases costs Rs 20,000 per day in a private hospital and thus people prefer to come here.
The hospital is turning down at least 10 requests a day from private hospitals for admitting acute pneumonia cases.
Dr Prasad said that swine flu has already reached a pandemic proportion and if the situation persists, then the hospital would require further funding and expansion would become essential.
Shocker: Swine Flu becomes resistant to Tamiflu
12 countries report cases
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The dreaded H1N1 virus has reportedly become resistant to the only available vaccine in the world, Tamiflu, as 12 countries, some of them Asian recorded cases with mutation of the virus.
According to the World Health Organisation china and Singapore are among the 12 countries, however India is not. The other countries include Japan, US, Hong Kong, Denmark and Canada. Saudi Arabia is on high alert as airport officials are not allowing anyone even with a common cold to enter the country. India has begun exit screening of pilgrims traveling to Haj. Passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia and Mecca now require a health certificate which states that the pilgrim isn’t suffering from seasonal flu or has H1N1 symptom.
CEO of India’s Haj committee Mohammad Owais said, “A high-level expert committee has been formed to see whether all Indian pilgrims can be given a 42-day regimen of Tamilfu as a form of protection. The committee will see what the drug’s side effects will be if used for so long and whether it is a feasible proposition.”
Officials from the WHO have stated that the H1N1 virus is undergoing a change that is making it resistant to Tamiflu. Tha major concern of the WHO is that the H1Ni1 resistance to Tamiflu is more widespread than reported. Moreover, the vaccines that are being developed and manufactured by the thousands at the moment may all be ineffective since the virus has now changed.
ICMR director general Dr V M Katoch said”We have been constantly sequencing genes in H1N1 to mark any form of mutation. However, we have still not found a case of oseltamivir resistant H1N1 virus.”. He added, “Fear of resistance is why we are so careful about Tamilfu’s availability to the public and its use in management of H1N1 infected or suspected patients. Tamilfu is now only available in select hospitals so that we can keep a record of the treatment.”
Health – Two more swine flu deaths in Hyderab
Two more swine flu deaths in Hyderabad
Two women died of swine flu here Saturday taking the toll due to influenza A (H1N1) in Andhra Pradesh to four, officials said.
Rupa Devi, 38, who was admitted to government-run Chest Hospital a week ago, succumbed to the illness Saturday. The woman, a resident of Bholakpur area in the city, was brought to the hospital after she did not get any relief from fever at two hospitals.
Another woman, identified as Lakshmi Devi of Kadapa town, died at a private hospital, where she was admitted Aug 25.
This is the second time that two deaths were reported due to swine flu in a single day in the state.
Two men had died of the dreaded virus Tuesday, the first deaths due to swine flu in the state.
Health officials said 126 swine flu cases have been reported in the city. India’s first swine flu case was also reported here May 16.
Azad blames State CMs for H1N1 fatalities
New Delhi: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday blamed State Chief Ministers for their slow response to the H1N1 outbreak.
He said this after chairing the State Health Ministers” Conference, which was held to review the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM).
Azad said that very few State Chief Ministers had contacted him. He said, “I had to chase State Chief Ministers rather than them asking.”
Mechanism needed to monitor health standards
As the health authorities in Delhi confirmed two swine flu deaths, he said each state should have institutional mechanism to monitor health standards.
The Minister also deflected blame after criticism over the handling of the H1N1 outbreak.
A 35-year-old female patient died at the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on Wednesday night becoming the first victim of the virus in the national capital.
Thirty one year old Samrat Pandeya, a resident of Gurgaon, who was initially treated at various private hospitals and later brought to the RML Hospital, succumbed to the virus on Thursday morning.
Swine Flu H1N1 grips Indian cities
Swine flu is spreading to all corners of India. Starting from school-going Reeda Sheikh of Pune, half-a-dozen-people, including a four-year-old boy from Chennai and an Ayurvedic doctor from Pune, have succumbed to the disease. There are no effective vaccines to contain the swine flu. The government appears to be clueless on tackling the spread of the disease. People usually get swine influenza from infected pigs. The swine flu virus A (H1N1) spreads in the same way as seasonal influenza – through direct contact (within one metre of an infected person) or indirect contact (touching a contaminated surface). For A-to-Z of the Swine flu phenomenon, read on:
Hyderabad firm delivers anti-swine flu drug
The order, finalised urgently yesterday, was for the supply of one crore capsules, Hetero Drugs Director M Srinivasa Reddy told PTI here.
The remaining 10 lakh capsules will be delivered by Monday, he said.
The company keeps an inventory of two crore capsules — one crore in ready packs and another crore in the form of raw material, Reddy said.
Hetero Drugs will also supply four lakh bottles of Oseltamivir for paediatric use by the end of the month, he said.
The company can manufacture 10 crore capsules a month but can produce 10 crore more per month at its new plant in Visakhapatnam, he added.
Hetero Drugs has the licence from Swiss company Roche to manufacture and supply Oseltamivir in India and many other developing countries.
Swine flu kills more young, middle-aged people: study
Swine flu is killing more young people and those suffering from associated diseases like diabetes and chronic heart ailment, says a health ministry study released Tuesday as the toll in India rose to 101.
‘We have conducted a study and found that more than 50 percent of those affected by the virus were in the age group of 15-45 years,’ R.K. Srivastava, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, told reporters.
‘Deaths were also due to late reporting to identified health facilities and delay in initiation of Tamiflu,‘ he said.
The report, which was presented to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad during Monday’s stock-taking meeting of the ministry, studied the first 82 deaths that occurred till Aug 31.
Among the dead were 43 men and 39 women, including three pregnant women.
So far, the maximum number of deaths from swine flu is reported from Maharashtra where 55 people have died.
Srivastava said of the first 82 deaths, 61 were in urban areas and 19 in rural areas.
He said there were five deaths in the age group of 0-5 years and three from 6-15 age group. Thirteen victims were from the age group of 16 to 25 years, while 18 people died in the age group of 26-35 years.
Srivastava said 24 people died in the age group of 36-45, as compared to 18 deaths in the age group of 46-65. Only one person died in the above 65-year category.
‘Most of the people who died showed breathlessness, chest pain, drowsiness, fall in blood pressure, bluish discolouration of nails and sputum mixed with blood,’ he said.
Experts found that of the first 82 deaths, 36 people died of associated diseases.
While 17 people had diabetes, 11 were suffering from chronic heart ailments and eight from lung diseases. The rest had anaemia, neurological problems and blood disorders, he added.
‘We have carried out tests to find out whether the virus was mutating. But we have not found so,’ he added.
Most of the deaths, 18, occurred on the first day of hospitalisation and this was due to late reporting, added Srivastava.
The same number of deaths were reported on the second day of hospitalisation, while 17 people died after getting treatment for the third day.
On the fourth day, eight deaths were reported, while nine people died on the fourth day of hospitalisation, he added.
Nilgiri Oil, Remedies to prevent Swine Flu
Giloy, Giloy Herb, Nilgiri Oil, Remedies to prevent Swine Flu
Swine flu is spreading like wild fire in India.
Indian Yoga Guru and Herbal Specialist Swami Baba Ramdeo claims that Swine flu is caused by the lack of resistant power inside our bodies.
He has suggested some tips to save ourselves from the deadly swine flu so below is the list of remedies which claim to treat or prevent Swine flu.
Giloy / Giloy Herb
Take GILOY herb (AMTA) one foot long branch and seven leaf of TULSI and mix it and collect juice of this mixture in a vessel. Boil this juice and drink it. This herbal juice will increase our body resistant up to three times. By which we can “save” from H1N1 Flu.
Nilgiri oil
Use Nilgiri Oil drops on handkerchiefs and masks and inhale regularly as one of the preventive measures against swine flu.
10 home remedies to avoid swine flu
10 home remedies to avoid swine flu
Are the rising swine flu casualties giving you jitters? Not sure how you can avoid falling prey to the growing epidemic? First and foremost, there is absolutely no need to panic.
Watching television to keep tabs on the progress of H1N1, particularly in the badly affected areas like Pune, is all right. But don’t let the hysterical anchors get under your skin and start wearing a mask each time you step out of the house, unless you are visiting a very crowded area. Then too, the mask will protect you only for a specified period.
Without giving in to the swine flu panic and creating a stockpile of Tamiflu and N-95 masks at home and enriching pharma companies, there are a number of other measures you can take to ensure that the virus is not able to get you, irrespective of which part of the world you are in.
It is essential to remember that all kinds of viruses and bacteria can attack you when your immune system is weak, or they can weaken it easily. Hence, building your own defences would be a better, more practical, long-lasting and much more economical idea.
Here are some easy steps you can take to tackle a flu virus of any kind, including swine flu. It is not necessary to follow all the steps at once. You can pick and choose a combination of remedies that suit you best. However, if you are already suffering from flu, these measures can help only up to an extent. And, if you have been infected by H1N1, visiting a hospital and staying in solitary confinement is a must.
1. Have five duly washed leaves of Tulsi (known as Basil in English; medicinal name Ocimum sanctum) everyday in the morning. Tulsi has a large number of therapeutic properties. It keeps throat and lungs clear and helps in infections by way of strengthening your immunity.
2. Giloi (medicinal name Tinospora cordifolia) is a commonly available plant in many areas. Take a one-foot long branch of giloi, add five to six leaves of Tulsi and boil in water for 15-20 minutes or long enough to allow the water to extract its properties. Add black pepper and sendha (salt used during religious fasts), rock or black salt, or Misri (crystalised sugar like lumps to make it sweet) according to taste. Let it cool a bit and drink this kadha (concoction) while still warm. It will work wonders for your immunity. If giloi plant is not available, get processed giloi powder from Hamdard or others, and concoct a similar drink once a day.
3. A small piece of camphor (kapoor) approximately the size of a tablet should be taken once or twice a month. It can be swallowed with water by adults while children can take it along with mashed potatoes or banana because they will find it difficult to have it without any aides. Please remember camphor is not to be taken everyday, but only once each season, or once a month.
4. Those who can take garlic, must have two pods of raw garlic first thing in the morning. To be swallowed daily with lukewarm water. Garlic too strengthens immunity like the earlier measures mentioned.
5. Those not allergic to milk, must take a glass of hot or lukewarm milk every night with a small measure of haldi (turmeric).
6. Aloe vera (gwarpatha) too is a commonly available plant. Its thick and long, cactus-like leaves have an odourless gel. A teaspoon gel taken with water daily can work wonders for not only your skin and joint pains, but also boost immunity.
7. Take homeopathic medicines — Pyrogenium 200 and Inflenzium 200 in particular — five tablets three times a day, or two-three drops three times a day. While these are not specifically targeted at H1N1 either, these work well as preventive against common flu virus.
8. Do Pranayam daily (preferably under guidance if you are already not initiated into it) and go for morning jog/walk regularly to keep your throat and lungs in good condition and body in fine fettle. Even in small measures, it will work wonders for your body’s resistance against all such diseases which attack the nose, throat and lungs, besides keeping you fit.
9. Have citrus fruits, particularly Vitamin C rich Amla (Indian gooseberry) juice. Since fresh Amla is not yet available in the market (not for another three to four months), it is not a bad idea to buy packaged Amla juice which is commonly available nowadays.
10. Last but not the least, wash your hands frequently every day with soap and warm water for 15-20 seconds; especially before meals, or each time after touching a surface that you suspect could be contaminated with flu virus such as a door handle or a knob/handle, especially if you have returned from a public place or used public transport. Alcohol-based hand cleaners should be kept handy at all times and used until you can get soap and warm water.
Brazil records highest Swine Flu death toll in World at 577
New Delhi: Brazil recorded the highest number of Swine Flu casualties in the world at 577. While the mortality rate is still 0.29, which is much lower than the world mortality rate of 0.9 per cent, the increasing death toll in the South American nation, remains a cause for panic and concern. India, which reported Swine Flu cases lately, now has the highest mortality rate in the world at 2.3 per cent.
While Brazil tops the death toll with 577 casualties, the United States is not far behind with 522 deaths. Argentina has reported 430 Swine Flu deaths so far. Mexico, the origin of Swine Flu or A H1N1 virus, has accounted for 179 deaths. The Swine Flu death toll in India has touched 102.
In India, Pune has accounted for the highest 31 Swine Flu deaths. At least 3,987 people in India have tested positive for the deadly A H1N1 virus. In total, 1,799 deaths and 182,000 laboratory confirmed cases have been reported across the world.
H1N1 deaths in India more than twice world rate
The latest report from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention mentions that the fatality rate in the UK stands at 0.32 per cent. The UK has 12,470 confirmed hospitalised cases and 40 deaths. However, the case fatality rate — the number of deaths in proportion to the number of confirmed cases — remains in the same range as for seasonal flu, 0.1-0.35 per cent.
In the US, the number of hospitalised cases stands at 6,506 and the number of deaths (as on August 6) is 436, pegging the fatality rate at 0.67 per cent. The African region (which includes 16 countries) with 1,469 laboratory confirmed cases and three deaths has a fatality rate of 0.20 per cent. The East Mediterranean region has 2,532 confirmed cases and eight casualties. The fatality rate stands at 0.31 per cent. With 104 deaths and 13,169 confirmed cases, South East Asia has a 0.78 per cent fatality rate.
Experts believe that the number of fatalities will decline in the coming year. “H1N1 is a relatively new virus. The population will slowly develop immunity to it,” said Abhijit Das, Clinical Assistant Professor at Washington University. The virus gained ground in Mexico before spreading to other parts of the world. The US and the UK have witnessed swine flu deaths much before the virus started its death run in India. The country witnessed human-to-human transmission recently and suffered its first fatality in the beginning of August.
The Health Ministry’s decision to stop swine flu testing on every individual who
reports flu-like symptoms implies that the confirmed positive cases will now fall in the category of probable cases. “Hence, there will be an increase in the number of suspected H1N1 cases but as the population develops immunity to the virus, the death toll will decline,” said Rajib Dasgupta of the Centre for Social Medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
As in other countries, the fatality rate in India will witness a decline in the months to come. “Global experience shows that just as the number of deaths were very rapid in other countries in the beginning and then slowly declined, in India too there will be a decline in the fatality rate in the next four months,” he added.
Meanwhile, India on Friday reported its 24th casualty due to the deadly H1N1 virus. Besides the 15 fatalities in Pune, two persons died in Mumbai and one each in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nashik, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Bangalore and Raipur.
As many as 117 swine flu cases were reported from across the country, taking the total number of those afflicted by the virus to 1,390. Of the new cases, Mumbai reported the highest (29 cases), followed by Delhi and Hyderabad (13 each), Gujarat (10), Bangalore (9) and Kolkata (6).
Pune, which has been the worst affected, reported only four positive cases. All these cases are indigenous, with no foreign travel history. Of the 29 cases reported in Mumbai, 28 are indigenous while the remaining case was of a seven-year-old boy who travelled to the UK.
Thirteen cases have been reported from Delhi, of which 11 are indigenous. The two remaining cases are those of a 14-year-old boy with a travel history to Dubai and a 19-year-old who came from Israel. On the outskirts of the national Capital, Gurgaon reported five indigenous cases. Of the 13 cases from Hyderabad, two had travelled from Singapore, while all the 10 cases reported from Gujarat have no foreign travel history.
All the nine cases in Bangalore and six in Kolkata are indigenous. Two cases each were reported from Goa and Srinagar, while another is from Panchkula in Haryana. The virus has spared Assam so far. Of the 11 suspected cases, seven have tested negative. The results of the remaining four cases are awaited.
The fight to fool the flu
It is not a nice way to die. As the virus spreads through your lungs, your immune system goes into overdrive. Your lungs become leaky and fill with fluid. Your lips and nails, then your skin, turn blue as you struggle to get enough oxygen. Basically, you drown.
Of course, most flu strains, including (so far) the 2009 pandemic virus, cause only mild symptoms in the vast majority of people. But with 10 to 20 per cent of people worldwide contracting the flu every year, that still adds up to a huge burden of illness – and even in a good year some half a million die.
What if it need not be this way? If only we could develop a vaccine that was effective against all strains of flu, we might prevent both annual epidemics and occasional pandemics like the one now under way.
Recent work suggests it is possible to create just such a vaccine. In fact, the effectiveness of one potential universal vaccine will be tested in people for the first time in September. Could we be on the brink of beating flu?
The reason flu keeps infecting us again and again is that the virus is constantly changing. The first time you get infected, your immune system has to rely initially on innate, non-specific defences. But it also evolves specific defences, learning to make antibodies and immune cells that recognise that particular virus and destroy both it and any cells it has infected. This process can take a week or more, but once we have defences against a virus, we can respond to it quickly next time. This is why many viruses, such as measles, make us ill only once
Flu viruses, however, evolve so fast that this “immune memory” provides only partial protection. Most of the antibodies we produce bind to the globular heads of a surface protein on the virus called haemagglutinin. The next big target is another surface protein, called neuraminidase.
By staying one step ahead of our immune systems, the flu virus can infect large numbers of people year after year. What’s more, every few decades a flu strain acquires a new haemagglutinin – by swapping genes with a pig or bird flu strain, say – that is very different from those most people have immunity to, so we have very little protection. This is when flu goes pandemic.
Existing flu vaccines all work by mimicking natural infections. Based on monitoring of flu strains, virologists try to predict which haemagglutinin and neuraminidase will dominate during the next flu season. The annual vaccines contain inactivated flu viruses bearing these specific proteins. If the virologists guess right, the vaccine will protect you until the virus changes enough again.
There is, however, a flaw in the whole idea. “Haemagglutinin’s a decoy,” says Wayne Marasco, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Like a bullfighter’s cape, in other words, the heads of haemagglutinin deflect the immune attack away from more vulnerable parts of the virus.
To refocus the immune attack, the idea is to create vaccines containing only the conserved proteins, rather than whole viruses. Most attention has focused on the M2 protein that protrudes from the virus’s surface and tells it when it is inside a cell. At least 10 companies have been looking into vaccines that provoke a reaction to the protruding part of M2, a piece called M2e. Pure M2e does not elicit strong immune reactions when injected as a vaccine, so all groups have attached M2e to molecules that do provoke a strong response.
Three companies have got as far as human trials. Merck bound M2e to a bacterial protein, but people injected with this hybrid made antibodies only when the vaccine also contained an extra immune stimulator, or adjuvant, in quantities that caused pain on injection. Merck abandoned the project in 2007.
Acambis of Cambridge, UK, has coupled M2e molecules to a fragment of hepatitis virus to get the immune system’s attention. In 2008, it reported that when mixed with two adjuvants, 90 per cent of people made antibodies and had no severe side effects. It also protected 70 per cent of ferrets, the best test animal for flu, from H5N1 bird flu. However, work has slowed as Acambis is absorbed by a new owner, the French vaccine giant Sanofi-Pasteur.
VaxInnate, a small biotech firm in Cranbury, New Jersey, has engineered a hybrid protein containing four copies of M2e bound to flagellin, a building block of bacteria. “We got the same antibody reaction as the others, without the adjuvant,” says the head of the company, Alan Shaw, former head of public health at Merck.
There is, however, a big difference between showing that a vaccine is safe and stimulates antibody production, and showing it protects people from flu. VaxInnate is planning further trials, but these are on hold as health authorities deal with swine flu.
Sarah Gilbert at the University of Oxford and colleagues have taken a different approach. They have modified a virus called MVA, a variety of the virus used for decades as a smallpox vaccine, to produce the entire M2 protein. Dr Gilbert’s aim with this live vaccine is to stimulate white blood cells called T-cells to get so-called cell-mediated immunity, not so much to induce antibodies.
Work to be published soon, by John Oxford of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, shows that infected volunteers with high cell-mediated immunity get few or no flu symptoms.
“T-cells certainly limit the severity of disease,” he says. “But I’d love to test a vaccine that induces antibodies to M2e too.”
Dr Oxford is a director of RetroScreen Virology, a company with the only facility in the world where people can be experimentally exposed to flu. RetroScreen will be testing Dr Gilbert’s vaccine this September – the first-ever trials designed to see if a potential universal flu vaccine can prevent infection or reduce disease severity. If tests are successful, the vaccine might be approved within three years.
An effective universal vaccine that is cheap enough to be widely used could even eliminate annual flu epidemics and the occasional pandemics. That is a huge prize, one you might think that countries and researchers around the world would be working together to achieve.
Argentina swine flu toll rises to 465
Buenos Aires, Aug 30 (EFE) The number of people to die of swine flu in Argentina has risen to 465, the health ministry said in a report.
Till date, 8,240 people have been infected with the influenza A (H1N1) virus, also called swine flu, in the country, the report said Friday.
Earlier in July, the health authorities had put restrictions on business and public activities in the country due to the swine flu outbreak.
The fatalities from the disease have decreased since June 26 and the most recent death was reported Aug 20, the report said.
According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, there were more than 209,000 confirmed cases of swine flu worldwide and 2,185 people have died.
South America continues to account for the vast majority of confirmed swine flu cases (110,000) and deaths (1,876). Brazil leads the world in swine flu deaths with 577, followed by the US and Argentina.
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