Nature – Avian H5N1 influenza viruses in the wild may be one small step away from spreading effectively between mammals. That is the sobering message from a controversial study by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, published online by Nature1 after months of debate about how to release the findings publicly. “After wanting to read it for so long, it was like eating again after fasting,” says Vincent Racaniello, a virologist at Columbia University in New York. “And it does not disappoint.” Read article
Editorial Comment: If you want to see a simple explanation of the reasons that the flus are classified with H and N with various numbers; click here. It makes the article easy to understand.
Related article: Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses. It mainly affects the nose, throat, bronchi and, occasionally, lungs. See our news archive of 447 articles for a commentary and archival information about influenza from around the world. CLICK HERE
Two years ago in a massive public health push, the Australian government decided that the flu season needed to be aggressively managed by ‘encouraging’ people to take up the flu vaccine. Two years later with a litany of child fatalities and adverse reaction, and the same vaccine, Fluvax, is still being spruiked by Australia’s doctors. Our reporter, Marla Singer, investigates. CLICK HERE TO READ
The Australian Doctor – The influenza vaccine at the centre of the recent febrile convulsion scare in children has now been linked to an increased risk of adverse events among adolescents and adults. In a safety review of seasonal flu vaccines, a Federal Government working group found the risk of adverse events following Fluvax was “modestly higher” than that of rival brands Vaxigrip and Influvac. Read article
ABC – The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says there is no excuse for GPs administering banned vaccines amid data showing children were given the controversial flu shot, Fluvax. The Federal Health Department has confirmed the CSL product was given to a handful of children under the age of five, causing one confirmed adverse reaction, with two other suspected cases. Read article
Editorial Note: The “adverse reaction” mentioned above was reported by The Australian (newspaper) to have put the child in Intesive Care Unit.
AP – The Obama administration is ordering a government-wide review of scientific research that could raise biosecurity concerns in the wake of fierce controversy over some man-made strains of the deadly bird flu. The policy released Thursday tightens oversight of high-stakes research involving dangerous germs, work that could bring a big payoff but which also could cause harm if the research ever is misused. Read article
Daily Mail – A genetic discovery could help explain why flu makes some people seriously ill or kills them, while others seem able to bat it away with little more than a few aches, coughs and sneezes. British and American researchers said they had found for the first time a human gene that influences how people respond to flu infections, making some people more susceptible than others. Read article
AP – Federal health officials have approved the first vaccine that protects against four strains of the common flu, offering one additional layer of protection against the influenza virus that affects millions each year. The FluMist Quadrivalent vaccine from AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit protects against two strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B. The Food and Drug Administration approved the spray-based vaccine for people ages 2 to 49. Read article
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses. It mainly affects the nose, throat, bronchi and, occasionally, lungs. See our news archive of 441 articles for a commentary and archival information about influenza from around the world. CLICK HERE
Reuters – Bird flu may be far less lethal to people than the World Health Organization’s assessment of a death rate topping 50 percent, scientists said on Thursday in a finding that adds fuel to the heated controversy over publication of bird flu research. Scientists led by virologist Peter Palese of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York argue in an analysis published in the online edition of the journal Science that the WHO, a U.N. agency, is calculating the death rate using an estimate of human bird flu cases that is simply too low. Read article
NY Times – The full details of recent experiments that made a deadly flu virus more contagious will be published, probably within a few months, despite recommendations by the United States that some information be kept secret for fear that terrorists could use it to start epidemics. The announcement, made on Friday by the World Health Organization, follows two months of heated debate about the flu research. The recommendation to publish the work in full came from a meeting of 22 experts in flu and public health from various countries who met on Thursday and Friday in Geneva at the organization’s headquarters to discuss “urgent issues” raised by the research. Read article
WSJ – Pediatricians fed up with parents who refuse to vaccinate their children out of concern it can cause autism or other problems increasingly are “firing” such families from their practices, raising questions about a doctor’s responsibility to these patients. Medical associations don’t recommend such patient bans, but the practice appears to be growing, according to vaccine researchers. Read article
The Australian – THE Health Department used immunisation experts with links to the nation’s biggest drug company to review the safety of Australia’s flu vaccines. Two of the 12 members of the panel of experts and health officials that last week cleared the safety of Fluvax, manufactured by CSL, have also supervised clinical trials of CSL’s flu vaccines. Terry Nolan and Peter Richmond are the chairman and deputy chairman of the federal government’s Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. The pair have previously stated they did not receive any personal funding from the CSL, which paid for the clinical trials through their research institutions. They were selected for the 12-member panel of ATAGI and Health Department officials who reviewed the safety of flu vaccines in adults. The panel found the risk of side-effects from Fluvax was “likely to be modestly higher” than from rival brands Vaxigrip or Influvac. But it concluded that “Fluvax remains suitable for use” in the national immunisation program. Read Article
Ninemsn – The benefits of the nation’s new flu vaccine will far outweigh the risk of side-effects, Australia’s peak medical body says. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) on Thursday welcomed the federal government’s decision to award pharmaceutical giant CSL a $117 million contract to supply seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines until 2016. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) late last year approved the use of CSL’s Fluvax in people over the age of 10. Read article
Nature – The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) today outlines, for the first time, the rationale behind its request for two H5N1 influenza papers to be published in a redacted form. As well as publishing the full statement, Nature also releases a related Q&A with the acting chair of the NSABB. Read article
Reuters – A scientist researching a potentially highly lethal airborne version of the H5N1 bird flu virus said on Wednesday he must be allowed to pursue his studies if deadly pandemics are to be prevented. Despite declaring last week a 60-day moratorium on the studies to allay security fears, Yoshihiro Kawaoka argued in a commentary in the journal Nature it was urgent and vital that his work continue. Read article
NY Times – The scientists who altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have agreed to suspend their research for 60 days to give other international experts time to discuss the work and determine how it can proceed without putting the world at risk of a potentially catastrophic pandemic. Suspensions of biomedical research are almost unheard of; the only other one in the United States was a moratorium from 1974 to 1976 on some types of recombinant DNA research, because of safety concerns. Read article
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses. It mainly affects the nose, throat, bronchi and, occasionally, lungs. See our news archive of 430 articles for a commentary and archival information about influenza from around the world. CLICK HERE
AAPS – In letters to Colorado public health officials, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) opposes a rule requiring workers in health care facilities to have an annual influenza vaccination or lose their jobs. Workers who had a rare religious or medical exemption would be required to wear a mask in patient care areas from November through March. The mask requirement “seems to be nothing more than a punitive retaliation against those who decline the vaccine” and should be dropped, the AAPS letter states, as both immunized and nonimmunized individuals can transmit influenza or other illnesses. Read article
Daily Mail – The parents of a schoolboy who was struck down with narcolepsy after receiving a flu vaccine, said the Government should have carried out more tests before issuing the drug. Josh Hadfield, 6, lost muscle control and started sleeping for up to 19 hours every day just three weeks after getting the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix. He would fall asleep up to every five minutes – even when he was walking, eating and swimming – and suffer sudden bouts of cataplexy (loss of muscle tone) when he laughed. Read article
Related articles: Finland vows care for narcolepsy kids who had swine flu shot;Did swine flu vaccine give boy’s sleeping sickness that causes him to lose control of his body?
For other articles on narcolepsy; please put narcolepsy into the OYEN search engine, as there are too many to put here.
New Scientist – Flu season is due any day in Europe and North America, but it may not spring from east Asia as many thought. Researchers may need to monitor flu evolution over more of the planet to match vaccines to next winter’s flu. In 2008 the first global genetic analysis of flu viruses found that flu’s annual rampage through the northern, then southern hemisphere’s winter is seeded from China and its neighbours. The virus strains’ family trees suggested that flu always circulates locally in east Asia before emerging from this crucible for its global excursions. New work suggests the situation is not so simple. Read article
Daily Mail – A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation. The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time. The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out. Read article
The Australian – DRUG giant CSL has changed its prescribing information for next year’s flu vaccine to warn doctors that two toddlers had to be hospitalised during clinical trials supervised by the federal government’s key immunisation adviser. The Therapeutic Goods Administration yesterday revealed that it had known of the side effects for six years, yet only now had it notified doctors “to provide a complete picture of the vaccine safety”. Read article
Daily Mail – A flu vaccine has been recalled from thousands of surgeries and pharmacies across Europe amid fears it is making people ill. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a warning over Preflucel, a popular influenza vaccine. Around 300,000 doses of the drug are to be immediately withdrawn following fears from health bosses that the most recent batch, issued last month, is causing side-effects. Read article
Daily Mail – A flu vaccine has been recalled from thousands of surgeries and pharmacies across Europe amid fears it is making people ill. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a warning over Preflucel, a popular influenza vaccine. Read article
