Flu kills 27 in Britain

A patient is given a H1N1 swine flu vaccination at the University College London hospital, on October 21, 2009.


Flu has killed 27 people in Britain since the influenza season began in October and transmission of the virus is picking up across the European Union, health officials said on Thursday.

Latest data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) showed that 24 people died with the H1N1 flu strain that spread around the world as a pandemic in 2009, and three with from a strain known as flu type B. Eighteen of those who died were adults and nine were children.

“The level of flu activity we are currently seeing is at levels often seen during the winter flu seasons, but due to the fact that H1N1 is one of the predominant strains circulating at the moment, we are seeing more severe illness in people under the age of 65 than we would normally expect,” said John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA.

WHO chief says H1N1 flu pandemic is over

The H1N1 pandemic is over and the global outbreak turned out to be much less severe than was feared just over a year ago, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan once again rebutted criticism that the United Nations agency had hyped the first pandemic in more than 40 years, whose mildness left some Western governments holding huge stockpiles of unused vaccines.

The Hong Kong public health expert said the world had been lucky the H1N1 virus had not mutated into a more deadly form and that a safe vaccine developed in record time remained effective against it.

“We are now moving into the post-pandemic period. The new H1N1 virus has largely run its course,” Chan (picture) said.

It's official, the swine flu 'pandemic' is over (shame it cost us £1billion and scared thousands witless)

The swine flu pandemic, which has cost the nation more than £1billion, was declared over yesterday.

With the number of new cases plummeting, health chiefs announced the 24-hour flu helpline will close down next Thursday.

Critics said the seven-month outbreak had been mishandled by ministers and health officials, who had made a flawed assessment of the threat.

Swine flu has killed 411 Britons, with 124 more still in hospital - yet the 5,000 cases a week are far below the average for seasonal flu.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson had warned the pandemic might claim 65,000 lives and Health Secretary Andy Burnham said 100,000 could be struck down with the disease every day.

Total cases stand at 800,000 so far. Around the world, an estimated 14,000 deaths have been reported - a fraction of the number dying each year from ordinary flu.

The Government is thought to have ordered tens of millions of doses of vaccine.

So far only 4.25million have been administered to priority groups in England.
Sir Liam is still urging the vulnerable to have the jabs.

He insists the vast cost of tackling the pandemic has been justified, from the £1billion cost of vaccines and antivirals to the £10.4million spent on publicity.

The National Pandemic Flu Service, which cost a further £13.5million to run, allowed patients to bypass their GP and collect antiviral drugs after a telephone assessment.
Launched in July last year and employing 1,500 call centre staff, it led to 1.1million courses of antivirals being administered to patients - many of whom never had swine flu, according to research.

Anyone suspecting they have swine flu can still get antiviral drugs from their GP, while those in at-risk groups, including children under five, can receive a vaccination.

Sir Liam said: 'When the virus returns I would very much like to see young children already protected.

'From now on, most deaths from the pandemic flu virus should be regarded as potentially preventable.'

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: 'Our priority remains to vaccinate those most at risk from swine flu, as people are still in hospital from the virus.

'This is the first time we have had a vaccine to protect people while a pandemic virus has been circulating, so it has undoubtedly helped us save lives.'

However, the bumper revenues being reported by vaccine manufacturers - £4billion in windfall profits is predicted - have led to claims that the World Health Organisation fell under the influence of the industry when it declared a pandemic last June.

Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: 'The Government's reaction to swine flu has proved to be excessive and poorly managed.

'It beggars belief that they could have signed so many massive contracts with such a flawed assessment of the threat.'

But John Oxford, professor of virology at Bart's and The London Hospital, defended the flu strategy.

'Swine flu is behaving in a classic Darwinian fashion - the survival of the fittest - and has already displaced 98 per cent of the other flu viruses,' he said.

'My worry is that when it gets into the elderly next year, we could see many more deaths.

'We should be proud that Britain responded in a way that prevented many more cases and deaths.'












Over at last: The National Pandemic Flu Service will be stood down

Drug firms 'drove swine flu pandemic warning to recoup £billions spent on research'

Pandemic status: Students quarantined in China chat with a health worker in Beijing

Drug companies manipulated the World Health Organisation into downgrading its definition of a pandemic so they could cash in on a swine flu outbreak, it is claimed.

An inquiry heard yesterday that the WHO allegedly softened its criteria for declaring a H1N1 flu pandemic last spring - just weeks before announcing there was a worldwide outbreak.

Critics said the decision was driven by pharmaceutical companies desperate to recoup the billions of pounds they had invested in researching and developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares in 2006 and 2007.
As a result, millions of people have been vaccinated against a mild illness, and money that could have been used to prevent and treat major killers such as heart disease has been squandered.

The claims, which emerged during the first of several Council of Europe hearings into the handling of the swine flu pandemic, were strongly rejected by the WHO.
Following the organisation's declaration of a pandemic, the Department of Health warned of 65,000 deaths, set up a special advice line and website, and suspended normal rules so anti-flu drugs could be given without prescription.

But with just 250 or so deaths in Britain and 14,000 worldwide, the WHO is being asked to account for its actions.

The Government is now trying to off-load millions of jabs it ordered at the height of the scare. Sources say it is even considering giving some doses away for free.

Wolfgang Wodarg, former head of health at the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based 'senate'

responsible for the European Court of Human Rights, said vaccine contracts were put in place in 2007, when it was feared the more lethal bird flu virus would mutate into human form.

Drug companies, which spent up to £2.5billion developing a vaccine, then pushed their interests within the WHO, leading to the definition of a pandemic being softened and an outbreak declared.

He told the hearing: 'It was stated in panic- stricken terms that this was a flu that could threaten humanity and a great number of humans could fall ill.

'This is why billions of dollars of medications were bought.

Dr Wodarg, an expert on the spread of disease, said that the change in definition made it possible for a worldwide pandemic to be declared and for the pharmaceutical companies to cash in.

Also giving evidence, Professor Ulrich Keil, a WHO adviser on heart disease, said the decision had led to a 'gigantic misallocation' of health budgets.

'We know the great killers are hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, high body mass index, physical inactivity and low fruit and vegetable intake,' he said.

'In spite of all these facts, governments instead wasted huge amounts of money by investing in pandemic scenarios whose evidence base is weak.'

But Dr Kieji Fukuda, the WHO's top flu expert, rejected the allegations. 'We do not wait until (these global virus outbreaks) have developed and we see that lots of people are dying,' he said.

'What we try to do is take preventive actions. Our purpose is to try to provide guidance, to reduce harm.'

Miraculous recovery of teenager who grew back her face after suffering 'one-in-a-million' allergic reaction to paracetamol

All smiles: Miss Uhlin has grown back her face, from which she had lost most of the surface

New face: Eva Uhlin suffered a bizarre one-in-a-million allergic reaction to household paracetamol that left her unrecognisable

A teenager has grown back her entire face after being struck down by a rare skin disease.

Eva Uhlin, 19, suffered a bizarre one-in-a-million allergic reaction to household paracetamol that left her unrecognisable.

The potentially fatal condition - Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis - gripped her entire body, causing her skin to burn up and scab over before falling off.The illness left the Swede, who currently works as a waitress, lying in a hospital bed for weeks as it ran its devastating course.

Forty per cent of people who contract the disease do not survive.

Now, more than four years later, Miss Uhlin is finally comfortable revealing her face to the world for the first time after completely growing back all her skin.

Her nightmare began as a 15-year-old in September 2005 when she suddenly fell ill while holidaying in her home country.

She was diagnosed with a fever and told to take a couple of paracetamol tablets to relieve her symptoms.

But the combination of her virus and the drug created a reaction nobody could have predicted, triggering a disease that has taken Miss Uhlin years to fully recover from.

She woke up the next day to find blisters covering her face and spreading over the rest of her body.

The teenager was rushed to the University Hospital of Linkoping on September 12, where she was admitted to the burns unit.

Doctors immediately gave her morphine and applied soothing ointment to her face and chest.

But her skin began to fall off on a doctor's fingertips as he examined her eyes.

Over the next few years she lost most of the surface of her face. Parts of her chest, arms, back and stomach also fell away and she even lost her eyelashes, fingernails, toenails and some of her hair.

Miss Uhlin said: 'It felt like something was crawling around under my skin, I was in total shock - it was like something out of a horror film.

'I couldn't believe what was happening, I had taken paracetamol many times before and doctors still aren't sure why I had this extreme reaction to it on that occasion.

'It was terrifying, because at the time they didn't know what was wrong with me or what would happen to me.

'When I looked in the mirror for the first time after it happened I didn't recognise myself.

'I've always been a positive person, and I didn't let myself think about the chance that my skin would never be normal again.

'I thought to myself - this is what has happened and now I have to deal with this.

'As well as the pain, the affect that the reaction had on my confidence for that time was pretty terrible. I was so ashamed of the way I looked, I hated anybody to see me.'

Fifteen doctors examined Miss Uhlin in her first 48 hours in hospital.

At one point during her month-long stay her mouth and lips were so badly damaged they grew together. The resulting pain meant she was unable to sleep for most of the time.

Miss Uhlin was discharged in October 2005 but had to return to hospital for regular check-ups on her skin and eyes for months.

Today, she still takes eye drops twice a day and has skin remains sensitive to bright sunlight.

Professor Folke Sjvberg, who treated Miss Uhlin, said he was pleased she had made such a good recovery.

He said: 'The condition is very uncommon and it strikes only one in a million people.

'When it is really bad it manifests itself in the way it had done with Eva. At its worst it covers all the skin on the body and can scab over the eyes and mouth.

'In very basic layman's terms the skin reacts against itself because of the allergic reaction - it is very much like a burn injury, although it does tend to heal much better.

'It was caused by the combination of a paracetamol and a viral infection Eva was suffering from at the time.

'It is treated like a burn with pain relief and fluid replacement, you just have to try and make the skin function properly again.

'With this condition you have to just let it run its course because there is no way to stop it.'

The skin disease can kill and 40 per cent of sufferers do not survive the condition, due to the fact it leaves patients vulnerable to other dangerous infections.

It is also known as Lyell's syndrome and is characterised by the detachment of the top layer of skin from the lower layers all over the body.

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World Disease Pandemic - Influence A ( H1N1 ) Flu

Influence A virus subtype H1N1 is known as A(H1N1) . It is a subtype of influenzavirus A.

Most common in influenza or flu in human.

Some are endemic in Human (occur in human) , less virulent H1nN1 occurs in swine and bird.

Less virulent cause influenze like illness like seasonal flu.

In March, April and May 2009, thousands of laboratory-confirmed infections and a number of deaths were caused by an outbreak of new influence virus subtye called A(H1N1)

Previous deadly and dangerous outbreak include :-

Spanish Flu
1918 outbreak which kill about 50-100 millions of human worldwide. Cause by a subtype of H1N1 influence virus. It unusually severe and part of an avian influenze that mutated and migrate into human.

It cause a cytokinase storm , which basically cause the overstimulate immune system to secrete cytokinase into the lung tissues . This cause the lung to be flooded with fluid and destruction of lung tissues.

It cause difficulty in breathing to human and death.

Russian Flu.
The more recent Russian flu was a 1977–1978 flu .Less dangerous and only infect younger people below 23 years old. Properly because it hit in 1945 era , hence causing the adult have immunity to it. In 1978-79 , it is included influenza vaccine.

2009 Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak

Consist of a mongrel of mixture of 4 types of subtype of influenze flu viruses.North American Mexican influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe.Mixture of human,avian ,swine influence.


W.H.O in April 2009 called this new strain as Influence A(H1N1) virus.

Symptoms of Infection.

The symptoms of this new H1N1 flu virus in people are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this new H1N1 virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting. The high risk groups for novel H1N1 flu are not known at this time but it’s possible that they may be the same as for seasonal influenza. People at higher risk of serious complications from seasonal flu include people age 65 years and older, children younger than 5 years old, pregnant women, people of any age with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease), and people who are immunosuppressed (e.g., taking immunosuppressive medications, infected with HIV).


How to Prevent in Infection to self

The four key things to do that will help in preventing you from getting the H1N1 Flu or Swine Flu:

1. Wash Your Hands
2. Cover Your Cough
3. Don't Touch Your Face
4. Stay Away from People Who are Sick

CDC Recommendation
CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine influenza viruses.

* Oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu ®) is approved to both treat and prevent influenza A and B virus infection in people one year of age and older.
* Zanamivir (brand name Relenza ®) is approved to treat influenza A and B virus infection in people 7 years and older and to prevent influenza A and B virus infection in people 5 years and older.

Recommendations for using antiviral drugs for treatment or prevention of swine influenza will change as we learn more about this new virus.

Check with your physician to find out if you would need to take one of these medications to prevent or treat Swine Flu.