Pregnant women, health care workers, and children are first in line. ATLANTA (AP) – Pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older should be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, a government panel recommended Wednesday. The panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions; and young adults ages 19 to 24. Read More…

Public health officials have an enormous task ahead, preparing for the 2009-10 flu season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predict that the swine flu, which was first identified last April, could strike with a vengeance in the 2009-10 flu season. As much as 40 percent of the United States population could get swine flu this year, according to CDC estimates released in late July. Without an aggressive and thorough vaccine campaign, anywhere from 90,000 to several hundred thousand Americans could die. In a typical flu season, about 36,000 people in the United States die from the flu...

Health campaigns to target pregnant women By Dahleen Glanton | Tribune reporter With pregnant women facing a high risk of death from swine flu, health officials in Illinois are planning an aggressive campaign to educate doctors and encourage expectant mothers to get vaccinated against the virus, which threatens to spread rapidly this fall. “In general, when people are pregnant, they are reluctant to take medication they fear might cause harm to the child,” said Dr. Julie Morita, medical director for the immunization program at the Chicago Department of Public Health. “But if...

Associated Press SACRAMENTO — Health officials say a Sacramento-area cancer nurse’s death is the first among California health care workers related to swine flu. Mercy San Juan Medical Center spokesman Bryan Gardner said officials at the Carmichael hospital do not know if 51-year-old Karen Ann Hays contracted the virus on the job. Family members described her as fit and athletic. She died July 17. In the San Francisco Bay area, two new mothers died from the virus, also known as H1N1, shortly after giving birth. A 33-year-old Marin County woman was hospitalized with flu symptoms and gave...

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Health officials say their count of U.S. swine flu deaths has risen to 353 and swine-flu associated hospitalizations have grown to more than 5,500. The cumulative number of deaths rose from the 302 reported last Friday. Last week, health officials said there have been about 44,000 lab-confirmed illnesses but the government would stop providing such counts. Officials believe more than 1 million Americans have had the infection, but many cases go unreported. Swine flu has continued to spread, but the number of states with widespread activity has been dropping. Now there are...

New cases of swine flu may be plateauing with an estimated 110,000 people diagnosed with the disease last week. By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Up until now cases have been doubling weekly, but there was just a 10 per cent rise in the estimated new swine flu diagnoses in the seven days until July 26th. An estimated one in every 158 people in England are thought to have had swine flu since the outbreak began in England at the end of April.Children under the age of one are ten times more likely to have contracted the virus than people over the age of 75, underlining that younger people are at...

Pregnant women should be receiving the antiviral drug Tamiflu at the first sign of symptoms of influenza, but many physicians are delaying treatment because of long-held prejudices about using any drugs during pregnancy, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week in the medical journal Lancet. Experts fear the same reluctance when the vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus becomes available this fall. Historically, fewer than 15% of pregnant women are vaccinated for seasonal flu, despite the high risk of complications associated with infection. Read...

The Government has compiled its advice on what to do about swine flu on the Department of Health website. By Jon Swaine What is the Government advising? While it has not released any new advice, the Department of Health has compiled its existing advice in one place on its website in an attempt to prevent confusion. It can be viewed at LINK. Are pregnant women at higher risk? The Government says that while most pregnant women with swine flu will only have mild symptoms, they have a higher risk of developing complications. Should pregnant women take extra precautions? The NHS and the Royal...

A 15-year-old girl with swine flu has died in a Glasgow hospital, the Scottish Government has said. The girl, who had underlying medical conditions, is the fourth person with swine flu to have died in Scotland and the 30th in the UK. News came after Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said school closures in the autumn to curb the number of swine flu infections were unlikely. Sir Liam said the possibility of school closures would be kept under review but in past experience – such as in the West Midlands – this had not been effective at controlling the virus. Read More…