Yes, it appears to be true; a 13 year old cat in Iowa tested positive for H1N1. This is most bizarre as it is fairly uncommon that flu viruses cross between different species and now H1N1 has been found in pigs, turkeys, a ferret and a cat. Occasionally flu viruses have crossed between birds and humans, or pigs and humans, but this is an unusually high number of various species for the virus to infect. So what does it mean? No one knows for sure but here are some probable theories: something sets the H1N1 virus apart from other influenza viruses we've studied, more animals have been tested since this is a full scale pandemic, there have been more opportunities for pets to become infected since this is a full scale pandemic.
Until more information is available vets are recommending that pets are treated the same way humans are regarding precautions to prevent the flu. This means isolating your pet from sick family members, covering your mouth when you cough, washing your hands and all the rest. And, take your pet to the vet if they appear sick. Basically, take care of yourself and your pets.
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The National Institutes of Health have come out with yet another new study refuting the danger of the mercury based preservative thimerosol in vaccinations. Currently thimerosol is only being used in the multi-dose bottles of the H1N1 vaccines but fear of a connection between autism and mercury based injections have prevented plenty of parents from having their children immunized. Another study recently released shows that fear of vaccine side effects may end up making the H1N1 pandemic worse.
The study on thimerosol was conducted at Hospital Durand in Buenos Aires since thimerosol was largely removed from vaccines in the United States in 2001 and involved 72 newborn babies. The babies mercury levels were tested before and after vaccination and results showed that thimerosol was no longer present in the blood within ten days or less of vaccination.
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President Obama has declared a state of emergency due to several hospitals across the U.S. loaded over capacity with patients infected with H1N1 USA Today reported yesterday. The hospitals cited in the article are in Baltimore, Denver, Seattle, San Diego and Duluth. Meanwhile, as I reported yesterday, vaccine remains in short supply with some individuals waiting hours to get their shot if they're lucky enough to get one at all.
Even at facilities who have the rooms to accommodate H1N1 patients staffing has been a problem due to health professionals who are sick with the flu themselves or are home taking care of sick family members. Many hospitals are already chronically understaffed due to the nationwide nursing shortage. One John Hopkins hospital reported that on October 11, 2009 they were receiving on average 20 patients per hour. No one knows if this trend will continue throughout the season or let up. The CDC has stated that they expect more vaccine to be available in the weeks to come.
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A fellow About.com guide, Shawn Watson, writes today, "I waited for 5 hrs today [to get the swine flu vaccine] with my two children, and we were there first thing in the morning! I must say, this is the first time I have been disappointed in our health care system. We had four R.N.'s vaccinating for H1N1 and seasonal flu, in a town of 15,000. People in the major city that I live near had a 6+ hour wait time, with only 4 clinics to service over one million people." Shawn is from Canada but I must say that I don't feel the situation in the United States is much better.
First of all, as a journalist who has been covering the pandemic for quite some time now I'm pretty disappointed. Many health officials have spent the last few months trying to identify the "high risk population", those individuals who are most in need of the vaccine, but are those people getting the vaccine? It seems more like the vaccine is being distributed on a first come first serve basis. My husband and I are both R.N.'s and are therefore included in the high risk community, however, neither of us has been vaccinated. This is pretty ironic as I have picked up extra shifts at the hospital to cover other nurses who are sick with the swine flu, the same nurses who should have been first to be immunized.
I had my children vaccinated for the seasonal flu with the FluMist. The doctor was relieved I requested the mist instead of the shot as they were already almost out of the injectable version. The problem is that children who receive the FluMist need two doses a month apart. I was not aware of this, my doctor did not mention it, (Did he know? Did he purposely neglect telling me because he knew the second dose would not be available?), and now I am scrambling to figure out how to get them their second dose.
Back in September the New England Journal of Medicine reported a study which showed that one dose of H1N1 was sufficient for adequate immunity. This was good news since it meant the vaccine would go twice as far and a surplus was actually anticipated. Now the study, showing that only one dose of the vaccine is enough seems to have fallen by the wayside and we are inadequately prepared to immunize the millions of people who need the vaccine.
In a press conference yesterday Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said, "This is a challenging time, we wish we had more vaccine available." An article from Atlanta Health Diet and Fitness reports that the vaccine is being made by growing the virus in eggs, the same method currently used to make all flu vaccines and a process that takes 6-9 months. But, let's rewind back to August of this year when I wrote a blog which stated that the United States Government had ordered 12.5 million doses of the vaccine. Even then I commented on the fact that the number seemed woefully inadequate. "If we had H1N1 earlier in the season we would have most likely included it in the seasonal flu vaccine. So it would have been part of the regular flu vaccination program, as it will be for the Southern Hemisphere in [their] coming flu season," Friedan said. But, even if it had been included as part of the regular flu vaccine officials still would have grossly underestimated the amount of vaccine needed.
Of course the media is to blame for this as well. Swine flu is a strain of influenza the likes of which most of us have never seen. It targets young people and ignores the boundaries of the other influenza viruses which typically circulate from October to March by showing up in April and continuing to infect throughout the summer. The comparison of H1N1 to the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918, (there are many similarities between the two pandemics) has created some hysteria and honestly people are banging down the doors of the Health Department trying to get the vaccine. The pandemic of 1918 occurred in three deadly waves. Last Friday Friedan said that this pandemic was also likely to occur in waves but that, "We can't predict how high, how far or long the wave will go, or when the next will come."
The good news is that while there have been 31 strains of the virus reported as resistant to Tamiflu this is a very small number considering the number of virus samples that have been obtained. Overall this virus really hasn't mutated at all, which means that current technology used to treat the disease is still effective. But, if you want the vaccine before regular flu season kicks in you'll have to be prepared to wait for it. That said, Dr. Friedan did note that, "We are beginning to see significant increases in vaccine production, vaccine distribution and we do think it will get easier to find vaccine in the weeks that come."
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