CaP'N GRuNGe Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 From a Healthcare Supply Chain newsletter my wife receives: One vaccine shot seen as protective for swine flu Defying the expectations of experts, clinical trials are showing that the new H1N1 swine flu vaccine protects with only one dose instead of two, so the vaccine supplies now being made will go twice as far as had been predicted. That means it should be possible to vaccinate - well before the flu's expected midwinter peak - all the 159 million people that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate are in the high-risk groups: pregnant women, people under 24 years old or caring for infants, people with high-risk medical conditions and healthcare workers. Barring production delays, the government hopes to have in hand 195 million doses by year's end. The first convincing trial results from a single 15- microgram dose in adults were published online Thursday afternoon by The New England Journal of Medicine. That trial was done in Australia, but the vaccine maker, CSL Limited, is under contract to supply millions of doses to the United States government, and the president of the company's American subsidiary said he expected its trials here to have similar results. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said trials now under way under the sponsorship of the National Institutes of Health were showing that adults who got only a single dose were protected within 8 to 10 days, which he said "corroborates and confirms the exciting data" reported in the Australian study. Robust protection produced so quickly in high-risk groups means lives will presumably be saved, Dr. Fauci said. Costs will also be lowered by having a more efficient vaccine, he said, "but I can't give you a dollar figure." Also, more vaccine could be available to poor countries that were largely left out of last spring's global scramble to sign vaccine makers to contracts. Experts have worried that rich countries would be protected this winter while poor ones - where people are more likely to die because of drug shortages and substandard hospital care - would bear the brunt of the pandemic. The results released Thursday were based on the first three weeks of a clinical trial. Healthy adults got one 15-microgram shot, and their blood was tested 21 days later. By that time, 97 percent of the 120 adults had enough antibodies to be considered protected. Another group that got 30-microgram doses had no greater protection. There were no deaths or dangerous side-effects. Almost half of the participants reported sore arms or headaches, but that is normal with flu shots. Dr. Fauci said he would discuss the details of the N.I.H. trials at a news conference on Friday afternoon. Seasonal flu shots are available now, and Federal officials are urging Americans to get one. Little or no swine flu vaccine will be available before late October. There have been no clinical trials of giving both shots at the same time, and Federal health officials have issued no recommendations on that. Pediatricians usually give two shots to children ages 6 months to 9 years who have never had a flu shot; the first primes the immune system and subsequent shots act as boosters that create new surges of antibodies, though slightly varied each year as strains mutate. Infants under 6 months old are not normally given flu shots. Pregnant women are, and babies can inherit some temporary immunity from their mothers. Visit the Gainesville Sun for the article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 I've got to say I'm really tired of all the hype around this stupid flu virus. We get it, there's a bad flu going around. People at risk should get vaccinated. Personally I enjoy the flu, I get to lay in bed completely knocked out for a few days. The body aches feel strangely good, being under a pile of blankets watching DVDs with my wife bringing me soup. Is there somewhere I can go to pick it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 I thought this was a made up crisis designed to have the socialist revolutionary Obamaites take over the world, starting with health care? Sorry . . . wrong thread . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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