Swine Flu Cases Rising With New H3N2 Strain Transmissible Human To Human

Swine flu is making a comeback as a new strain of the virus has begun spreading, with more than 100 U.S. cases reported this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The surprising culprit? State and county fairs and doctors warn it has become much easier to transmit among humans.

So far, 145 cases of the influenza A variety of the virus have been found in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Hawaii. None of the cases were deadly, but two led to hospitalization. The agency expects the number to increase.

The majority of cases occurred in children and young adults, according to Dr. Joseph Bresee of the CDC's Influenza Division. Most of the cases have been associated with close or indirect exposure to pigs. The wave noticeably coincides with state and county fair season.

"This time of the year is the time when you have fairs around the country ... thousands of them," Bresee told reporters. "That accounts for the increased transmission more than anything else."

Indiana's number of cases has risen by seven to 120 since the CDC released its figures.

"Surprisingly, the greatest, overwhelming percentage (of cases) is in people 16 years and younger," Dr. Gregory Larkin, Indiana state health commissioner, reported.

"As our investigation continues, we're seeing transmission from ill or infected swine, or hogs, to their handlers, which in most of these cases are kids."

Doctors recommend that anyone who comes in close contact with swine wash their hands, avoid
consuming fluids or food around pigs and avoid direct contact with the animals.

The new strain of the virus, H3N2, picked up a gene from the H1N1 virus that caused a pandemic three years ago. The mutation makes it more easily transmissible among humans, with sneeze or coughs spreading the virus among mammals.

Bresee said a vaccine for the H3N2 strain is in the early stages of development.

Virologist Develops Highly Contagious and Lethal Strain of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus

A molecular virologist at Erasmus University in the Netherlands has engineered a new H5N1 bird flu virus so lethal that it would kill 59 percent of those infected.

Dr. Ron Fouchier and his team, who used ferrets as test subjects, found five genetic mutations to the virus. Based on these mutations, they were able to develop a new H5N1 strain that became airborne and infected ferrets in different cages.

The increased rate of infection indicates the new strain can potentially become as contagious as a normal cold. The H5N1 virus, which originally only affected birds, crossed over to humans in 1997 and first struck in Asia.

It eventually spread all over the world until it killed more than 300 people. Considering the 59 percent mortality rate of the new H5N1 strain, many fear that it would result in a pandemic on a global scale.

Read more Virologist Develops Highly Contagious and Lethal Strain of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus

H9N2 Avian flu and H1N1 pandemic: High genetic compatibility and increased pathogenicity of reassortants

H9N2 influenza viruses have been circulating worldwide in multiple avian species and repeatedly infecting mammals, including pigs and humans, posing a significant threat to public health.

The coexistence of H9N2 and pandemic influenza H1N1/2009 viruses in pigs and humans provides an opportunity for these viruses to reassort.

To evaluate the potential public risk of the reassortant viruses derived from these viruses, we used reverse genetics to generate 127 H9 reassortants derived from an avian H9N2 and a pandemic H1N1 virus, and evaluated their compatibility, replication ability, and virulence in mice.

These hybrid viruses showed high genetic compatibility and more than half replicated to a high titer in vitro. In vivo studies of 73 of 127 reassortants revealed that all viruses were able to infect mice without prior adaptation and 8 reassortants exhibited higher pathogenicity than both parental viruses.

All reassortants with higher virulence than parental viruses contained the PA gene from the 2009 pandemic virus, revealing the important role of the PA gene from the H1N1/2009 virus in generating a reassortant virus with high public health risk.

Analyses of the polymerase activity of the 16 ribonucleoprotein combinations in vitro suggested that the PA of H1N1/2009 origin also enhanced polymerase activity.

Our results indicate that some avian H9-pandemic reassortants could emerge with a potentially higher threat for humans and also highlight the importance of monitoring the H9-pandemic reassortant viruses that may arise, especially those that possess the PA gene of H1N1/2009 origin.

Read the full paper at PNAS website:
High genetic compatibility and increased pathogenicity of reassortants derived from avian H9N2 and pandemic H1N1/2009 influenza viruses

H1N1 flu undergoing genetic changes in swine

H1N1 flu undergoing genetic changes in swine

Although the pandemic H1N1 "swine" flu that emerged last spring has stayed genetically stable in humans, researchers in Asia say the virus has undergone genetic changes in pigs during the last year and a half.

The fear is that these genetic changes, or reassortments, will produce a more virulent bug.

"The particular reassortment we found is not itself likely to be of major human health risk, (but) it is an indication of what may be occurring on a wider scale, undetected," said Malik Peiris, an influenza expert and co-author of a paper published in the June 18 issue of Science. "Other reassortments may occur, some of which pose greater risks."

The findings underscore the importance of monitoring how the influenza virus behaves in pigs, said Peiris, who is chair and professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong and scientific director of the university's Pasteur Research Center.

"Obviously, there's a lot of evolution going on and whenever you see some unstable situation, there's the potential for something new to emerge that could be dangerous," added Dr. John Treanor, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

The novel H1N1 pandemic influenza virus that began circulating in humans in early 2009 originally came from swine, first infecting humans in Mexico before spreading to more than 200 countries.

In humans, the 2009 H1N1 virus has stayed genetically the same and still causes relatively mild disease, when it causes disease at all (the virus has all but disappeared in recent weeks, although experts suspect it will be back).

H1N1 influenza hits older children

H1N1 influenza hits older children | ScienceBlog.com

Children hospitalised with pandemic H1N1 influenza in 2009 were older and more likely to have underlying medical conditions than children hospitalised with seasonal influenza during prior flu seasons, according to a study to be presented at the Paediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Population-based surveillance of 5.3 million children for laboratory-confirmed influenza was conducted in 10 states during the 2003-2009 influenza seasons and in the early 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Investigators used the data to compare the demographics, medical history and clinical course of children younger than 18 years who were hospitalised with seasonal influenza vs. those hospitalised with H1N1 flu.

Results showed the median age of children hospitalised with H1N1 influenza was 5 years, compared to 1 year for those hospitalised with seasonal flu in 2003-2009. In addition, children with asthma, hemoglobinopathies such as sickle-cell disease and a history of prematurity made up a larger proportion of all children hospitalised with H1N1 influenza than with seasonal flu. However, one-third of children hospitalised with H1N1 influenza were previously healthy.

H5N1 Avian Flu: New Outbreak in Romania

A suspected bird flu outbreak has been reported in a remote Romanian village, the Sanitary and Veterinary Authority said Saturday.

Samples of two dead hens were sent for confirmation of the potentially deadly H5N1 virus to the Animal Health Institute in Bucharest and on to the Weybridge laboratory in Britain, the Authority said.

The poultry in the small private farm at a village on the Danube Delta were slaughtered and the area disinfected.

"There is currently no risk of the disease spreading," the Authority said.

Two weeks ago, a bird flu outbreak was reported in the nearby village of Letea close to the Ukrainian border, the first case in Europe for a year.

The previous case in the European Union had been confirmed in March 2009 in a wild duck shot during a hunt near Starnberg, in Bavaria, southern Germany.

Romania was hit by massive bird flu outbreaks in 2005 and 2006, when more than a million poultry were slaughtered.

Avian influenza or "bird flu" is a highly contagious viral disease which primarily affects birds, but on rare occasions can also be contracted by humans and other mammals.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation said the H5N1 virus remains a threat to humans, after bird flu outbreaks killed seven people in several countries since the beginning of the year.

H5N1 Avian flu Bangladesh: 117,000 birds slaughtered to stem infection

At least 117,000 chickens were destroyed in northern Bangladesh Sunday after avian flu outbreak on one of the country's largest poultry farms, a local official said.

The deadly H5N1 strain of flu was detected on Saturday when 400 chickens died suddenly at the Kazi Farms complex in Thakurgaon town, district livestock chief Mosaddekur Rahman reported.

"Tests confirmed presence of the H5N1 bird flu in 15 sheds of the farm and we ordered destruction of all 117,600 layer chickens," he said.

Kazi Farms is Bangladesh's largest poultry bird and egg producer. General manager of the company Ataur Rahman said another 200,000 eggs had also been destroyed in the single largest outbreak of bird flu in the country.

"Our loss will be more than 400 million taka (six million dollars)," he said.

Bangladesh was hit by bird flu in February 2007, when more than one million birds were slaughtered on thousands of farms across the country.

The last major outbreak was in November 2008 when 10,000 birds were culled over a two-month period, with smaller outbreaks detected in 2009.

Bangladesh's poultry industry is one of the world's largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.

The country reported its first confirmed human case of bird flu in May 2008, but the government said the 16-month-old baby who contracted the virus recovered.

H1N1 Pandemic swine flu toll reaches 16,713: WHO

Pandemic H1N1 Swine flu has claimed at least 16,713 lives around the world since it was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States last April, the World Health Organisation said Friday.

The pandemic, which has spread to 213 countries and territories, has since waned in much of Europe and North America, but data indicated that transmission may be increasing in West Africa.

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, limited data suggests that on-going community transmission of pandemic influenza virus continues to increase in parts of West Africa, without clear evidence of a peak in activity," said the WHO. More cases were being detected in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Rwanda, it said.

The A(H1N1) virus was also spreading in Southeast Asia, with transmission "most active in Thailand," added the UN health agency.

H5N1 Avian Flu: Labs Producing Virulent Flu Strains

Engineered hybrids of H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 human flu strains have proven virulent in mice, raising the danger that a natural recombination would be deadly to humans.

For years, researchers have worried that H5N1 avian influenza would mix with human flu viruses, evolving into a form that keeps its current lethality but is far more contagious.

That hasn’t happened in the wild yet but the latest findings, published Feb. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show how easily it can happen.

Mind the Gap
“Fortunately, the H5N1 viruses still lack the ability to transmit efficiently among humans.” However, the virus may soon be overcome this obstacle when it mixes with human flu strains. These are the findings of researchers led by University of Wisconsin virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka. “The next pandemic is inevitable and it will be more devastating than the last.”

Current strains of H5N1 have infected 478 people since 2003, and killed 286 of them. It’s has difficulty transmitting to humans. It requires close contact and exposure to an infected person, bird or animal.

H5N1 in Birds
In birds, however, H5N1 is far more contagious, and here the virus has killed tens of millions of fowl. Fortunately, cases have been concentrated in Africa and Eurasia, but as the swine flu pandemic demonstrated, any flu contagious to humans will quickly spread on a global scale. This is mainly thanks to air travel and the free movement of peoples across state boundaries.

Influenza viruses mutate and swap genes easily, with co-infections turning animals into mobile petri dishes. In 2008, hoping to learn more about how H5N1 might evolve, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combined it with a common human flu strain.

The researchers engineered all 254 possible variants of hybridisation between the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain found in Borneo, and a, H1N1 human flu virus from Tokyo. They identified three strains that were both contagious and deadly, in mice.

The New Pandemic
A flu virus that kills mice won’t necessarily kill humans, but the results are very disturbing. All three killer hybrid strains possessed a protein taken from the human strain. Called PB2, the protein appeared to help the virus survive in the mice’s upper respiratory tract. As of now, bird flu stays in the lower respiratory tract, where it’s less likely to be casually transmitted.

Although the recent H1N1 pandemic has not proved to be as lethal as originally feared, it certainly exposed how unprepared the world is for new influenza strains. At the same time it also exposed the ability of pharmaceutical companies to frighten the WHO, governments and politicians into spending $Millions to stockpile ineffective vaccines.

Source of Infection
In May, Hong Kong University virologist Yi Guan, best known for finding the animal origin of SARS, was asked by Science Insider about the possibility of H5N1 and swine flu mixing.

“If that happens, I will retire immediately and lock myself in a sealed laboratory", said Guan. "But, historically the Chinese mainland would be the most likely source of such a virus."

Global Alert
Unfortunately, in such a situation, the imposed cover-up by local authorities would mean that the virus will have spread with a high rate of cross-infection and will have escaped globally, even before we are alerted to it's existance. We will not be alerted until it has spread to the Western world and many people have become infected and died.

Lethal Viruses Escape
The other issue is the development of virulent and lethal strains in laboratories and institutions. There has been a sad history of viruses erroneously 'escaping' from pharmaceutical labs and there is no reason to believe that this will not happen in the future, despite due diligence.

Mitigation
Should we live our lives in a bubble? No, definitely not but we should be aware of the dangers we are facing and how these may manifest themselves. Yes, there is a lethal danger from a mutant virus but this danger is greater if the world's health authorities are not communicating properly or collaborating on a global scale and this is something that can be mitigated against.

Poland Vindicated by not using H1N1 vaccine?

Poland Vindicated by not using H1N1 vaccine? - Washington Times

The decision seemed fraught with risk: a government refusing to import swine flu vaccines amid worldwide warnings of a spreading epidemic.

But Poland did just that, becoming the only country worldwide known to reject the vaccines over safety fears and distrust in the drug companies producing them — concerns international health experts reject as unfounded.

Now that the current outbreak appears to have peaked in much of Europe, many Poles say their government has been vindicated: Countries with large stockpiles often saw low public interest in the vaccines and face financial loss from unused doses set to expire. Poland's government didn't spend a cent fighting the epidemic.

All along, the decision by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Health Minister Ewa Kopacz met with broad support. Even with 145 swine flu deaths in Poland to date, many Poles view the rejection of the vaccines as a laudable gesture of defiance against pharmaceutical companies, sentiment shaped by a strengthening anti-vaccine movement and conspiracy theories about the vaccines circulating on the Internet.

"I had the impression that the information about swine flu was manipulated in order to create a panic," said Barbara Lazniewska, a 38-year-old architect who was among the many Poles to applaud the government's stance.

Poles take pride in having a strong independent streak, and many respect the government for defying the European Union, the World Health Organization and other international groups that urged countries to implement vaccination programs — advice that smacked to some of meddling in internal affairs.

The prime minister described Poland as a country with the rare "courage" to refuse a vaccine that he said has not undergone sufficient testing.

"We are making this decision only in the interest of the Polish patient and the taxpayer," Mr. Tusk insisted in December. "We will not take part because it's not honest and it's not safe for the patient."

The anti-vaccine movement argues that the vaccine is untested or contains risky ingredients, such as the preservative thimerosal. However, there is little difference in the formulation for the swine flu vaccine and that of the regular flu vaccine, which is available in Poland, and all evidence so far suggests it is safe and effective. WHO says more than 150 million people have been vaccinated in more than 40 countries and no unusual or dangerous side effects have been seen.

"The saving grace for Poland is that this swine flu pandemic is so far very mild. It would be a big scandal if this were a virus that would cause many deaths," said Dr. Andrew McMichael, an immunologist and the director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University.

H1N1: WHO still looking for their role in Pandemic influenza

Senior World Health Organisation official Keiji Fukuda said Thursday that it was too early to declare the swine flu pandemic over, as it continues at "high levels" in parts of Europe and central Asia.

Although the A(H1N1) flu virus is peaking and even declining in parts of the northern hemisphere, and is hardly present in the south, Fukuda said there was an unproven possibility that there could be another wave later in the winter.

"It really probably remains too early to call the pandemic over," Fukuda said in a weekly telephone news conference.

Fukuda, Special Adviser to the WHO Director-General on Pandemic Influenza, said flu "activity continues at quite high levels in several different countries" notably the Czech Republic, France, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Switzerland.

Fukuda also noted that the signs of a peak and a decline in the caseload in North America and parts of Europe had occurred "extraordinarily early for influenza," with several months of the winter left.

As a result, the WHO could not rule out the possibility of another wave of illness in late winter or early spring.

"We simply are unable to answer this question right now. We continue to assess, right now we cannot predict whether we will see another upsurge in activity in the earlier parts of 2010," Fukuda said.

Thailand records first case of Human- to-Pigs Swine Flu Transmission

Thailand confirmed Thursday its first case of a pig infected with swine flu spread from humans, senior officials said.

Agriculture minister Thira Wongsamut said that one of 80 pigs in a sample group tested for the virus at Kasertsart University farm in the central province of Sara Buri had contracted A(H1N1) influenza.

"It was only in one sample that we found the A(H1N1)," Thira said.

The ministry has quarantined a five kilometre-radius around the farm, where university research is carried out, as a precautionary measure, he said, adding that new health checks would be conducted at the farm every three days.

The ministry's permanent secretary Yukol Limlamthong said that none of the 132 workers at the university farm had contracted swine flu. He could not confirm if a research student had brought the virus in.

"We can not prove that, but the test results show the pig contracted the virus from a human," Yukol said.

Thira said that eating pork did not pose a danger.

"The virus spread from human to pigs, as in several countries. We've had no case of it spreading from pigs to humans," he said.

Since the swine flu outbreak began in April, the ministry said it has tested more than 26,000 pigs for the virus.

It has confirmed 29,741 human cases of the flu and 190 of those were fatal.

The Thai government has a one-million dollar fund set aside to combat swine flu.

Natural human Protein May Help Prevent H1N1 Pandemic Influenza

A strain of natural human proteins have been found to help ward off swine flu and other viruses including West Nile and dengue, in a discovery that could spur more effective treatments, US researchers said Thursday.

In cultured human cells, researchers lead by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) found that these certain proteins have powerful antiviral effects by blocking the replication of viruses.

The findings, reported Thursday in an online article from the journal Cell, "could lead to the development of more effective antiviral drugs, including prophylactic drugs that could be used to slow influenza transmission," the team said.

The influenza virus, along with the other viruses, must take over proteins in cells to sustain itself. In their study, researchers found some 120 genes that are needed by H1N1 -- commonly known as swine flu.

"But in the process of figuring that out, we found this other class of genes that actually have the opposite effect, so that if you get rid of them, influenza replicates much better," according to HHMI team leader Stephen Elledge at the Harvard Medical School.

H1N1: Swine Flu Vaccine for Children Withdrawn

Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children manufactured by French drug company Sanofi Pasteur have been recalled because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said Tuesday.

The recall is for about 800,000 pre-filled syringes intended for young children, ages 6 months to nearly 3 years. The shots were distributed across the country last month and most have already been used, according to the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors were notified of the voluntary recall on Tuesday. Dr. Anne Schuchat, a CDC flu expert, stressed that parents don't need to do anything or to worry. The vaccine is still safe, she said.

The issue is the vaccine's strength. Tests done before the shots were shipped showed that the vaccines were strong enough. But tests done weeks later indicated the strength had fallen slightly below required levels. Why the potency dropped isn't clear.

Children in that age group are supposed to get two doses, spaced about a month apart. Health officials don't think children need to get vaccinated again, even if they got two doses from the same lots, said Schuchat.

Swine flu vaccine has been available since early October, and since then manufacturers have released about 95 million doses for distribution in the United States.

The recalled shots were made by Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of France-based Sanofi-Aventis Group. The company reported the potency findings to the government officials and did a voluntary recall. A Sanofi Pasteur representative could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

H1N1: Swine flu toll in Gaza reaches 10

Two more people died of swine flu in the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday, bringing to 10 the total number of Gazans who have been killed by the disease, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

"Two more cases died today, a 25-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, bringing the total number of deaths from A(H1N1) to 10," said Hassan Khalaf, a ministry spokesman.

He added that another 67 people have been stricken with the disease, including "a number of serious cases."

Gaza, which has been under strict Israeli closure since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, was among the last places in the world to see cases of the virus, the first of which were reported a week ago.

The ministry has demanded 300,000 vaccines for the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, including some 13,000 vaccines for government and public and private health workers.

Israel has already allowed in 10,000 doses of swine flu vaccine in a bid to prevent the latest outbreak from spreading to the Jewish state, which has lost 67 people to the virus.

Israel said last week it will allow in 30,000 to 40,000 more vaccines supplied by the World Health Organisation, but the transfer has not yet taken place, according to a military spokeswoman.

The Hamas-run government has meanwhile started examining foreigners entering the territory through the Erez crossing with Israel for signs of the disease, including by taking their temperature.

H1N1: 10,000 Deaths in US from Swine Flu Pandemic

Swine flu has already infected 50 million Americans, killing 10,000, most of them children and younger adults, federal officials reported Thursday.

The new estimates suggest that the flu, also known as H1N1, has spread through 15% of the U.S. population since it was first identified in April. As of Nov. 17, 200,000 people have been hospitalised, says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's about the same number of people hospitalised during the entire flu season, which usually lasts until May.

At least 7,500 adults 18 to 64 and 1,000 children younger than 18 have died of the disease, Frieden said. In a typical flu season, roughly 80 children die.

"Many times more children and younger adults, unfortunately, have been hospitalised or killed by H1N1 influenza than occurs during a usual flu season," Frieden says.

The analysis marks the government's latest assessment of the H1N1 epidemic. The virus has upended expectations of flu by targeting the young rather than the old. In a typical year, 95% of deaths are in people 65 and older; so far, 95% of deaths have been in people younger than 65.

William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University, says the new estimates reinforce the message that "this isn't an infection to be trifled with or blown off."

Although flu seems to be waning — with just 25 states now reporting widespread activity, down from 48 little more than a month ago — the virus remains highly infectious and may come roaring back, Schaffner says.

H1N1: 3 Deaths in Netherlands from Influenza A mutation

A third patient in the Netherlands infected by a mutant strain of the swine flu virus has died, the country's health and environment institute said Tuesday.

The Netherlands has officially reported eight cases of the mutated A(H1N1) virus, including the three fatalities, but claims that the strain is not spreading, the institute said.

"The latest fatality was an adult woman who was already ill," institute spokesman Harold Wychgel said, without giving the date of her death. "There is no cause for panic."

"She had been treated for flu for some time and during treatment built up a resistance to Tamiflu," one of the main anti-flu treatment drugs, he said.

Tamiflu and Relenza have since been revealed to be ineffective in the treatment of the current strains of InfluenzaA.

A total of 42 people have died in the Netherlands after contracting the H1N1 virus, and nearly 2,000 have been hospitalised since April.

France, Spain and Norway have all reported deaths related to the mutated form of the virus.

H1N1: Spain reports death from swine flu virus mutation

Spanish health ministry has reported that a Spanish patient, infected by a mutant strain of the swine flu A(H1N1) virus, has died.

"We have registered three cases of this mutation, including one which was fatal. We believe these are three isolated cases, and that there has been no transmission to any other person," a ministry spokesman reports.

It is the sixth officially reported fatal case of this mutation of the A(H1N1) virus in Europe, health minsters have acknowledged one in the Netherlands and two each in France and Norway.

Last month the WHO said that this mutation had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, Italy and the United States as early as April 2009.

Pandemic flu is declining in North America: WHO

The World Health Organisation confirmed on Friday that swine flu has peaked in North America and was declining, in its latest weekly data on the pandemic. However, in both Canada and the United States, the virus remains "active and geographically widespread,"

The WHO also added that for the past eight weeks hospitalisation and death rates exceeded those seen in a normal flu season.

H1N1 influenza A, was reaching a peak of intensity in much of western Europe, as the disease progressed eastwards into central Europe and through parts of Asia, the WHO added in its pandemic update.

In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, the early arriving winter influenza season continues to intensify across central Europe and in parts of central, eastern, and southern Asia.

The UN health agency nonetheless also reported signs of a levelling off of flu activity in eastern European countries that have been hit hard recently, such as Ukraine and Belarus.

As swine flu reached into 207 countries, the global death toll since the H1N1 influenza A, virus was uncovered in April reached 8,768 (an increase of 942) slightly less than the sharp jump recorded the previous week.

The fastest growth in the death toll was recorded in the WHO's European region, which stretches from Ireland to the Pacific coast of Russia, including former Soviet states in Central Asia and Turkey. Some 918 people have died of flu there since the outbreak was recorded, a 41 percent increase in the week to November 29, but still half the surge recorded a week earlier.

In the hardest hit region, North and South America, the toll grew by just under 10 percent to 5,878. Be assured, the WHO are still doing their job in monitoring the widespread outbreak of this pandemic and keeping count of the death toll but do we not expect more than that?

H1N1: Swine Flu virus mutation in Netherlands endangers patients

Dutch authorities said that a patient infected by a mutant strain of the swine flu virus had died, but added that primarily, the virus was not the cause of death, simply a contributing factor.

Tamiflu Resistant
Harald Wychgel, spokesman for the Dutch Institute for Health and the Environment, told AFP that there had been a "mutation or minor change in the virus to make it resistant to Tamiflu," used in the treatment for influenza. He neglected to say that this also makes it resistant to the current vaccine being provided to members of the Dutch and European public.

FUD
The use of Tamiflu as a 'treatment' is, in itself controversial and many consultants believe it has little real effect. The real benefit comes to the pharmaceutical companies that are distributing it widely using FUD selling techniques. (FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) It is helping them ride the storm of economic crisis also sweeping across Europe.

The male patient died on Sunday in the northern city of Groningen. The news of this was witheld until now. "He died not because the virus was resistant but because he was seriously ill and caught the Mexican (swine) flu," Wychgel said.

"We have carried out tests on the patient's associates to see if the mutation had spread but we found no such indications", he said.

Mutated virus spreading
The spread of Tamiflu resistant H1N1 (Influenza A) Swine Flu (Mexican flu) continues and reports said that two more patients in the Netherlands had shown resistance to Tamiflu and therefore the new vaccine.

The death in Groningen is the fifth fatal case of mutated A(H1N1) flu officially reported in Europe, after two in France and two in Norway but many more cases exist worldwide.

The World Health Organisation said last month that mutations had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, where the swine flu pandemic began, Ukraine, and the United States, as early as April. Italy also reported a non-fatal case on Monday.

"The mutations appear to occur sporadically and spontaneously. To date, no links between the small number of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread," a WHO statement said on November 20.

The WHO also underlined that there was no evidence of more infections or more deaths as a result, while the mutated virus detected up to that point remained sensitive to antiviral drugs used to treat severe flu, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). Unfortunately this is not the case.

Scientists are less complacent and more knowledgable. They know and fear that mutations in flu viruses will continue because that is the nature of viruses, to change and survive. The appearance of a new and potentially virulent strain could cause a more deadly pandemic flu.

The virus scientists reiterated a call for close monitoring of all new variants of H1N1, no matter how 'safe' they appear to be at first. This is no time for rhetoric!

The WHO's role?
The WHO have been trying to downplay the existance of a vaccine resistant variant but has finally come out and admitted it. They also cannot deny that they have lost control of the situation, if they ever had it to begin with.

People are dying from a strain of influenza that they have no vaccine for. Their only role at present is to sit on their comfortable chairs enjoying their comfortable executive life, whilst keeping an accurate count of the mounting deaths, telling everyone that things are not that bad and waiting for the storm to pass.

The Money Trail
Meanwhile, the campaign to vaccinate the entire population of the world with a hastily prepared, poorly tested and potentially damaging vaccine, continues unabated.

After all, there is much at stake; stockpiles of vaccine to be paid for by public funds, process plants churning out millions of doses, sales targets to be met, expenses to be paid, celebratory lobbying events to be organised and incentives to be paid to co-operative government officials; all funded from the meagre profit margins of the pharmaceutical companies, allegedly.