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.

Only Hire People Who Learn from Mistakes

Harness the power of learning from mistakes. Some of the great high achievers in this world give credit to their relentless focus on small mistakes.

Recently, researchers at Columbia University divided student subjects into two groups, “grade hungry” and “knowledge hungry” and then tested them with general knowledge questions.

The researchers provided immediate feedback as to whether the subject was right or wrong, and showed them the correct answer. The brain activity of the subjects was monitored throughout, using EEG caps.

The differences in the way the subjects handled the feedback was striking:

• The Knowledge-Hungry paid attention (but not quite as obsessively) to whether they were right or wrong, and they paid significantly more attention to the correct answers. They took advantage of the chance to learn. This contrast was most dramatic when each group got an answer wrong.
• The Knowledge-Hungry activated deep memory regions, indicating they were storing these new facts away for later.
• The Grade-Hungry did not activate the memory regions as deeply, suggesting a far more cursory interest; instead, their brains seemed to feel threatened by learning they’d gotten an answer wrong.
• The Grade-Hungry brains showed a far more emotional, fearful response. They clearly did not like being wrong, and they didn’t care about the acquisition of knowledge along the way.

When both groups of students were later 'surprised' by a retest, using only the questions they’d gotten wrong the first time around, the Knowledge-Hungry group did far better than the Grade-Hungry group. Clearly, they had 'learned' the new knowledge and had not only retained it, but were also able to recall it at will.

So, from a neuromanagement viewpoint, it would make a lot of sense to hire people capable of learning from their mistakes. Hiring the equivalent of the “grade hungry” students will yield employees who are motivated but who, over time, may not improve their performance nearly as much as individuals who internalise lessons learned, when things don’t work perfectly.

The question now is how do you screen candidates for this trait; the ability to learn from their mistakes?

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.

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: WHO Admit drug resistance in influenza mutation

The World Health Organisation said Friday that a mutation had been found in samples of the swine flu virus taken following the first two deaths from the pandemic in Norway. This is not unusual in itself because viruses, by their nature, will and do, mutate.

However, the WHO denied that the mutation had created a more contagious or more dangerous form of influenza A(H1N1) and they admitted that some similar cases observed elsewhere, had been mild. That was certainly the case for the people who did not die from it.

"The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has informed WHO of a mutation detected in three H1N1 viruses," the WHO said in a briefing note. Realistically, influenza viruses are continually undergoing mutations.

It is important to note that some of these are unsustainable and that some of these will succeed in not only being sustained but also in being drug resistant. It is their nature and follows the normal course of natural variation and selection, that all living things are prone to.

"The viruses were isolated from the first two fatal cases of pandemic influenza in the country (Norway) and one patient with severe illness," the report continued, although it added that no further instances were found in tests.

"Norwegian scientists have analysed samples from more than 70 patients with clinical illness and no further instances of this mutation have been detected (in the lab). This finding suggests that the mutation may not be widespread in the country," the UN health agency assumed, optimistically.

WHO spokesman Gregory Haertl said that the global health watchdog did not believe "that this has any significant impact, for the time being." Presumably, if the mutation proliferates over time, then it will become significant.

However, despite their blind faith and optimism, the agency admitted that a similar mutation had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States, as early as April 2009. Thus, contradicting themselves, whilst confirming the true nature of influenza viruses.

"The mutations appear to occur sporadically and spontaneously (you think!). 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," the WHO statement said. Some of those cases also produced mild symptoms, Haertl noted.

The WHO also underlined that there was no evidence of more infections or more deaths as a result, while the antiviral drugs used to treat severe flu, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza), were still effective on the mutated virus.

Thus defending their single minded determination to follow this contraversial course of treatment, sponsored by the pharmaceutical agencies involved. Presumably to appear to be doing something in the face of an uncontrollable force of nature.

"Studies show that currently available pandemic vaccines confer(?) protection," it added, as mass vaccine campaigns were slowly gaining ground in the northern hemisphere amid signs of public skepticism in several European nations. (and growing profit margins of pharma companies)

Informed scientists naturally fear that mutations in flu viruses could cause more virulent and deadly pandemic flu. The global health watchdog reiterated a call for close monitoring.

The WHO was still assessing the significance of the latest observation, but it stressed that many such changes in the flu virus do not alter the illness it causes in patients.

"Although further investigation is under way, no evidence currently suggests that these mutations are leading to an unusual increase in the number of H1N1 infections or a greater number of severe or fatal cases," it added.

Norwegian authorities reported the country's first swine flu death on September 3, a 52 year-old Danish truck driver who died just over a week earlier.

On Friday, WHO data showed reported that around 6,750 people had died from swine flu since the virus was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States in April.

That represented an increase of about 500 more than a week ago, as the pandemic took hold in the northern hemisphere during the cold season

The WHO estimates that some 250,000 to 500,000 people die every year from standard seasonal variants of swine flu. Oh well! That's alright then. Sorry we troubled you guys. Let's just let you go back to sleep, whilst the rest of the world sits quietly by, watching people suffer and die.

Npw, the only question left in our minds is whether the WHO's approach to the pandemic is based on blatant incompetence or cynical corruption.

Global swine flu deaths slow as WHO toll passes 6,250

More than 6,250 people have died in the swine flu pandemic, World Health Organisation data showed Friday, as the global death rate appeared to slow.

The number of deaths from the A(H1N1) pandemic in the week to November 8 grew by about 179, against 224 a week earlier and a leap of about 700 in the last week of October.

The pandemic now stretches across 206 countries or territories worldwide, the WHO added in a statement.

The UN health agency said the influenza season showed signs of peaking in North America, but was intensifying across much of Europe and Central and Eastern Asia.

"Very intense and increasing influenza activity continues to be reported in Mongolia with a severe impact on the health care system," it added.

But the WHO found after investigating the sudden reported surge in flu cases in Ukraine in recent weeks that the swine flu virus had shown no signs of becoming stronger.

"The initial analysis of information indicates that the numbers of severe cases do not appear to be excessive when compared to the experience of other countries and do not represent any change in the transmission or virulence of the virus," the statement said.

More than 1.3 million Ukrainians have been taken ill with swine flu and 265 people have lost their lives to the virus since the end of October, the country's health ministry said Friday.

The Americas still account for the largest number of deaths. The WHO estimates 4,512 have died since the pandemic virus was first identified in April in Mexico and the United States, an increase of 113 in a week.

However, new data released late on Thursday, separate from the WHO figures, estimates that swine flu has killed as many as 3,900 people in the United States.

Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used a new counting method that yielded an estimate six times higher than the last.

The CDC's previous estimated death toll from H1N1 was 672.

While still imprecise, the new numbers provide "a bigger picture of what has been going on in the first six months of the pandemic," Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters.

She said previous estimates were based on "laboratory confirmed cases of hospitalisation and death, potentially giving an incomplete picture of the story of this pandemic."

The WHO said the number of deaths reported in Europe stayed stable at some 300, with signs the pandemic caseload was peaking in parts of Britain, notably Northern Ireland, as well as in Ireland and Iceland.

Meanwhile, the virus spread to the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Friday as authorities there confirmed its first swine flu death.

Neighbouring Turkey, the only country to recognise the TRNC, also announced a further 20 deaths, bringing its total to 60 fatal cases.

Elsewhere in Europe, Hungarian officials said a 55-year-old and a 73-year-old woman had died in hospital from swine. Seven people have died from the virus in Hungary since July.

In Austria, the Kleine Zeitung newspaper said a 26-year-old man became the country's third fatal case after being hospitalised five days ago with an infection.

In Germany, Cologne footballer Christopher Schorch became the first player in the country's top division to contract the virus.

The 20-year-old German is being treated at home and should return to training next Wednesday, according to his club.

Sharp increases in cases were reported in several western and southern Asian nations, including Israel and Afghanistan in recent weeks, while growing numbers were reported in China and Japan.

Pandemic flu was largely on the wane in most of south and southeast Asia and in the warming southern hemisphere.

H1N1 Pandemic - WHO raises pandemic threat level

World health officials have raised the level of alert about a possible swine flu pandemic, since the virus seems to be spreading regularly from person to person.

The World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the alert in an http://kenbudd.blogspot.com/2009/04/h1n1-story-behind-pandemic.html in Geneva on Monday evening.

"It's a significant step towards pandemic influenza, but it is a phase that says we are not there yet," said Keiji Fukada of the WHO. "A pandemic is not considered inevitable at this time."

The new H1N1 influenza virus has struck hundreds of people in Mexico, where at least 18 have died, and several dozen people in the US (see Deadly new flu virus in US and Mexico may go pandemic). In the last couple of days, confirmed cases have also been found in Canada, Spain and Scotland.

Six-point scale

WHO officials decided that the new cases and infection patterns warranted increasing their pandemic warning level from 3 to 4, on a six-point scale.

Ever since the scale went into use in 2005, it has stayed at 3 – indicating that most cases of an emergent influenza virus are caused by animal-to-human transmission.

At 4, the infection is spread primarily from human to human. At 5, human-to-human transmission is occurring at multiple geographic locations; while 6 represents an all-out pandemic, which occurs when a virus is new, causes severe disease, and transmits easily enough to be sustained.

Researchers are still studying how efficiently the virus spreads. "The situation is very fluid and it is possible we could move to a higher phase shortly," Fukada said.