100 Million Swine Flu Vaccines Available in the US

The United States will this week reach a landmark in the fight against swine flu as 100 million doses of vaccine become available to the public, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday.

"By the end of this week, we will have 100 million doses of H1N1 vaccine available to the people. In fact, we're at 99.5 million doses today," Sebelius told reporters at a briefing on the swine flu pandemic.

Swine Flu Vaccine for Infants, Toddlers Recalled in US
More than three-quarters of a million doses of swine flu vaccine for infants and children were recalled Tuesday in the United States after routine tests showed they had lost potency.

Sebelius, flanked by half a dozen top US health officials, urged Americans to "take advantage of the increased supply and get vaccinated," even though the second wave of swine flu was ebbing.

"We have a chance to lessen the impact or even prevent a big third wave when flu season really hits, and need to seize that opportunity now," she said.

Flu season in the United States usually begins in October and lasts until May, but the (A)H1N1 virus erupted off-calendar, in April, and has so far infected people year-round.

Germany Wants to Sell Spare Swine Flu Vaccines: Health Minister
Germany wants to sell to other countries millions of spare swine flu vaccines because of fewer people than expected coming forward to be injected, the country's health minister said on Monday.

Although most people who catch it have comparatively mild symptoms, Sebelius warned that the virus "is a serious flu that targets people who don't normally get seriously sick from the flu."

Seasonal flu usually hits the elderly hard, but swine flu has disproportionately impacted children and young adults.

Canada Records Severe Allergic Reactions to Swine Flu Vaccine
An unusual number of severe allergic reactions to swine flu vaccinations have been recorded in Canada, where a batch of the vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline has been recalled, the WHO said on Tuesday.

"The number of children and young adults killed through mid-November was five times more than in an average flu season," Doctor Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the briefing.

Health officials estimated last week that around 1,100 children and 7,500 young adults died of swine flu in the United States from April to November.

Swine Flu Vaccine Effective Despite Mutations: Experts
Swine flu vaccines are still effective despite reported cases of mutations in the A(H1N1) virus, health experts in Europe and North America said Saturday.

In the same seven-month period, Frieden said there were an estimated 47 million cases of swine flu, 213,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths in the United States.

Source-AFP
SAV