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The World Health Organization says millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine have been given so far and no unusual side-effects have been seen.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's top flu expert, told a news conference in Geneva on Thursday that 20 countries have started to administer the pandemic vaccine, which appears to be very safe.
He said the rates of local reactions like sore arms are similar and maybe even lower than seen with seasonal flu shots.
Fukuda added H1N1 viruses still aren't mutating much, though the WHO expects they will start to as immunity in the human population rises.
Originally posted by ontariocanada
(visit the link for the full news article)
Fukuda added H1N1 viruses still aren't mutating much, though the WHO expects they will start to as immunity in the human population rises.
Risk of Serious Illness from the H1N1 Mutant Virus
Their survey of 24 states found that a total of 67 patients out of tens of millions of people ended up in the ICU. That is, only 6% of the people admitted to the hospital were so sick as to need intensive treatments. Of these 67 patients, 19 died (25%) and of these 67% had obvious underlying long-term medical illnesses. This means that only 6 patients out of tens of millions of people in 24 states that were considered “healthy” before their infection, had died. Is this justification for a mass vaccination campaign?
Of the 1082 hospitalized patients, 93% were eventually discharged recovered and only 7% died, a very low death rate. Their analysis of these cases concluded that those who died fell in three categories:
•They were older patients
•Antiviral medications were started 48 hours after the onset of the illness
•There was no correlation to having had seasonal vaccines
The last item is especially interesting because they assume that having had seasonal flu vaccine would have offered some protection -- it offered none.
What they did find was that none who died had been given antiviral medications (Tamiflu or Relenza) within 48 hours of getting sick. Those given the antiviral medications within the golden 48-hour period rarely died. Relenza is far safer than Tamiflu. This was the only factor found to correlate with survival of severely ill ICU patients.
THE H1N1 vaccine isn't for everyone.
Since the mass immunization began in Winnipeg Monday, two people have had rare allergic reactions to it, according to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
"We have had two incidents involving some allergic-type symptoms," said Dr. Sande Harlos, a WRHA medical officer of health. "This is what we're prepared to deal with."
A six-year-old Brooklyn girl, Nikiyah Torres-Pierre, was hospitalized recently after being injected with the swine flu vaccine. The vaccination was conducted entirely without her parents' permission in an incident school nurses are calling "a mistake."
Mother Naomi Troy told the NY Daily News, "I was outraged." After receiving the swine flu injection, her daughter complained she was itching and her stomach was hurting. That's when school officials called an ambulance that rushed Nikiyah to the hospital.
Pregnant Women NOT at Increased Risk, Obese Women Are!!
So, why did even 66 pregnant women end up in the ICU? As we shall see in the American study5, a significant number of these pregnant women were either obese or morbidly obese and most had underlying medical problems. The Australian/New Zealand study6 found that one of the major risk factors for pregnant women was indeed being obese and that obesity was associated with a high risk of underlying medical disorders.
They also found that death from H1N1 infection correlated best with increasing age, contrary to what the media says. They concluded the study with the following statement:
“ The proportion of patients who died in the hospital in our study is no higher than that previously reported among patients with seasonal influenza A who were admitted to the ICU.” 6
In fact, they report that of those infected with the H1N1 variant virus who were sick enough to be admitted to the ICU, 84.5 % went home and 14.3% died and that of those admitted with seasonal flu 72.9% were discharged and 16.2% died. That is, more died from the seasonal flu.
What about the Danger to Pregnant Women? The American Experience
Our media is inundating the public with scare stories of the danger this virus poses to pregnant women. Most of us visualize the pregnant woman as being healthy, young and without underlying medical diseases. The study is quite revealing, but omits some very important factors.
We are told that pregnant women are 6x more likely to end up in the hospital than the general population. This figure is derived from the fact that it was estimated that pregnant women had a 7% greater chance of requiring hospital admission than did the general public at 1% (Even this is a far higher number than their own studies indicate -- actually it is a very small fraction of 1%).
Dr. Michael Bronze, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, writing for emedicine medscape.com (WebMD), states that the risk of a pregnant women being hospitalized with the H1N1 infection is 0.32 per 100,000 pregnant women (which is 1 in 300,000 pregnant women).17 One can safely say, based on the Australian/New Zealand experience (at the peak of their flu season) and the American data somewhere in the middle of their flu season, that pregnant women have about a 99.97% chance they will not become so sick as to require hospital care at any level.
The death rate of pregnant women who were admitted to the ICU was 7.7%, a fairly low figure for infectious ICU patients. Remember, most patients admitted to the hospital are admitted for hydration and are not that ill in terms of the infection itself.