I write Lots of flu news out there. Here's my short list for the day:
Helen Branswell reports that WHO is unpersuaded by the unpublished paper showing seasonal flu vaccine may raise chance of getting swine flu. (Anomalies are usually anomalies.) Canada has been thrown into quite a bit of confusion by this report, with some provinces holding off on seasonal flu vaccines.
Meanwhile, an OB notes an extraordinary death toll of H5N1 among pregnant women.
Greg Laden has an extremely short post suggesting how difficult these two bits of news are when you (or your wife) are actually pregnant. The gist: The possibility that the seasonal flu vaccine could increase risk of contracting swine flu, says Laden, "concerns me quite a bit, as my wife is 8 months pregnant, flu is a very serious risk for pregnant women and their babies, she teaches in a high school, and got her seasonal flu shot last week.."
One can hope, fervently, that the swine-flu vaccines, which start getting punched into people in the U.S. today, find their way very rapidly to a flu clinic near Laden's better half.
Meanwhile, Revere, changing his mind, decides that mandatory swine-flu vaccines for healthcare workers would backfire.
An on the treatment end, here's a front-line report from an ER doctor in Columbus. (h/t Avian Flu Diary)
Medicine & Health
