Fasten your seatbelt, it's going to be a bumpy ride

[Sadsack]

Global Update
Drug-Resistant Flu Strain Turns Up in Denmark but Doesn’t Last Long



By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: June 29, 2009
The first case of swine flu resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu has been found in Denmark, according to Danish health officials.
Skip to next paragraph Times Topics: Swine Flu (AH1N1 Virus)




The patient appears to have recovered without infecting anyone else, and experts said the recent history of Tamiflu resistance made it unlikely that the short-lived Danish strain would have been good at spreading to others.
An executive of Roche, the Swiss maker of Tamiflu, held a telephone news conference to describe the progress of the Danish patient, who apparently developed the resistant strain while being protectively treated with a low Tamiflu dose because a close contact had the swine flu. Doctors switched treatment to a different but related drug, Relenza, and the patient recovered.
In the past, Tamiflu-resistant strains of the seasonal flu have been found in Japan, which has used more than half the world’s supply of the drug each year. But those strains were weak and did not spread. A Tamiflu-resistant strain of the H5N1 bird flu was also isolated from a Vietnamese patient being treated with low-dose Tamiflu in 2005, but it also died out.
Tamiflu resistance that did spread in seasonal flu emerged last year from a spontaneous mutation known as H274Y on the N gene. The mutant strain dominated the seasonal H1N1 flu during the past flu season in the United States, before swine flu was discovered in Mexico.
Virologists fear swine flu will soon pick up resistance by merging with seasonal H1N1 flu, perhaps in the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season is just beginning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/he...0glob.html?hpw

[Kritters]

SS,

From what I understand, the H1N1 IS the swine flu!!! The swine, human, bird all wrapped up neatly in recombinant DNA and released into the environment. They called it the swine flu on mainstream media (and still are) and of course, destroyed the pork industry.....

I'd like to know who leaks this crap information to mainstream media.....

xoKritts

[Sadsack]

Kritters -
You are right - H1N1 is a flu recipe of swine, human, and bird. Sometimes it's called Swine flu, but that is misleading.
The article is a NY Times article, but it is poorly written, in that it confuses the different strains.
I guess the point is that it is already mutating into a resistant strain. Just wait till the flu season.
SS

[Kritters]

Right SS... and once it mutates into a different strain, the (millions) spent by the govt. to stockpile the vaccine for the h1n1 will no longer be effective!

Just what the doctor ordered. People will die because the vaccine won't work, and big pharma makes billions anyway.

Won't it be just excellent if the strain actually is reduced in any kind of strength? That could happen. Unless......

Kritts

[carla]

When people start dying it will be as a direct result of the Vaccine they are going to force on us.

Even if you think that Baxter never sent the contaminated vaccines out deliberately, should they be trusted to produce the vaccines for this strain.

They call it Swine Flu because we are all pigs to them.

[tcmgpt13]

New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study | Health | Reuters

New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study

Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:37am EDT (article follows below)





By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new H1N1 influenza virus bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, with a greater ability to infect the lungs than common seasonal flu viruses, researchers reported on Monday.
Tests in several animals confirmed other studies that have shown the new swine flu strain can spread beyond the upper respiratory tract to go deep into the lungs -- making it more likely to cause pneumonia, the international team said.
In addition, they found that people who survived the 1918 pandemic seem to have extra immune protection against the virus, again confirming the work of other researchers.
"When we conducted the experiments in ferrets and monkeys, the seasonal virus did not replicate in the lungs," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, who led the study.
The H1N1 virus replicates significantly better in the lungs."
The new swine flu virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, infecting more than a million people, according to estimates, and killing at least 500. The World Health Organization says it is causing mostly moderate disease but Kawaoka said that does not mean it is like seasonal flu.
"There is a misunderstanding about this virus," he said in a statement. "There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza."
Writing in the journal Nature, Kawaoka and colleagues noted that the ability to infect the lungs is a characteristic of other pandemic viruses, especially the 1918 virus, which is estimated to have killed between 40 million and 100 million people.


OLD PROTECTION


They tested the virus in blood samples taken from nursing home residents and workers in 1999 in California, Wisconsin, the Netherlands and Japan.
People born before 1920 had a strong antibody response to the new H1N1 virus, meaning their body "remembered" it from infection early in life. This finding supports a study published in Nature in August that also found people who survived the 1918 pandemic still had immune protection against that virus.


Flu viruses change constantly, which is why people can be re-infected and why the vaccine must be changed regularly. Current seasonal strains of H1N1 are distant cousins of both the 1918 pandemic strain and the new H1N1 strain.


"Our findings are a reminder that swine-origin influenza viruses have not yet garnered a place in history, but may still do so, as the pandemic caused by these viruses has the potential to produce a significant impact on human health and the global economy," the researchers wrote.
Other tests showed the virus could be controlled by the antiviral drugs Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG, the researchers said.


The World Health Organization said on Monday that vaccine makers should start making immunizations against H1N1 and that healthcare workers should be first in line to get them.


Companies working on an H1N1 vaccine include Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis AG, Baxter International Inc, GlaxoSmithKline, Solvay and nasal spray maker MedImmune, now part of AstraZeneca.

[Robin]

Hey everyone,
There have been 5 confirmed cases of swine flu where i live in Worcester.the first child that died is a 13yr old boy who died at UMASS i believe it was friday eve.now there are 4 more infected.i will tell you one thing i def won't be bringing my son to the state pool til this brought under control.this is ver scary!
XO
Robin

[Jo]

Someone in my office has swine flu and I'm pretty sure my immune system isnt great, so I'm dosing on the vits etc.

weird times

Jo xxxxx

[carla]

New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study

BBC News | Health | Race to find key to killer flu

[tcmgpt13]

Jo, you may also try boosting your immune system with herbs added to food. I am adding new links about these herbs as I feel that it is very important with the cold and flu season coming up. Building up immunity before fall (lung season in TCM) and winter (kidney season and a time when the body's defenses are deep inside the body--perhaps this is why so many old folks die at this time):

Soup may help build immune system and raise white blood count naturally

More on just astragalus:

Bounce back better from colds and flu: astragalus can provide an assist to a faltering immune system | Natural Health | Find Articles at BNET

Astragalus, echinacea and licorice:

The effect in humans of three immune stimulating herbs | Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society | Find Articles at BNET

There's also a link on this thread, permalink 1, which goes to a website which tells how to make some TCM herbals for colds/flu--all from a TCM acupuncturist:

TCM Remedies for Colds/Flu

A good TCM formula to help build immunity is Minor Bupleurum. This next is a really good article from the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. This formula may also be used when trying to recover from colds and flus:

Minor Bupleurum and The Prevention of Recurrent Infections in Children - Chinese Medicine Update | Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients | Find Articles at BNET