02 March 2013/19 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/12 Esfand 1391
While the main streamers have been reporting a decline in flu cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said cases of flu B are increasing.
A nursing student became the fifth person to die from flu in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
Iowa U.S.A. records its first infant death due to the flu.
Indiana U.S.A. reporting 61 deaths.
In Ohio U.S.A., ProMedica lifted visitor restrictions at its hospitals.
Oklahoma U.S.A. reporting 30 deaths.
In Minnesota U.S.A., 17 more people died in past two weeks. Health officials say five times as many have died, so far, as did in the 2011-12 season.
In Montana U.S.A., visitor restrictions have been lifted at Billings hospitals, except for neo-natal intensive care units.
San Diego County, in California U.S.A., reporting near record deaths, now at 43.
In Nova Scotia, Canada, the South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgwater is considering restricting visitation to its forth floor. This is because of an apparent flu outbreak.
A new study says that getting vaccinated two years in a row actually makes it easier for you to get sick! Researchers looked at case histories of the 2010-11 flu season in Michigan U.S.A., and found that vaccines did nothing to prevent people from getting sick, unless it was the first time they got vaccinated. Basically the data suggests that people who get vaccinated year after year are wasting their time, and it has health researchers puzzled because it blows away the official mantra that you should get flu shots every year!
In the United Kingdom, a study shows that there is a link between swine flu vaccines and narcolepsy in children: “The increased risk of narcolepsy after vaccination with ASO3 adjuvanted pandemic A/H1N1 2009 vaccine indicates a causal association, consistent with findings from Finland.”-Elizabeth Miller, Health Protection Agency
This comes as India reports thousands of new swine flu cases. The territory of Delhi is dealing with more than one thousand cases in the past two months, 11 people have died. India’s Health Ministry says 275 people have died since 01 January 2013. The state of Rajasthan has the most deaths, at 112 so far.
Also in India, the Animal Diseases Research Institute has been testing birds for the new version of H5N1. So far many healthy birds with no symptoms are testing positive: “Some of the wild ducks are carriers of the virus which may have led to the positive flu report by Bhopal-based High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory. Even the Northern Pintail, which tested positive, was healthy.”-unnamed Animal Diseases Research Institute source
In Cambodia, the newest H5N1 bird flu has become so rampant that the government is ordering health officials, and even police, to stop it. At least eight people, mainly children, have died in the past six weeks! To put that in perspective, in the previous ten years only 19 Cambodians have died from H5N1. The most recent victim was a 35 years old man who ate an infected duck. Health officials say this year’s bird flu is jumping to humans more easily: “We conducted investigations and found that all the cases were transmission from the poultry. There is no evidence of transmission from human to human at this stage.”-Ly Sovann, Ministry of Health’s deputy director for communicable diseases control
Hong Kong reports two people dead from H5N1 in the past two weeks.
Note that India, Cambodia and Hong Kong are places that are considered humid (like most of South Asia and South East Asia), and they have relatively higher influenza cases. Now the CDC issued a report saying flu viruses become weaker in humid conditions. One CDC official said “The virus just falls apart” at higher humidity levels. Yeah right, try telling that to the people living in humid South East Asia!