Jan 9 2012
La Nina - herald of drought - may linger into spring


The U.S. government forecaster warned on Thursday that La Nina, the weather phenomenon blamed for searing drought in the southern United States and South America, may last longer than expected into the Northern Hemisphere spring.

In a trend that one analyst likened to the start of the Dust Bowl 80 years ago, the Climate Prediction Center said sea-temperature data suggests La Nina "will be of weak-to-moderate strength this winter, and will continue thereafter as a weak event until it likely dissipates sometime between March and May".

In its monthly report in December, it had said La Nina should dissipate "with the onset of the northern spring".

The prolonged phenomenon, although weaker than it was a year ago, threatens to roil commodity markets from corn to coffee as dry conditions in Argentina and Brazil whither crops while the southern United States -- a prime growing area for cotton and some wheat -- suffers through a once-a-century drought.

La Nina, which can last for several years, is the opposite number of the more infamous El Nino anomaly and is caused by an abnormal cooling of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/ ... HW20120105


Warm weather threatens to extend U.S. drought


A New Year's Eve "heat wave" melted away welcomed winter snow that had brought some drought relief to the U.S. Plains, reviving fears that harmfully warm and dry conditions will persist into 2012, U.S. climatologists said in a report issued Thursday.

"The return of warm, dry weather to the nation's southern tier could be suggestive of an increasingly La Nina-driven atmospheric regime," said the U.S. Drought Monitor report, issued weekly by a team of national, state and academic climatology experts.

La Nina, a phenomenon in which the surface temperature of the east-central Pacific Ocean is cooler than normal, often results in dry weather in the central United States. It is already affecting crop conditions in South America where dry weather is hurting corn and soy production.

Record highs for December 31 were notched in Childress, Texas, where the thermometer hit 83 degrees Fahrenheit, and in Topeka, Kansas, where the mercury climbed to 66 degrees.

Texas remained fully in the grip of extreme and "exceptional" levels of drought, with more than 67 percent of the state considered to be suffering the worst levels of dryness.

An estimated 80 percent of the rangeland and pastures in Texas remain in very poor to poor condition due to lack of sufficient moisture, according to an early-January report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Wildfires raged through Texas, crops failed and cattle went hungry and thirsty amid the 2011 drought.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/ ... RH20120105


See news about la nina abets pandemics

Jan 11 2012
Greek Crisis Has Pharmacists Pleading for Aspirin as Drug Supply Dries Up


For patients and pharmacists in financially stricken Greece, even finding aspirin has turned into a headache.

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.

“When we see red, we want to cry,” Mavrou said. “The situation is worsening day by day.”

The 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.

The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of slowing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients, Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, wrote in an October article in The Lancet.

The Greek Ministry of Health didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

‘Many Difficulties’

“It would be unrealistic to deny that there are many difficulties regarding all public services due to the financial crisis,” Nicolaos Polyzos, secretary general of the Ministry of Health, wrote in a response to McKee’s article posted on the ministry’s website. “However, this cannot justify characterizing the current picture of (the) health sector in Greece as a ‘tragedy.’”

The reasons for the shortages are complex. One major cause is the Greek government, which sets prices for medicines. As part of an effort to cut its own costs, Greece has mandated lower drug prices in the past year. That has fed a secondary market, drug manufacturers contend, as wholesalers sell their shipments outside the country at higher prices than they can get within Greece.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-1 ... es-up.html

Jan 13 2012
12 Infected With New Swine Flu Strain


The days of medical masks at airports and widespread panic may be coming back—that's because at least 12 humans are believed to have been infected with a new strain of swine flu that's not covered by this season's vaccine.

The new swine flu strain, H3N2v, has shown at least some potential for human-to-human transmission in those 12 individuals, which makes it especially dangerous. Between 2009 and mid-2010, more than 17,000 people died worldwide from the highly contagious H1N1 swine flu strain, leading the World Health Organization to call the strain a pandemic.

The 12 people with the new swine flu strain live in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Officials for the Centers for Disease Control say the sample size of H3N2 infections is too small to know whether it will pose a threat to the population at large.

"It's a very small sample and it's geographically spread, which makes it more difficult to get a handle on it," says Jeffrey Dimond, a CDC spokesman. "Most of the cases have come through direct contact with the animals, through the 4H Club and that sort of thing."

In order to have a true threat of causing an epidemic or pandemic, Dimond says the virus needs to spread easily between humans.

"If you're in close contact with someone who's ill, that's one thing," he says. "To make it like the pandemic flu of a few years ago, it has to be highly contagious from human to human."

H3N2v or another new flu strain could disrupt what CDC officials expected to be a relatively quiet flu season. Each year's flu vaccine protects against specific strains of the virus that researchers expect to circulate. In October, Joe Bresee, chief of CDC's influenza epidemiology and prevention branch, said he was confident this year's vaccine would protect against the most dangerous flu strains.

"The flu viruses this year's vaccine will protect against are very well-matched to those flu viruses that [were] circulating [in October]," he said. "We will have a vaccine that provides good protection this season to help keep influenza illness and serious complications down."

While it's too early to tell if the new H3N2 strain (or another unexpected strain) will develop into a larger threat, the CDC admits the current vaccine will do little to help stop the virus.

"These viruses are substantially different from human influenza A (H3N2) viruses, so the seasonal vaccine is expected to provide limited cross-protection among adults and no protection to children," the CDC wrote in a report released in late November.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/201 ... flu-strain

PFTF Jan 16 2012
WHO will take a role in solving issued raised by bird flu studies controversy


The World Health Organization says it will take a role in helping sort through an international scientific controversy over two bird flu studies that the U.S. government deemed too dangerous to publish in full.

The scientific and biosecurity communities have been mired in heated debate over the issue for weeks. Voices from both sides have been calling on the WHO to take a lead role in the discussions, saying any solution must be international in scope.

In an interview Sunday, a senior WHO official said the agency will pull together international talks aimed at fleshing out the issues that need to be addressed and then work to resolve them.

"It's the right organization to bring ... balance to the discussion to make sure that the technical and scientific and the political and the public health concerns are all brought together," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment, told The Canadian Press.

The issues are thorny, raising among others concerns about the free flow of science, global biosecurity and the future of a fragile new international agreement on sharing flu viruses for disease surveillance and vaccine manufacture.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/role-solving-i ... 46169.html

PFTF Jan 17 2012
La Nina 'may abet' flu pandemics


La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.

US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say that flu-carrying birds may change migratory patterns during La Nina conditions.

However, many other La Nina events have not seen novel flu strains spread around the world, they caution.

So while the climatic phenomenon may make a pandemic more likely, they say, it is not sufficient on its own - and may not be necessary either.

La Nina is the cold cousin of El Nino - the two collectively making up the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"Certainly ENSO affects weather and precipitation and humidity around the world," said Jeffrey Shaman from Columbia University in New York.

"But the effects are very varied around the world - there's no coherent picture."

Nevertheless, the last four pandemics - the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1958 and the swine flu of 2009 - were all preceded by periods of La Nina conditions.

What pandemics have in common is that they all feature novel strains of the virus to which people have not developed immunity.

Typically these are created when two existing strains infecting an animal such as a bird or a pig exchange genetic material.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16577612



La Nina Forecast to Strengthen Into 2012, Climate Center Says

La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather around the world, is expected to strengthen gradually into 2012, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.

Cool spots in the eastern Pacific Ocean are about 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) below average, the center said in a report today.

“La Nina is not as strong as it was in September 2010,” the center said. “Roughly one-half of the models predict La Nina to strengthen during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter.”

On average, La Ninas occur every three to five years and last from nine to 12 months. They sometimes occur in back-to- back years, as is happening now. Last year’s La Nina was a contributor to record flooding in Australia and in the U.S., the persistent Texas drought and an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology and agencies of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

La Nina cuts down on wind shear in the Atlantic, which can inhibit hurricane formation, according to NOAA.

When La Ninas come in back-to-back years, the second has been weaker than the first in the three of the five such occurrences since 1950, the climate center said. This year, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s forecast says the current La Nina may become as strong as last year’s.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-0 ... -says.html

Jan 18 2012 recap of yesterday and Greeks strike
Roche Tamiflu’s Effectiveness Unproven Due to Hidden Data, Researchers Say


Roche Holding AG (ROG)’s Tamiflu antiviral treatment may not be as safe and effective as the Swiss drugmaker says, according to independent researchers who asked the company to publish data withheld from public review.

While Tamiflu helps flu sufferers feel better an average of 21 hours more quickly after initial symptoms, it didn’t reduce the number of people who went on to be hospitalized, researchers at the non-profit Cochrane Collaboration said today in a report. Though stockpiled to prevent the spread of flu, the drug hasn’t been proven effective for that purpose, the British Medical Journal said in an article published with the Cochrane report.

More information is needed to assess whether stockpiling Tamiflu is a good use of government funds, BMJ said. The drug generated 3.2 billion Swiss francs ($3.37 billion) in sales in 2009, the height of the H1N1 flu pandemic. Basel-based Roche said the medicine is safe and effective.


“It may be that shortening symptoms for 21 hours is a good value for money,” Deborah Cohen, BMJ’s investigations editor, said in a telephone interview. “I remain to be convinced. The bottom line is that people need to have access to all the data. They need to be able to do an independent review.”

The Cochrane report cited a “gap between evidence and policy,” saying the official pandemic-response plans in the U.S. and U.K. are based in part on research that hadn’t been published.

In December 2009, after Tamiflu had established itself as the mainstay of H1N1 treatment, Cochrane released its first report saying the drug’s effectiveness in treating flu complications couldn’t be proven because Roche wouldn’t supply data from eight studies.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-1 ... s-say.html

PFTF Jan 20 2012 its Friday all over the map
More labs close to deadly bird flu mutations: researcher


An international debate over whether to censor new research on bird flu may soon prove academic, as other laboratories close in on similar findings showing how one of the most deadly viruses could mutate to be transmitted from one person to another.

Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands is pushing for openness. He is the lead researcher on one of the studies that showed how the H5N1 virus can be transmitted through airborne droplets between ferrets, a model for studying influenza in humans.

In December a U.S. advisory board asked two leading journals, Nature and Science, to withhold details of the research for fear it could be used by bioterrorists.

Bird flu is already one of the most deadly, though it can only be acquired through contact with infected birds. The potential for it to pass between people, through sneezes and coughs, sparks fears of a global pandemic worse than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed an estimated 20 million to 40 million people.

In an opinion piece published in Science on Thursday, Fouchier argued for the release the research to help public health officials better prepare for a scenario where the virus could mutate and become more deadly, spreading from person to person via coughs and sneezes.

He emphasized that other researchers are close to the same findings, some of them inadvertently, and should be warned in advance how the virus could become airborne.

"We have identified, from the published literature, laboratories working with H5N1 viruses that may only require one to three mutations before the viruses used may become transmissible" via airborne particles, the Erasmus team wrote.

They did not identify the other laboratories, though other experts say they include facilities in both government and academia.

http://news.yahoo.com/more-labs-close-d ... 02154.html



Indonesia confirms second bird flu death this year


A five-year-old toddler has died from the bird flu virus in Jakarta, Indonesia, officials said on Thursday.

The H5N1 virus also claimed the lives of a man in Vietnam and of a toddler in Cambodia this week.

The three deaths bring the total number of avian influenza fatalities in the region to five in the last three weeks.

A man diagnosed with China's first case of bird flu in more than a year died in Shenzhen on 31 December. A man died in Jakarta, Indonesia on 7 January.

It is believed that the 23-year-old was a family member of the toddler, and they were both in contact with sick pigeons.

In Vietnam tests confirmed that the 18-year-old man, who died on Monday, had contracted the disease, health officials said. This was the country's first bird flu death since April 2010.

He was working at a duck farm in Can Tho City in the Mekong delta. He came down with a high fever and developed problems.

Officials said that his house had been disinfected and people who were in contact with him placed under surveillance.


The two-year-old Cambodian boy from the northwestern Banteay Meanchey province fell ill on 3 January and was believed to have been in contact with sick poultry.

'Flu season'

The World Health Organization says the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has killed 342 people since 2003.

The majority of human cases of H5N1 infection have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry.

In South East Asia Vietnam has seen one of the highest numbers of deaths, with 59 fatalities since 2003, according to WHO data.

The winter months, also the flu season, is when outbreaks happen among poultry stocks, leading to possible human infection.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16644087


Vietnam, Cambodia report bird flu deaths


Vietnam on Thursday confirmed its first human death from bird flu in nearly two years, a day after neighboring Cambodia also logged its first fatality this year as new cases of the H5N1 virus are reported in Asia and the Middle East.

Both deaths appear to be linked to contact with poultry, and no human-to-human transmission is suspected. Other human bird flu cases have been reported recently in Indonesia, Egypt and China. Outbreaks typically flare among poultry stocks during the winter flu months, often resulting in a spate of human cases.

In Vietnam, test results confirmed that an 18-year-old Vietnamese man died of the disease Monday after being hospitalized a day earlier, said Dang Thi Thanh of southern Kien Giang province's health department.

She said the man was working at a duck farm in neighboring Can Tho City when he fell sick with a high fever and breathing problems. His house has been disinfected and those who were in contact with him remain under surveillance.


No sick or dead poultry have been reported on the two farms where the man worked or among neighboring flocks, but samples have been collected for analysis and the farms have been disinfected, said Huynh Thi Khai Hoan, an animal health officer in Can Tho City. However, many of the ducks on the farms where the man worked had already been sold.


In Cambodia, a 2-year-old boy died Wednesday after developing symptoms Jan. 3. He was reportedly in contact with sick poultry in his village, according to the World Health Organization. The country's last death occurred in August.

The virus rarely infects humans and usually only those who come in direct contact with diseased poultry, but experts fear it will mutate into a new form that passes easily from person to person.

http://news.yahoo.com/vietnam-cambodia- ... 15255.html

PFTF Jan 20 2012 its Friday all over the map
Hospital's water wall source of Legionnaires' Disease


Fountains and water walls can be sources of calm, of negative ions that improve the moods of those around them.

But they can also be fonts of a dangerous bacterial disease, especially in hospitals, public health disease investigators in Wisconsin are reporting.

In a new study, staff of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health detail how eight people contracted Legionnaires' disease from tiny bacteria-laced water droplets sprayed from a water feature in the lobby of a hospital.

None of the people were in-patients; three were there for medical appointments, three were picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy, one was a delivery person and one was waiting for a relative who had an appointment.

Yet in as little time as those activities took, the eight were infected with Legionella bacteria which causes Legionnaires. All needed to be hospitalized, though all eight recovered.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/201 ... tures.html

PFTF Jan 20 2012 its Friday all over the map
Influenza "A" Case Reported In Wichita


January 17, 2012

The first influenza A flu case of the season has been reported at a Wichita hospital.

Wesley Medical Center officials said the hospital treated its first influenza A patient over the weekend. Influenza A can be various single-strands with different subtypes.

Symptoms include body aches, chills, dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting. Others may also include dry cough, runny nose and a sore throat. Symptoms can last for up to seven days.

http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/H1N1 ... 37868.html

PFTF Jan 20 2012 its Friday all over the map
Korean actor stricken with Swine Flu


Korean actor Jo Donghyeok's management agency revealed on Tuesday that the actor, who had recently completed shooting for the popular Korean drama "Brain", has been diagnosed with the influenza A (H1N1) virus on Monday, reported Korean media.

"We have cleared his schedule and he is currently resting at home," said a representative from Jo's management agency.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 39/1/.html


PFTF Jan 20 2012 its Friday all over the map
Child victim dies of H1N1 Influenza in Oaxaca


The victim was less than four months in January, health services in Oaxaca have registered 57 cases of Influenza A H1N1 positive

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... -en-oaxaca

PFTF Jan 23 2012
Scientists behind deadly lab-bred bird flu suspend work

Scientists who created easier-to-spread versions of the deadly bird flu said Friday they are temporarily halting more research, as international specialists debate what should happen next.

Researchers from leading flu laboratories around the world signed onto the voluntary moratorium, published Friday in the journals Science and Nature.

What the scientists called a "pause" comes amid fierce controversy over how to handle research that is high-risk but potentially could bring a big payoff. Two labs -- at Erasmus University in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin-Madison -- created the new viruses while studying how bird flu might mutate to become a bigger threat to people.

The U.S. government funded the work but last month urged the teams not to publicly reveal the exact formula so that would-be bioterrorists couldn't copy it. Critics also worried a lab accident might allow the strains to escape. The researchers reluctantly agreed not to publish all the details as long as the government set up a system to provide them to legitimate scientists who really need to know. The National Institutes of Health is creating such a system.

"We recognize that we and the rest of the scientific community need to clearly explain the benefits of this important research and the measures taken to minimize its possible risks," lead researchers Ron Fouchier of Erasmus and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of Wisconsin wrote Friday in the letter. They were joined by nearly three dozen other flu researchers.

They called for a public international meeting to debate how to learn from the work, safely. And they agreed to hold off on additional research with the existing lab-bred strains or that leads to any new ones for 60 days.

A U.S. official praised the development.

The moratorium "is a really good idea, because a lot of very important issues are at hand," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who expects most flu researchers doing such work to sign on. "There aren't a lot of people who are doing that, I can assure you."



Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/201201 ... z1k5WSIRyj



La Nina 'may abet' flu pandemics


La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.

US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say that flu-carrying birds may change migratory patterns during La Nina conditions.

However, many other La Nina events have not seen novel flu strains spread around the world, they caution.

So while the climatic phenomenon may make a pandemic more likely, they say, it is not sufficient on its own - and may not be necessary either.

La Nina is the cold cousin of El Nino - the two collectively making up the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"Certainly ENSO affects weather and precipitation and humidity around the world," said Jeffrey Shaman from Columbia University in New York.

"But the effects are very varied around the world - there's no coherent picture."

Nevertheless, the last four pandemics - the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1958 and the swine flu of 2009 - were all preceded by periods of La Nina conditions.

What pandemics have in common is that they all feature novel strains of the virus to which people have not developed immunity.

Typically these are created when two existing strains infecting an animal such as a bird or a pig exchange genetic material.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16577612



La Nina Forecast to Strengthen Into 2012, Climate Center Says

La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather around the world, is expected to strengthen gradually into 2012, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.

Cool spots in the eastern Pacific Ocean are about 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) below average, the center said in a report today.

“La Nina is not as strong as it was in September 2010,” the center said. “Roughly one-half of the models predict La Nina to strengthen during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter.”

On average, La Ninas occur every three to five years and last from nine to 12 months. They sometimes occur in back-to- back years, as is happening now. Last year’s La Nina was a contributor to record flooding in Australia and in the U.S., the persistent Texas drought and an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology and agencies of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

La Nina cuts down on wind shear in the Atlantic, which can inhibit hurricane formation, according to NOAA.

When La Ninas come in back-to-back years, the second has been weaker than the first in the three of the five such occurrences since 1950, the climate center said. This year, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s forecast says the current La Nina may become as strong as last year’s.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-0 ... -says.html


PFTF Jan 23 2012
Bioterror fears halt research on mutant bird flu


Scientists who created a potentially more deadly bird flu strain have temporarily stopped their research amid fears it could be used by terrorists.

In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams call for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies.

US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications.

A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists.

Biosecurity experts fear an altered, more contagious form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people.

'Right step'

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended key details be omitted from publication of the research, which sparked international furore.

"I would have preferred if this hadn't caused so much controversy, but it has happened and we can't change that," Ron Fouchier, a researcher from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, told Science Insider.

"So I think it's the right step to make."

While the H5N1 strain of bird flu is extremely deadly when caught by humans, its impact has so far been limited because it is not easily transmissible between humans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16662346

PFTF Jan 23 2012
Baby Dies of H1N1 Flu in Athens


A seven- month- old Libyan baby died in an Athens Children's hospital on Friday in the first fatality linked to the H1N1 flu virus of the new year in Greece, local authorities reported.

According to local media reports citing Greek doctors who treated the boy, he had been infected with the virus in Libya, where he was diagnosed with common flu and received insufficient therapy, before transferred to Greece.

An Ukrainian woman who is being treated in another Greek hospital for pneumonia is the second severe case of the swine flu to be reported in the country this season.

Last year deaths caused by the H1N1 virus in Greece climbed exceeded the 100 victims and many more patients were treated for complications caused by the virus which first emerged in 2009 in Asia and developed into a worldwide pandemic.

http://english.cri.cn/6966/2012/01/20/2561s677361.htm


PFTF Jan 23 2012
Two die of A(H1N1) swine flu in Mexico: official


An outbreak of A(H1N1) swine flu claimed the lives of two people -- 19 and 21 years old -- in Mexico's capital in the first weeks of the year, health authorities said Saturday.

The health secretary of Mexico's Federal District, Armando Ahued, said there were 138 confirmed cases of the flu, including 110 cases of A(H1N1), a novel strain of the swine flu that was first detected in 2009.

Nationwide, 333 cases of the virus have been confirmed, the federal government's health secretary said earlier in the week, without saying how many deaths had been attributed to it.

The latest victims were a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old who died in separate hospitals.

"The tendency toward an increase in flu cases is normal because January is the month with the lowest temperatures," said Ahued adding that the incidence of flu should begin to subside in February.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... b9f2c3.1e1


PFTF Jan 23 2012
Man dies of swine flu in city

Swine flu claimed its first victim this year in city on Friday evening. A 60-year-old resident of Secunderabad succumbed to the virus at a private hospital in the city.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... e-hospital





note India also has an outbreak of H5N1...something to keep an eye on...birds deaths were a few weeks ago,but so far no reports on what they died of..just making a side note for myself to keep an eye on the region for a possible mutation of swine/bird


Poultry exports hit after flu outbreak in Odhisa, Meghalaya


Poultry companies are exercising caution with the outbreak of bird flu in parts of Odisha and Meghalaya, though they think it could be temporary and may not spread to other regions. But egg exporters aren't lucky thanks to an export ban in place for the next six months.

Bird cull which began in the two states is expected to carry on for a few days. The two states have put a quarantine procedure in place.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... -avian-flu

PFTF Jan 23 2012
COLOMBIA :: A 13-year-old died in Popayan H1N flu

"The health secretary manager in the Cauca, Rene Zuniga, confirmed the death of a 13-year-old in a nursing Popayan on 10 January, shortly after making his income."

Read Full Article At :: http://www.radiosantafe.com/2012/01/19/ ... gripe-h1n/

Google Translation :: http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... ipe-h1n%2F


http://outbreaks.globalincidentmap.com/ ... hp?ID=9914

PFTF Jan 23 2012
Swine flu cases recorded in Turkey


Turkey’s Health Ministry informed that cases of the H1N1 virus were recorded in the country this winter.

The Ministry’s representative noted that although they came across cases of the swine flu, these cases are very light and there is no reason to panic, Vatan daily of Turkey informs.


http://news.am/eng/news/89192.html

How Hard Would It Be for Avian Flu to Spread?

Recent reports that two teams of scientists had genetically altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have provoked fear, even outrage, in some quarters.


Biosecurity advisers to the American government, which paid for the research, have urged that full details not be published for fear that terrorists could make use of them. The World Health Organization warned Friday that while such studies were important, they could have deadly consequences.

Some scientists argue that the research should not even have been done, since the modified virus could slip out of a lab and set off a lethal epidemic. Others contend that such experiments are essential to learning what naturally occurring changes in flu viruses are the most dangerous. The results could help inform efforts to predict epidemics, they say, and to develop antiviral drugs and vaccines.

There is one point on which the factions agree: The ability of a virus to spread easily from person to person is the key to determining whether it can cause a pandemic. There is much scientists do not know about what makes a virus transmissible — and much they must learn before they are able to prevent another flu pandemic. Contagion depends on a complex interplay between a virus and its victim, including where it enters the body, the types of cells in which it can reproduce and whether it can then escape to reach another human.


more at link

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/healt ... 1&src=recg