H1N1 Vaccine Production Delayed

(CBS/ AP)  Making an H1N1 (swine) flu vaccine appears to be more difficult than experts first thought, the World Health Organization acknowledged Tuesday as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan met with pharmaceutical companies.

Health officials from around the world are attending WHO's annual meeting in Geneva this week to discuss the outbreak that has infected 9,000 people in over 40 countries, killing 76 of them.

Flu experts have told WHO that vaccine manufacturers will not be ready to produce a swine flu vaccine until mid-July at the earliest, WHO reported Tuesday. Previously, WHO officials had thought production could start in late May.

Experts also found no evidence that regular flu vaccines offer any protection against swine flu.

Meanwhile, dozens of countries urged the WHO to change its criteria for declaring a pandemic, saying the agency must consider how deadly a virus is - not just how far it spreads across the globe.

"This flu will continue to spread across the United States," acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Richard Besser told CBS' The Early Show.

Fearing a swine flu pandemic declaration could spark mass panic and economic devastation, Britain, Japan, China and others asked the global body on Monday to tread carefully before raising its alert. Some cited the costly and potentially risky consequences, such as switching from seasonal to pandemic vaccine, even though the virus so far appears to be mild.

Although no formal changes were made Monday, WHO said it would listen to its members' requests.

"It's certainly something we will look at very closely," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's flu chief.

The alert for swine flu is now at phase 5, which means the virus is spreading unchecked inside at least two countries in a single region. Under the existing rules, phase 6 indicates outbreaks in at least two different regions of the world and that a pandemic is under way.

"We need to give you and your team more flexibility as to whether we move to phase 6," Britain's Health Secretary Alan Johnson told WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, a public health veteran who has made combating the outbreak her top priority since the new virus appeared in North America last month.

Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and government officials as of May 19, 2009:

Deaths: Global total of 76 - 68 in Mexico, six in U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica. Officials said victims from Canada, U.S. and Costa Rica also had other medical conditions.

Confirmed cases: WHO says 40 countries have reported more than 8,829 cases, mostly in U.S. and Mexico.

CDC says 46 U.S. states plus District of Columbia have combined 5,123 confirmed and probable cases. Most probable cases are eventually confirmed.

Dozens of countries urge WHO to change its criteria for declaring a pandemic to consider how deadly a virus is - not just how far it spreads. Britain, Japan, China and others cite potential consequences such as economic devastation and how vaccine decisions would be made.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told The Associated Press she wanted more information on the countries' proposal to WHO before taking a position.

Acting CDC director says the outbreak is "not winding down" in the United States and "widespread transmission" continues. He says the epidemic is not over in Mexico.

Japanese government says it will phase out airport quarantine checks after 41 more swine cases were confirmed in the port city of Kobe and nearby Osaka. A total of 176 cases have been confirmed in Japan, making it the fourth-most infected country in the world.

China confirms its fourth case of swine flu on the mainland and says an Italian woman traveling in Tibet is also suspected of carrying the virus.

[prhansen]

The news may as well say "American Animal Food Flu" because we are the only ones dumb enough to allow food manipulation to go on and on. First Dirty Bird Flu, now Dirty Pig Flu, and next year ....Dirty Bird Eating Mad Cow and Dirty Pigs Disease. Where does it end. We got cows eating euthenized dogs and cats, and then we eat the cows. We should EXPECT to get sick !!

[prhansen]

mrs_trepidatious , you don't read much do you? Factory farming causes many more viruses than you think, and has even been the culprit in avian flu. Christ, read the newspapers, and the World Health Organizatons report. Factory farming is reaking havoc on our immune systems, and is breeding a whole slew of viruses. Try not to be so dumb about it. At least know what you are talking about.

[searingtruth]

Fellow citizens,

We are being attacked by a uniquely constructed virus that our immune system does not recognize, and therefore has no defense against. It also appears that it will be difficult to produce a reliable vaccine to defend against it because the antibody receptors (the place that our body chooses to recognize it), changes often, like HIV (AIDS). Our immune system is our bodies defense against all disease, and if it can't recognize an illness then it can't attack it.

The virus we face, H1N1, sometimes called the swine flu, is a previously unknown combination of swine (pig), Avian (bird), and human virus that has thus far produced only mild symptoms in humans. Our immune system doesn't recognize it because it has pig and bird components that throw off our immune defenses, which are designed to detect only virus and bacteria with human components. In effect, bird and pig components in a virus act as an "umbrella" that keeps our bodies from seeing them.

But while easy to catch because we have no defense against it, the reason this virus has only caused mild illness so far is because the "payload" (the toxins it produces) are much the same as any other seasonal flu. And so long as it doesn't change we will be fine.

But a virus is inherently unstable, and can mutate (change) incalculable times dependent upon its structure and environment, in only a few days. Changing their payloads lethality like a slot machine, but in this case, one in which we hope will never hit a jackpot.

You see, virus are not actual life as we normally know it, but instead exist outside of living cells as usually single, and sometimes double, strands of something called "RNA".

And RNA is a very interesting and critical substance. Because in normal cells, DNA is transcribed (think of it as translated) to RNA, and RNA is synthesized (actually made) into proteins (the actual product of the cell), often to replicate the cell itself. Things can be more complicated than this, and there can be multiple levels of RNA decoding, but this is the basic mechanism for protein production and cell reproduction. But no matter what steps involved in a cells normal transcription and synthesis processes, it is heavily protected by many levels of "error correction".

This changes when a virus infects a cell. When a virus infects a cell it inserts its RNA into the cells DNA, causing it to produce more copies of the virus itself. However, the insertion of relatively small strands of RNA into complicated strands of DNA almost always lead to "side effects", which make it difficult for the virus to replicate without error. And some virus don't even use a host cells DNA for reproduction, some replicate by RNA alone, which leads to even more replication error.

And these errors are what we know as mutations, which can lead to a virus changing to become completely benign, or globally lethal, or something in between. This is how a virus such as H1N1, which produced relatively mild illness in one flu season, can become globally lethal in another. As did the Spanish flu virus.

But there is even one more caveat of concern here. The H1N1 virus likes to gather RNA from other cells or virus, which only compounds the probability of so many varied mutations that a lethal one is at least minimally probable.

Therefore we must be vigilant and prepared. The warnings of many, including myself, to implement social distancing were not headed, so the spread of H1N1 continues unabated and has now spread into territories where H5N1 (the avian flu with a 60% mortality rate) is widespread, which offers both virus an excellent opportunity to combine and experiment with mutations until they become lethally airborne, inconsequential, or die out completely.

We can hope the latter two are true, but we must be prepared should the virus mutate into a lethally airborne contagion.
ST


"Nature, far from a benign cycle of life, is instead an endless cycle of death. Demanding not only the suffering and lives of the guilty, but also the innocent. Let us strive for improvement."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[didserve]

diversionary hype!

[Questionews]

Obviously God doesnt want mans interference while he deals with sinners.
Posted by mrs_trepidatious at 5:29 AM : May 19, 2009


Fish On!!!
Wow!! You hooked a big one with this cast! I didn't even know TJ's were in season. You may have to release this one! You should see good action today with this kind of bait.
Good luck & good fishing!!

[prhansen]

The news may as well say "American Animal Food Flu" because we are the only ones dumb enough to allow food manipulation to go on and on. First Dirty Bird Flu, now Dirty Pig Flu, and next year ....Dirty Bird Eating Mad Cow and Dirty Pigs Disease. Where does it end. We got cows eating euthenized dogs and cats, and then we eat the cows. We should EXPECT to get sick !!

[prhansen]

The government is trying to cover the whole thing up, as usual, because we caused it. It is a direct result of factory farming in this country, and we are to blame for allowing the stupid governent to manipulate our food. Period.

[moderateminded44]

Obviously God doesnt want mans interference while he deals with sinners.
Posted by mrs_trepidatious at 5:29 AM : May 19, 2009

God is man, and the reverse. Sorry, you lose again. Thanks for playing.

[txlakeside]

I just love the dumb as dirt sandwich artists and the greeters at Wal-mart telling us all what experts they are regarding infectious diseases and Pandemics. Yes it is all a conspiracy just to get the dumb as dirt to not take any vaccine. That way they will croak, then that we do not have to put up with their dumb as dirt narratives regarding their expertise in the Medical Field.

[baileyccc]

I won't be standing in line for this synthetic mercury laced poison. My immune system is more than enough for this new chapter of the swine flu. Posted by Baieyccc