Seasonal Flu Resource Center Blog
This Week in Flu News: Friday, 11/19/2010
It’s official! Flu season has arrived and this has been one interesting week in flu news. Plenty of myth-busting news stories about the flu and even more intriguing… a lot of scientific advancements in the flu vaccine. Researchers are fast at work to improve the time it takes to develop the seasonal flu vaccine each year, as well as the accuracy of predicting future strains. Find out how with these news stories…
1) “Designing Life: What’s Next for J. Craig Venter?” CBS 60 Minutes (November 18, 2010) – “The microbiologist whose scientists have already mapped the human genome and created what he calls ‘the first synthetic species’ says the next breakthrough could be a flu vaccine that takes hours rather than months to produce. Dr. Craig Venter talks to Steve Kroft and takes him on a tour of his lab on “60 Minutes,” this Sunday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. DNA programs all living things and now that his team has been able to create an organism with entirely man made DNA Venter argues that the potential to bioengineer useful things is nearly limitless. ‘I see in the future bioengineered almost everything you can imagine that we use,’ says Venter, the founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a non-profit research lab, and also Synthetic Genomics Inc., a for-profit biotech company. ‘The first things will start to come out in the next few years…possibly, next year’s flu vaccine could come from these synthetic DNA processes,’ he tells Kroft. ‘Instead of months to make a new vaccine each year, we could do it in 24 hours or less.’” Continue reading…
2) “Rice scientists use formula to identify next strain of flu” Houston Chronicle (TX) (November 16, 2010) – “Rice University scientists have developed a mathematical model that predicts the flu strain the upcoming season’s vaccine should cover more accurately and quickly than the current system. In a retrospective study published this week, the new model did better at predicting the upcoming season’s circulating flu strains than government health agencies. The model can determine whether an incipient strain will become dominant in as soon as two weeks after the sequencing of the strain’s genetic code.” Continue reading…
3) “5 myths about the flu” USA Today (November 15, 2010) – “In a new survey by Consumer Reports, only 30% of respondents were “very confident” that this year’s flu shot is safe. That leaves many doctors and scientists perplexed. Of all the many things to fear in the world, they say, vaccines should be at the bottom of the list. USA TODAY’s Liz Szabo talked to vaccine safety experts to address some of the most common myths. TWITTER: #fluchat questions & doctor’s answers. Myth 1: The flu shot causes the flu. The viruses in the flu shot are dead, so they can’t give people the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its most common side effect is soreness in the arm… Myth 2: The flu is just a bad cold. While some people develop worse symptoms than others, flu symptoms tend to be much more severe than — and come on much more suddenly — than a cold. Many who got H1N1 (swine flu) last year were out of work or school for a week with fever, body aches, sore throat, fatigue, headaches and a runny or congested nose, according to the CDC… Myth 3: This year’s shot — which protects against both H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines — is riskier than earlier versions. Actually, the new flu shot was made the same way as every other flu shot, says Randy Bergen of Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, Calif…. Myth 4: Only sick people need a flu shot. While older people and newborns are usually at greatest risk for complications, swine flu is actually most threatening to the young… Myth 5: Flu shots contain methyl mercury and other toxic chemicals. Although there’s no evidence that the ethyl mercury-based preservative thimerosal causes harm, vaccine makers responded to public concerns in 2001 and stopped using it in most vaccines.” Continue reading…
4) “Adults urged to get flu, whooping cough vaccines to protect kids” USA Today (November 17, 2010) – “As flu cases begin appearing across the country, and California battles its largest whooping cough outbreak in more than 60 years, health officials are urging adults to get vaccinated as a way protect babies and other vulnerable patients. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends flu shots for everyone over 6 months old, only a third of Americans in this age group received one in 2009, according to the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey… Babies can’t be vaccinated against the flu until age 6 months, says the CDC’s Melinda Wharton. The only way to protect infants against these infections is to create a ‘cocoon’ of vaccinated people around them — parents, grandparents, older siblings, babysitters, Wharton says.” Continue reading…
5) “To Your Good Health: Flu attacks lungs, not digestive tract” Columbus Dispatch (OH) (November 16, 2010) – “Q: I don’t intend to get the flu vaccine. I have had the flu a couple of times, and all it amounted to was a day of diarrhea. I don’t need a vaccine for that. I have also heard that the vaccine can paralyze you. If I change my mind, when is the best time to get it? How long does it last? A: The flu, or influenza, is a serious illness. It kills about 36,000 Americans every year. It’s an illness of the respiratory system, not the digestive tract. It comes on suddenly and causes a cough with a high temperature. Muscles ache. The symptoms are much more dramatic than those of the common cold. Diarrhea is not a common sign of flu. The swine flu might cause loose stools for a day or two, but the other flu viruses don’t home in on the digestive tract. “Intestinal flu” is a misnomer. The flu vaccine works well for most people. If a vaccinated person catches the flu, symptoms are less serious and less prolonged. Reactions to the vaccine are uncommon and mostly minor — swelling at the injection site or a day or so of muscle discomfort.” Continue reading…
6) “Situation Update: Summary of Weekly FluView” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (November 7-13, 2010) — According to the November 19, 2010 FluView report, for the week of November 7-13, 2010, flu activity remained low in the United States overall, but some key indicators increased over the previous week’s report. The percentage of viruses testing positive for influenza nationally continued to increase, led by sharp increases in the southeast region of the country. This increase in the number of specimens testing positive for influenza is an early signal that flu activity is picking up. In most years, flu activity doesn’t peak until January or February, although the timing of peak influenza activity can vary from year to year and occur anytime from late fall to early spring. Continue reading…
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