Geneva, May 2: World Health Organization (WHO) in its guidance for health workers has cautioned that HIVdefine and the new flu strain could be a lethal combination for people with immunodeficiency diseases, leading to serious health complications.

There are strong indications that flu symptoms might be prolonged and the risk of related complications higher for certain HIVdefine-infected people. Hence these people should be considered among the priority groups in the face of the pandemic threatening the world at large.

Advise tendered by WHO
The United Nations Agency stated, “Although there are inadequate data to predict the impact of a possible human influenza pandemic on HIV-affected populations, interactions between HIV/AIDS and A (H1N1) influenza could be significant.”

“HIV-infected persons should be considered as a high risk and a priority population for preventive and therapeutic strategies against influenza including emerging influenza A(H1N1) virus infection,” it further said.

Africa, which has the highest rate of HIV prevalent cases, needs to take stock of the situation, ensuring that people lacking immunity get the drugs they need to fight off the flu infection, advised the WHO.

People with chronic underlying medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease tuberculosis), including persons with advanced HIV disease may have a poor response to immunization. Therefore, use of antiviral medications for prevention should be considered for these patients if they are likely to be exposed to people with A (H1N1).

Persons with advanced HIV disease who are not expected to mount an adequate antibody response should consider antiviral medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza if they are likely to be exposed to other people with flu.

“Patients at higher risk for complications of influenza including those with HIV infection should be among those prioritised for antiviral treatment with oseltamivir or zanamivir which shortens illness duration and severity in seasonal influenza,” the WHO guidance stated.

According to the WHO, it is advisable that people diagnosed with the flu strain start on the course of anti-virals within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. The authorities also clarified that no reactions occur on taking the drugs with the anti-retrovirals that HIV patients take for treatment of HIV/AIDS virus.

Update on the A(H1N1) virus
Mexico has been ruthlessly hit by the virus commonly known as the “swine flu”. The officials have reported more than 100 casualties. The other countries bearing the brunt of the flu, though in a milder form, are the United States, Austria, Israel, New Zealand and South Korea.

In comparison to other epidemics such as malaria, hepatitis, and meningitis, the swine flu is considered small. However, the WHO has raised a pandemic alert level to 5 (out of maximum 6) mainly because the flu can swell swiftly and ravage the poverty- and disease-ridden regions.

Swine flu is extremely contagious. Those affected need to make sure they don’t pass on the infection to others. On suspicion of flu, a lab test is essential.

No one knows if swine flu will become a horrible pandemic. That uncertainty leaves parents with worries that have no end. How can parents help themselves and their children?

“It’s calming to prepare,” says Peter Sandman, a risk communications expert in Princeton, N.J., who advises government health agencies on pandemic preparations. He’s also the father of three grown children.  “People need to be involved in trying to cope.” And for most of us, being told to wash our hands isn’t enough involvement to banish fear. Sandman told me five sensible actions that can help parents and kids feel better (see below). He also explained that children need to be told different things about swine flu, depending on their age:

Very young children pick up that parents are nervous. So parents need to acknowledge that, Sandman says. “You just want to say, ‘Yeah, we’re all a little nervous because there’s this new flu, and nobody knows much about it yet, but don’t worry, sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy are going to take care of you.’”

School-aged children need parents to listen to them. “You give them a chance to tell you what they’ve heard and what they think and what’s worrying them,” Sandman says. “If they’re off base, you can set them straight. If they’re legitimately worried, you can sympathize with them.” Parents can explain that there are very talented experts working to keep a pandemic from happening, and that Mommy and Daddy are also working to keep it from happening. You can say something like, “That’s why we’re making you wash your hands so much, that’s why we bought extra food. Yeah, you’re right to worry about that, but we’ll all get through this together,” Sandman says.

Here are the five sensible things parents can do now for the family:

1. Be worried. It’s natural to worry that your kid might have the flu, to worry that your kid might get the flu, or to worry that even if your kid doesn’t get the flu the country might go through a horrible time. Those are all very reasonable things to worry about.
2. If your child really is sick, you want to take it seriously. If your child has a fever and other flu symptoms, you need to talk to a doctor. Call and see what he or she recommends.
3. Even if your child does get sick, you don’t need to freak out. So far, the evidence is people are not getting very sick. There are two worries at the national level: 1) Swine flu could become widespread, and if millions of people get sick, even if they’re not very sick, that’s very hard on the country. It’s hard to keep the economy going. 2) The virus could get more virulent, with more deaths. But neither of those things has happened.
4. Don’t take your child to the hospital without talking to a doctor first. Hospitals are where people with respiratory infections go, and you don’t want to expose your child to really sick people if you don’t have to.
5. Now is a very reasonable time to stock up a bit more on staples. Buy a little more soup, buy a little more tuna, buy a little more peanut butter so that you don’t have to shop if your child gets sick. If you wind up wanting to stay home for a week, you want to have what you need. Let your children help you prepare by going to the store and shopping for extra food, or whatever preparations you think are appropriate. You’ll all feel better. And you’ll have that peanut butter!

Mexico’s ususal May Day celebrations have been cancelled all over the country and in the capital, Mexico City, government buildings are closed for the next five days.

Shops, restaurants, bars and gyms have shut down in an attempt to stop the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.

President Calderon has asked Mexicans to stay at home over the holiday weekend.

The health minister says there has been a noticeable drop in the number of people being admitted to hospital with severe flu symptoms, but as the BBC’s Stephen Gibbs reports from Mexico City there is still a lot of anxiety.

Genava, May 1: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that it will stop using the term ’swine flu’ for the disease affecting millions of people worldwide, and instead will refer to it as influenza A(H1N1).

The Geneva-based health agency said it would stop using the term “swine flu” to discuss the new flu strain in order to prevent any further misunderstanding that people can catch the flu from pork.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told reporters in Geneva “Rather than calling this ‘swine flu’ … we’re going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A.”

Keiji Fukuda, the health security chief of the WHO, added: “We know it is an H1N1 virus. This is scientifically accurate and doesn’t place any stigmas.”

“This is to try to reduce some of the overreactions to swine flu as a name,” Fukuda added.

The global agency’s flu name change decision comes after the agriculture industry and the UN food agency expressed concerns that the term “swine flu” was misleading consumers and needlessly causing several countries like Russia and China to ban U.S., Canadian and Mexican pork and some countries like Egypt to order the slaughter of pigs.

On Wednesday, the Egyptian government decided on culling nearly 300,000 pigs in the country as a precautionary measure against the flu, erupting outrage among people and farmers in the country. Infuriated with the decision, farmers and animal rights organizations around the world have started protesting against this unnecessary and extreme action.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have repeatedly assured that swine flu cannot be caught through contact with pork products. The agencies confirmed on their Websites that this strain of influenza is not spread by food, instead spreading through human-to-human contact.

Global spread of virus

According to WHO’s fresh data, As of 06:00 GMT, 1 May 2009, 11 countries have officially reported 331 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Mexico has reported 156 confirmed human cases of infection, including nine deaths, while the number of cases in the United States now tops 109, including one death.

Other countries with laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths include- Austria (1), Canada (34), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8).

About swine flu

CDC describes the swine influenza (swine flu) as a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine influenza viruses are most commonly of the H1N1 subtype, but other subtypes have also been isolated in pigs-H1N2, H3N1, H3N2.

Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. Its symptoms in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza, including fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing.

In order to prevent infection by the virus, WHO recommends people to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis, and advises to seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.

The agency also confirms that people cannot contract the virus if they consume properly handled and cooked pork (pig meat) or other products derived from pigs. Cooking pork to internal temperatures of 160°F/70°C kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.

Lima, April 30: Health authorities in Peru confirmed the country’s first case of swine flu.

The victim was an Argentinian woman who was in Mexico only for a few hours on a layover when travelling from the US to Argentina, Peru’s Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said Wednesday.

The 27-year-old was hospitalised with high fever, nosebleeds and a cough at a quarantine ward in Callao province near the capital Lima, he said.

The woman was en route Monday from California to Argentina via Mexico and Panama when she felt unwell during the flight and the captain asked for an unscheduled landing in Peru, where the woman was then hospitalised.

Peru’s authorities are concentrating on examining travellers in their attempts to stem an outbreak of the disease. At Lima’s international airport 5,146 passengers from 39 flights arriving from North America have been examined, authorities said.

Argentina meanwhile halted all passenger flights to and from Mexico. The measure was to remain in place until Monday, cabinet chief Sergio Massa said, adding that health authorities were examining three suspected cases of swine flu. Temperature scanners have been installed at the Buenos Aires international airport.

Medication
The human swine influenza (H1N1) is being treated with antivirals oseltamavir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). Tamiflu is a tablet while Relenza is to be inhaled.

Not only do these drugs ease the symptoms, but also prevent further spread of the infection. Plus, they cut down the duration of illness by a day.

Availability
Since Tamiflu and Relenza are the most effective treatment options for swine flu, governments are releasing stockpiles of the two drugs. Most of the stock was built up over three years after the 2006 Avian flu scare. A large chunk of the US stock was built in 2007-2008.

In the UK, the NHS signed contracts with pharmaceutical companies Roche, which manufactures Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactures Relenza, to double its storage.

Vaccine
Despite scientists working feverishly to develop a vaccine against swine flu, the process will take at least six months, according to the European commission briefing in Luxembourg recently.

Word of Caution
Swine flu is extremely contagious. Those affected need to make sure they don’t pass on the infection to others. If you suspect you have swine flu, you will need a lab test as there’s no other way to confirm.

Geneva, April 30: A total of 148 confirmed swine flu cases have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN agency said.

As of Wednesday, cases were reported from nine countries, including 91 from the US with one death and 26 from Mexico with seven deaths, the agency said in its latest update.

The other seven countries that have reported laboratory-confirmed cases with no deaths include Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and Britain (5), the agency said.

Mexico City, April 30: The number of confirmed swine flu infections in Mexico climbed from 49 to 91, with eights deaths caused by the new strain, Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova has said.

The latest figures came shortly after the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva raised the pandemic alert for swine flu by one level to phase 5.

The declaration of phase 5 by WHO Director General Margaret Chan Wednesday night is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent, but not inevitable. The second-highest phase is characterised by human-to-human spread of the virus in at least two countries in one WHO region.

There have been close to 160 deaths and nearly 2,500 infections in Mexico’s flu outbreak. Of these, more than 1,300 people remain in hospital, but most have not yet been identified as swine flu cases.

Apart from Mexico, which is the epicentre of the outbreak, WHO reported confirmed swine flu cases in Canada, the US, Israel, Spain, Britain and New Zealand. Costa Rica said it had two confirmed cases and 25 suspected cases were pending testing.

Chan said all countries should activate pandemic flu plans and called on governments and health authorities to be on high alert for influenza-like illnesses and pneumonia.

“The situation remains serious,” Cordova said, adding that all non-essential state and federal government offices and private businesses would be closed until May 6. Only essential service providers such as hospitals, transport, supermarkets and garbage collectors were to remain open.

Mexico City’s Finance Minister Mario Delgado told a press conference Wednesday that the government would give 50 pesos (about $4) per day to those workers who have suffered because of the limitations on movement and closure of several establishments.

Those hospitalised were to be compensated with 3,000 pesos (about $200), he said.

On Tuesday, Mexico City banned restaurants from serving food on their premises, although they can sell take-away meals. The move affected an estimated 35,000 restaurants and some 450,000 jobs.

Argentina suspended flights to and from Mexico from Wednesday until at least Monday, as it awaited test results of three suspected cases of swine flu.

Cuba Tuesday suspended flights to and from Mexico. The measure was to last 48 hours, but was later extended indefinitely, according to an official statement published Wednesday in Communist Party daily Granma.

Germany, April 29: More evidence of the global spread of the swine flu emerged Wednesday as German authorities confirmed three swine flu cases.

The three cases confirmed by the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s national disease control center, include two women, aged 22 and 37, and a man in his 30s. All had recently traveled to Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak.

With this, Germany becomes the third European country, after Spain and Britain, where the disease has surfaced.

In Mexico, 159 people are believed to have died from swine flu. Another 1,300 people are reportedly hospitalized, some of them “critically” ill, US health authorities revealed.

According to latest reports, 65 cases have been confirmed in the United States, 14 in New Zealand, 13 in Canada, one in Costa Rica, two in Spain, two in Britain, and two in Israel. Nations with suspected infections are Australia, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Hong Kong, France, Indonesia, Ireland, Poland, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, Colombia, Switzerland and Thailand.

With the threat of a pandemic looming large, the World Health Organization said it may raise its pandemic alert level to Phase 5 — the second highest. The Mexican authorities have already declared the 2009 swine flu outbreak as a public health emergency.

The custom authorities worldwide have also stepped up the health screenings vigil. Visitors from countries where the outbreak has been reported are being closely screened. Also, travelers are being urged to cancel trips.

Swine Flu, also called swine influenza, is a respiratory disease seen in pigs. Caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in swine (most commonly the type A influenza virus), the infection is typically characterized by symptoms like chills, running nose, sore throat, cough, fever, severe headache and body ache and a general feeling of discomfort.

As the virus spreads easily through air and touch, preventive actions like washing hands, covering coughs with an arm or shoulder, can cut risk manifold. Keeping inside and avoiding contact with infected persons is the key.