Swine flu: Transmission of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 on Vietnamese train 'a concern' 12/10/09 7:22am

Swine flu: Transmission of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 on Vietnamese train 'a concern'

Article:

TORONTO — Seven healthy people on a train from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi in Vietnam caught Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 flu, researchers reported Wednesday in a prominent medical journal.

The transmission event, which occurred in July, is one of the largest clusters of cases of resistant H1N1 seen so far and the first time so many linked cases have been seen in previously healthy people who had not been on the drug.

Surveillance since the summer has only turned up three additional drug resistant viruses, the authors note in their letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. But they say they cannot rule out the possibility of ongoing transmission of resistant pandemic H1N1.

The event is a warning that resistant viruses can spread among healthy people and more such events may be in store, an antiviral expert with the World Health Organization said.

"What this looks to be is ... the sort of situation we have been alert for, because it's something that we certainly don't want to see happening but need to know about if it does," Charles Penn said in an interview from Geneva.

Penn said this event is different from two recent clusters, in which severely immunocompromised patients in hospitals in Wales and North Carolina developed and probably transmitted among themselves Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 virus. It's known that resistance develops easily in such patients.

This, however, is a case where healthy people, who weren't taking the drug and who had no known contacts with sick people in the week before they fell ill, were infected with resistant viruses — "which is an apparent transmission of the resistant virus in a more normal community setting," Penn said.

"This is different and it does raise the levels of concern. But it also I think reinforces the message that we do need to be constantly monitoring for this. And reporting it as quickly as it's observed."

The scientists, from Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and Oxford University's clinical research unit in Vietnam, reported that the event first hit the radar in early September when routine screening of H1N1 viruses turned up three with the mutation known to confer resistance to Tamiflu.

The ensuing public health investigation uncovered a tale of a 42-hour train trip in which 10 students who didn't know each other prior to the journey socialized on the train.

Six of the 10 became sick a day or two after arriving at their destination. Two didn't develop symptoms and public health officials were not able to trace two others.

Interestingly, a seventh person who travelled in a different carriage on the same train and who doesn't appear to have been in contact with the students also contracted Tamiflu resistant H1N1 during the trip.

"Ongoing transmission from the cluster was not detected, but the tracing of all contacts was not possible, so ongoing transmission (of resistant virus) cannot be ruled out," the authors wrote, adding that careful use of flu antivirals should be stressed to minimize that risk.

Penn said to date there have been over 100 cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 viruses spotted. About a third have been seen in immunocompromised patients. Of the remaining two-thirds, nearly all have been in people who took the drug to treat or prevent illness, or who had close contact with people who took the drug for one of those purposes.

Prior to this report, he said, there have only been four cases spotted in people who hadn't taken the drug and didn't have traceable exposure to someone who had.

The authors reported they were able to grow viruses from samples from three of the cases.

Penn said the WHO will want to know if the viruses have been checked for other mutations that might account for the seemingly easy spread of resistant viruses. "I think we'll be in touch with the authors."

It used to be thought that flu viruses that developed resistance to Tamiflu would be so weakened by the mutation that confers resistance that they would not be able to spread from person to person. But that belief was shattered in the winter of 2008 when Norway reported a startling rate of Tamiflu resistance in seasonal H1N1 viruses.

Over the next year, the resistant seasonal H1N1 viruses virtually crowded out the Tamiflu-susceptible versions of the virus — a precedent public health authorities don't want to see repeated with the pandemic virus.

"But we are expecting and we've said this, that as the pandemic spreads through this Northern Hemisphere winter and as the medicines continue to be used around the world, the number of sporadic cases is going to rise, as it has been at a steady by small rate," Penn said.

"And then the risk of this sort of event occurring is going to increase with more virus around and those infections being treated."

Makes you wonder what happened on the train.

FDA Stopping Any Websites Claiming To Help/Prevent Swine Flu Alternatively! 11/29/09 9:45am

FDA Stopping Any Websites Claiming To Help/Prevent Swine Flu Alternatively!

Seems like the government does not like any claims of the Swine Flu being helped on the internet. The FDA is shutting down any sites with information claiming to help the Swine Flu alternatively, besides the vaccines and Big Pharma medicine!

Wow, I wonder if someone even hints at things like: garlic, Kombucha Tea, Cinnamon, Honey, Vitamin C and D on websites as alternatives to Big Pharma medicines to help your body naturally ward off the flu, colds, WITHOUT taking any medicines or getting that Swine Flu vaccine, they want everyone to get so badly - will also be shut down?

Personally, I have had great results from using Honey - after an cut up onion had soaked in it for 24 hours as a cough medicine and helping my daughter get over a cold/flu. I also used garlic in things to help her. Wonder if that information has to be taken out?

So, I say to EVERYONE - Do NOT get the Vaccine - NOR using Big Pharma medicines - there are Ways to combat the flu naturally - I will say again - Cinnamon proved to save all the people who worked at those factories during the 1918 Spanish flu! Those people did NOT get the flu! I have purchased good quantities of Cinnamon and use it in many things now for my daughter and I to eat.


Article:

The Food and Drug Administration has found at least 20 Web sites that may be fraudulently marketing products with claims that they guard against or cure swine flu, according to the Associated Press in an article published Monday, according to the article, "Cracking Down on Swine Flu Drug Fraud." Consumers now can submit tips about possible online swine flu fraud or scam sites to the FDA at its Flu Contact site. Also see the article, "Online Gangs Sell Fake Swine Flu Drugs, Firm Warns."

Also check out the November 27, 2009 article, "Virus mutation spreads as swine flu deaths leap | AFP | MyWire." Swine flu virus mutations are spreading in Europe, French health officials said Friday as the World Health Organization reported a leap in deaths from the disease by more than 1,000 in a week. As the flu mutates, becomes deadlier, and travels around the world, there's a tendency for more cyber shopping sites online to spring up.

The FDA is concerned about various sites offering products with unproven claims. And the FDA is rebuking the sites to stop claiming flu prevent products that haven't been proven by validated scientific studies and approved specifically for flu prevention by the FDA.

Now that a new strain of flu virus is mutating across Europe, causing death by bleeding lungs and cardiogenic shock, not a secondary bacterial pneumonia infection, how many sites are going to spring up offering prevention products? And how will the FDA respond?

As swine flu hits those ages 25-49 hardest presently, more sites are springing up offering preventative methods to that group, but the FDA is taking a stand in the scams and frauds among the products being offered. The big problem is that although any product can be approved by the FDA for specific uses, it may not have been FDA approved for prevention of swine flu.

The FDA publicly rebuked one such H1N1 flu prevention product site last Monday — — for offering a $199 "SilverCure Swine Flu Protection Pack" that includes shampoo, lotion, conditioner and soap that supposedly deposit traces of silver and gave the site a short time limit to take that claim off the site and products. Check out the site for the new FDA Swine Flu Consumer Team and related articles such as ,"FDA warns: Swine flu scams lurk on the Internet," by Marilynn Marchione, from the Associated Press, published online Oct. 25, 2009. See the FDA 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu Page.

"Everything you need to protect yourself and family," the Web site says. But the FDA says no silver-based products have been approved for swine flu treatment or prevention, so it's illegal to claim such benefits. How powerful is the FDA in protecting consumers against sites online selling products that claim to prevent flu viruses from making you sick with swine flu?

Can the sites put up the disclaimer that their product has not been approved by the FDA for any treatments or cures for any disease? Or can the sites sell the product to consumers without claims? What if any claims are backed up by medial studies? Will the FDA take the opposite view and say the studies are inconsistent or too small?

What do you think is the smartest approach to protecting consumers. And how do you balance products against consumer's choices? How do you separate the scams and the fraud from giving consumers free choice of a wide variety of products to use against the flu? And how would you know whether any of the products offered by the wide variety of sites actually work?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend widespread use of face masks, saying only that they may be useful — along with other measures — for people who may be in close contact with people may have flu. Surgical gloves are only recommended for people like first responders having direct contact with ill people. Check out the Swine Flu Fraud Page.

Also see the Fox News, Chicago article, "Cracking Down on Swine Flu Drug Fraud." The Food and Drug Administration has found at least 20 Web sites that may be fraudulently marketing products with claims that they guard against or cure swine flu, an agency official told Fox News last Monday.

You might be seeing more sites online claiming to help prevent the toxic strain of the newer mutation of H1N1 flu that literally destroys the lungs and is responsible for deaths in Bukovina and throughout the Ukraine. Once the virus enters the lungs, hemorrhaging begins immediately.

What the people die from is a cardio-pulmonary insufficiency and cardiogenic shock, not pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia is an inflammation, which is treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics cannot help at any stage with the flu, especially not H1N1 mutations. In Europe, apparently, people buy antibiotics without prescriptions over the counter, which are useless when a flu mutation strikes.

The big concern is whether the mutation is resistant to the current flu vaccine and drugs such as Tamiflu as it's claimed to be in Europe and is the flu with the new mutation coming to the USA or not, or has it already arrived here? Consumers are going to go online looking for preventions. That's when the sites will start offering solutions. The question is now how can consumers be prepared to separate the scams from real, helpful sites offering solutions backed up by proven, credible medical studies??

See the November 29, 2009 Huffington Post article, "Swine Flu Mutation: New Strain Found In Europe; Drug Resistant And Harsher Symptoms." What are the cyber sites going to offer if and when this new mutation spreads in the USA?

Some sites are selling the antiviral Tamiflu apparently without requiring a doctors' prescriptions, or expensive kits of surgical masks, gloves, and anti-bacterial wipes and gels. Surgical masks and gloves are medical devices and must have FDA approval. Even though the items being sold online are FDA-approved, how can you as an average consumer validate whether the claims being made about a variety of products are accurate?

Here are some sites to look at during Cyber Monday if you're looking for a holiday gift for family and friends. Should you send them a flu-prevention kit that you buy online? Or are these kits not really protective as much as you'd think? To find answers, you should know that the FDA tracks and prosecutes advertisers who make fraudulent claims in ads about preventing or treating the H1N1 virus.