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Politics : Swine Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Kern who wrote (248)	6/15/2009 5:08:37 PM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 463

Yes, the 1918 flu pademic was mild in the spring and deadly in the following fall and winter. Public health officials worry that the 2009 flu pandemic strain will act in a similiar manner. Obama Seeks to Woo War Votes with Flu Funds By Shailagh Murray To relieve pressure on antiwar Democrats, the Obama administration hopes to win at least a few House Republican converts on an emergency war spending bill this week, by emphasizing the flu prevention funds that the package includes. As a final vote looms this week in the House and Senate, the White House today circulated a letter addressed to every public school superintendent in the country that outlines ways to cope with the stronger strain of the H1N1 virus that many public health experts predict will hit the U.S. this fall. The letter, co-authored by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, urges local officials to use the summer break to develop effective policies for hand washing, food service, sending kids home, and other steps, should they become necessary. The message to educators is clear: "Our hope is that the summer months can be used to develop and share a coordinated public health strategy that aims to protect our children and families and minimize disruptions," the letter reads. The message to GOP lawmakers is less overt, but no less emphatic. Obama asked Congress to include $3.5 billion for flu prevention in the war funding bill, and Democrats responded with $7.7 billion, a bonanza for the public health community. The expanded sum includes $350 million to help state and local governments, including school districts. House Republicans are threatening to vote en masse against the bill -- an outcome that the White House hopes to discourage, because it increases pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to convert some of the 51 liberal Democrats who voted against an earlier version of the legislation, because they oppose the Iraq war. The $105.9 billion war supplemental includes funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, along with new money for the International Monetary Fund that Obama had pledged to world leaders. Republicans strongly oppose the IMF language, but the White House hopes the lure of flu money will relax at least some doubts

To: Paul Kern who wrote (248)	6/17/2009 10:19:06 AM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 463

New H1N1 virus mutation found, what it means June 17, 5:57 AM A new H1N1 virus (aka swine flu) mutation, a subtype strain named A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1, has been isolated in a 26-year-old patient in Brazil. With the new H1N1 mutation comes fear that the current pandemic swine flu virus will spread more rapidly, possibly to new hosts and, yet, it is unknown if such mutation will prove more deadly than the current A(H1N1) pandemic. The genetic sequence of the new H1N1 virus subtype (A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1) was isolated by a virology team lead by Terezinha Maria de Paiva at the Instituto Adolfo Lutz, formerly named Adolf Lutz Bacteriolocial Insitute – the latter an outdated name in use by many news reports -- located in San Palo, Brazil. [This name clarification may be useful when conducting online research on the new influenza A virus.] Discovered in a patient on Tuesday, the new H1N1 virus mutation includes alterations in the hemagglutinin protein. Hemagglutinin is one of the reasons that the influenza virus is so effective as the protein allows the virus to infect new hosts. Why is the new H1N1 virus subtype and mutation important? Every couple of decades, a new strain of influenza appears that is far more infectious, allowing it to spread rapidly -- including that which occurred during the 1918/1919 H1N1 pandemic, or Spanish flu, which killed a roughly estimated 50 million people and infected at least 500 million. The newly identified H1N1 virus strain -- a mutation from the A(H1N1) swine flu pandemic isolate -- may or may not prove more lethal or infectious, but scientists are concerned and vaccine efforts continue. Additionally, the Insituto Adolfo Lutz website reveals details on A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 but the related Technical Note is written in Portuguese-Spanish requiring translation for most readers. An excerpt and translation instructions follow. examiner.com