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Flu Pandemics and Immunizations

By Randy McIntire

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 12Mar2010
Word count: 504
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The H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic has yet to take the toll health officials feared it would when the strain first emerged in the summer of 2009. The second wave, generally agreed to have peaked during October, has subsided with relatively few deaths. While almost one in six Americans is estimated to have been infected during the first two swine flu waves, only 200,000 - less than half of one percent of our entire population - has been hospitalized for H1N1-related conditions. Of those, only about 10,000 (5%) were fatalities. Of those 10,000 recorded deaths attributable to H1N1, children and young adults were most at risk, accounting for about 86% of those fatalities. So limiting the initial supply of vaccine to younger Americans was probably the correct course of action by the Center for Disease Control to prevent further infections in the initial waves, especially given the Petri dish-like environment of most schools and day cares.

As annual flu season has crept toward its yearly conclusion (health officials say the yearly flu trend peaks in February), some doctors worry that swine flu could return to haunt us again in March or April of 2010. It's not unheard of for a pandemic strain to displace seasonal viruses, according to some doctors. And, despite an ample supply of vaccine for H1N1 and the CDC now recommending that all healthy adults over 25 get vaccinated, demand for the vaccine is at its lowest. This could be due in part to a relative scarcity of normal annual flu vaccine; if patients can't get one immunization, they might not even bother to come in for the other.

The worry over a resurgence of the H1N1 outbreak is not altogether unfounded. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius cites figures from the 1957 Asian flu pandemic, when a fall outbreak ended quickly, but another wave followed in January and February. As the public has become more complacent about the swine flu with the cessation of the early winter wave of infections, those who haven't yet been immunized could unknowingly spark off a third wave by spring of 2010. But Americans seem to be growing complacent about the pandemic - not only because swine flu fizzled out before the holidays last year, but also because seasonal flu in the U.S. has been far less prevalent so far this winter than in recent years.

Some states are still restricting access to vaccine supplies or delegating the responsibility of triage to local public health departments, so you might want to consider checking www.flu.gov to see which providers near you are offering immunizations for H1N1 before going to a retail pharmacy. However, doctors are recommending that seniors take advantage of the availability of H1N1 vaccine while they can, hoping that spreading awareness of the over-supply will cut down on infections going into the spring. H1N1 seems to affect patients with preexisting conditions like heart disease and asthma the hardest, so elderly individuals with other health complications should definitely look into being vaccinated this February.

Randy is a freelance writer covering all types of health and wellness issues. You can find more information about this and other topics at www.AmeriGlide.com, the online leader in stair lifts and other mobility aids.

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