ScienceInsider

by Jon Cohen

A new analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of severe disease caused by the novel H1N1 virus again emphasizes that people under 65 suffer the bulk of hospitalizations and deaths from the virus. This is exactly the opposite pattern seen with seasonal influenza, which primarily causes severe disease in the elderly.

by Martin Enserink

As the number of swine flu cases burgeons in the United States, vaccine is coming online much slower than the government had anticipated. Vaccine manufacturers have notified officials that they can't make good on their targets, Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a press conference today.

As of Wednesday, some 11.4 million doses of the pandemic H1N1 vaccine were available. Just a few weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that at least 40 million doses would be available by the end of October—and perhaps twice that. The new estimate is 30 million, perhaps a little less, Schuchat said today. She did not specify which manufacturers are having trouble meeting demand but cited lower-than-expected yields and rigorous quality-control measures as reasons for the delay. CDC has put a "vaccine locator" on the home page of its flu.gov Web site to help people find out where they can be vaccinated. But actually getting the shots may be "quite challenging," Schuchat conceded, as demand far outstrips supply at the moment.

The delays add to worries, voiced by some experts, that most of the vaccine won't be ready until after H1N1 peaks. There is now "widespread" influenza activity in 41 states, Schuchat said—that's four more than last week—and nationally, 6.1% of doctor's visits are for influenza-like illnesses, which she said is "very high for any time, and particularly in October." Mortality from influenza and pneumonia is also up, a survey in 122 cities has shown, and is now "above the epidemic threshold," Schuchat said. "All of these markers suggest to us that it's a very busy and very difficult flu season."

Scientists and policymakers are meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, this week as part of the international DIVERSITAS program of biodiversity science.

300 farmers in 60 locations across Benin have signed up as part of a program supported by the Canadian government to test and implement new farming strategies to cope with the effects of climate change.

As scientists urge the public to get shots against swine flu, voices on the political right and left are telling the public, for different reasons, not to take the vaccine.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has attacked a federal panel's recommendations that genetic tests for diseases such as cancer should not be protected under patent law, … and the American Intellectual Property Law Association meets this week in Washington, D.C.

William Brown, former director of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been named president of the Woods Hole Research Center.

The Institute of Medicine yesterday announced 65 new members and 5 new foreign associates. Most are prominent researchers in biomedicine and health, but the list also includes at least two attorneys and a health journalist.

(Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardwest/ / CC BY 2.0)

by Jon Cohen

As the availability of swine flu vaccine steadily increases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up its efforts to combat a growing sense of complacency in the country about the pandemic.

At a press conference today, Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, reported that 76 children in the United States have died from the novel H1N1 virus since it surfaced in April. She compared that with the past three flu seasons in the country, which have recorded between 46 and 88 deaths in that age bracket. “It's only the beginning of October,” Schuchat stressed. “Of course, the flu season often will last all of the way until May.”

Started last November in coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Google Flu Trends this week increased its coverage from four to 20 countries. This innovative effort to track the spread of flu is based on the popularity of web search terms that Google researchers have linked to actual flu patterns. (In the current graph, left, redder colors reflect more flu activity.)

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics reveals that the number of researchers in developing countries jumped from 1.8 million to 2.7 million in 5 years (2002–2007), an impressive 45% increase—developed countries only saw a 8.6% rise over the same period.

Over at the National Press Club this afternoon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially launched its National Institute of Food and Agriculture—the new home for extramural funding—with a show of support from the Administration. "The White House is behind you 100%," said John Holdren, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the event. "My communications director wanted me to say 150%, but as a scientist I couldn't bring myself do that," he quipped. A news story about NIFA will appear in tomorrow's issue of Science.

by Jon Cohen

As predicted, the U.S. government has started to deliver a small amount of swine flu vaccines to states this week, and states are wrestling with how to decide who should receive the limited supply first. But plans to have large amounts of vaccine available by mid-October remain on track, and public health officials have begun to address another dilemma: how to encourage a somewhat reluctant public to take advantage of the product once it is widely available.

At a press conference held today, Thomas Frieden, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that 2.4 million doses of vaccine against the novel H1N1 virus are now available. Although states have only ordered 2.2 million of them. Frieden dismissed the slight under demand this week as simply the difficult process of launching a complicated national campaign that makes vaccine available to states each day as soon as it comes off the production line. “It’s a little bit of a messy process and we do expect it to be a little bit bumpy in the first few weeks,” he said. CDC plans to report each Friday how many doses of vaccines are available.

But Frieden said CDC expects supplies will outstrip demand “fairly soon,” and he addressed “three major concerns” that the people have raised “despite the clear message from all of us in public health and doctors throughout the health care field that vaccine is our best tool to protect against the flu.”

One is that the pandemic swine flu virus is perceived as mild. Even an average case, he stressed, “is no picnic,” and the virus has sent many to the hospital and killed some.

by Jon Cohen

Next winter in the Southern Hemisphere, influenza vaccines should no longer be designed to protect against the seasonal H1N1 strain as the pandemic H1N1 strain has replaced it, according to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations issued today.

As the recommendations explain, the seasonal strain has caused few outbreaks since the discovery of the swine flu strain last April.

by Jon Cohen

Early results from clinical trials suggest that healthy children under the age of 9 will likely need two doses of the swine flu vaccine, but those between 10 and 17 can get by with a single shot, U.S. health officials announced today.

In studies sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), 8 to 10 days after receiving a 15 microgram dose of an inactivated vaccine that contains proteins from the novel H1N1 virus, 76% of the older children had a “robust” antibody response. But in those children between 3 and 9 years old, the same immune response was only seen in 39% of vaccinated kids, and it dropped to 25% in children 6 to 35 months. Anthony Fauci, head of NIAID, stressed at a press conference that the vaccine behaves very much like the seasonal flu vaccine, which similarly requires a second dose in younger children because of their less mature immune systems. “Overall, this is very good news for the vaccination program, both in regard to supply of vaccine as well as to its potential efficacy,” Fauci said.

by Jon Cohen

At least 3.4 million doses of swine flu vaccine will become available the first week in October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today. 

In one sense, the news is a setback, as the U.S. government had hoped to receive the first batches of vaccine to help the highest risk groups in September. But CDC officials were upbeat about the late delivery of even this small amount of vaccine, and stressed that plans remain on track to receive much larger batches of product for mass vaccination campaigns starting 15 October.

by Jon Cohen

In the wake of evidence that a single dose of the swine flu vaccine can protect adults, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan today to share 10% of the product purchased by the country with other countries that otherwise have no access to this critical preventive. Obama said seven other countries have signed on to the plan, which will provide vaccine on a rolling basis as it becomes available.