News and Notes

Supply is Holding

Our supply of both seasonal and H1N1 vaccine is still plentiful as we continue to vaccinate through the winter months. It is never to late to get a flu vaccine. We will vaccinate until the supply runs out and we do not see that happening anytime soon. So please make an appointment if remaining doses are needed or if you are someone who has had doubts about the vaccine and still undecided, please reconsider and make that appointment. I think at this point,the argument about this being a new vaccine really can't hold against the millions of doses given to date without any significant side effects. To quote, Dr. Johnson, one of our pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Children's Hospital in Greenville, "So far over a thousand children have died from the swine flu and none have died from the shot". Well said!
Please click on the link below to schedule that vaccine.

https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=459988

Vaccine Recall

In the news this past week was the recall on certain lots of vaccine. The recall was for a 10% loss of potency after these vials left the factory. No one receiving those lots need be revaccinated. That said, we were pleased to discover that none of the lots that we used were included in the recall. In that all of these vaccines recalled were single dose vials of thimerosal free vaccine for use in children 6 months to 3 years of age none of this would have been used in the school vaccine program. If you did receive a dose of this type vaccine from another source other then this office or the school program, your child should still be protected.

Revision of Estimates of Hospitalizations and Deaths Reported

The CDC does not know exactly how many people die from flu each year. There are several reasons for this:

◦First, states are not required to report individual flu cases or deaths of people older than 18 years of age to CDC.
◦Second, influenza is infrequently listed on death certificates of people who die from flu-related complications.
◦Third, many flu-related deaths occur one or two weeks after a person’s initial infection, either because the person may develop a secondary bacterial co-infection (such as a staph infection) or because influenza can aggravate an existing chronic illness (such as congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
◦Also, most people who die from flu-related complications are not tested for flu, or they seek medical care later in their illness when influenza can no longer be detected from respiratory samples. Influenza tests are most likely to detect influenza if performed soon after onset of illness.
◦For these reasons, many flu-related deaths may not be recorded on death certificates.
These are some of the reasons that CDC and other public health agencies in the United States and other countries use statistical models to estimate the annual number of flu-related deaths.

Using the same methodology CDC has updated the estimates to include the time period from April through November 14, 2009.

•CDC estimates that between 34 million and 67 million cases of 2009 H1N1 occurred between April and November 14, 2009. The mid-level in this range is about 47 million people infected with 2009 H1N1. That is 15% of the US population and with the predominance of this disease occurring in the younger population that fits with my crude estimate of around 25% of our children that have been affected by the disease.
•CDC estimates that between about 154,000 and 303,000 2009 H1N1-related hospitalizations occurred between April and November 14, 2009. The mid-level in this range is about 213,000 H1N1-related hospitalizations.
•CDC estimates that between about 7,070 and 13,930 2009 H1N1-related deaths occurred between April and November 14, 2009. The mid-level in this range is about 9,820 2009 H1N1-related deaths. The adjustments have pushed the pediatric death estimate to just over a thousand.

Where does that leave us now. The rate of illness continues to decline nationwide although this past weeks activity appears to have not dropped as dramatically as the previous 5 weeks. The next 2-3 weeks will be very telling about the direction of the disease incidence. Will it continue to decline, or will it level off until all are either vaccinated or contract the disease? What will happen to the 75 % of our children that have not had the disease. Hopefully they will be vaccinated.