Fw: NATAP: 1st USA Swine Flu Death-Vaccine Developing

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CDC Confirms First U.S. Death From Swine Fluby  KnoxListen Now [3 min 49 sec] add to playlistBracing For Flu Worldwide 'Flu Shots' BlogGet the latest updates on the swine flu outbreak. Click To See Confirmed Cases Of Swine Flu Across The Globe In DepthApril 28, 2009Flu Tally Only Part Of Effort To Understand VirusApril 29, 2009Keep Flu At Bay With A SongApril 28, 2009Swine Flu Rx: Be Alert But Not Alarmed? Web ResourcesWorld Health Organization InvestigationWHO Swine Flu Q & ASwine Flu Alerts/Statements From Pandemicflu.gov Morning Edition, April 29, 2009 ·The current swine flu outbreak has claimed its first U.S. victim — a 23-month-old child in Texas, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.Dr. Besser said in a TV interview that health authorities had been anticipating that the virus would cause deaths, and said that "as a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."But he said it's too soon to say if the death in Texas suggests the virus is spreading to more states. Nor would he say whether officials think it will become a nationwide problem.As of Wednesday morning, there were 68 confirmed cases of swine flu in the U.S., with 45 in New York state and others in Texas, California, Kansas, Indiana and Ohio. The virus also spread deeper into Europe as Germany confirmed its first cases of swine flu on Wednesday. A small number of cases also have been reported in Israel, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada and Spain.U.S. Officials To Decide On Swine Flu VaccineExperts say that even if cases of the new swine flu disappear with warm weather, the virus may return — perhaps with a vengeance — next winter.In light of that threat, the Obama administration appears close to announcing a decision to make a vaccine against swine flu as early as this fall.Normally it takes six months to make a regular flu vaccine. An effective vaccine protects most people from getting the flu. It would be the primary weapon against a flu pandemic — if it can be made, distributed and gotten into people's arms in time.Bruce Gellin, the nation's top vaccine official, says the plan is to make enough swine flu vaccine for all 304 million Americans by September — only five months from now. Gellin is deputy assistant secretary for Health and Human Services for vaccinations, immunizations and infectious diseases.Gellin says the first decision points on whether to go ahead will be in early June. That's when manufacturers would be told to switch over from making regular seasonal flu vaccine to a special swine flu vaccine. Fortunately, he says, the nation's flu vaccine makers will be finished by then with making all the components for next season's regular flu vaccine.After swine flu vaccine production begins, Gellin says, "as you continue to watch the situation, the question would be whether you tell them to keep going or to turn it off sometime.""If they kept going, you would expect that vaccine to be available … by early- to mid-September," Gellin predicts. That's when it would be ready to ship to doctors, hospitals and clinics.He thinks manufacturers have enough capacity. But not all the swine flu vaccine would be ready at once."There may be several million doses available initially," he says, "and then on a daily basis additional doses would be manufactured and released."Safety, Logistics Are Crucial IssuesThat means the first doses of swine flu vaccine would need to be rationed. Decisions will need to be made about who gets it first — the most medically frail and those most at risk of flu complications, or the people on the front lines, like health care and public safety workers, who need to keep society going in the event of a severe flu pandemic.But even if a swine flu vaccine can be made in time, there are some big logistical problems. One issue is whether people will need to get two separate flu vaccines next fall. Public health officials don't want to take the risk of leaving Americans unprotected against seasonal flu.Dr. Schaffner of Vanderbilt University says there's talk about mixing a cocktail that would contain both regular flu vaccine and the new swine flu vaccine."The discussion is should they do a separate vaccine that would require an additional injection?" Schaffner says. "Or could they insert it into the traditional vaccine?"Getting two different vaccines to all Americans would be a monumental task, he says. "Having two separate vaccines surely confuses and burdens the delivery system because we would then have to give two doses. People would have to have two encounters with health professionals."Gellin seems to favor a vaccine that only protects against swine flu. For one thing, nobody has ever made a vaccine that protects against four flu viruses. There's some concern that the new swine flu component might compete against other elements, making the vaccine less effective.There's another complication. If the swine flu vaccine were a separate shot, people might need to get two shots of swine flu vaccine plus the regular flu vaccine — a total of three shots. That's because when people get a flu vaccine they've never had before, it often takes an additional booster to get protection.If that's the case, it will require more than 600 million doses of the new vaccine. That's more than four times more than manufacturers will turn out this year. But the disparity isn't as large as it appears, because regular flu vaccine is actually three vaccines in one — to protect against the three flu strains that normally circulate each year. So if manufacturers only have to make a single-virus vaccine against swine flu, that effectively triples the number of doses they can crank out.There's another crucial question — safety.Experts are haunted by what happened with the nation's last campaign to vaccinate against swine flu back in 1976. It was halted after 45 million Americans got flu shots, because several hundred people came down with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare paralyzing disease. Some of them died.And in the end, the threatened swine flu pandemic never materialized.Dr. Poland of Mayo Clinic says even if a swine flu vaccine were ready to go next September, he'd hold off using it unless swine flu were an immediate threat."That's just because you won't have had the clinical tests to know as much about safety as you'll want to know," Poland says.And nobody wants a repeat of 1976.NPR wire services contributed to this report.