Flu roundup cont’d

Here’s my short list for the day: Helen Branswell reports that WHO is unpersuaded by the unpublished paper showing seasonal flu vaccine may raise chance of getting swine flu. … The gist: The possibility that the seasonal flu vaccine could increase risk of contracting swine flu, says Laden, “concerns me quite a bit, as my wife is 8 months pregnant, flu is a very serious risk for pregnant women and their babies , she teaches in a high school, and got her seasonal flu shot last week..”   One can hope, fervently, that the swine-flu vaccines, which start getting punched into people in the U.S. today , find their way very rapidly to a flu clinic near Laden’s better half.

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Swine flu spreads, and confusion with it

Confusion grows over the still-unreleased study that apparently finds, contrary to other studies, that getting this year’s seasonal flu shot may raise your risk of getting swine flu. Peter Sandman, meanwhile, argues that since the swine flu seems to have largely displaced the seasonal flu, getting vaccinated for the latter doesn’t make much sense. (I’m doing so this afternoon anyway.)

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Embargo? Embargo? The case of the missing swine flu paper

This shouldn’t be something that flu experts feel compelled to discuss sotto voce. If the journal has good reasons to sit on the paper for now, it should declare them. If not, it should get the paper out in the open so the data and findings can be examined and vetted openly.

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The Canadian Press: Lung damage in fatal swine flu cases more bird flu than seasonal flu: expert

The lung damage in fatal swine flu cases is more like that normally seen in avian flu than seasonal flu, Helen Branswell reports.

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