http://www.gwu.edu/~cih/journal/JHClink/v14n5_editorial.pdf

SWINE CONFLUSION
Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives
Volume 14, Issue 5

Like a Hollywood thriller movie, the 2009 flu outbreak developed in real time, complete with phases of pandemic alert issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) as if they were DEFCON warnings, the defense readiness condition that gauges activation and readiness of the United States Armed Forces.

$7.7B For H1N1 Included In House War-Spending Bill; India Says Developed Countries Can Do More To Prevent Spread
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday narrowly passed a $106 billion war-funding bill, which "included 7.7 billion to help the nation prepare for an outbreak of the H1N1 virus, the so-called swine flu," the Washington Times reports (Rowland, Washington Times, 6/17). The spending bill will now move to the Senate for consideration (Pelofsky, Reuters, 6/16).

June 15, 2009
By Fid Thompson

World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan warned that the current swine flu pandemic could cripple fragile health services in poor countries.

"Developing countries have the greatest vulnerability and the least resilience. They will be hit the hardest and take the longest to recover," she told a U.N. forum on global health.

Last week, WHO raised its global alert to a maximum six, saying swine flu had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread.

© 2009 NASDAQ

For full article, visit:

June 15, 2009
Reuters

Croatia identified the first case of H1N1 flu virus in a patient who came from abroad last week and has already recovered, the health minister said on Monday.

"The patient showed mild flu symptoms and the test, the results of which we received today, confirmed the H1N1 virus," Health Minister Darko Milinovic told reporters. "The patient underwent treatment at home and made a full recovery. He has already returned to work."

He declined to give details of the patient but said no one in his family had shown flu symptoms.

© Thomson Reuters 2009

June 16, 2009

Libyan authorities have reported an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Mediterranean coastal town of Tubruq, and the World Health Organisation was sending a team to investigate, a WHO official said.

The cases - approximately 16 to 18 have been reported - would be the first in more than two decades in Libya of the disease known in medieval times as the Black Death, according to John Jabbour, a Cairo-based emerging diseases specialist at WHO. "It is reported as bubonic plague," Jabbour said, adding WHO still didn't have "a full picture" of the situation.

June 18, 2009

Targeting children for vaccination may be the best way of using limited supplies of vaccine to control the current H1N1 flu pandemic, British researchers said.

Drugmakers are racing to make a vaccine against the new flu strain but if the disease increases significantly in the northern hemisphere autumn, as many experts fear, there are unlikely to be enough shots to vaccinate entire populations.

Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press, has an excellent article previewing the current challenges Manitoba, Canada hospitals are facing with numerous patients on ventilators, struggling to overcome swine flu infections.

Swine flu patients in ICU tough to manage, 'just really, really sick': doctors

In a typical flu season, the Winnipeg hospitals where Dr. Anand Kumar works might see one, maybe two life-threatening cases of viral pneumonia caused by influenza.

On June 18 2009, South Africa's Department of Health confirmed the country's first H1N1 case, Reuters reports. The department released a written statement saying, "The patient, a 12-year-old who flew in from the U.S. on Sunday, was admitted to hospital on Monday and was kept in isolation," Reuters writes. He has since been released from the hospital (Bosch, Reuters, 6/18).

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE55H2J520090618

Senate Passes Bill Including Flu Funds

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a $105.9 billion war-funding bill that "includes $7.7 billion to prepare for pandemic flu," the Washington Post reports (Bacon, Washington Post, 6/19).
________

Senate Approves War Funding Bill After Obama Presses Democrats
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 19, 2009

Take a look at Kaiser Permanente's newest doctor's office on wheels, being shipped from California to Hawaii's Big Island.

Now consider this possibility if/when the swine flu infection numbers and deaths accelerate, and the media reporting begins to cause a surge of worried well into ER rooms:

- Swine flu mobile clinics.
- GIS mapping to set up the temporary clinic locations to coincide with specific geographic infection areas pinpointing communities and neighborhoods.

Scotland may be leading the world in opening up clinics specifically dedicated to cope with the swine flu epidemic. To date, nine clinics have been set up in the west of Scotland, the area which has been worst hit. Four of the dedicated swine flu centers are in Glasgow, with others in Paisley, East Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire, Greenock and Clydebank.
The goal is that anyone suspected of having the virus will now be sent to one of the clinics to be tested, instead of into the multi-tasked healthcare system.