H1N1: It’s baaack. April 1, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: H1N1, Public Health
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My H1N1 news filter (on the right, and a bit lower in the page) picked up a news story on H1N1 cases in Venezuela, Mexico, and the US Southwest. 482 cases in Venezuela, and 18 deaths in the Southwest in 2011.
Ottawa Public Health Optmimizes H1N1 Vaccine Delivery with Twitter December 7, 2009
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: H1N1, health informatics, Public Health
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Ottawa public health uses Twitter to optimize its delivery of H1N1 vaccines at its vaccination clinics. Every day, each clinic opens with a certain capacity to provide vaccinations. Each clinic gets a corresponding number of bracelets, of the type you get in theme parks. These bracelets are distributed at the clinic and the bracelet recipients are told to return at the appointed time to get vaccinated.
Now the interesting part is that the city uses Twitter to make announcements about which clinics run out of bracelets, and which clinics still have some left. (Here’s the feed) Consequently, people are less likely to show up a clinics that have run out of bracelets and more likely to show up at clinics that have some left.
In addition, the city made all the forms that have to be filled out available on-line so vaccine recipients can fill them out before coming in for their shot.
H1N1 Mutations November 29, 2009
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: H1N1
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This is bad. “This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue”. Lots of people with asthma out there, they’ll be especially vulnerable. One of my friends with asthma seems to hav had H1N1 and it’s taking a long time for here to recover. Of course, there’s also the drug resistant mutation. If H1N1 season is over is this year, I wonder if these mutations will be around for next year. Story
The Big Killers November 20, 2009
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: H1N1, Public Health
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In my last post, I reported about the new tally 6750 H1N1 deaths, globally. In 2000, there were 435 000 deaths due to tobacco use, and 35 000 firearm related deaths in the US alone. Source: Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, “Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000,” Journal of the American Medical Association, March 10, 2004, Vol. 291, No. 10, pp. 1238, 1245.
H1N1 Death Spike November 20, 2009
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: H1N1, Public Health
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GENEVA (AFP) – Around 6,750 people have died from the swine flu pandemic, World Health Organisation data showed Friday, about 500 more than a week ago. Data posted a week ago showed that 6,250 people have died from the A(H1N1) virus since it was first uncovered in April. story link
When I see flu death numbers I always wonder how many of deaths are directly caused by the flu, how many result form a flu-induced secondary infection, and how many involved an underlying chronic condition like COPD. It’s important to tease out these numbers given the amount of money governments spend on flu vaccines (including seasonal flu vaccines). To perform a proper cost/benefit analysis, governments would also need information on productivity loss and flu-related emergency department visits. It may turn out to be more cost effective to vaccinate only those who are vulnerable and those with whom they come into contact, and make sure everyone gets a single shot of prevnar to protect against bacterial pneumonia.
