The Herald reports that a report by Martin Dawe of the first two weeks of the Swine Flu epidemic is intensely critical of the lack of planning and poor coordination of data resources. This was the MacDoctor’s impression of the entire debacle. I knew of a potentially deadly strain of Mexican flu three days before [...]

Australia’s chief medical officer, Jim Bishop has announced that children under five years old should not receive the flu vaccine. Apparently at least 60 children under the age of 5 have had high fevers and 23 have had convulsions shortly after receiving the vaccine. I have not heard any advisory from the New Zealand authorities [...]

Obama has declared the Swine Flu epidemic in the US a national emergency. Swine Flu has been a public health emergency since April of this year, but making it a national emergency provides people like Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius quite sweeping powers to bypass most federal rules. I am a little curious as [...]

Centre for Disease Control in the US has announced that the H1N1 virus’ genetic makeup now “appears to be stable”. The cynical side of the MacDoctor finds the juxtaposition of this pronouncement on the back of the FDA announcing their approval of the first Swine flu vaccine just a little too convenient. Especially when the [...]

At least the medical insurance companies have assessed the risk of the swine flu vaccine properly. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that they are refusing to extend insurance to doctors who give the swine flu jab. Clearly, they think that the vaccine, which is being fast-tracked with only the bare minimum of clinical safety trials, [...]

Tamiflu not best for children – research Tamiflu may do more harm than good for children with flu symptoms, research suggests. Oxford University researchers found the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza caused vomiting, dehydration and complications in some children. I’m thinking it probably wouldn’t have hurt them to announce their preliminary findings a couple of [...]

Stuff reports that Swine flu cases are on the decline. This would be the experience of the large group practice I am currently working in. However, I think that Dr. Fran McGrath is being a little optimistic: Deputy director of public health Fran McGrath said this might be because people had been taking note of [...]

Just in case you thought that we might have learned something from the 1975 Swine Flu debacle, where the vaccine killed more people than the flu itself, comes the news that Europe is “fast-tracking” the Swine Flu vaccine. “Fast-tracking” means that, when we give the vaccine, we won’t know the proper dose, any of the [...]

Christchurch hospital reports that it is canceling elective surgeries because it’s ICU is full. This was an entirely predictable happening and will certainly spread rapidly to all the other ICUs. Christchurch says they will resume elective surgery when ICU number drop. Unfortunately, it is quite likely that these numbers will only return to normal in [...]

New research using animal models reports that swine flu causes substantially more airways damage than ordinary seasonal flu. In people with healthy lungs, this is not really a problem and the other symptoms seem to be milder. But in people with compromised lungs (severe asthma, emphysema and heart failure), the damage is much more significant. [...]