Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

A top-ranking official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says production of a vaccine for swine flu virus is behind schedule and people should take precautionary steps to prevent its spread.

Dr. Anne Schuchat (SHU'-kit) said "more vaccine is coming out every day" but production isn't where it was expected to be at this juncture. Interviewed on CBS's "The Early Show" Wednesday, Schuchat said "we wish we had more vaccine, but unfortunately the virus and the production of the vaccine aren't really cooperating."

For people anxious about getting their vaccinations, she said officials expect "widespread availability" by mid-November. Schuchat heads the Atlanta-based CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.



---
Brian and Jennifer Vanderhoff
North Fulton County REALTORS
Vanderhoff Real Estate
(770) 888-9269
---
Milton, GA Real Estate, Condos, Homes for Sale
North Fulton County, GA Real Estate, Condos, Homes for Sale
Forsyth, GA Real Estate, Condos, Homes for Sale
---

Labels: CDC, H1N1, swine flu

Health care workers, emergency medical personnel, pregnant women and healthy people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old are among the target groups to receive the vaccine against the H1N1 virus when it first becomes available. That’s one of several recommendations approved Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The recommendations are based upon completion of clinical trials and when a safe vaccine is available. Five companies are making the vaccine, which officials hope will be available in October. That may not be soon enough to satisfy parents, though, since schools begin next month in Georgia.

The committee met for several hours at the CDC to set guidelines for a national vaccine program against swine flu, as it is commonly called. If demand exceeds supply, priority should be given to subgroups within those groups including pregnant women, people younger than 19 with chronic medical conditions, and health care and emergency service personnel with direct contact with patients or infectiousness materials.

Jeremy Arieh, a spokesman for the Georgia Nurses Association, said the group supports the vaccination of health care professionals against the novel H1N1 virus. “Health care workers are on the front lines,” he said. “It’s a good practice as long as we don’t get into a situation of mandatory vaccinations.”

There have been 43,771 lab-identified cases of the virus, 302 deaths and more than 5,000 hospitalizations in the United States. Although not all sick patients are being tested for swine flu, health officials estimate that more than 1 million people have been infected.

Labels: CDC, foreclosure, Foreclosures, swine flu

The woman who led the nation's public health agency in a post-Sept. 11 world of bioterrorist fears is out, her resignation announced in a Friday night e-mail to employees.

Dr. Julie Gerberding has resigned as director of the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and will be replaced on an interim basis by a deputy as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated.

The e-mail obtained by The Associated Press that discloses the news was sent Friday night to employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the umbrella agency over CDC.

Although an HHS housecleaning has been expected with the new administration, Gerberding's fate was somewhat unclear. The first woman to head the agency, Gerberding led the CDC through a post-Sept. 11 world of bioterrorist fears and was considered an effective communicator with legislators and the public.

Labels: Barack Obama, CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding

Annual flu vaccinations should be given to all children ages 6 months through 18 years, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday.

The panel's decision represents a call for roughly 30 million more kids to get vaccinated. If heeded, it would prompt one of the largest expansions in flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel's advice is routinely adopted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues vaccination guidelines to doctors and hospitals.

The panel -- and the CDC -- have in the past recommended flu shots for people considered to be at highest risk of death or serious illness from the flu. That list includes children ages 6 months to 5 years of age, adults 50 and older, and people with weakened immune systems.

Kids ages 5 to 18 get flu at higher rates than other age groups, but they don't tend to get as sick from it. Of the 36,000 estimated annual deaths attributed to the flu, only 25 to 50 occur in children in that age bracket, CDC officials said.

But kids who stay home sick from school cause parents to stay home, so reducing the illness in this group should cut down days of lost work in their parents and adult contacts, some experts said.

Experts believe the recommendation may also reduce illness in adults and the elderly, although studies haven't clearly established that will happen.

Labels: CDC, Flu Shots, Kids