Unfortunately, the Swine Flu has not gone away forever, but the pandemic was much milder than expected due to fast actions and good decisions made by federal officials, and also a little bit of good luck.
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swine flu
It seems that everywhere you turn there are signs that read, ‘H1N1 Vaccines Available Here’. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and several other retailers are fighting to get their name out there to advertise their in-store health clinics. Rite Aid and Kroger are promoting themselves by putting signs up on their front doors, and putting ads in weekly ad circulars. Walgreens plans to take it a step further by putting ads for the vaccine on their website and on television.
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Walgreens expects to be able to provide the H1N1 vaccine to everyone nationwide by the end of the year. Walgreens is the country’s largest drugstore chain in sales, and they plan to become a major distributor of the vaccine.
The Pharmacy already has the vaccine at 1,500 locations, and Walgreens has given out more than 200,000 H1N1 vaccines. Other pharmacies, such as CVS and Rite Aid, are also offering the vaccine in some states and they are expecting to expand to other locations as more vaccines become available.
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The swine flu vaccine intended for infants has been recalled due to the vaccines being less potent than required. There were almost a million doses that were recalled, but federal officials say the vaccines should still be effective.
The 800,000 low-dose, thimerosal-free prefilled syringes intended for infants were sent out about a month ago, so it is assumed that they have already been used, and this recall is just to notify doctors who have any vaccines left.
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California was suffering from a severe shortage of H1N1 vaccines; however, now it appears that the shortage is calming causing some counties to offer vaccinations to the public. Counties such as Ventura and Sacramento now have no limitations on who can get the immunization.
Yet, other counties such as Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino are still reserving their vaccines for children, young adults, pregnant women and the chronically ill. Despite some counties reserving their vaccines for certain priority groups, officials state that the vaccine shortage is under control.
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Even though it’s difficult to make precise estimates about the course of a pandemic, an initial study of the H1N1 pandemic shows that it may be the mildest ever. In comparison to the Asian flu pandemic, which killed 70,000 Americans, the swine flu is predicted to only cause 10,000 to 15,000 deaths; initial estimates predicted a whopping 90,000.
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The virus that causes H1N1 can cause dogs, cats, and ferrets to become ill as well. Originally, the only pets that were infected with the flu were ferrets, until recently when a sick cat was reported in Iowa. Then soon after, China announced the virus had spread to two dogs.
The good news is “that it doesn’t look like our pets are a risk to us,” reports Dr. Tony Johnson. However, we are a danger to them because most of the pets infected were living with humans who were ill.
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There are efforts being made around the world to create a more efficient way of making vaccines. A “new Novartis AG vaccine plant in North Carolina is supposed to boost the U.S.’s ability to fight pandemics like the current swine-flu virus,” reports Betsy McKay and Jeanne Whalen from The Wall Street Journal.
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For most people the holidays involve a lot of food, a lot of family, and a lot of traveling. And along with the traveling and family gatherings comes a lot of close contact with others. According to Craig Schneider from ajc, “Federal health officials, who’ve seen a recent decline nationally in the illness, worry that swine flu could increase over the holiday.”
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As the supply of Tamiflu, an H1N1 drug, is running low, some pharmacists are selling the medicine for triple the price than what others are. “The out-of-pocket price to fill the same liquid Tamiflu prescription can range from $43 to $130, according to USA TODAY’s phone survey of more than 100 pharmacies in six states,” abc News reports.
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With the number of swine flu cases rising by the day, the CDC has estimated that the flu has killed as many as 6, ooo Americans.
The CDC estimated that 22 million were diagnosed with Swine Flu by October 17th. CDC immunization and respiratory disease chief Anne Schacht, MD reported that “to have very high rates of flu in September and October is extremely unusual.”
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