flu season

With flu season right around the corner, inevitably health experts will once again sound the bird flu alarm. In the Wall Street Journal, primary care doctor Benjamin Brewer expresses his concern that the nation’s emergency departments will be pushed beyond capacity if a pandemic does hit the U.S. Many people head to the ER each year because of the flu, and dealing with these patients in addition to a bird flu outbreak would send ERs over the edge. But Brewer notes that there may be a simple Internet tool that can keep this from happening.

In order to avoid unnecessary visits to the ER, Brewer proposes that patients have access to an online questionnaire to see if their symptoms match that of the flu and require a trip to the ER. “At a time when influenza is occurring in a community, clinical guidelines--without an in-person exam--are about 77 percent accurate in diagnosing the illness, according to a study,” Brewer notes. If patient’s symptoms don’t match the questionnaire, then they can avoid a trip to the doctor’s office. If their results are positive, they would be told to receive treatment from a pharmacy.

With flu season right around the corner, health experts will once again sound the bird flu alarm. In his Wall Street Journal column, primary care doctor Benjamin Brewer agrees that the nation's emergency departments will be pushed beyond capacity if a pandemic does hit the U.S. But Brewer thinks that there's a simple Internet tool that can keep this from happening. Article

It looks as though there will be no repeat of the flu vaccine shortages of the past few years. Vaccine makers say they are on track to produce at least 100 million doses of flu vaccine in time for next year's flu season. That's far better than the 86 million doses that producers managed for the 2005-2006 season. The estimates came as vaccine manufacturers, public health officials and influenza experts met in Chicago for the National Influenza Vaccine Summit. Officials say they want to …

Flu season is pretty much over, the CDC said this week. Overall flu and pneumonia deaths this year were far below an average year. Officials say that's partly because this year's season was a mild one but also because the vaccines on the market did a better job than usual. The CDC reports active influenza in less than half of the states. There was less positive news in the fine print. Authorities say this year's Type A virus is resistant to both rimantadine and amantadine. Also of …

> The New York Times Magazine looks at the thorny legal questions involving donated tissue and organ samples that are beginning to emerge. Article

> WebMD Health said it will pay $30 million to acquire Summex, a provider of health and wellness programs. Article

> HCA said it expects first quarter …

The FDA issued draft guidelines intended to speed the development of new flu vaccines. These guidelines will make it easier for drug companies to move new products to market and theoretically encourage new vaccine delivery technologies. The rules change is expected to take one to two years off the time it takes to develop a new vaccine. The government says it will have 100 million to 125 million doses of flu vaccine ready for next year's flu season. That's still short of the 180 million …

Last week, Sanofi-Pasteur sold out of flu vaccine for next year's flu season within a matter of hours. The company began accepting orders on Tuesday and was quickly overwhelmed by a deluge of calls. A Sanofi spokesman said the company received 40,000 calls in the first 30 minutes after its lines opened. The company plans to produce 50 million doses of its seasonal flu vaccine next year and expects to double production capacity by 2008.

- see this article from the Pocono Record

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis said that early stage trials of its experimental avian flu vaccine have produced promising results, triggering a good immune response in trial participants. The latest version of the vaccine appears to work well at low dosages, a sign that plans to stretch the available supply developed by public health officials could work. Officials admit that the vaccine will need to be tweaked to offer protection against a new strain of the H5N1 virus if a …

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding said it has suspended shipments of Tamiflu to pharmacy benefit management companies and other wholesale distributors after receiving reports of distribution problems. A Roche spokesman told The New York Times that some companies have been building stockpiles of the antiviral to guard against a possible H5N1 outbreak but did not provide more specifics. The company said shipments will resume when flu season begins in earnest. For those …

Supplies of seasonal influenza vaccine will probably be sufficient to meet demand for the 2005-2006 flu season, the Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday. National production is expected to be "adequate," although spot shortages may hit some areas. That's despite another disappointing year for Chiron, which last month announced it will not be able to meet its production goals. Total vaccine production is estimated to be in the range of 70 million to 88 million doses. …