CARROLL COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
H1N1 FLU UPDATE
19 June 2009
NATIONAL: Cases of laboratory confirmed and probable H1N1 flu as of 11:00 am 19 June 2009:
21,449
in all 50 states including D.C and Puerto Rico.
87 deaths
For
those interested, a state by state breakdown is attached to this report
MARYLAND: 305 cases of laboratory confirmed and
probable H1N1 flu. No deaths
CARROLL
COUNTY: 2 cases of confirmed H1N1.
Editorial
Note: As you will note, the term “Swine Flu” as
been replaced with “H1N1 flu” in this Update.
This is not a concession to the pork producing industry, but to avoid
any connection in people’s minds of the disaster of the national Swine Flu mass
vaccination campaign of the mid 1970s.
For those of you too young to remember, here is a VERY brief description
of what happened:
In
the winter of 1976, a new strain of influenza struck a military base (Fort Dix)
in New Jersey. One death and a handful
of secondary cases ensued. The CDC and
the White House, fearing this may be some type of “1918 influenza,” leapt way
beyond the scientific evidence; President Ford ordered rapid production of a
vaccine and the mass immunization of the U. S. population. But by 1976 the vaccine industry was
shriveling as drug companies found pills and medicines to be far more
profitable markets. A few lawsuits,
particularly those related to the Cutter Laboratory polio incident, had sent
chills through the pharmaceutical industry.
Companies that still had vaccine production facilities were loath to get
involved in a rush job without protection from litigation. Private insurance companies balked at the
prospect of insuring them. President
Ford asked Congress to pass a bill making the federal government liable for the
vaccine. This essentially put the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare (the predecessor to today’s
Department of Health and Human Services) in the position of indemnifying the
drug companies. The drug companies had a
hard time meeting CDC’s goal of having 100 million
doses of vaccine ready in time to vaccinate Americans in September, before the
typical October flu season commenced.
One company misinterpreted its instructions and made the wrong
vaccine. As the vaccine became
available, skeptics drew sizeable media attention, arguing variously that there
was no Swine Flu, that the vaccine was dangerous or that the entire effort was
a fiscal boondoggle. Then some vaccinees fell ill with Guillan-Barre
syndrome, a neurological disorder that may have been linked to the
vaccine. The public turned its back on
the immunization campaign. (Extracted from Betrayal of Trust, the Collapse
of Global Public Health, by Laurie Garrett)
OTHER
NOTES:
· WHO’s Global Pandemic Phase
elevated to SIX (the highest) on June 11 and remains so. Last time the Phase was at SIX was during the
Hong Kong flu of 1968.
· WHO reporting 44,287 H1N1
worldwide cases in 88 countries with 180 deaths (as of 19 June 2009).
· While the spread of H1N1 flu
is generally slowing down in the U. S., two areas in the Northeast that
continue to see increased number of cases.
CDC expects that the virus will continue to exist in the U. S. until the
Fall when seasonal flu begins to circulate.
· The virus continues to
affect mostly younger people.
· While school is on Summer
break, H1N1 cases have begun to surface in summer camps. (See below).
· About 70% of individuals
hospitalized with H1N1 flu have underlying diseases, including asthma,
diabetes, immunocompromised status and heart disease.
CURRENT
PUBLIC HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE:
· Nothing immediate
· Those families with children
in summer camp and camp managers should follow the same CDC recommendations as
those for schools – that if H1N1 flu is suspected in a child attending camp
that child should be removed for 7 days, or 24 hours after the last symptom, if
that is longer.
|
Table. U.S.
Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection |
||
|
States and
Territories* |
Deaths |
|
|
States |
||
|
Alabama |
172 |
|
|
Alaska |
23 |
|
|
Arkansas |
18 |
|
|
Arizona |
645 |
7 |
|
California |
1245 |
8 |
|
Colorado |
103 |
|
|
Connecticut |
767 |
3 |
|
Delaware |
223 |
|
|
Florida |
562 |
1 |
|
Georgia |
51 |
|
|
Hawaii |
279 |
|
|
Idaho |
47 |
|
|
Illinois |
2526 |
8 |
|
Indiana |
223 |
|
|
Iowa |
92 |
|
|
Kansas |
97 |
|
|
Kentucky |
108 |
|
|
Louisiana |
134 |
|
|
Maine |
42 |
|
|
Maryland |
263 |
|
|
Massachusetts |
1270 |
1 |
|
Michigan |
442 |
2 |
|
Minnesota |
365 |
1 |
|
Mississippi |
81 |
|
|
Missouri |
46 |
1 |
|
Montana |
44 |
|
|
Nebraska |
81 |
|
|
Nevada |
198 |
|
|
New Hampshire |
187 |
|
|
New Jersey |
603 |
2 |
|
New Mexico |
155 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
States and
Territories* |
Deaths |
|
|
New York |
1300 |
24 |
|
North Carolina |
125 |
|
|
North Dakota |
41 |
|
|
Ohio |
63 |
|
|
Oklahoma |
112 |
1 |
|
Oregon |
219 |
1 |
|
Pennsylvania |
942 |
3 |
|
Rhode Island |
94 |
1 |
|
South Carolina |
83 |
|
|
South Dakota |
17 |
|
|
Tennessee |
121 |
|
|
Texas |
2519 |
10 |
|
Utah |
755 |
8 |
|
Vermont |
43 |
|
|
Virginia |
135 |
1 |
|
Washington |
588 |
3 |
|
Washington, D.C. |
33 |
|
|
West Virginia |
77 |
|
|
Wisconsin |
3008 |
1 |
|
Wyoming |
63 |
|
|
Territories |
||
|
Puerto Rico |
18 |
|
|
Virgin Islands |
1 |
|
|
TOTAL*(53) |
21,449 cases |
87 deaths |
|
*Includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and
the U.S. Virgin Islands. This table will be updated each Friday at 11 AM ET.International Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection |
||