Negative Blogs

Health experts warned Wednesday of a stroke crisis in Europe which is already costing the region’s economy an estimated 38 billion euros ($56 billion) a year, with numbers expected to rise as populations age.

In a report for the European Parliament, medical experts working with the campaign group Action for Stroke Prevention, said atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm, affects more than six million people in Europe and increases the risk of stroke by five times.

The economic and health impact of stroke is predicted to grow as the number of people with AF is expected to rise two and a half times by 2050 due to aging populations, the report said.

It the said economic burden created by patients suffering strokes accounts for 2 to 3 percent of total healthcare spending in the European Union and AF is responsible for 15 to 20 percent of all strokes caused by blood clots.

“This burden will increase in years to come, due to both the improved survival of patients with conditions such as heart attacks and Europe’s aging population,” the report said.

Gregory Lip, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham, said the majority of such strokes were preventable, but under-diagnosis and poor care of AF patients, as well as under-use of medicines and the side-effects of drugs means stroke creates “an unnecessary and heavy burden” on patients, carers and health systems.

AF causes the two upper chambers of the heart to quiver instead of beating properly, resulting in blood pooling and potentially forming clots that can cause stroke. Patients can be given anticoagulants, or blood thinners, to help prevent clots.

Stroke is the most common cardiovascular problem after heart disease and kills an estimated 5.7 million people worldwide each year. Current trends suggest the number of strokes in the European Union will rise from 1.1 million a year in 2000 to 1.5 million a year by 2025, the report said.

Action for Stroke Prevention, an alliance of cardiologists, neurologists, family doctors and patient groups, urged EU policymakers to improve stroke risk assessment and diagnosis of atrial fibrillation before the increasing frequency of strokes becomes “a major public health crisis.” Hard money training.

When the nation’s swine flu vaccination program began in early October, health officials predicted it was going to be “messy.” They were right.

The program has been plagued with problems and information gaps:

* Health officials have been terrible at predicting when and how much vaccine would be available. Only about 44 million doses have been shipped so far. Initially, officials said more than three times that would be out by now.
* At times vaccine shipments have been inexplicably lopsided. For example, smaller counties in Illinois and California have received the same amount delivered to counties with seven times as many people.
* Health officials have stressed that people most at risk for swine flu complications should go to the head of the line, but they haven’t tried to make sure that actually happened.
* And despite pledges that they would be transparent about the vaccine program, some health officials have refused to disclose where all the doses are going, and they have held back on public service announcements telling people who should be coming in for shots. Also, many states were slow to establish Web sites that give vaccination locations.

To be fair, health officials say, the government deserves credit for a herculean effort to develop and distribute a safe and effective vaccine against a deadly virus that was first identified only seven months ago.

“You have a brand-new disease that gets identified in April. By October, you have a vaccine for it. By any standards, it’s a miracle,” said Dr. Diane Helentjaris, director of the Virginia Department of Health office handling swine flu response.

But complaints have been mounting, with lawmakers this week holding hearings in Washington and elsewhere, pressing for explanations.

“Calls are still coming in to me about, ‘Why can’t I get the vaccine?’” said Andrea Stillman, a Connecticut state senator speaking at a Wednesday hearing in Hartford. Hard money training

It was bound to happen: Some people who aren’t at high risk for swine flu complications got the much-in-demand vaccine.

Sometimes they were healthy adults or senior citizens instead of kids, pregnant women and people with health problems.

Before Los Angeles County health officials stepped up screening at their flu clinics, Natalie Thompson sailed through the long line and got the vaccine along with her 8-year-old son, even though she’s not in one of the priority groups.

“If I can get it, I’m not gonna say no,” said Thompson, 35, of Hollywood Hills.

Another mom, Katy Radparvar, didn’t say no either.

“Our doctor doesn’t have it yet,” said the 41-year-old woman who was vaccinated along with her three children at a public health vaccination site in suburban Encino last week.

Public health officials don’t want to be vaccine police. Many don’t turn anyone away who wants the vaccine, though some locations are tougher than others.

“For many this is a frustrating process and we really sympathize with those who show up at a clinic and can’t get vaccinated,” said Los Angeles County public health director Dr. Jonathan Fielding.

Across the country, thousands have waited in line and many have been turned away, as manufacturers have trickled out the slow-to-produce vaccine. Things are improving, and now about 25 million doses are available, the government says. Hard money training

First it was the rush for hand sanitizer. Then it was the quest for the vaccine. Now, as increasing numbers of children are coming down with swine flu, more parents are facing yet another anxiety-provoking chase: the hunt for liquid Tamiflu for kids.

Spot shortages of the liquid form of the medicine are forcing mothers and fathers to drive from pharmacy to pharmacy, often late into the evening after getting a diagnosis and prescription from a pediatrician, in search of the syrupy concoction recommended for the youngest victims of the global pandemic.

“It was so frustrating,” said Cheryl Copeland of Silver Spring, who finally found some of the elusive medication for her sick 5-year-old son, William, at an independent drug store Monday after being turned away by a CVS and Rite Aid. “There was a moment when the first pharmacist said, ‘We don’t have it. There’s been a run on it,’ When I said to myself, ‘Where on Earth am I going to find it?’ ”

The drug can make the flu milder, go away more quickly and may cut the risk of serious, potentially life-threatening complications. The shortages are being caused by a surge in demand because of the second wave of swine flu sweeping the country, combined with a decision by the Swiss company that makes the medication to focus on producing the drug in capsules. Hard money training

Annual production of H1N1 vaccine will be “substantially less” than the 4.9 billion doses the World Health Organization (WHO) previously forecast was possible, a spokesman said on Friday.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said that based on clinical test results from some 25 drugmakers, weekly production was less than 94 million doses, although it seemed one dose would be enough to give immunity against the swine flu strain.

“The real figure will be substantially less than 4.9 billion,” Hartl told reporters.

The WHO previously forecast one third of the world’s nearly seven billion people could be affected by the H1N1 pandemic, but so far the vast majority of victims are suffering only mild symptoms.

Hartl gave no exact new forecast but noted WHO’s previous estimate of 4.9 billion had been based on drugmakers switching all production of seasonal flu vaccine to the new vaccine against the H1N1 strain and getting good yields.

In a statement, the WHO said current supplies of pandemic vaccine are “inadequate for a world population in which virtually everyone is susceptible to infection.”

There were 100,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, nearly double the number from the previous seven days, authorities announced Friday.

Children 14 or younger were those predominantly affected, with those older than 65 showing much lower rates, the Department of Health said in its weekly swine flu update.

Most cases continue to be mild, the department said, but a small minority are severe.

The last weekly update showed 55,000 new cases. There is no figure for the week before that, but for the week ended July 3, there were 2,798 new cases. There were 1,442 new cases the week before that, according to department figures.

The Department of Health obtained the data from doctor’s offices that report their consultations for flu-like or other acute respiratory illnesses. It said consultation rates at doctor’s offices had risen sharply in the past week.

There are 840 patients hospitalized with swine flu in England, the department said.

H1N1 swine flu has killed more than 700 people around the world since the outbreak began four months ago, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

This represents a jump of at least two-thirds from the last official death toll figure of 429, published by the WHO on July 6.

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, has warned that swine flu will become the biggest flu pandemic ever seen.

However, most cases continue to produce only mild symptoms.

The overwhelming majority of patients usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week of falling ill.

The WHO has said the pandemic is developing at such a high speed that it is now pointless to try to document every case.

In past pandemics, flu viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks.

The death of a woman suffering from H1N1 swine flu in Scotland is a sad reminder that this is not always a mild infection. This is not only the first confirmed death from H1N1 swine flu in Britain, but the first outside of the Americas.

But it is not a signal that the virus is getting more virulent or that people are at any greater threat. The vast majority of the 1,200 plus people who’ve had the virus in the UK have experienced mild symptoms and then fully recovered.

Throughout the world swine flu does present a slightly higher risk to those with existing respiratory illness, asthma, cardiovascular disease and obesity. It’s worth remembering that seasonal flu kills several thousand people in the UK each winter. The difference with H1N1 swine flu is that the virus is almost exclusively targeting people under 65.

It is likely that cases in the northern hemisphere may tail off in the summer months, with a much bigger outbreak expected in the autumn. The virus can’t be stopped altogether, but everyone can help slow its spread by observing simple hygiene measures, and staying home if they get the virus.