Blog Archive for August, 2009
Swine flu spurs restrictions on Calif. prisoner intake
By Matthew B. Stannard
The San Francisco Chronicle
correctionsone.com
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — Seeking to prevent an outbreak of swine flu from spreading beyond prison walls, officials at San Quentin State Prison on Wednesday stopped accepting prisoners from 16 Northern California counties, including all nine in the Bay Area.
The move follows by two days the prison’s decision to stop transferring prisoners to other facilities in the state.
“Because we’re not transferring people out, it kind of creates this backlog,” said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton. “There are not enough beds to receive the new inmates.”
Stopping swine flu before it starts
By Luke Whyte
CorrectionsOne editor
At this year’s ACA summer conference, all three speakers in workshop “Managing seasonal influenza in the correctional setting” said something about your grandmother.
“It’s what grandma harked on,” said Dr. Kenneth Castro of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. “Wash your hands and avoid coughing people.”
They said it, because for all the talk of vaccines, quarantine and anti-viral medication, the first steps all institutions should be taking toward the prevention of a swine flu outbreak this year are as simple as using a Kleenex.
White House Warns of Massive Swine Flu Spread
Dire Report Says 50 Percent Infection Rate, Up to 90,000 Deaths Possible This Flu Season From H1N1
By BRIAN HARTMAN, SARAH HERNDON and LEE FERRAN
Aug. 25, 2009
abcnews.com
Up to half of the population of the U.S. could come down with the swine flu and 90,000 could die this season, according to a dire report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The report, which claims as many as 1.8 million people could end up in the hospital seeking treatment for the H1N1 virus, comes as government officials push drug companies to make a vaccine available next month.
“It’s a plausible scenario that we need to be prepared for,” said Marty Cetron, the Center for Disease Control’s director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
World gears up for swine flu’s return
By Rob Stein
Washington Post
updated 8:04 a.m. ET, Mon., Aug 10, 2009
msnbc.com
As the first influenza pandemic in 41 years has spread during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter over the past few months, the United States and other northern countries have been racing to prepare for a second wave of swine flu virus.
At the same time, international health authorities have become increasingly alarmed about the new virus’s arrival in the poorest, least-prepared parts of the world.
While flu viruses are notoriously capricious, making any firm predictions impossible, a new round could hit the Northern Hemisphere within weeks and lead to major disruptions in schools, workplaces and hospitals, according to U.S. and international health officials.
51 U.S. soldiers in Iraq diagnosed with swine flu
Written by The Associated Press
August, 9, 2009
msnbc.com
BAGHDAD - Fifty-one American troops in Iraq have been diagnosed with and treated for swine flu, while another 71 soldiers remain in isolation suspected of contracting the potentially deadly virus, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The figures were released as Iraqi health officials confirmed Sunday the country’s first swine flu death.
A woman in the southern holy Shiite city of Najaf died of the disease, raising fears about a possible outbreak among worshippers making pilgrimages to the revered sites.
Police: AIDS patient spit on cops
By Jennifer Baker
Cincinnati Enquirer
August 12, 2009
WALNUT HILLS – A 48-year-old man who claims he has AIDS was arrested and charged Tuesday with spitting blood on two Cincinnati police officers.
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Ronald Crawford of Over-the-Rhine faces two counts of harassment by an inmate.
Feds: Pupils with H1N1 should wear masks
By Joseph Weber
Washington Times
Students and teachers infected with the dangerous and unpredictable H1N1 virus should immediately be isolated and given a mask, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.
The guideline is part of a larger, comprehensive plan issued by the federal government for public and private schools (kindergarten through 12th grade) preparing to reopen in the fall, and it revises an earlier directive to shutter classrooms in an outbreak, which left working parents in a child-care quandary during last spring’s panic.
Recommendation of HICPAC Influenza A (H1N1) Working Group
JEMS.com
by Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
2009 Aug 3
At a public meeting held on July 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Influenza A (H1N1) Working Group with regards to “Interim Guidance for Infection Control for Care of Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection in a Healthcare Setting.” The Working Group recommendations were based on the results of a systematic review on respiratory protection devices for Influenza A (H1N1) performed by the Center for Evidence-Based Practice at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in June 2009. The guidance development process continues with a CDC meeting to hear the views of labor organizations on July 28. On August 11-14, 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will convene an expert panel on personal protective equipment for healthcare personnel in the workplace against H1N1. The guidance development process is expected to be completed by October 1, 2009. APIC is pleased that the Working Group recommendations are consistent with an APIC-endorsed position paper.
U.S. revises swine flu strategy
EMS1.com
By Spencer S. Hsu
MSNBC
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is finalizing guidelines that would scale back when the federal government recommends closing schools in response to the swine flu pandemic, several people involved in the deliberations said Monday.
Such guidance would mark a change in the government’s approach from this spring, when health officials suggested that schools shut down at the first sign of the H1N1 virus. They later relaxed that advice.