TN: Hospitals short of ICU beds, ventilators as flu cases rise (Knoxville)

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.wbir.com/story/news/healt...-rise/4396843/

Hospitals short of ICU beds, ventilators as flu cases rise
Ashley Izbicki, WBIR 7:14 p.m. EST January 9, 2014

(WBIR-Knoxville) Hospital officials said January is already on track to be worse than December for flu cases, and medical workers are not only swamped with helping patients who are battling the flu, but they're also dealing with a shortage of resources.

"We have an influx of patients. We have quite a few in fact, we counted this morning 15 cases in isolation," said Lorene Cathey, the infection prevention manager with University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Cathey said H1N1, which hit hard back in 2009 and 2010, and Influenza Type A are circulating this season, keeping hospitals packed.

"Our critical care units in the city are at max. They're full. Our ventilator usage is way, way up. In fact I think the community is doing a ventilator audit right now to see where we're at in the community as far as available ventilators... "

[NS1]

Re: TN: Hospitals short of ICU beds, ventilators as flu cases rise (Knoxville)

pH1N1 Child Vaccine Escape
CDC Early 2013

Map - Active and Detailed

<div style="text-align: center;">
<hr style="width: 30%;" />41 Cases over 43 Sequences<hr style="width: 30%;" /></div>
Introduction

In the 30 days covering 2013-02-28 to 2013-03-29, the&nbsp;<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>United States CDC</b></span>&nbsp;released a total of 43&nbsp;<b><span style="color: #632423; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;">pH1N1</span></b>&nbsp;sequences at&nbsp;<strong>GISAID&nbsp;</strong>on 41 human cases<strong>&nbsp;</strong>sampled from October 2012 to February 2013. Geographic surveillance includes&nbsp;<b>America,</b>&nbsp;<b>Africa, Asia </b>and<b> Russia.&nbsp;</b>Although&nbsp;<b><span style="color: #632423; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;">pH1N1</span></b>&nbsp;in most locales during the&nbsp;2012-2013 season was the <b><span style="color: #783f04;">minority</span></b> serotype, the sequences in this Analytic Report describe a high level of human-infective diversity and an ease of avian genetic acquisition, including multiple instances demonstrating concentrated transport of <b><span style="color: #660000;">High-CFR</span></b>&nbsp;<b><span style="color: #632423; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;;">pH1N1&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #783f04;">Upsilon</span></b> polymorphisms onto single sequences.

. . .

Read the Open-Access, Full-Text
Investigational Analytic
including Genetic Details

[NS1]

Re: TN: Hospitals short of ICU beds, ventilators as flu cases rise (Knoxville)

pH1N1 Genetic Sequence
Sparsity
for
Tennessee

Only two genetic sequences are on file from Tennessee during 2013 with none after March. Those distant sequences suggest a circulation pattern similar to Texas and New Mexico.

[NS1]

Re: TN: Hospitals short of ICU beds, ventilators as flu cases rise (Knoxville)

pH1N1 Genetic Sequence
Sparsity
for
Tennessee

Only two genetic sequences are on file from Tennessee during 2013 with none after March. Those distant sequences suggest a circulation pattern similar to Texas and New Mexico.

pH1N1 TamiFlu Resistance

The most recent Tennessee sequence, sampled from a 53 year old woman in March 2013, is Drug Resistant (TmX275 onto a very common Neuraminidase) and displays CrossClade tendencies with Emergent H7N9 homology on the Hemagglutinin.

The Neuraminidase lineage is common; The CrossClade Hemagglutinin lineage was widespread to geographies supporting avian inclusions, e.g. Brazil [EPI484739] and Costa Rica [EPI484980].