tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Only a few thousand swine flu vaccines are left in New Zealand and this year's death toll from the virus has risen to five.
Stocks of seasonal flu shots, which this year include protection against swine flu, were down to 8000 yesterday and were expected to run out by the end of the month.
The number of people falling ill to flu ? most likely the H1N1 strain ? has shot up in the past fortnight.
By yesterday, 332 people with lab-confirmed swine flu had been admitted to hospitals around the country, half of them in the past fortnight.
That included 46 people in intensive care units. The latest person to die from the virus was a 22-year-old Hawke's Bay man, who had an underlying health condition.
Two others ? a Christchurch woman, 44, and a Wellington man, 38 ? died on Sunday. The deaths followed those of a Northland man, 51, last month, and a Tauranga woman, 48, in June.
The Hawke's Bay man's death on Tuesday came just hours before an annoucement by the World Health Organisation that the swine flu pandemic was over and the world had entered a post-pandemic phase. However, New Zealand was singled out as still experiencing the effects of a second wave of the virus.
New Zealand levels of influenza-like illness were already higher than the 2008 flu season peak, though still less than half the level seen during the pandemic peak last year.
Health Ministry deputy director of public health Darren Hunt said Healthline took about 3000 calls from people with an influenza-like illness in the week to Wednesday.
There have been particularly high rates of the virus in pockets of the country that were less hard-hit last year. Wairarapa schools continued to report high numbers of school absences ? a trend that has spread to Hawke's Bay.
Many schools in the region reported yesterday that 10 to 15 per cent of children were absent because of illness.
More than a million people have had a seasonal flu shot this year ? a new record.
Despite the increasing levels of swine flu, Health Ministry immunisation director David Wansborough said there were no plans to order more doses of vaccine at this stage.
Another non-subsidised flu vaccine, Intanza, was also available for those who missed out on a ministry-funded flu shot.
The five deaths this year all mirror a pattern seen last year in which younger people were more likely to suffer severe symptoms.
Researchers have suggested that is because people aged 60 or over have some pre-existing immunity to swine flu because of a similar strain of influenza that circulated in the 1940s and 50s.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/4019576/Swine-flu-threat-very-real
Stocks of seasonal flu shots, which this year include protection against swine flu, were down to 8000 yesterday and were expected to run out by the end of the month.
The number of people falling ill to flu ? most likely the H1N1 strain ? has shot up in the past fortnight.
By yesterday, 332 people with lab-confirmed swine flu had been admitted to hospitals around the country, half of them in the past fortnight.
That included 46 people in intensive care units. The latest person to die from the virus was a 22-year-old Hawke's Bay man, who had an underlying health condition.
Two others ? a Christchurch woman, 44, and a Wellington man, 38 ? died on Sunday. The deaths followed those of a Northland man, 51, last month, and a Tauranga woman, 48, in June.
The Hawke's Bay man's death on Tuesday came just hours before an annoucement by the World Health Organisation that the swine flu pandemic was over and the world had entered a post-pandemic phase. However, New Zealand was singled out as still experiencing the effects of a second wave of the virus.
New Zealand levels of influenza-like illness were already higher than the 2008 flu season peak, though still less than half the level seen during the pandemic peak last year.
Health Ministry deputy director of public health Darren Hunt said Healthline took about 3000 calls from people with an influenza-like illness in the week to Wednesday.
There have been particularly high rates of the virus in pockets of the country that were less hard-hit last year. Wairarapa schools continued to report high numbers of school absences ? a trend that has spread to Hawke's Bay.
Many schools in the region reported yesterday that 10 to 15 per cent of children were absent because of illness.
More than a million people have had a seasonal flu shot this year ? a new record.
Despite the increasing levels of swine flu, Health Ministry immunisation director David Wansborough said there were no plans to order more doses of vaccine at this stage.
Another non-subsidised flu vaccine, Intanza, was also available for those who missed out on a ministry-funded flu shot.
The five deaths this year all mirror a pattern seen last year in which younger people were more likely to suffer severe symptoms.
Researchers have suggested that is because people aged 60 or over have some pre-existing immunity to swine flu because of a similar strain of influenza that circulated in the 1940s and 50s.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/4019576/Swine-flu-threat-very-real
