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Swine flu deaths top bird flu toll
By Andrew Jack in London
Published: June 29 2009 17:19 | Last updated: June 29 2009 17:19
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">function floatContent(){var paraNum = "3" paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName("div").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}}</script>The number of people killed by swine flu crossed a symbolic barrier this weekend when it outstripped those who have died from the bird flu virus, as criticism grew of insufficient work to study how best to treat the pandemic.
The latest figures from the World Health Organisation show there have now been 311 confirmed deaths around the world from the H1N1 virus first identified in Mexico this spring, and just over 70,000 infections in 113 countries.
That contrasts with only 262 human deaths and 433 confirmed infections with H5N1, the flu virus which has killed millions of wild birds, poultry and other animals in recent years.
The data was released as a group of senior influenza specialists writing in the latest issue of the Lancet, the medical journal, expressed concern over the absence of systematic clinical research to understand how most effectively to treat those infected by flu.
The comment was written by Tranh Tinh Hien and Jeremy Farrar, who have long studied H5N1 in Vietnam, as well as Frederick Hayden a senior adviser to the World Health Organisation from the University of Virginia and Guillermo Ruiz-Palacios from the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City, in the middle of the H1N1 outbreak.
The authors said almost no patients have so far been enrolled in clinical descriptive studies, let alone randomised control trials which could show more objectively the best drugs and dosages to use, identify any side effects and track the development of drug resistance.
?A change in attitude to patient-oriented research is required by the clinical community, by funding organisations, scientific journals and national and international agencies,? they wrote.
The US National Institutes of Health is currently drawing up details for a study based in Mexico and the US, and also helped launch a clinical study for H5N1 after similar criticisms. That study remains hampered by the slow rate of infection of new patients.
The H5N1 bird flu has proved extremely dangerous in those humans it infects, and was long seen by planners as one of the most likely causes of a new pandemic. But since its identification a decade ago, it has not yet mutated into a form that is most lethal and easily transmissible between humans.
The H1N1 swine flu virus has proved far more easily transmitted, with projections that it could infect up to a third of a typical population. Provisional data suggests it is currently only about as lethal as seasonal flu, although it affects different groups, notably threatening younger adults, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e5faa96-64c2-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
By Andrew Jack in London
Published: June 29 2009 17:19 | Last updated: June 29 2009 17:19
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">function floatContent(){var paraNum = "3" paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName("div").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}}</script>The number of people killed by swine flu crossed a symbolic barrier this weekend when it outstripped those who have died from the bird flu virus, as criticism grew of insufficient work to study how best to treat the pandemic.
The latest figures from the World Health Organisation show there have now been 311 confirmed deaths around the world from the H1N1 virus first identified in Mexico this spring, and just over 70,000 infections in 113 countries.
That contrasts with only 262 human deaths and 433 confirmed infections with H5N1, the flu virus which has killed millions of wild birds, poultry and other animals in recent years.
The data was released as a group of senior influenza specialists writing in the latest issue of the Lancet, the medical journal, expressed concern over the absence of systematic clinical research to understand how most effectively to treat those infected by flu.
The comment was written by Tranh Tinh Hien and Jeremy Farrar, who have long studied H5N1 in Vietnam, as well as Frederick Hayden a senior adviser to the World Health Organisation from the University of Virginia and Guillermo Ruiz-Palacios from the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City, in the middle of the H1N1 outbreak.
The authors said almost no patients have so far been enrolled in clinical descriptive studies, let alone randomised control trials which could show more objectively the best drugs and dosages to use, identify any side effects and track the development of drug resistance.
?A change in attitude to patient-oriented research is required by the clinical community, by funding organisations, scientific journals and national and international agencies,? they wrote.
The US National Institutes of Health is currently drawing up details for a study based in Mexico and the US, and also helped launch a clinical study for H5N1 after similar criticisms. That study remains hampered by the slow rate of infection of new patients.
The H5N1 bird flu has proved extremely dangerous in those humans it infects, and was long seen by planners as one of the most likely causes of a new pandemic. But since its identification a decade ago, it has not yet mutated into a form that is most lethal and easily transmissible between humans.
The H1N1 swine flu virus has proved far more easily transmitted, with projections that it could infect up to a third of a typical population. Provisional data suggests it is currently only about as lethal as seasonal flu, although it affects different groups, notably threatening younger adults, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e5faa96-64c2-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1