Swine Flu Summit on 9/10

[Commonground]

State officials hold swine flu summit
The Associated Press
Updated: 09/10/2009 06:19:59 AM EDT

HARTFORD -- Connecticut state and local officials are set to meet to prepare for an expected swine flu outbreak.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell will be updating town officials, educators and emergency response workers on the state's vaccine distribution plan at Thursday's summit in Hartford.
The governor says Connecticut will get about 500,000 doses when the vaccine becomes available in mid-October, and it will receive about 200,000 doses every week afterward. The H1N1 vaccine is given in two doses 21 to 28 days apart.
The state plans to give the vaccine first to people who need it the most, including young children, health care workers and the elderly.
More than 1,900 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Connecticut, and nine people with underlying medical issues have died.

http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_13306203


State hosts summit on H1N1 flu today
September 10, 2009 at 11:53 am by aamato


We have our Hartford reporter, Ken Dixon, at the H1N1 flu summit today. Gov. M. Jodi Rell was the first to speak to the more than 500 people attending the morning-long event at the Connecticut Convention Center.
Rell said that no one knows how severe the virus will hit the state, but offered some “common sense” ways to prepare and react.
She said simple things such as coughing into your elbow and using hand sanitizer can go a long way toward limiting the spread of the deadly flu pandemic.
Dr. Matthew Cartter, chief epidemiologist for the DPH, called the nearly 2,000 cases reported in the state are “just the tip of the iceberg,” but those born before 1957 may have some kind of immunity to the H1N1 strain.
We will update the summit throughout the day on our website.


http://blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings/2009/09/10/state-hosts-summit-on-h1n1-flu-today/

 

[Commonground]

Re: Swine Flu Summit on 9/10

It's baaack: Official says swine flu cases re-emerging in state

Updated: 09/10/2009 11:52:14 AM EDT

HARTFORD (AP) -- A top Connecticut health official says there are signs that swine flu may be re-emerging in the state.

State Epidemiologist Matthew Cartter told hundreds of state and local officials at a flu summit in Hartford on Thursday that there has been a small increase over the past two weeks in the number of people hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in Connecticut.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell told the crowd that the state plans to quickly distribute the swine flu vaccine when it's available in mid-October.

She says the first doses will go to people who need them the most, including pregnant women, young children, health care workers and the elderly.

More than 1,900 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Connecticut, and nine people with underlying medical issues have died.

http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_13307351

 

[Commonground]

Re: Swine Flu Summit on 9/10

Officials discuss expected H1N1 flu outbreak in state

By Ken DIXON
STAFF WRITER
<!--date-->Updated: 09/10/2009 04:27:06 PM EDT
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HARTFORD - Those 52 years of age and older are not a priority for the H1N1 flu vaccine because they may have built up immunity to the virus back during the Asian Flu outbreak of 1957 and 1958, a state medical expert announced on Thursday.
Speaking during a morning-long program updating about 500 healthcare and first responders on the growing H1N1 pandemic, Dr. Matthew Cartter, chief epidemiologist for the DPH, called the nearly 2,000 cases reported so far in the state are "just the tip of the iceberg," but those born before 1957 may have some kind of immunity to the H1N1 strain.
There are about 1.14 million people 50 and over, which is just about a third of Connecticut's population, according to 2007 Connecticut census figures.
That's why older state residents are not being targeted for the first rounds of an estimated 530,000 doses of vaccine that will arrive in the state by mid-October, with another 200,000 a week arriving as they are made available by the federal government.
"Right now it's kind of a race between the virus and the vaccine," Cartter said.
He indicated that there are three possible scenarios for the severity of the expected outbreak in Connecticut, based on the history of devastating events in the 20th century: the 1918-19 Spanish flu that killed 650,000 in the U.S.; the 1957-58 Asian flu that killed 70,000 nationwide; and the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu that killed 34,000.
The Hong Kong flu and the 1918-19 outbreak both affected about a million people in Connecticut, but the former event of 1968, called a Category 2 event, killed 2,902, compared to the latter's 23,852 fatalities in a Category 5 occurrence around the end of World War I. "What we're faced with is much more like a Category 2 situation," Cartter said of the current threat presented by the H1N1 virus. He said that school closures would not be recommended until 30 to 40 percent of a school's population is infected with the flu and unable to come to class.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who opened the conference, said that no one knows how severe the H1N1 virus will hit Connecticut, but "plain, old-fashioned common sense" is the best way to prepare and react.
Rell said simple acts of good hygiene, such as coughing into your elbow and using hand sanitizer, can go a long way toward limiting the spread of the deadly flu pandemic, which is by no way to be confused with the seasonal flu.
"Let's get real: Whether it's H1N1 or the same old-fashioned seasonal flu, whoever gets it is going to feel pretty crummy," she said, opening the briefing for local officials held by the state Department of Public Health.
She said the vaccine will be released as soon as it is made available to Connecticut. Pregnant women and people with close proximity to young children will be among the first to be given access to the vaccine through local doctors, community health centers and clinics.
Rell, speaking with reporters after Cartter's briefing, said that concerns are emerging over the plan to give to unproven vaccine first to pregnant women. Rell, who turned 63 in May, said she didn't remember the 1957 influenza but did recall the 1968 event.
"The fact is that we really don't know all the things we'd like to know about this organism," said Dr. J. Robert Galvin, commissioner of the DPH. "It's a little bag of nucleic acid derivatives that has a great deal of ability to make us ill and change itself."



http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_13308849?source=rss