A single dose of Novartis AG’s cell culture-based swine flu vaccine provoked a strong immune response and was well tolerated in a trial of 100 healthy volunteers.

Results from the tests showed that it was possible to induce protective antibodies against the H1N1 virus within two weeks of giving a single low-dose vaccine, Novartis said in an e-mailed statement today.

Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc are among the drugmakers hurrying to make the hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine needed to fight the new H1N1 influenza strain. Authorities in the U.S. and U.K. have predicted two shots would probably be needed, a regimen that would reduce the number of people who could be protected before the northern hemisphere’s winter. Antibody responses were highest in patients who received two doses of the vaccine, which included an aluminum-based chemical called an adjuvant, Novartis said.

Americans may need two vaccine doses instead of one to be immunized against swine flu because officials plan to exclude ingredients used to boost immune responses in shots made by Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Novartis AG today reported that a single dose of its vaccine, which relies on a shot-boosting ingredient known as an adjuvant, safely provoked a strong immune response in a trial of 100 healthy volunteers. The formulation favored by the U.S. doesn’t use an adjuvant, and a second vaccine dose is more likely to be required, said Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. paid Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, and London-based Glaxo more than $415 million for emergency stockpiles of adjuvant, which isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Vaccines are slated to arrive in mid- October, a time that health officials say could be the peak of outbreaks. A second dose would need to be given three weeks after the first, delaying immunity.

“We expect that the likelihood of needing two doses of vaccine that’s not adjuvanted is higher than with an adjuvanted vaccine,” Frieden said today in a conference call. “We don’t anticipate that we’ll be using adjuvanted vaccine in most of the scenarios that we anticipate now, though that could change.”

Child-care facilities should prepare for outbreaks of swine flu and seasonal influenza, and parents and caregivers should plan to keep sick kids at home, according to guidance by U.S. health officials.

Care providers should clean surfaces, encourage staff to get vaccinated, promote hand washing and check kids for signs of illness, said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary for health and human services, in a conference call today. Sick children and caregivers should stay home for 24 hours after a fever subsides without the use of fever-reducing medication, she said.

Sporadic outbreaks of swine flu, also known as H1N1, are being reported across the U.S., with the highest concentrations in the Southeast, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. U.S. health officials plan a vaccination campaign for mid-October that will focus on the most-affected patient groups. Those include children, people who live or work with infants, pregnant women, and adults with underlying health conditions.

“Vaccination is our best barrier against a new virus strain and against the seasonal flu,” Sebelius said. “The vaccines, we believe, are safe, and by the time H1N1 is ready to go, we will know it’s safe.”

Children younger than 6 months aren’t eligible for flu vaccinations, so family members and caregivers should shield infants against the flu by getting inoculated, according to the CDC.

The rising death toll from swine flu in India is driving some people to buy remedies made of cow- urine extract, clarified butter and herbal potions to ward off the disease, as the government restricts Tamiflu and other drugs.

Since India reported its first swine flu death in the western city of Pune on Aug. 3, more than 100 people have died from the virus. The government is controlling access to Roche AG’s Tamiflu antiviral to ensure hospital supplies in case of an epidemic. Residents have switched to traditional Ayurvedic healing, used for hundreds of years to boost immunity, as well as unproven remedies being sold to take advantage of the outbreak, doctors say.

A Fort Simpson, N.W.T., man who died earlier this week might have had swine flu, the N.W.T. Health Department confirmed Thursday.

A department spokesman told CBC News that a swab has been taken from the man and is being sent out for tests. Such types of tests take about five days.

It's the first suspected death from the H1N1 influenza virus in the Northwest Territories. In neighbouring Nunavut, a woman died from swine flu in July.

Federal health officials say the flu is going around unusually early this year, And they say nearly all of the infections are swine flu.

The Centers for Disease control says the flu has already shown up in every state this season. 98 percent of the cases are h1n1, commonly known as the "swine flu."

The seasonal flu normally hits older people harder, but cases of the swine flu are mainly in children and young adults.

The SBA and Department of Homeland Security say firms that haven't prepared could be devastated as the threat of H1N1 looms during the fall and winter. They offer guidelines for companies to follow.

As the public questions H1N1 vaccine content, it's been another Orwellian packed two weeks "with technology running at a faster pace than Superman" states Greg Nick, director of two groups, Mankind vs VeriChip and We The People Will Not Be Chipped.

These groups participate in empowering learning opportunities for making wise decisions about matters such as human chipping.

The VeriChip is implanted with a syringe, raising concern about the H1N1 vaccine since independent researchers have debunked that there is a pandemic (Dina Rosendorff for PM, Australian Broadcasting Company, August 18, 2009) and there is a hard-sell vaccine marketing campaign aimed at fifty percent of Americans willingly accepting the H1N1 vaccine.

Independent researchers such a those associated with the Center for Research on Globalization concur that the H1N1 exercise is a global military based operation using pharmacological warfare

The FDA has now suddenly granted approval to four different H1N1 vaccines, all on the same day! With virtually no testing, these fast-tracked vaccines are now approved for use on everyone: Infants, children, adults, senior citizens and even expectant mothers. But does everyone really need these vaccines?

According to the CDC, by June of 2009, one million Americans had already been exposed to H1N1 swine flu. Although the CDC hasn't released official infection statistics in recent months, with the rapid spread of the mild virus, it's not unreasonable to suspect that by now, three months later, the number of Americans who have been exposed to H1N1 swine flu has at least doubled to two million.

Notis said the hospital is working very closely with its employees to counsel them about the threat of the flu and should they not comply with the policy they could be subject to possible termination.

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer

By Greg Evensen

September 19, 2009

NewsWithViews.com


As most of you are already aware, I broke a story seven months ago in which I described a discussion I had with a friend in the health care profession at a major mid-western hospital. This person told me about the delivery of stainless steel wrist band type bracelets that carried the hardware for uploading, tracking and broadcasting uniquely personal encoded information. These bands were to be used in the event of massive inoculations or other disaster events in which large numbers of people would be vaccinated and then tracked. I also stated that plans for roadblock enforcement of these issued bands was a component of emergency planning already on the federal and state police shelves, for use when those state or federal agencies called for blockades on the movement of people. I further mentioned that the “bracelets” would be encoded on the spot with tools similar to those used by UPS when packages are delivered and scanned by the driver.

I would not release my source for fear of severe retaliation being waged against this individual for obvious reasons. On September 15th, we were contacted by a friend who said check out the Boston Globe article that has validated every shred of information that I gave earlier this year. The company that is at the forefront of supplying the City of Boston’s Health Services Department with this very device is EMSystems of Milwaukee, Wi.
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