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Date: Friday 22 March 2013

KILLER FLU EXPECTED TO HIT WAIKATO THIS WINTER

A killer flu is expected to strike New Zealand this year and doctors are warning it is a deadly serious virus.

Waikato DHB medical officer of health Dr Felicity Dumble says she is concerned about the flu strain which saw 64 children die in the United States from influenza-associated illnesses during their winter.

Coupled with that, Waikato is seeing increasing cases of pertussis (whooping cough). The latest Public Health Bulletin shows Waikato had 63 reported cases in February, up 41 on the same month last year with 124 year to date since 1 July.

Of the 163 notified cases since 1 January 2012, 57 were from Hamilton, 12 from Matamata Piako, seven from Hauraki, nine from Otorohanga, three from Ruapehu, eight from South Waikato, 22 from Thames Coromandel, 16 from Waikato district, 16 from Waipa and three from Waitomo.

"We had the second highest notification rate in New Zealand last month," said Dr Dumble.

"We encourage pregnant women to ask their doctor about the free pertussis vaccine when receiving their influenza vaccine. Both vaccines are recommended and funded for pregnant women, as the viruses cause high risk to mother and baby and are circulating at epidemic levels."

The National Influenza Specialist Group (NISG) and national District Health Boards (DHBs) advise that influenza vaccinations are the most effective way to fight the epidemic levels of infection that struck the Northern Hemisphere winter.

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Killer Flu Expected to Hit Waikato This Winter

Doctors are worried a killer flu that led to the death of 64 children in the United States will hit New Zealand's shores this winter.

Waikato DHB medical officer of health Dr Felicity Dumble said she was concerned about the deadly serious virus hitting at any stage, despite the warm weather sticking around.

"The timing of New Zealand's influenza season is unpredictable but we may see the disease arriving earlier than usual as has happened in the northern hemisphere," she said.

US numbers showed that people 65 and over accounted for more than half of all reported influenza-associated hospitalisations - the highest number since records began in 2005. The next highest group were children under four years old.

But although elderly and very young patients were particularly vulnerable, Dr Dumble said that everyone should be taking steps to prevent themselves from catching the virus. "No matter how fit and healthy you are, we are all at risk of catching this disease," said Dr Dumble. "Influenza vaccination is the best way to reduce your risk of catching this disease and lessen symptoms and complications if you do."

The 2013 vaccine arrived in GP surgeries across New Zealand this week and immunisation is free from a GP or nurse for New Zealanders at high risk of complications - pregnant women, people aged 65 and over, and for people of any age with long-term health conditions.

"It takes two weeks to develop immunity following vaccination so being vaccinated before the season starts will gain you the most benefit," Dr Dumble said. Along with the fear of a deadly flu, Waikato is seeing increasing cases of pertussis (whooping cough).

The latest Public Health Bulletin shows Waikato had 63 reported cases in February, up 41 on the same month last year with 124 since July 1 last year.

"We had the second-highest notification rate in New Zealand last month.

"We encourage pregnant women to ask their doctor about the free pertussis vaccine when receiving their influenza vaccine. Both vaccines are recommended and funded for pregnant women, as the viruses cause high risk to mother and baby and are circulating at epidemic levels."

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Doctors urge vaccination as ' killer flu' virus looms

Topics: central queensland, flu, joan chamberlain

CENTRAL Queensland will have only two weeks notice when a killer flu reaches Australia.

More than 20 children have already died in the United States from the H2N3 strain of the virus.

Rockhampton doctor Joan Chamberlain expects the flu to hit Sydney and the lower regions first, because of the many people coming through the airport.

"This year's flu is going to be different from past years and should hit us around May or June," she said yesterday.

"For the past two years, flu vaccinations have been similar, but this year is different, this flu is unique."

Dr Chamberlain said the flu had started in the Northern Hemisphere and slightly changed as it went around the world.

Emerald woman Di Stanley has been miserable for the past two weeks after catching a dose of the flu but does not know what strain it was.

"I think I'm the victim of an airplane-borne influenza, after my brother came to visit from interstate," she said.

"It started off in my tonsils, then progressed to piercing headaches.

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CQ given two weeks notice as killer flu claims 20 USA kids

With its bustling streets, shops and busy restaurants, little suggests that ten years ago Amoy Gardens was on the front line of Hong Kong's battle with a virus that caused a global health crisis.

The estate became a beleaguered symbol of the city's struggle to contain an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), named and declared a "worldwide health threat" by the World Health Organization on March 15, 2003.

Hong Kong eventually lost 299 of its citizens to SARS, part of a global death toll of nearly 800. The virus also infected around 1,800 in the city.

As panic spread as fast as the virus seemed to, Hong Kong's usually busy bars and restaurants emptied and its property market took a dive. The daily infection rate climbed globally as carriers travelled between countries.

Amoy Gardens became a ghost town cordoned off by police, with blaring ambulances and a swarm of health officials wearing full-body hazardous material suits, searching for the source of the outbreak.

By the end, 42 people from the estate died and a total of 329 residents had been infected.

Block E accounted for 41 percent of the cases. Authorities sealed it off on March 31 for 10 days and around 250 residents were quarantined in country parks away from densely-populated areas.

"No one would come to Amoy Gardens. Even taxi drivers refused to take people here," Wilson Yip, the chairman of Amoy Gardens owners' joint committee, told AFP.

Yip, who lived in another block, admitted he was "terrified" at the time. Many of his panicked fellow residents attempted to flee given the lack of information about the killer syndrome, but he chose to stay on.

"People who lived there would be discriminated against in Hong Kong. If a hotel found out you came from Amoy Gardens you would be refused a room."

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Ten years on, the SARS outbreak that changed Hong Kong

FOURTEEN adults have been cured of HIV, according to reports.

Just two weeks after doctors rid a new-born baby of the disease, it appears the same treatment has worked on full-grown men and women.

The 14 functionally cured adults still have the deadly virus in their system, but it is so weak their own immune systems are easily able to keep it in check.

This means they are no longer at risk of developing AIDS the deadly second phase of infection.

The discovery was made at the Pasteur Institute in France.

A spokesman for the institute said: Its not eradication, but they can clearly live without pills for a very long period of time.

According to docs questioned in the New Scientist, the key to success is treating the condition quickly.

For the cure to work, patients must take special antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) between 35 days and 10 weeks after infection.

All of the cured adults fell within this bracket, but later stopped taking the ARVs for different reasons.

They have now been off ARVs for an average of seven years and continue to keep the virus supressed.

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14 adults ‘cured’ of killer HIV virus