About 2,500 students at Washington State University have come down with possible cases of swine flu since classes began two weeks ago, CNN reports. “It takes about three to four days to get over the [H1N1] virus, so many of the people who have had it are already feeling better and are back in class,” said James Tinney, WSU director of media relations. He said that on Wednesday, 169 new suspected cases of the virus were reported among the nearly 18,000 students who comprise the school’s Pullman, Washington campus. Although Washington State University is no longer testing sick students to confirm whether they have the virus, it is following guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the local health department by “treating all patients with influenza-like symptoms as if they have H1N1,” according to CNN. Students who contact the school health services department complaining of symptoms of swine flu are urged to stay at home and drink fluids. None of the suspected H1N1 cases has required hospitalization so far, said a university news release. Despite the high number of possible cases, media director Tinney said the students and faculty are not alarmed. “The symptoms are fairly mild; some people have said milder than a regular case of the flu. I don’t see people walking around the campus wearing masks,” he said. But Tinney said officials were surprised that the long Labor Day weekend, when most students left campus, did not do more to interrupt the virus’ spread. “I guess we are an early test case of how this virus will spread over the population,” Tinney said.

Some 90,000 people in the United States could die by the time the swine flu gets through with its deadly rampage, according to a new report. Hardest hit by the flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, would be children and young adults, a presidential advisory panel said in the report, released Monday. If the flu resurges this fall, as anticipated, between 30 percent and 50 percent of the U.S. population could be infected by winter, flooding the nation’s hospitals with as many as 1.8 million patients, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reported. A “plausible scenario” projects that  30,000 to 90,000 Americans would die as a result of large outbreaks at schools, inadequate antiviral supplies and the virus peaking before vaccinations have time to be effective. Up to 40,000 U.S. deaths are linked to seasonal flu each year, with most of the fatalities occurring among people over 65. With seasonal flu and H1N1, this fall is expected to bring more influenza deaths and place “enormous stress” on intensive care units nationwide, which normally operate near capacity, the report says. The presidential panel advises government agencies to prepare several “planning scenarios” to determine demand for supplies and care; set up surveillance systems to track information about influenza-like illnesses; develop plans to protect the public’s most vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and those with pre-existing medical conditions; speed up the production of the H1N1 vaccine and have an initial batch – enough to vaccinate up to 40 million people, especially those who are at risk of serious disease – by mid-September.

Even the most vulnerable people in society won’t be vaccinated against the swine flu until Thanksgiving, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She urged parents and school officials to make backup plans for potential victims of the H1N1 virus. “We’re playing out a whole variety of scenarios,” Sebelius said on CNN’s State of the Union. “We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.” She said that the Obama administration believes that a vaccine will be available around mid-October. “But the regimen will take about five weeks,” Sebelius said, “A first shot, three weeks delay, second shot, and then about two weeks for full immunity. So we’re really need to work between now and Thanksgiving with lots of social mitigation – keeping kids home from school if they’re sick. I would urge every family have a back-up child care plan.” She continued, “If a parent gets sick, what is the plan? because we know the disease spreads quickly and we will not have fully immunized even priority populations until about Thanksgiving. We’re looking at schools as great partners for possible vaccine programs beginning in the fall to get kids immunized as quickly as possible because this is a children’s flu.”

Hundreds of Americans in eight cities are lining up for experimental swine flu shots in a race to get a vaccine out in case the new flu virus regains strength this fall and winter. Sharon Frey, who is leading the government-financed testing at Saint Louis University, said scientists have been working late nights and weekends to organize the studies and recruit volunteers. “Typically it takes a year to do this,” said Frey, an infectious diseases expert. “I can tell you we’re working at breakneck speed.” About 2,800 people will participate in the government-led studies. Saint Louis University will test 200 adults and 200 children. Also under way are separate studies by five flu vaccine manufacturers under contract with the government. Health officials expect to have about 160 million doses available this fall, with the first batch sometime in September. The studies will test the safety and effectiveness of vaccines developed by drug makers and help determine dosage and whether it can be given with a seasonal flu shot. Participants will be given different combinations of two swine flu vaccines made by drug makers Sanofi Pasteur and CSL Limited and a seasonal flu vaccine.

Because of the swine flu, most folks will require three separate flu shots instead of one, experts say. An initial shot is for the regular seasonal flu, but two will be needed to protect against the new H1N1 virus. As for that initial shot, you should get it as early as this month, they say. “We’d like to get to Job 1 and get most of it done,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University flu expert, referring to seasonal flu vaccinations. “Get it done before we start to tackle Job 2,” the more complex task of swine flu vaccinations, he added. The five vaccine manufacturers that supply the United States are finishing up production of seasonal flu vaccine earlier than usual. Health officials say they expect about half of the more than 120 million doses of seasonal vaccine to be available by the end of this month. Most of the rest are due out by the end of September. Some manufacturers report that distributors are quickly buying up supplies.

With the number of swine flu deaths doubling over the past few weeks, health officials the world over are pulling out all stops to halt the spread of the virus. In Europe, for example, school officials are extending students’ summer vacations; in several Muslim nations, authorities are telling pregnant women not to attend the hajj, and China is quarantining hundreds of foreign students, The Associated Press reports. The fact that the death toll from the H1N1 virus has risen from 330 in early July to its current level of 700 is reason enough for a new round of dramatic measures, officials say. “We expect to see more cases and deaths in the future,” World Health Organization spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi told The Associated Press in Geneva. While the group offered no breakdown of deaths, last week, the United States reported 263 deaths, Canada had 45 deaths and Britain had 29. According to WHO’s last update on July 6, Mexico reported 119 deaths. The fear among experts, however, is that the seemingly astronomical figure of 700 deaths may be far fewer than the actual number of those who’ve died from the virus. “The race is now on to develop and produce a vaccine that is effective against the global swine flu strain, but estimates for when such a jab will be available range from September to December,” according to AP.

Health Care Bill Hits Snag in House
Hard-line, conservative Democrats are stalling health care legislation, pressing for major changes to the draft bill. The so-called “Blue-Dog Dems” say they will not support the bill in its current form because it “lacks a number of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken.”  All but 12 of the Blue Dog Coalition’s 52 members are demanding concessions in the bill before they will pledge their vote. Among those are Arkansas Democratic Congressman Mike Ross, a leading negotiator for the Blue Dogs on health care, who told reporters he, Rep. John Tanner, D-Tennessee, and Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Florida, have met with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday to go over their concerns. “The message to him was the same as to the leadership — that we could not support the current bill,” Ross said. He noted that conservative Democrats have major reservations about how a public option would work. In the letter and in the meeting, the conservative Democrats stressed they did not want a “Medicare-like” structure for a public option. “What we are saying is if there is a public option, it can’t be based on Medicare rates unless the regional disparity in Medicare rates in fixed,” said Ross, who also planned to press for more controls on government spending on healthcare and more savings from changes to Medicare. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stressed, however, that there is any major hurdles to getting a health care bill passed. “Let me make it very clear that everybody in that room thinks we ought to pass health care,” Hoyer said. But he also acknowledged that they still need to work through the details.

Swine Flu Shots Could Begin in October
President Obama said this week that the United States could possibly avoid a major outbreak of the swine flu by beginning child vaccinations at schools in October. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that without an inoculation program the H1N1 virus will spread, the Obama administration warned in calling for states for come up with a plan for administering the vaccinations. “We may end up averting a crisis. That’s our hope,” said Obama, who took time away from the G-8 summit in Italy to telephone another summit back home — the 500 state and local health officials meeting to prepare for swine flu’s fall threat. Whether or not to vaccinate Americans “depends largely on studies with experimental batches that are set to start the first week of August — to see if they’re safe and seem to work and to learn whether they require one or two doses,” MSNBC.com reports. If all goes well, the federal government will buy vaccine from manufacturers and share it for free among the states, which must then “try and get this in the arms of the targeted population as soon as possible,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “We have already appropriated about a billion dollars to buy the bulk ingredients,” Sebelius said. She said another $7.5 billion was available from emergency preparedness funds.

The swine flu expanded its reach this week, infecting three young people at a summer camp in northern Georgia, authorities said Thursday. Dozens of others were separated from their fellow campers after exhibiting signs of the deadly H1N1 virus. Although one child was hospitalized briefly, all of the children are recovering well, Andrea Proser, a spokeswoman for Camp Ramah Darom said. “Thankfully, it’s mild, and they’re recovering relatively quickly — within 48 hours,” Proser said. Ramah Darom is a Jewish summer camp near Clayton, about 110 miles northeast of Atlanta. About 400 children, typically ages 9 to 16, are at the camp, along with about 200 counselors and staff. Dave Palmer, a spokesman for the Georgia Division of Public Health, said that counselors recognized symptoms of the H1N1 virus on Monday. Lab results confirmed suspicions. “The camp has an on-site medical team and infirmary, and they treat them there at the camp,” he said. “They have a building that is separate from the population of the camp, and those who are sick or ill are being separated from those who are well at the camp.” The state is monitoring suspected swine flu outbreaks at two other summer camps in Georgia, he said.

The vicious new strain of swine flu continued its rampage across the United States, taking its first U.S. life, that of a toddler from Texas. The 2-year-old is the first American and first person outside of Mexico to die. “A child has died from the H1N1 virus,” Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control, told CNN Wednesday. “As a parent and a pediatrician, my heart goes out to the family.” Read the rest.