As the first wave of swine flu vaccine crosses the country, more than a third of parents don’t want their kids vaccinated, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.
Some parents say they are concerned about side effects from the new vaccine — even though nothing serious has turned up in tests so far — while others say swine flu doesn’t amount to any greater health threat than seasonal flu.
Jackie Shea of Newtown, Conn., the mother of a 5-year-old boy named Emmett, says the vaccine is too new and too untested.
“I will not be first in line in October to get him vaccinated,” she said in an interview last month. “We’re talking about putting an unknown into him. I can’t do that.”
The AP poll found that 38 percent of parents said they were unlikely to give permission for their kids to be vaccinated at school.
The belief that the new vaccine could be risky is one federal health officials have been fighting from the start, and they plan an unprecedented system of monitoring for side effects.
They note that swine flu vaccine is made the same way as seasonal flu vaccines that have been used for years. And no scary side effects have turned up in tests on volunteers, including children. ...Read the entire article...
As the number of swine flu-related deaths continues to increase, local health departments are receiving their first batches of vaccines to combat the spread of the virus.
Denton County health officials said this morning they have received 200 doses of the swine flu nasal mist this week.
Emergency room staffers at the four largest hospitals in Denton County will receive 160 doses. The remaining 40 will be available for front line Denton County Health Department staff members. ...Read the entire article...
The Mississippi Department of Health confirmed Tuesday that a Jones County woman became the eighth death related to swine-flu in the state.
Swine flu deaths have been reported in Hancock (2), Jackson, Jones (3), Tippah and Washington counties, health officials said.
The number of confirmed cases of non-fatal swine flu in Mississippi has risen to 1,032, MSDH said. ...Read the entire article...
As children received swine flu vaccine for the first time on Tuesday, federal health officials attacked popular myths about the pandemic and the vaccine designed to stop it.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an afternoon news conference that the most common misperceptions are that this flu should ever be called a “mild disease,” that the vaccine is untested and that it has arrived too late.
Flu is widespread across the country and some hospitals are getting so many emergency room visits that they have set up triage tents, but Dr. Frieden said one problem that planners had feared has yet to emerge: no intensive care units have had more patients than ventilators — something that did happen in one Canadian province last spring.
Children in several states, including New York, received nasal spray vaccines ...Read the entire article...
A pregnant woman died after delivering a baby within the last week. The woman had swine flu, according to her doctor.
A University of South Carolina School of Medicine doctor said the baby was delivered successfully and is doing well. So far it’s unclear whether the infant has the H1N1 virus.
Privacy laws protect the woman’s identity and specific information about her condition or treatment.
The doctor said pregnant women are at increased risk for the flu, but should not panic. If they begin to feel sick, they should call their doctor and begin treatment. He cautions them from going to their doctor’s office, as not to infect others around them.
Pregnant women should get a seasonal flu shot as soon as possible, the doctor said. However, he says women who are pregnant, could be pregnant or are trying to get pregnant should wait until the H1N1 virus is given in a shot form, not the live virus nasal spray.
