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News
19 July 2007
- Victoria Releases Health Plan for Pandemic Influenza
- Deadly strain of flu in WA
- Pandemic Influenza Expo Day
- TB pandemic threat
- Polio in Australia
- Links between influenza and schizophrenia
- USA expands vaccine production capacity
- Tamiflu could halve pandemic influenza death toll
- Lower dose Tamiflu approved by FDA
- New technologies for vaccines awarded
- Rome Pandemic Meeting
- Pandemic Influenza Planning Book
Victoria Releases Health Plan for Pandemic Influenza
The Victorian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza (VHMPPI) has been released. This plan builds upon the foundation established by the Victorian Influenza Pandemic Plan (November 2005) and plans developed by the Australian Government.
The VHMPPI aims to provide an effective health response framework to minimise the morbidity and mortality associated with an influenza pandemic and its impact on the Victorian community, health care system and economy.
The 132 page revised plan includes further preparedness and response strategies with particular emphasis on hospital management of suspected and proven cases, clinical guidance for primary care providers, isolation and quarantine of suspected/confirmed cases, mass vaccination as well as the use of personal protective equipment and antiviral medication.
Download the Victorian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza
The Victorian Government has also released the following fact sheets:
- Seasonal/Avian/Pandemic influenza (flu) – Information for the general public
- Pandemic influenza (flu) – Information for the general public – looking after yourself in a pandemic
- Pandemic influenza (flu) – Information for people who may have been exposed to pandemic influenza and are isolated
These are available here.
The Western Australia Department of Health is warning of a rapid flu strain following the deaths of three children in Perth.
All three children were under the age of five and lived in the Perth metropolitan area. All were infected with the secondary bacteria known as gram positive coccus after initially having influenza A strain.
The combination progressed quickly and all died within 24 hours
Director of Communicable Disease Control Dr Paul Van Buynder said the speed at which the illness had progressed in these children had caused concern among health professionals.
Two of the children were hospitalised with Influenza A and tests revealed they developed pneumonia.
The third child did not receive hospital care.
Health officials are urging parents to seek medical advice as soon as flu-like symptoms occur.
The Australian Homeland Security Research Centre Pandemic Influenza Expo Day will be held in Sydney on the 30 August.
The expo is designed to help attendees gain a rapid understanding of suppliers and their limitations of supply during elevated pandemic alert levels, and to aid networking opportunities.
Exhibitors include:
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Drager Safety
- Clean Room Garments
- Roche
- Virogard
- Soaptronic
The event includes lunch and is free but registration is required for catering purposes.
For more details click here.
Last Pandemic Courses for 2007
AHSRC will be running its last pandemic courses for the year in August.
Working as your Organisation's Pandemic Officer will be held on Tuesday 29 August in Canberra.
Pandemic Influenza Exercise Day for Workplace Officers will be held on Wednesday 29 August in Canberra.
Visit the AHSRC Events page for more information (including information on accommodation options close to the Centre).
This is your last opportunity to participate in Pandemic training with the AHSRC.
For information on holding in-house pandemic training please contact Eleonor on 02 6161 5143 or events@homelandsecurity.org.au |
TB pandemic threat
A two-year plan to combat extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been launched by the World Health Organisation and the Stop TB Partnership.
The plan calls for $US2.15b to sufficiently increase the number of fully equipped TB laboratories, increase the detection of multi-drug resistant TB tenfold, and increase the number of drug resistant TB patients being treated and cured under WHO guidelines.
The issue of multi-drug resistant TB was recently discussed at a news conference sponsored by the US National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
"Since the introduction of the fluorquinolones in the 1980's there have been no significant advances in the treatment of tuberculosis," said Dr. Michael D. Iseman from the National Jewish Medical Center and Research Center . "With the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, this is a critical juncture in our efforts to control this disease."
New posters, fact sheets and updated guidelines on addressing XDR-TB will also be unveiled by the Stop TB Partnership in July.
The Global MDR-TB and XDR-TB Response Plan 2007-2008 can be accessed here.
The first case of polio in Australia in 21 years is being quarantined at the Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne .
The 22-year-old Pakistani student was diagnosed with polio following his return from a four-month holiday in Pakistan .
His symptoms have gone but he must remain in quarantine for a minimum ten days and test negative twice before he is released.
All passengers on the July 2 Bangkok-Melbourne which he was on have been urged to get booster polio vaccinations. Of the 249 passengers on the flight, after 14 days (ie the evening of the 16 July) since the plane's arrival, 80 travellers had still to be located by health authorities.
The man's five housemates have been vaccinated and quarantined in their Melbourne home.
Research presented at the IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne has suggested that women who contract influenza while pregnant can trigger schizophrenia or autism in their babies.
Tests on mice showed that respiratory infection with influenza led to behavioural abnormalities in the adult offspring, including enhanced anxiety in the open field and deficits in social interaction.
The research, presented by Dr Paul H. Patterson from the California Institute of Technology, also found ways to stop these effects. The behavioural abnormalities are caused by the maternal response to viral infection which leads to a deficit in certain cells in the child, which can be stopped by injection of particular antibodies.
USA expands vaccine production capacity
The United States Department of Health and Human Services has granted two contracts to expand America 's capacity to manufacture influenza vaccines, in preparation for a pandemic.
The contracts total $US132.5 million over five years and were awarded to sanofi pasteur and MedImmune.
They are designed to retrofit existing domestic vaccine facilities on a cost-sharing basis and provide warm-base operations for manufacturing pandemic influenza vaccines.
Upon completion, the facilities will provide an extra 16% pandemic vaccine production capacity and enable seasonal vaccinations to be produced year round, rather than the current three months a year.
The first study into the economic benefits of oral antivirals during a pandemic was announced at the Options for the Control of Influenza VI conference in Toronto in June.
The study, presented by Beate Sander from the University of Toronto , analysed the cost-effectiveness of the prophylactic use of Tamiflu to stop the spread of pandemic influenza.
The results indicate that a stockpile of Tamiflu sufficient to cover 65% of a country's population could cut deaths by approximately half.
Consequently, prophylactic use would be more cost effective than only treating symptomatic patients.
The study was supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Roche.
Tamiflu will now be marketed in 30mg and 45mg capsules, following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The capsules have a longer shelf life than the liquid suspension formulation and will be more convenient for the treatment of young children and for government stockpiling.
Tamiflu will still be available in the 75mg capsule for adults and the liquid suspension formulation for children.
The new capsules will be available in US pharmacies and for government stockpiling in time for the 2007-2008 flu season.
The American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded AlphaVax with $3.6 million to support new adjuvant technologies to improve vaccine responses.
The award will be given out over three years to develop research into adjuvants which could supplement influenza vaccines to promote significant T cell responses and induce more than ten times the antibody response.
Because the adjuvants induce a higher immunity than two normal doses of influenza vaccine, they can be used as a dose-sparing strategy in the even of a pandemic.
"We are pleased to receive this new award", said Jonathan Smith, Ph.D., AlphaVax Chief Scientific Officer and Principal Investigator for the new grant.
"We developed these adjuvant technologies to enhance our vector-based vaccines, but were excited to find that they also significantly improved the immunogenicity of more conventional vaccine approaches."
Rome Pandemic Meeting
The International Technical Meeting on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Human H5N1 Infection was held in Rome on June 27-29.
The meeting was organised by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and WHO in collaboration with UNICEF and the office of the U.N. System Influenza Coordinator.
It concluded that despite rapid culling of infected poultry, the H5N1 strain continues to threaten bird and human populations around the world.
Meeting participants also discussed the New Delhi Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza scheduled for December 4-6 in India , hosted by the government of India and sponsored by the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.
Outskirts Press has published a book designed to synthesise the variety of information available about pandemic influenza planning into a useful guide for businesses and governments.
Pandemic Influenza Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide For Businesses and Local Governments was written by Vernon Dorisson and provides clear cut steps to continuity planning during a pandemic.
The book can be purchased from Amazon or Outskirts Press' online bookstore for $29.95.
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