Some Highlights from the CDC H1N1 Briefing - 1 Oct 2009

[indigo girl]

http://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/2009/t091001.htm

Follow the link above for the whole briefing.

We're able to give a little bit of an update about the H1N1 influenza disease in pregnant women. I know that's been an interest to a lot of people. We've updated our numbers, and through late august, we can report that about 100 pregnant women in the United States have required intensive care unit hospitalization for H1N1 flu. Sadly, 28 pregnant women in the U.S. have died so far from the H1N1 influenza. These are really upsetting numbers, I know. And I just want to remind women and doctors and nurse midwives that antiviral medicine can be a very important treatment for pregnant women who have respiratory illness.

Our scientists reviewed autopsy material from 77 fatal H1N1 influenza patients and found that bacteria were present in terms of bacterial pneumonia in about a third of those fatalities. The good news is the leading bacteria was streptococcus pneumonia, and we have a vaccine for that. Adults are recommended to receive the pneumococcal vaccine if they have chronic medical conditions, like asthma, diabetes, chronic heart disease, chronic lung disease, immunodepression and so forth. Sadly, only about one in five non-elderly adults take advantage of that vaccine. So when people are going in for their seasonal flu vaccines right now, those very same people, we urge them to consider the pneumococcal vaccine which is available right now.

Secretary Sebelius released about 300,000 courses of liquid Tamiflu for children to be made available to the states who may need this. So far, basically each state that needs their proportion of that supply will receive this Tamiflu over the next week. Based on requests we've already received. Texas and Colorado received their proportions today. The amounts, there are about 22,000 pediatric liquid Tamiflu courses for Texas, and about 4,600 of those courses for Colorado. Now, some of the liquid formulations of Tamiflu will have an expiration date that may have passed, but we want people to know that the FDA has extended the expiration date of those courses, after careful testing. Everything that is being released has gone through that sort of testing. I do want to remind people about our guidance on antiviral medicine used. Because this is such an important tool we have to reduce illness complications of influenza, whether it's the H1N1or regular flu. People who have severe illness, who are hospitalized or who have other warning signs can greatly benefit from antiviral medicine. People who have the influenza-like symptoms and have conditions that make it possible they would have a worse time with flu should also receive antiviral medicine. That includes pregnant women, people with asthma, diabetes, immunosuppression, and the very old and the very young. There are important warning signs that people should know about, in particular parents. These include fast breathing, or difficulty breathing, trouble taking fluids, difficulty being woken up or if our child looking a little blue or a little gray. And importantly, getting better and then getting worse. Those are warning signs that really it's time to seek care. And we know that parents are concerned about the flu, and we want them to know about those signs.

States and the large cities that are part of our program began placing orders yesterday. I can report to you that 25 of these areas placed orders yesterday, and they placed orders for about 600,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine. I want to describe to you the process going forward about how we'll catch you up about where we are with the ordering, and the shipments and all of that. Every Friday we will be updating through either the media press conference or definitely always with our website a couple facts and figures for you. We're going to let you know how much vaccine was available for ordering, and then we're going to let you know how much was shipped to each of the states or large cities by that day. And it will basically be information gathered through Wednesday, and it will be coming out on every Friday. Important to say, we're at the beginning, and we'll be getting more vaccine regularly, and the states and large cities will be ordering regularly. So this is really just the beginning. We expect the vaccine that was ordered yesterday should be arriving out to the sites by Tuesday.

The first doses that are going to be available out there on Tuesday will be the nasal spray for inhalation. It's a good vaccine, but it's one that it can't be used in absolutely everyone. It's indicated for people 2 years of age through 49 who do not have conditions like pregnancy or chronic medical conditions. It's safe and effective. And we think it's important to get that vaccine out as soon as we've -- as soon as it has become available. The state and large cities have been making plans about how to use the vaccines as they come available in the communities. And they -- with the doses that we have right now, what they're doing is making practical targeted plans for the best use of the doses that we have. We believe that a lot of the states will be directing these early doses to health care workers. There's a bit of a myth out there that the workers shouldn't get the live vaccine, but that's a myth. Most health care workers who are under 50 and don't have those chronic conditions can receive the nasal spray.