Swine Flu Epidemic Update 36

Some interesting notes:
1.  The CDC announced that about 15% of the U.S. population has had swine flu.  The number of cases appears to be declining since late October.  Almost 10,000 people have died from swine flu or complications from swine flu.  The age breakdown is instructive.  Deaths: 0-17 y/o about 11%, 18-64 about 75%, >65 y/o about 13%.  In contrast, with regular influenza, >90% of deaths are in the >65 y/o category.  The numbers of deaths roughly parallels the number of cases and of hospitalizations.
2.  Today there was an announcement that some lots of vaccine from Sanofi-Aventis did not contain enough antigen as required.  The CDC is NOT recommending that people who were vaccinated from these lots be re-vaccinated.

Swine Flu Epidemic Update 36

I got my swine flu vaccination today, more because of my fiduciary responsibility to my patients not to spread swine flu than my concern about being exposed since my son had it.  The bad news is that my office does not have any still.  I actually got mine at my primary physician's office.  If you have the opportunity, get it.  You only have to pay for the administration, not the actual vaccine, because the federal government paid for the vaccine.
Actually I haven't seen even what I'd suspect as a case for over two weeks.  This is consistent with the CDC's data.  The number of cases appears to be falling the past 2-3 weeks.
Don't let your guard down!  Get vaccinated for both the regular influenza and swine flu.  Keep doing clean precautions.