Swine Flue Vaccine US Update Health News Article

President Barack Obama says the United States will share 10 percent of its swine flu vaccine supply with other nations to help fight the deadly virus' global spread.

The White House on Thursday announced that flu vaccines to counter the virus known among scientists as H1N1 would be available through the World Health Organization. The U.S. is working with Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to share vaccines.

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that the announcement "is one that has real relevance to the work of the United Nations and to our shared interest in promoting and sustaining global health."

"As the World Health Organization has reported, the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has continued to spread globally since April, causing outbreaks around the world. The speed and the scale of our global response will help minimize the overall impact of the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza and ensure our collective and common security in our increasingly interdependent world," Rice said.

She repeated Obama's announcement that the U.S. was joining the other countries "on collective action aimed at saving lives and minimizing economic and social dislocations that may be caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza around the world."

"As vaccine supplies emerge, they will be made available to the WHO on a rolling basis to assist countries that will not otherwise have direct access to the vaccine," Rice said.

"We invite and encourage other nations to join in this urgent global health effort, donating vaccine, money and/or technical assistance in an international effort to save lives around the world," she said.

Swine Flu Pandemic Heart Attack Health News Updates

Swine flu pandemic could trigger spate of heart attacks.

The swine flu pandemic could trigger a spate of heart attacks if rates of illness surge as predicted this autumn, doctors warned.

Patients with heart disease are being advised to accept a vaccine against H1N1 swine flu as it becomes available next month in order to reduce the risk of fatal complications.

An estimated 5,200 people in England went down with the virus in the week before last compared with about 3,000 the previous week, suggesting that a predicted second wave of illness may be on its way.

About 2.5 million people with heart disease, as well as patients with other chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, will be offered a flu jab. Last year, however, uptake of an annual vaccine against seasonal flu strains among patients considered “at risk” was only 47.2 per cent, researchers writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal said.

Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist at University College London, and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that more efforts were needed to encourage people with heart disease and diabetes — which increases the risk of heart attacks — to have the flu jab. They reviewed 39 studies carried out between 1932 and 2008 and found that people with heart disease made up between 35 to 50 per cent of excess flu deaths.

All the population papers examined also showed a rise in deaths due to heart disease or incidence of heart attacks during times when the flu virus was circulating.

Flu can produce significant stress on the cardiovascular system and cause breathing problems, changes in blood pressure, a rapid heart rate and even direct effects on the heart.

The researchers wrote: “During influenza epidemics there are many deaths and serious complications in vulnerable populations. People with underlying chronic medical disorders such as cardiovascular disease are particularly at risk ... We believe influenza vaccination should be encouraged — especially in those people with existing cardiovascular disease.”