I know this may come as a shock, but I am going to recommend that you read an important article in L’Osservatore Romano. My fellow SummorumPontificum.net blogmate and Latin Mass enthusiast, Dr. Brian J. Kopp, DPM has a very interesting and disheartening article in the current edition of L’Osservatore Romano. In the article, Dr. Kopp interviews David Fedson, MD who is an expert in the field of influenza epidemiology. They discuss the facts surrounding vaccine production and about the reality the “haves” and the “have nots” and what can can be done to save lives.
This should be a social justice issue that every Catholic should be concerned about.
“The world situation, as the news in recent months amply demonstrates, continues to present serious problems and the “scandal’ of glaring inequalities which have endured despite past efforts”. These were the words of Pope Benedict XVI during the General Audience Catechesis outlining the fundamental messages of his recently released Encyclical Letter, Caritas in Veritate (see p. 11).
When viewing the current world situation from a Catholic perspective, the pursuit of social justice within all sectors is essential, as the Holy Father clearly expresses in his social Encyclical. This constitutes the task of securing both the physical and spiritual well-being of every human being.
For this to happen the support of the governmental, medical and philanthropic communities of first world nations is urgently needed. Thus a broader vision concerning the challenges facing the world’s less developed areas is crucial. This view was also expressed at the recent G8 Summit.
In the spirit of this same kind of solidarity, Brian J. Kopp, DPM, spoke with David Fedson, MD, on 3 July about the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic and the prospects for equitable treatment alternatives in developing countries. Indeed, a testament to the importance of this particular issue was President Obama’s participation from Italy via telephone link in the Influenza Preparedness Summit held at the National Institutes of Health on 9 July.
Dr. Fedson is a retired American physician living in France. He has long worked on the epidemiology of influenza and influenza vaccination, first as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia and later as Director of Medical Affairs for Aventis Pasteur MSD. He has served on several American and World Health Organization (WHO) committees on influenza immunization, and was instrumental in establishing the Influenza Vaccine Supply (IVS) International Task Force and the Macroepidemiology of Influenza Vaccination (MIV) Study Group. He clearly knows the influenza vaccine industry from the inside. He also knows that the arithmetic for a pandemic is simple: you can only treat the victims of a pandemic if effective vaccines and medications are widely available. For 90% of the world’s population, this won’t be the case.
With the current swine H1N1 pandemic influenza virus, as with the H5N1 avian flu and 1918 pandemic viruses, deaths have been prominent among the 15- to 45-year old adults. These deaths have been associated with a severe immune reaction, often called a “cytokine storm.” For more than five years, Fedson has been calling for urgent and sharply focused research to determine whether drugs that reduce inflammation or modify the host response the way that the body responds to infection or injury could be used to manage the pandemic. Focusing on inexpensive generic drugs that are readily available, even in developing countries, could address the inequity already being seen, and could save millions of lives in the current and in future pandemics.
July 16, 2009 at 3:23 am
The "poor man's" influenza pandemic vaccine is something little reported in medical journals. For some reason, they "just don't want to go there" although it was one of the ways the Navy fought off the 1918 pandemic.
It is called by some "convalescent blood therapy," and it involves giving blood from a flu survivor to someone who hasn't yet contracted, or is in the early stages of a pandemic flu strain.
You don't have to give a whole bag, simply injecting it into muscle tissue worked in the past. It isn't a silver bullet, but it apparently reduced morbidity by around thirty percent.
The blood would have to be type-matched, and there is always the fear that you could contract whatever blood-borne diseases the donor had…but it is still a solution that isn't being adequately addressed.
July 16, 2009 at 3:24 am
Sorry, replace "morbidity" with "mortality."
July 17, 2009 at 12:10 am
The fact are so many gullible people obsessed and hyperfixating on the "swine flu" or "avian flu" is a true exercise in the docility and ignorance of the general population. Anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 people die each year from regular/common strains of influenza, compared to the H1N1 virus, which racked up the astronomical death count of a whoping 429 people. Zowie! Time to stock up water and saltines!
July 26, 2009 at 12:37 am
CDC stops swine flu death count at 300
Fri Jul 24, 2009 11:06am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 300 people have died from the new pandemic swine flu virus, U.S. health officials said on Friday, but they said the virus was so widespread they were ceasing the official count.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 43,771 cases of H1N1 influenza had been officially confirmed, with 302 deaths.
The pandemic spread globally in less than two months and has infected people in 160 countries, killing 800 people, the World Health Organization said. The WHO numbers do not include the latest CDC count.
Health experts say millions have likely been infected worldwide, but doctors can only test a fraction of suspected cases. Flu tests are expensive and unreliable and confirming H1N1 swine flu is difficult.
Health officials are now working with companies to test and make a vaccine against H1N1 to be delivered alongside seasonal influenza vaccines.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE56N3PQ20090724