New Virus Appears to Be Factor in Unusual Flu Outbreak - washingtonpost.com

New Virus Appears to Be Factor in Unusual Flu Outbreak - washingtonpost.com: "The new swine flu virus is spreading rapidly around the United States, and more than half of the states are reporting unusually high levels of flu-like illness at a time of year when the respiratory disease usually disappears, federal health officials said yesterday.

About half of the people with flu are testing positive for the new virus, indicating it is playing a significant role in the unusual pattern of disease, officials said.

"We would be expecting to see the season to be slowing down or almost completely stopped," said Daniel Jernigan of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But what we're seeing is there are some areas that actually have reports of the amounts of respiratory disease . . . that are equivalent to peak influenza season."

At least 173 infected people have been hospitalized across the country, including a New York school official who fell ill in the midst of a new outbreak that prompted the closing of two schools.

"We know the outbreak is not localized but is spreading and appears to be expanding throughout the United States," Jernigan said. "This is an ongoing public health threat."

Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline announced yesterday that four European countries have collectively placed orders for 127 million doses of a vaccine it will develop to combat the new flu strain. The four countries -- Britain, France, Belgium and Finland -- are ordering the doses as a precaution in the event of a widespread outbreak, said Sarah Alspach, a company spokeswoman.

Production will take about four months and will begin as soon as the manufacturer receives "seed" samples of the virus from the World Health Organization, she said. The WHO is considering whether to ask drug manufacturers to begin producing a vaccine in case the virus returns in a more dangerous form in the fall.

Already, there is controversy over the vaccine, which will include an ingredient called an adjuvant that boosts the body's immune response. The ingredient is not licensed by Food and Drug Administration, but the agency has the power to authorize the use of such products in an emergency. Some health officials and vaccine watchdog groups say the accelerants may cause a severe reaction -- specifically, swelling in the joints and in the liver -- in people with compromised immune systems.

"It's a big issue. An adjuvant in vaccines given to soldiers is at the center of the debate with the Gulf War syndrome," said Vicky Debold, a public health nurse who serves on the FDA's vaccines advisory committee. "The FDA is very concerned about them, especially what happens when people are given multiple vaccines at once that use a combination of adjuvants that have not been tested together."



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