Influenza: December 2006 Archives

Let's see, Sanofi invests  €160 million last year, then produces 170 million influenza shots this year. The price of a single shot varies between $10 and $15 (according to CDC). Gross profit would make $1.7 billion, at least. 800% ROI? Not bad.  What was the key factor of this outcome? A fear. Consumers' fear.

Don't forget that some pharma companies were doubling the price (Some Suppliers Jack Up Flu Vaccine Price, The Washington Post, Oct.14, 2006). And now there's a huge surplus of influenza vaccines stocked in clinics. Will we see another warning about some new virus, dangerous and deadly, for sure?

Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group (NYSE: SNY; EURONEXT: SAN), announced that it completed production of more than 170 million doses of influenza vaccine in 2006. Sanofi pasteur confirmed its leadership as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of seasonal influenza vaccine, supplying a very significant portion of the estimated global production of about 350 million doses.

As the global influenza vaccine leader, Sanofi pasteur has been steadily increasing its manufacturing capacity. Since 2003, capacity has increased by more than 40% in line with the company’s commitment to serve a central role in the fight against a disease that causes between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 300,000 and 500,000 estimated deaths every year around the world according to the Word Health Organization. In addition, sanofi pasteur’s leadership position in developing and producing influenza vaccines places the company at the forefront of readiness against the threat of pandemic influenza. The company is committed to producing as many doses of sanofi pasteur’s most advanced vaccine in the shortest possible timeframe, should a pandemic be declared by the world’s health authorities.

Health technician Hamit Öztürk has been paralyzed due to thenflu vaccine. Öztürk stayed at the hospital for 15 days. He was saved by cleansing of his blood from antigens. Öztürk got the flu shot in the corporate office of the government doctor of the ministry of health on November 21.

Then his health started to get worse. It was thought that he had muscle aches in an examination in Ankara Numune Hospital. Then he could not move any of his organs, even his eyelids. It was detected that Öztürk's nervous and immunity system broke down due to the side effect observed in 1 per thousand with the flu vaccination.

source - Sabah.com 

by John W. Whitehead, Rutherford.com

The flu season is here once again. During the last flu season, doctors reportedly wrote more prescriptions for the drug Tamiflu than any other flu treatment. But after recent reports about the Food and Drug Administration’s reluctance to issue a warning about certain possible dangers of using Tamiflu, one has to wonder which is more dangerous—the flu or the FDA?

First approved by the FDA in 1999, Tamiflu was touted as a drug that could significantly reduce the length and severity of influenza. These claims even prompted the U.S. government to purchase 20 million doses of Tamiflu—at a cost of $2 billion—in the event that a bird flu pandemic occurred. The Pentagon followed, paying a whopping $58 million in July 2005 for treatments of U.S. troops around the world.  

As expected, now it appears that there's too much of influenza vaccine shots. Surprise? Not really. Despite mass media attacks on the consumer to push these rather useless shots and secure profits of pharma corporations, the customers are not in a hurry to get an injection against flu. Who knows, maybe we are a bit less ignorant and more resistant to panic news than it was expected. 

HAWAII - This year you won't see long lines at makeshift vaccination clinics.  What you will see at health insurer HMSA are vials and vials of unused flu vaccine.

"It appears that the demand based on the estimates that everyone provided to us just didn't arrive," said Sr. Vice President Cliff Cisco.

The past two years, demand exceeded supply so much that the shortage left some going without a shot. So everyone, doctors and health insurance companies, increased their orders.

If you believe that you definately need an influenza vaccine, if you think that you can be protected by taking this shot, please read the article A Shot of Fear. It's worth every second of the time you will spend reading it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new diagnostic tool called a gene chip can tell with a single test if a patient has malaria, Ebola, influenza or a bacterial infection, researchers said on Wednesday.

The so-called GreeneChip can quickly diagnose infectious diseases caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites, using tissue, blood, urine and stool, the international team of researchers report in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

So when a patient comes in with flu-like symptoms, such as fever, a sore throat, a cough and muscle aches, a doctor armed with such a chip can quickly tell if it is a dangerous strain of flu or a relatively harmless virus.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Influenza vaccination for pregnant women expecting to deliver during influenza season does not seem to reduce the occurrence of respiratory illness in their newborn infant, new research suggests.

Influenza vaccination is currently recommended for children between 6 and 23 months of age. Vaccination in younger children has proven unsuccessful because the vaccine does not stimulate much of an immune response at that age, according to the report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

One solution to provide protection to these young infants might be to vaccinate the mother in hopes that protective antibodies would be passed to the developing baby while still in the womb. Whether this strategy actually helps prevent respiratory disease in the child is unclear.

RUSSIA, December 1 (Itar-Tass) - Prosecutors in Russia's Stavropol territory opened a criminal case over the facts of allergic complications in children who have been inoculated against the flu.

Medical assistance has been rendered in the region to more than 70 children since the beginning of mass vaccination. Of those, 32 children were hospitalized with edemata, rash, palpitation and tachypnea, a regional prosecutor told.

In several cases reported in the regional center, the allergic reaction proved so severe that the children had to be taken to an intensive therapy ward.