CDC : Severe Flu Season Possible - Claims Oseltamivir "Effective" ~ THE 5TH ESTATE ASIA

Saturday, December 06, 2014

CDC : Severe Flu Season Possible - Claims Oseltamivir "Effective"

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Anyone taking this vaccination or listening to anything the CDC says should be visiting a psychiatrist: Oseltamivir has been proven to be responsible for suicides, sleepwalking, hallucinations in both adults and children and should not be taken under any circumstances

MEDPAGE TODAY
By Michael Smith
12/04/2014

This winter's flu season could be more severe than usual, the CDC is warning.

H3N2 "Copycat Strain"

While activity is low so far, most of the circulating virus is the H3N2 strain of influenza A, according to CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD.

When H3N2 virus predominates, "we tend to have seasons that are worse flu years, with more hospitalizations from flu and more deaths from influenza," Frieden told reporters in a telephone briefing.

In the week ending Nov. 22, he said, 91% of 1,200 samples tested were influenza A -- almost all of them H3N2 -- and 9% were influenza B.

Only a small fraction were H1N1 influenza, which has predominated in recent years.

But a second factor might foretell a bad flu season, Frieden said: Of the H3N2 samples, only 48% were matched to this year's vaccine and the majority of samples were "drifted" variants with slightly different immunogenic molecules.

One possible implication, Frieden said, is that the seasonal vaccine now distributed across the country might be less effective than usual, although he added that sometimes vaccines remain effective against drifted strains.

Tune out, ignore CDC liars

"There's no way to predict with certainty what's going to happen," he said.

Frieden said some 150 million doses of vaccine have been distributed and urged people to get their shot.

The drifted virus was first detected in March, he said, but was only seen to be common in September, which was too late to include it in this year's vaccine.

So far this season, there have already been five pediatric deaths caused by flu and Joseph Bresee, MD, head of the agency's Influenza Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, said four of them are linked to influenza A and one to influenza B.

Three of the four with influenza A had H3N2 viruses, he told MedPage Today, but the CDC doesn't know if any of those were the drifted variant.

The agency has issued a Health Alert Network Advisory warning clinicians of the risk of more severe disease and urging them to use antiviral medications as an "adjunct to vaccination."

The approved medications -- oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) -- can shorten the duration of illness and lessen the severity of symptoms, Frieden said.

He urged people at elevated risk for severe flu -- those with lung disease, for instance, or pregnant women -- to seek medical attention quickly when symptoms start and to ask their physicians about antivirals.

The therapy is only effective when given within 48 hours of symptom onset and generally shortens the symptomatic period by about a day, he added.

The treatment of influenza with antiviral drugs

Antivirals are "greatly underprescribed," Frieden said, perhaps because doctors have a "misconception" that they should have a positive influenza test in hand before giving the drugs.

The drugs have come under fire lately, with a review earlier this year suggesting the benefits are smaller and the risks greater than had been thought.

But Frieden said CDC scientists think there are some methodological issues with the review and remain persuaded -- at least for oseltamivir -- that "evidence is strong" that it is beneficial.

"It is not a miracle drug, but we believe it is an effective, drug," he said.

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