Results tagged “h1n1”

While the rest of the world frets over long vaccine lines, or lack of vaccine doses, we have pressing news for you today: transmitting H1N1 to your cat or dog. Up until last week, veterinarians claimed that "it was a myth that house cats could catch the deadly H1N1 flu from their owners."

A clinical trial is taking place in San Francisco for HIV+ people who are exhibiting flu symptoms in which they can qualify for free in-home doctor visits. Quest Clinical Studies, Conant Medical Group and Adamas Pharmaceuticals are testing a triple combination antiviral drug (TCAD) therapy for influenza. If you or someone you know has HIV and is exhibiting 100-degree or higher fever in addition to fatigue and other symptoms, you should call 1-888-5-HIV-FLU to see if you qualify. In addition to receiving home treatment, study subjects will have all their treatment, including prescriptions and lab costs, covered, and will be compensated for time and travel.

We don't know the larger wisdom behind this effort, but several flu shot kiosks have been set up at SFO dispensing H1N1 vaccinations to those 18 and older for the reasonable (by airport standards) fee of $35. Even though most reports we've read say that viral immunity doesn't begin for ten days after the shot, the dispensary clearly believes that their effort will generate both comfort among travelers and quick profits. Visit one on your way out of town, in case you didn't get to it beforehand, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays, 8 to 1 on Saturdays, and 11 to 7 on Sundays.

The first batch of H1N1 flu vaccines, some 3.4 million doses, will come in the form of a nasal spray from a company called MedImmune. We couldn't be more pleased about this because we hate needles, and we're total hypochondriacs. The U.S. has ordered a total of 195 million doses of the vaccine and pretty much everyone is encouraged to get vaccinated, beginning with health care workers, the immuno-compromised, and anyone with respiratory ailments. Get your flu shots/nasal sprays, kids! We fear it's going to be an ugly winter.

In our continuing will-we-live-or-will-we-die H1N1 (swine) flu coverage, we just got word that Mayor Gavin Newsom is handing out free H1N1 shots. According to the Mayor's Office, "San Francisco will be organizing free H1N1 (swine) flu clinics throughout the City and County of San Francisco, utilizing a combination of public schools, private schools and community centers." The first shipment of the vaccine, 100,000 doses, will arrive in late October. "This initial shipment will be available first to those in groups who are at highest risk for more severe disease. But eventually, everyone who wants protection from H1N1 will be able to get it," said Newsom. Those at high risk are "pregnant women, children 6 months to age 24, care givers of children younger than 6 months and emergency responders and health care workers." Go here for more information.

There were plenty of predictions this past spring that the H1N1 virus was going to come back to bite us in the ass this winter, and last week a White House advisory panel made some dire predictions of a "worst case scenario" in which half the country could get infected, 1.8 million could end up hospitalized, and 90,000 could die -- which would be more than twice the average for a normal flu season. And as we've seen, this flu has been striking many in the 30- to 45-year-old range who may have a pre-existing condition such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, or obesity -- some scientists believe the virus hasn't affected older people in greater numbers due to some pre-existing immunity from an earlier strain of the flu, perhaps from the early 1960s or before. Hopefully if you have any of these pre-existing conditions, if you're preggers, or if you have school-aged kids, you'll run out and get flu shots in October, and the rest of you will wash your goddamn hands twenty times a day and STAY HOME FROM WORK if you show any symptoms. This ain't no SARS! (Perhaps try one of the stylish animal masks above from Samiraboon.)

In a truly sad note this morning, Doug Murphy, co-owner of Moby Dick and, most recently, Blackbird, died Friday due to complications from the H1N1 virus, better known as swine flu. He was 41 years old, and was in Palm Springs at the time of his infection, and he had not been traveling abroad, according to business partner Shawn Vergara.