Do you remember swine flu? Swine flu remembers you. And now that we're in the depths of the bowels of the pits of flu season (bizarre weather be damned), the dreaded H1N1 virus is making a comeback. In total, nine Bay Area counties and Santa Cruz County have reported 16 flu-related deaths, with four swine flu deaths reported in the Bay Area on Monday alone. What's more, the state requires reporting of influenza deaths only in people younger than 65, meaning that more elderly people may have also died of the flu.

As opposed to other strains of influenza that typically affect the very young and the very old, H1N1 targets adults in between, and fatalities this year have included a 23-year-old in Sonoma County, an otherwise healthy 48-year-old woman in Marin County, and a 41-year-old woman in Santa Clara County. Officials reports that H1N1 may be the predominant strain this flu season, so go ahead and get that flu shot as soon as possible.

And if you'd like to relive the swine flu panic of 2009 for a little extra motivation, here's a little reminder, courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow and friends:

Previously: Have You Gotten Your Flu Shot?, Everything swine flu on SFist

Relatively young, healthy people have been dying from the H1N1 flu strain going around this year — not in large in numbers, but still. There have so far been nine Bay Area flu deaths this season, which is a slightly alarming number given that several of the victims were between the ages of 23 and 48, a couple of whom had no underlying health issues.

The earlier strain of H1N1, known as "swine flu," which came around in 2010, largely affected young children and the elderly, while this one seems a bit different.

A 23-year-old in Sonoma County died from H1N1 on Wednesday; an otherwise healthy 48-year-old woman died in Marin County on Monday; and a 41-year-old woman died in Santa Clara County just before Christmas.

Additionally, upwards of 50 or 60 people have been hospitalized with flu-related complications in the Bay Area this season, and peak flu season has only just begun. It runs January to March.

Stories like this are coming in from around the country too, with this 41-year-old father dying in Texas; and this 47-year-old paramedic in Alabama, also a father, and his wife remains hospitalized because of the virus.

So go get a flu shot! It's probably wise. Even if you find vaccinations scary for some reason. Back in 2010 it almost seemed pointless because there weren't enough vaccinations to go around and they were telling only, like, teachers and health care workers to get shots. But now, there's plenty, and you do not want this flu.

[BCN/Appeal]
[CBS]

Kiona from San Francisco is a bright little nine-year old who is battling leukemia. She really wants to travel to Hawaii with her family to swim with dolphins. Who wouldn't? But Kiona deserves this trip.... certainly more than you do, if we may be so bold. However, for her wish to be fulfilled, she needs help. This is where you come in: The Make-A-Wish Bay Area chapter is asking for locals to donate airline miles to help children, like Kiona, for their "Take My Seat" airline miles donation campaign.

Miles donated will help provide Bay Area "Wish" children with the opportunity to take a vacation from their severe illnesses and travel to their most-wanted destination. According to Make-A-Wishj, "the average number of miles needed for one domestic round-trip ticket is 50,000, but your readers can donate as few as 1,000 miles online. More than 70 percent of all wishes involve air travel for the child, as well as their family."

Your donated miles will also go to help these Bay Area kids:

- Analiese from Gilroy (age 4) is fighting kidney cancer and wishes to go to Disney World with her family.
- Oliver from Albany (age 4) wishes to go to Sea World with his family for a vacation from his leukemia.
- Nathan from Santa Rosa (age 5) wishes to conduct his own Thomas the Train experience to escape his cancer treatments for a few days.
- James from Salinas (age 11) is fighting brain cancer and wishes to travel to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Please, please, please donate here.

Although the early stages of the AIDS epidemic saw more men infected with HIV than women, a new study from UC San Francisco suggests that certain factors unique to women could be contributing to the current spread. More specifically, the study found that the bacteria in those dirty vaginas of theirs (We kid! Love you, ladies!) can make women more likely to transmit the virus to their male partners.

Published in the journal PLoS Medicine last month, the study looked at 2,236 couples in sub-Saharan Africa where women, especially those aged 15-24 are already eight times more likely to be HIV-positive than men. The study found that women with bacterial vaginosis — or as it's more poetically known: "a disruption of the normal vaginal flora" — were three times more likely to pass the virus on to their male partners than women with (ahem) healthy flora.

While it's still unclear what it is about BV that makes one more likely to transmit HIV, lead author Dr. Craig Cohen of UCSF's OB/GYN & Reproductive Sciences Department, explained that the condition is incredibly common, almost to the point of normality. It affects up to 55% of women in parts of Africa and other resource-poor countries and it is hard to spot because it generally doesn't have much in the way of visible symptoms. As Dr. Cohen put it to the Chronicle: "People don't consider bacterial vaginosis a healthy, natural state. But if you have half the population of women with BV, it begs the question of what's normal."

Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Horberg, director of HIV/AIDS over at Kaiser Permanente, helpfully offered some advice on what this means for the ladies in the audience: "The take-home message is clearly that bacterial vaginosis, when seen, needs to be treated."

[PLoS Medicine]
[Chron]

A morning Muni nightmare occurred Thursday when a passenger lost his breakfast (or Wednesday night's dinner, we don't know what kind of morning meal habits you people have) on an outbound K-T train. The early morning vomit session occurred just after 8 a.m. at Montgomery Station and the operator was directed to allow passengers to hop off so the soiled train could scoot off to West Portal for a hose-down. But apparently not everyone made it on to the platform.

When the train zipped through Powell and Civic Center without stopping, Muni officials in the control booth noticed some passengers still aboard and ordered the operator to stop and unload at Van Ness. The operator is on non-driver status while MTA figures out why didn't they unload everybody in the first place, but one wonders if maybe they thought enduring an odorous express train to West Portal was better than enduring another wait at the platform.

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Diarrhea, vomiting — just your typical school field trip, right? CBS is reporting a sickening wave of flu-like illness amongst 50 Bay Area students and adults on a five-day educational trip at Walker Creek Ranch in Marin.

Outdoor school principal Mike Grant told CBS that the illness seemed to spread equally among the three schools staying at the ranch this week: San Ramon Elementary School in Novato; Tassajara Hills Elementary School in Danville; and Redwood Day School in Oakland. A fire engine was sent to the scene on a report of a sick person with flu-like symptoms at about 10 p.m. and found the 50 people in a weakened condition.

Health Officer Anju Goel told the Marin IJ that the county would test food and water samples and interview sick students to determine the cause of the illnesses.

While source of the illness is still as yet unknown, it seems to be pinpointed to one cabin. The sad-faced students and teachers were taken home to their parents or guardians. Hope it wasn’t a bumpy ride back. [Marin IJ] [CBS]

(by Emily Savage)

CBS5 reports that at least five Bay Area pregnant women in their early third trimesters have been admitted to intensive care units due to complications with the H1N1 swine flu. Two of the women are no longer in ICU, and all of the fetuses appear to be fine. Some of the women were apparently in perfect health before contracting the virus, and others had unnamed underlying conditions.

According to CBS5, the Center for Disease Control said many pregnant women who are infected with H1N1 will not have a problem, but pregnant women are more likely to get sick in general and have more serious problems with seasonal flu, due to lowered immune systems. The Center for Disease Control has info on how to avoid contracting the virus, swine flu symptoms, and what to do if you get sick.

The World Health Organization declared the swine flu a pandemic on June 11, and many fear that the virus will mutate and come back even stronger in the fall and winter months, which is what happened with the flu pandemic in 1918.

A crazy story just surfaced from the Napa Valley Register about Dannille Vanderpool, a police dispatcher who claimed to have both ovarian and brain cancer and subsequently scammed her way into free childcare, a home renovation, fundraisers, cash donations, and free time off from work. She shaved her head and wrote of her struggles with cancer on MySpace, apparently seeking public sympathy of the sort that only a few hundred animated, glittery Get Well .gif's can provide.

It turns out the MySpace blogging was part of her undoing, with one suspicious friend ultimately calling bullshit right after seeing a post go live about eating "hospital eggs" and driving to Dannille's house ten minutes later to find her peeking out of the curtains. The kicker: another friend who was a breast cancer survivor was also put off because Dannille didn't act too much like a cancer patient. "As soon as I found out I had cancer, I quit drinking (and) started taking all sorts of organic things, but here I am watching her at parties playing beer pong,” [said friend and police officer Wendy Daniels]. Here's a 2007 story the Register wrote about Dannille and her cancer, before they saw the beer pong and knew the truth.

"Much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes," reports AP, the U.S. government officially declared a public health emergency today due to the swine flu. So far, conformed outbreaks are as follows: four (4) people affected in Canada, sickened at least (20) in the U.S. (or 11, depending on which report you want to believe), and "killed dozens" in Mexico.

"We are declaring today a public health emergency," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said today at a White House news briefing, going on to say that the declaration is "standard operating procedure."

Napolitano went on to point out, "We really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be," but precautionary measures are being taken. Around 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu "will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it." California, Texas, New York, Ohio, and Kansas will be given top priority to the drug, since those are the area where the flu has been reported.

A hormone imbalance is being blamed in the gaunt appearance of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Rumored to be stricken by a number of mysterious illnesses ranging from cancer to anorexia, Jobs appeared enviously thin at last year's Macworld Expo, which starts today. According to an AP report, "Jobs, 53, said in a public letter that his thinness had been a mystery even to him and his doctors until a few weeks ago, when =sophisticated blood tests= confirmed that he has 'a hormone imbalance that has been `robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.'" So have no fear Mac sect members, Jobs will remain CEO of Apple.