Brazil has now 557 swine flu deaths making it the country with the highest number of fatalities in the world from the disease, next is United States which has 522 as of August 20 this year. The pandemic A(HIN1), the elderly seem to be protected from the infection to some extent, perhaps due to previous exposure to similar strains. Persons born before 1957 , other studies have suggested were almost certainly exposed to the milder seasonal A(H1N1) viruses that evolved from the terrible pandemic in 1918 which left some 40M dead.
A(H1N1) poses high risk for people with pre-existing condition such as pregnant women and patients with neurological disorder, respiratory impairment, diabetes or severe obesity.
World Health Organization says healthy people who catch swine flu from mild to moderate case do not need anti viral drugs like Tamiflu. WHO said the drug should definitely be used to treat people in high risk groups who get the virus. That includes children less than 5 years old, pregnant women, people over 65 and those with other health problems like heart disease, HIV or diabetes.
Roughly 50M doses of vaccine are expected to be available by mid-October. But for those who get initial doses right away, that will only mark the beginning of a vaccination process that will take 5 or more weeks. Health officials believe most people will need 2 shots, spaced 3 weeks apart, and it will take a week or two after the second dose before immunity kicks in. That is 5 or 6 weeks in all.
Since it was first reported in April, swine flu has turned out to be not much more dangerous than seasonal flu overall. Government experts say it may soon become just another variety of the flu, and perhaps will conform to the seasonal flu calendar - vaccinated against in the fall, suffered through every winter.
Over 20 pharmaceutical companies around the world are racing to test, produce and distribute more than a billion doses of the vaccines in anticipation of the second wave of infection.
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