CDC: Swine Flu Cases Widespread And Rising
Federal health officials say the U.S. is without doubt in the middle of a second swine flu wave, with the virus more widespread than ever. Since its onset in April, the 2009 H1N1 virus has caused more than 1,000 deaths and more than 20,000 hospitalizations in this country, officials from the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention said Friday. Similarly, children's deaths from flu and pneumonia have been higher than what is normally expected at this time of year.
"This remains largely a young person's disease," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said.
Compared with seasonal flu, young people and children continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus. In the first 11 days of October, one in five kids had influenza-like illness — fever, cough, fatigue, aches and pains.
Since April, there have been 95 confirmed pediatric 2009 H1N1 deaths, and nearly half of them have occurred during September and October, according to the CDC.
Across the country, dueling concerns persist: Some people worry that they won't have access to the vaccine, while others question the vaccine's safety.
The H1N1 vaccine has been available for nearly three weeks, but health officials haven't been able to deliver as many doses as expected. The CDC planned to have in hand 40 million doses by the end of October. But as of Friday, only 16.1 million doses were available to states, according to the CDC.
Part of the problem is that the yield is lower than expected; manufacturers are having more trouble coaxing the virus to grow than they've had with other vaccines.
Even as lines to get the vaccine are wrapping around the block in some places, many express high levels of distrust about the safety of the vaccine. According to a Harvard poll conducted in September, 33 percent of people think the H1N1 vaccine is safe, compared with 57 percent who trust the seasonal flu vaccine.
Frieden said there is every reason to be confident in the safety of the H1N1 vaccine, which is produced the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine. Millions of doses of seasonal flu vaccine are administered every year, he said, with an excellent safety track record. Also, health officials are not seeing any big changes in the genetic nature of the swine virus that would make it less susceptible to vaccine, he said.
CDC officials said they expect that the flu will continue in waves, but they ventured no predictions on how long the pandemic will last.
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MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris in Washington.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block at NPR West in California.
It's been a week of long lines and frustration as swine flu spreads across the country and a lot of people who want the vaccine can't get it. We are going to hear about some of those frustrations and about widespread school closings.
We begin with NPR's Joanne Silberner, who's in Atlanta; that's home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, Joanne, what's the latest you're hearing from the CDC?
JOANNE SILBERNER: Well, the big issue this week has been vaccine availability. Tom Frieden is the head of the Centers for Disease Control and he talked about the vaccine situation today at a press conference. And the very first thing he said was that while vaccine availability is increasing, it's increasing far too slowly. And he said it was very frustrating. And there's a second issue, which is how quickly the virus is spreading. He talked about that today, too. And also, the Department of Education put out a report saying there was twice as many kids out of school today as there was yesterday. It's still a really tiny percentage of the number of students, but the point is it's growing.
BLOCK: And when Tom Frieden talks about the vaccine availability increasing, but far too slowly, why is that? What's going on with the production?
SILBERNER: Well, first let me say it became available before anyone expected, a couple weeks early. But the production is slow and the problem is the vaccine virus is - it just is growing slowly. And for reasons that are known only to the virus, it's just not as fast as others. There are some viruses that grow quickly, some slowly. And this happens to be a slower one. Some manufacturers are doing little bit better than others. It's not anything to do with safety, it's just how quickly this thing is growing in culture.
BLOCK: You mean for the manufacturers themselves.
SILBERNER: Right.
BLOCK: Well, how much vaccine is out there right now?
SILBERNER: Well, as of Wednesday, it was 14.1 million doses, now 11.3 million of that's already been shipped out to the states. The government, at one point, was aiming for 40 million doses by the end of this month. And that's clearly not going to happen. They're still saying that there'll be much more around in November and December.
BLOCK: But obviously swine flu is here now, it's very widespread. Has it reached anything nearing a peak?
SILBERNER: Well, how about if I tell you that next year? I mean, no one can tell when a peak comes until it's over. And even if it does start to slide down, even if there are fewer cases, you never know when it's going to come back. I mean, flus do come back - rarely, but they do. I hate to compare this to the 1918 flu because that one was a deadly one, very deadly. This one is much less often a problem like that. But that came back twice after the first run through.
BLOCK: Joanne, it has been a big concern for the government convincing people that the H1N1 vaccine is safe. But we are now, as we mentioned, hearing about these long lines, people who want the vaccine and can't get it. How big a challenge is the safety issue for the people at the CDC?
SILBERNER: It's a great big challenge and there's a real irony here because the government officials are really trying to convince people to accept the vaccine. At the same time, they're saying there's not enough around. The really big issue here is pregnant women because they are much more likely to have serious problems. They are six times more likely to die if they get infected. And, in fact today, three physicians' groups, including the obstetricians' group, just sent out messages to all the members saying to get their pregnant patients -to really urge them to get the vaccine.
BLOCK: Okay. NPR's Joanne Silberner in Atlanta, thank you.
SILBERNER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
