Warnings issued after ‘high risk’ patients are not going for their flu jab

We are fast approaching the winter season in the UK as autumn is coming to a close. You may have already noticed this though by the rapidly dropping temperatures, the need to use the ice scraper on your car windscreen and it is now getting darker much earlier in the evenings. The wintery chill will unfortunately also bring with it a high number of colds and flu outbreaks across Britain. The common cold can be dealt with simple enough and will be gone within a week usually but the flu can be more serious and even prove fatal at times.

However many of the population who are deemed as ‘high risk’ are not receiving the flu jab despite many the warnings that health officials give around this time each year.  Department of Health (DOH) figures worryingly show that many people who are at risk of becoming seriously ill from flu complications, have yet to receive the flu vaccination.

The vaccine is available without charge to those deemed at risk to provide protection against catching flu and developing serious complication such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Some of the eligible groups of people include anyone over 65 years of age or over, if you have a certain medical condition such as asthma or diabetes, are pregnant or if you are the carer for somebody who may be at risk if you yourself fall ill.

Information released by the DOH though shows that an increasing number of pensioners and those with medical conditions are not bothering to get the vaccine. In England alone there are approximately 4,700 deaths every year that are attributed to flu and those who are in the ‘high risk’ groups are shockingly around 11 times more likely to die from it in comparison to somebody not deemed at risk.

Figures show that at the end of last week 48.9% of patients aged 65 or over in England had received the flu jab. However, in the same week in 2011, the take-up for the vaccine was 54.8%. A similar trend has been seen in patients with health conditions such as asthma, whereby 28.7% of patients had received the vaccine by 28 October and at the same point last year the figure stood at 32.2%.

Health officials are now urging those at high risk to get themselves to their GP for a vaccination and there has been a website set-up called ‘Winterwatch’, which will go live in the next few weeks and will aim to provide up-to-date winter-related health information.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, warned: “Cold weather can be hazardous for our health – particularly for older people and those with respiratory illnesses. Each year, the cold weather is responsible for an increase in deaths and thousands of cases of flu, falls, heart attacks and strokes. In past years, these extra pressures have cost the NHS £42 million in emergency admissions alone. As winter approaches, we should all be on our guard against health problems – by taking simple steps and looking after our older friends and family we can keep warm and well.”

Adding to Mr Hunt’s comments was public health minister Anna Soubry, who said: “We have taken the decision this year to run a flu campaign because too many people in at-risk groups have not come forward for the jab yet, although local campaigns have been running for the past month. Our campaign aims to encourage people who are most at risk from flu, who have put it off or who don’t think it is important, to get the vaccine.”

People should bear in mind that it can take around ten days for the vaccine to provide protection against flu following the jab. If you are unsure whether you need the vaccine or wondering if you are able to receive a free vaccine, you can contact NHS Inform on 0800 22 44 88 for more information.

UK health officials diagnose potentially fatal SARS-like virus

A 49-year-old Qatari male is currently being treated at a London-based hospital after contracting a new respiratory virus that is quite similar to that which claimed the lives of roughly 800 people back in 2003.

The man was transferred to the London hospital via air ambulance and was subsequently tested by health experts, who confirmed that the patient had a ‘SARS-like’ coronavirus.

Coronaviruses are mainly known to infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds, but they are thought to be responsible for the majority of common colds within humans and there are currently around five different strains that can infect humans.

The SARS coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome), made headlines in 2002 after first coming to prominence in Hong Kong and ended up spreading to 30 other countries before the condition was finally contained in 2003. It was spread through sneezing and coughing with initial symptoms including muscular pain, headache and fever. After 2 to 10 days respiratory problems begin to develop such as coughing, dyspnoea, and pneumonia. Of the people who contracted SARS during the 2002/2003 outbreak, 9% succumbed to it, with mortality rates especially high in those over 50-years of age.

The patient with the latest case of a SARS-like virus was first admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha, Qatar, on September 7 after complaining of symptoms four days previously. Then on September 11 the patient was transferred to the UK to receive more treatment.

This is the second recent confirmed case of a serious coronavirus as earlier in the year a 60-year-old Saudi national died as a result of his respiratory problems and The Health Protection Agency (HPA) say the two cases are identical. The HPA made the discovery after analysing gene sequences of the virus from the Qatari patient with samples of virus sequenced by Dutch scientists from lung tissue of the Saudi male who died.

Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, wanted to alleviate any mass panic and stressed that the novel virus should not prove to be a major concern at this time and may have simply been found because of more intelligent testing methods. He commented, “For now, I would be watchful but not immediately concerned.”

Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA, added, “The HPA is providing advice to healthcare workers to ensure the patient under investigation is being treated appropriately. In the light of the severity of the illness that has been identified in the two confirmed cases, immediate steps have been taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest that they have. As we are aware of only two cases worldwide and there is no specific evidence of on-going transmission, at present there is no specific advice for the public or returning travellers to take but we will share any further advice with the public as soon as more information becomes available.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) have so far yet to state any travel restrictions after the discovery of the illness, with a spokesman from WHO saying, “WHO is currently in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications of these two confirmed cases.”

Tamiflu protected against pneumonia in swine flu patients: researchers

Swine flu patients were protected from developing pneumonia by taking Tamiflu during the pandemic, Chinese research has found.

A study of 1,200 people admitted to hospital with swine flu found those who were treated with Tamiflu were around 80 per cent less likely to develop pneumonia.

It means that four people needed to be treated with the drug to prevent one case of pneumonia, the study published online in the British Medical Journal found.

Some critics have said the response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was excessive and that Tamiflu was ineffective.

The study, conducted by a team at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, also found that starting the course of Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir within two days of symptoms reduced the length time patients were feverish and lessened the amount of virus they shed, so making them less infective to others.

Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/8029951/Tamiflu-protected-against-pneumonia-in-swine-flu-patients-researchers.html