Well being officials have alerted all healthcare providers to be ready to treat all suspected situations of swine flu, educate the public and report confirmed cases to their state well being departments. On Wednesday, April 29, 2009, the initial confirmed death inside the United States was reported from a 23-month-old toddler in TX. Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (PNPs) are on the front lines of defense when identifying patients with swine flu. Th! e initial case of swine flu reported within the state of Ohio was diagnosed by Sally Fenik, a pediatric nurse practitioner from EMH Regional Medical Center.

“PNPs are taking center stage in this unfortunate outbreak of swine flu. As a parent and PNP I am saddened to find out of the death of the 23-month-old toddler. Even though this infection is mild in most people it could be incredibly severe. Teaching good hygiene and reassuring families is going to be quite important as this outbreak continues” stated Linda Lindeke, PhD, RN, CPNP, NAPNAP President.

NAPNAP supports the nationwide call for swift action and encourages all PNPs and other healthcare providers to report all instances of swine flu towards the suitable authorities instantly.

Source
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Further information on Swine FluSee a Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Weblog

1 (1 votes)

As the present swine flu virus is present in several countries, trying to contain it truly is probably not feasible any more. Efforts should now focus primarily on mitigation, according to a public health professional in an Editorial published within the British Medical Journal (BMJ) today.

Richard Coker, Professor of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, points out that practically all situations reported so far have already been in developed countries with comprehensive surveillance systems. There could be two reasons for this, Coker explains:

Perhaps the populations at risk have travelled preferentially from Mexico to those internet sites.
People are getting infected in countries with much less properly developed surveillance systems – we just don’t know about them.

Coker stresses that this new strain is still presently sensitive to antiviral drugs. Although the USA, Canada, Western Europe and other developed countries have very good stockpiles of antiviral drugs, this might not be the case in several low and middle income countries.”So, may be the globe prepared?” Coker asksAlthough most countries have contingency plans, several developing countries may possibly find it difficult to put them into operation. Creating countries have a tendency to have restricted well being program resources to call on if a pandemic arrives. They could not have sufficient stocks of antiviral drugs to efficiently mitigate the spread. Even those that do may uncover it extremely hard to mobilize them successfully. If an successful vaccine is eventually produced, creating countries aren’t likely to receive them early enough, or in amounts that genuinely matter.

Evidence has indicated that border screening isn’t an effective way of controlling the spread of infection. The Globe Well being Organization is not keen to advise travel restrictions. Nevertheless, numerous countries, specially within the European Union, have advised restrictions on travel.

Now that all of the focus is not the H1N1 swine flu virus, it really is effortless to ignore the threat still posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus, and some others. Immunity to the H1N1 swine flu virus will not provide any protection against the H5N1 bird flu virus if the bird flu virus became effortlessly transmissible amongst humans 1 day.

Finally, Coker wonders what may well happen if the existing swine flu virus becomes endemic in parts of the world were the bird flu virus is far more frequent. Will the two viruses meet and exchange genetic material? Would the exchange of genetic material create a new virus and another pandemic threat?

Citation
“Editorial: Swine flu”
BMJ online
Link to abstractFurther data on Swine FluSee a Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu BlogWritten by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced with out permission of Medical News Right now

4 (1 votes)

A disease spread simulation has emphasized that flu interventions should be imposed speedily, if they are to be successful. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that staying at residence, closing schools and isolating infected people inside the property should minimize infection, but only if they are used in mixture, activated without having delay and maintained for a comparatively lengthy period.

Professor George Milne and his colleagues from the University of Western Australia (UWA) simulated the effect of social distancing on the spread of a flu virus within a little town. Their research employed a detailed, individual-based model of a actual community with a population of roughly 30,000 (Albany, Australia) using simulation software program engineered by UWA’s Dr Joel Kelso. Milne said, “Our results suggest a crucial role of combined social distancing measures in the possible control of a future pandemic. Non-pharmaceutical social distancing interventions are capable of preventing less-infectious influenza epidemics and of substantially lowering the rate of development and overall burden of the worst epidemics”.

The research investigated the effects, alone and in combination, of workplace non-attendance, school closure, isolating infected family members members inside the home and lowering contact inside the wider community. Based on Milne, “While such draconian measures seem unlikely to be mandated given their impact on individual freedom, they seem to have a crucial role to play in delaying the development of a ‘worst case’ influenza epidemic. They could possibly be crucial in holding back an epidemic till vaccines are deployed on a adequate scale that subsequent relaxation of these rigorous measures will not result in a consequential acceleration in the scale of the outbreak”.

The measures described should, nonetheless, be employed as soon as possible soon after the initial individuals within the population have already been infected, if not preemptively. This study discovered that, for an outbreak of influenza roughly as infectious as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, the combination of all intervention measures should be introduced within 2 weeks of the initial case appearing in a town or city, to stop an epidemic developing. Delays of two, 3 and 4 weeks resulted in final attack rates of 7%, 21% and 45% respectively.

Milne concludes, “Social distancing interventions are important as they represent the only form of intervention measure guaranteed to be accessible against a novel strain of influenza inside the early phases of a pandemic. They could possibly be readily activated and believed of as a 1st line of defence in developing and developed countries alike”.

Source: BioMed Central Restricted

1 (1 votes)

A French study of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, which analysed mortality rates in approximately three-quarters of the European population, has concluded that it’s unlikely that the virus, frequently described as Spanish Flu, originated in Europe.

Published in the Could concern of Influenza along with other Respiratory Viruses, the study shows a high degree of synchronicity inside the 14 countries studied, which includes Spain, using the flu peaking in October to November 1918.

The study, carried out by a team from INSERM, the French National Institute for Wellness and Medical Analysis, gives invaluable background briefing for clinicians and media throughout the existing pandemic alert.

Key details highlighted by the analysis which may be viewed totally free on-line consist of:

– Overall deaths increased by 86 per cent in the 14 European countries studied in the course of the 1918-1919 pandemic, with 1.98 million excess deaths recorded. When these figures were extrapolated to cover the 25 per cent of Europe not covered by the study, the figure reached 2.64 million.

– Excess mortality rates for the individual countries covered by the INSERM analysis were: Bulgaria (102%), England and Wales (55%), Finland (33%), Sweden (74%), France (66%), Germany (73%), Italy (172%), Norway (65%), Denmark (58%), Portugal (102%), Scotland (57%), Spain (87%), Switzerland (69%) along with the Netherlands (84%).

– Figures for the worldwide death toll stay very imprecise. A first American report in 1927 suggested that the main 1918-1919 wave was responsible for 21 million deaths worldwide. A revised estimate in 1991 put the figure between 24.7 and 39.three million and one more in 2002 set the death toll at up to 100 million to take into account the lack of information in a big portion of the world.

– The authors point out that the source of the 1918 pandemic remains unclear. A recent analysis of the 1918 H1N1 genome failed to single out a specific location. Theories put forward by numerous researchers contain Asia, a British army post in France in 1916, the USA and Spain.

– The very first reported pandemic was in 412 BC and the 1st attributed to influenza was in 1580. Given that then 31 influenza pandemics have already been reported, with the five most recent getting in 1889, 1900, 1918, 1957 and 1968. The 1918 pandemic was the most deadly in modern history.

– Other valuable background data inside the paper consists of the commence and finish dates of the pandemic outbreaks within the 14 countries studied, with graphs showing the peaks in every single country.

Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses may be the first journal to specialise exclusively on influenza along with other respiratory viruses and is edited by one of the world’s leading flu professionals, Dr Alan Hampson. It is the official journal of the International Society for Influenza and Othera????Respiratory Virus Diseases (www.isirv.org), an independent scientific expert society promoting the prevention, detection, remedy, and control of influenza and other respiratory virus illnesses.

All journal articles are at present cost-free on the web. Other content contains a particular problem providing an update on seasonal and pandemic vaccines (November 2008), an write-up on pandemic preparedness (March 2009) and an post on the rapid influenza testing of youngsters (Could 2009).

Source: Wiley – Blackwell

four.5 (two votes)

Trust for America’s Well being (TFAH) re-issued a series of It’s Not Flu As Usual guides on pandemic flu preparedness for families, businesses, medical providers, and community groups.

“Worry and fear won’t protect us — figuring out the facts and preparing ahead will,” said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., Executive Director of TFAH. “All of us desire to do the best issues to shield ourselves and our families within the event of a well being emergency. These guides supply data that will assist prepare for not just for a potential pandemic flu outbreak, but also for many other forms of well being emergencies.”

The It’s Not Flu As Usual guides supply recommendations in case a major pandemic breaks out. Within the event that high levels of illnesses create and worries about the illness spread, “business as usual” could cease. Public well being officials may advocate to closing schools, limiting public gatherings, and staying property from work or school. Through a severe pandemic, experts predict that companies and organizations might face cumulative absentee rates of 10 percent at any given time or 40 percent more than 3 to 4 months. Absentees could contain sick employees, people who are caring for other people who are sick, and individuals who may possibly want to stay away from the workplace for fear of getting exposed towards the virus.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR People AND FAMILIES:

— Find out about common-sense precautions to avoid the spread of flu and teach them to your youngsters or other household members. Steer clear of close contact with people who are sick, remain at home when you are sick or have flu symptoms, cover your mouth and nose having a tissue when coughing or sneezing, clean your hands, avoiding touching your eyes, nose, or mouth, and practice common great well being habits.

— Practice other excellent well being habits. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage anxiety, drink lots of fluids, eat nutritious foods, and stay away from smoking.

— Talk about crucial well being issues together with your household and loved ones. Ask them about how/where they would want to be cared for if they turn into ill and talk about what could be required to care for them at property. Think about who will care for children/people with special requirements if all adults within the household are ill, and decide if you’ll find other family members members accessible to assist. Make plans now and communicate with all who need to know.

— Have generic medical and wellness supplies on hand. Examples consist of supplies like soap or alcohol-based hand wash, medicines for fevers, fluid with electrolytes, and tissues.

— Anticipate shortages of typical prescription drugs and strategy accordingly. Should you or a household member has a chronic disease and often takes prescription drugs, speak to your physician/pharmacists/insurance provider about having numerous weeks of medicines stockpiled at home.

— Anticipate shortages in perishable foods, water, and widespread household emergency supplies. The federal government recommends stockpiling non-perishable food items, water, portable radios, batteries, flashlights, garbage bags, and manual can openers.

— Anticipate social disruption and make back up plans. Schools could possibly be closed for an extended time frame, so consider pooling child care resources with neighbors and find out if there will likely be community-designated child care facilities for people who aren’t ill. Since being able to go to work might be challenging or impossible, talk to your employer concerning the possibility of telecommuting or operating from home. Transportation services could possibly be disrupted, so consider carpooling possibilities to go to function, schools, and supermarkets to reduce your reliance on public transportation. Other public and community services could possibly be disrupted. These could include services supplied by hospitals along with other healthcare facilities, banks, shops, restaurants, government offices, and post offices. Consider how you and your household may compensate if you are cut off from these services.

— Recognize your company’s sick leave and family members and medical leave policies.

— To fight the annual flu, get a flu shot.

— Do not go to work, school, or to any public place in the event you turn out to be ill.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR Companies:

— Check that existing organization continuity contingency plans address long-term absenteeism rates. In particular, check to see if core enterprise activities can be sustained over a number of weeks with only a minimal workforce offered.

— Identify your company’s important functions, which may well include accounting, payroll, and data technologies, along with the people who perform them. The absence of these individuals could seriously impair organization continuity. Cross-train workers to perform essential functions to make certain resiliency.

— Program for interruptions of important government services like sanitation, water, power, and transportation, or disruptions towards the food supply. By way of example, workers may possibly need to have back-up plans for auto pools in case mass transit is interrupted.

— Decide which outside activities are crucial to sustain operations and create alternatives in case they can not function usually. As an example, what transportation systems are necessary to provide important supplies? Does the company operate on ‘just in time’ inventory or is there normally some in reserve?

— Update sick leave and household and medical leave policies and communicate with workers concerning the importance of staying away from the workplace if they grow to be ill.

— Establish or expand policies and tools that enable employees to work from property with appropriate security and network access to applications.

— Collaborate with insurers, health plans, and major healthcare facilities to share your pandemic contingency plans and to understand about their capabilities and plans.

— Sustain a wholesome work atmosphere. Guarantee adequate air circulation. Post ideas on how to quit the spread of germs at function. Promote hand and respiratory hygiene. Ensure wide and effortless availability of alcohol-based hand sanitizer products.

— Tell your personnel concerning the threat of pandemic flu and the steps the firm is taking to prepare for it. Establish an emergency communications strategy and revise periodically. The strategy ought to incorporate important contacts (with back-ups), a chain of communications (which includes suppliers and clients), and also the processes for communicating pandemic status and actions to personnel, vendors, suppliers, and consumers inside and outside the worksite in a consistent and timely way.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COMMUNITY- AND FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS:

— Figure out the achievable impact of a pandemic on your organization’s typical activities and services. Take into account the possibility of high rates of absenteeism or mandatory closings, think about circumstances that may require you to improve, reduce, or cease the services your organization delivers.

— Identify your organization’s important functions along with the people who carry out them. Cross-train staff and volunteers in other jobs so that if someone is ill, others are in a position to carry on the work.

— Strategy accordingly for interruptions of essential government services like sanitation, water, power, and transportation or disruptions towards the food supply.

— Update sick leave and family and medical leave policies so staffers won’t be penalized for personal illness or for caring for sick household members in the course of a pandemic. Volunteers and employees should remain residence until they are well.

— Establish regardless of whether your volunteers and staff have “cross more than skills” like nursing or mental health counseling that might be employed through a well being crisis, and make that data recognized to neighborhood wellness authorities. Your neighborhood well being department may possibly already be compiling rosters of people in the community who might be called upon to assist in the course of an emergency.

— Evaluate your organization’s activities and services that involve close person-to-person contact, which includes child care, elder care, and religious rites, specially those that involve hand-holding or sharing food and drink from frequent dishes or glasses. Establish policies to modify these activities to prevent the spread of pandemic flu and communicate them for your staff, volunteers, and individuals you serve.

— Figure out supplies necessary to promote respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, like tissues and alcohol-based hand sanitizer goods, and create a strategy for how to acquire them.

— Share details about your pandemic preparedness and response with volunteers, staff, congregants, and also the men and women you serve. You might think about activating telephone chains, distributing flyers and sending mass emails to obtain your message out. In the course of instances of anxiety individuals turn to those they trust, so clear and frequent communication is crucial.

— Ensure that what you communicate about pandemic preparedness is appropriate for the cultures, languages, and reading levels of those you serve. Identify those with unique requirements and make sure to include their needs inside your preparedness and response preparing.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MEDICAL PROVIDERS:

— Be sufficiently educated about pandemic influenza and transmission risks.

— Be vigilant about the possibility of severe or emerging respiratory illness, particularly in patients who’ve recently traveled internationally.

— Plan for how to manage high-risk patients and communicate the strategy to your staff.

— Create a program to stop contagion, which includes use of close-fitting surgical masks in isolation areas, and for patients and staff. Distribute alcohol-based hand rubs to all sites of patient care.

— Assessment staff infection control procedures and train staff inside the use of private protective equipment.

— Get vaccinated against annual influenza every year and urge all staff to be vaccinated annually, too.

— Program accordingly for feasible interruptions of crucial services like sanitation, water, power, and disruptions to the food supply.

— Work to ensure that the practice or clinic has access to adequate supplies of antibiotic and antiviral medicines, and also commonly prescribed drugs like insulin or warfarin, in the event of a disruption to the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Trust for America’s Wellness can be a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every single community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.

Source: Trust for America’s Well being Further details on Swine FluSee a Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Blog

View drug info on Warfarin Sodium tablets.

3.8 (5 votes)5 (1 votes)

Mexican authorities say the number of new human instances of swine flu along with new deaths is slowing down significantly. The Globe Wellness Organization (WHO) says it is too early to make such claims. Even so, the general feeling among health agencies and some media outlets is that the spread really could possibly be losing some of its steam.

The European Union, in addition to some experts in North America, says that a pandemic might be inevitable, but they doubt the number of deaths will be high. Swine flu, or North American H1N1 Flu, is effectively treatable with antivirals obtainable today. Mexico, USA, Canada, Australasia and Western Europe say they have plenty of antiviral stocks to shield their populations.Below is the total number of swine flu instances and deaths around the world so far:Mexico
168 suspected deaths (less than a third of them confirmed so far)
Approximately 2000 to two,500 suspected cases
US
1 death
109 confirmed cases (at the least)
New Zealand
No deaths
4 confirmed instances and 12 probable cases
Canada
No deaths
34 confirmed cases
UK
No deaths
8 confirmed cases
Spain
No deaths
13 confirmed cases
Germany
No deaths
4 confirmed cases
Israel
No deaths
2 confirmed cases
Costa Rica
No deaths
2 confirmed cases
Austria
No deaths
1 confirmed case
The Netherlands (Holland)
No deaths
1 confirmed case
Switzerland
No deaths
1 confirmed CaseConfirmed circumstances of secondary transmission (the infected person caught it from another individual in the same country) have been reported it the USA, Canada, Spain, and Germany.See our Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu BlogWritten by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

GPs across the UK are getting urged to help improve monitoring of the potential swine flu pandemic by linking their IT system to a national tracking database. QSurveillance, the UK surveillance system set up to alert and to manage a flu pandemic, has appealed to all GPs using the EMIS LV system to activate a module that will feed anonymous patient data by way of to the database.

Currently, 3,500 EMIS practices – covering a population of 23 million patients – contribute automatically-generated, daily information to a secure server.

This enables detailed daily analyses of the number of patients reporting flu-like symptoms, along with the nature of those symptoms, to be provided to the Health Protection Agency along with the Department of Wellness.

The database – operated in partnership with the University of Nottingham – will be the largest, most up-to-date real-time system worldwide.

However, you will find still numerous far more practices which could play a vital role in monitoring the spread of the disease if they opt in towards the programme. Extending the database would significantly improve monitoring at a local level.

Dr David Stables, Medical Director of EMIS and a Director of QSurveillance, said: “QSurveillance has played an important role in previous public wellness crises, but with GPs’ aid we are able to extend the database even further at this crucial time.

“The key benefit will be to improve the high quality of monitoring at a neighborhood level – helping neighborhood services prepare far more effectively for a pandemic, if it comes.

“The process is quick and simple – it requires activating a module within the EMIS system, which can be done in minutes. Data is then collected automatically, with no need to have for the practice to do anything further.

“Practices that wish to opt out at a future date can deactivate the module at any time.”

Julia Hippisley-Cox, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and Director of Q-Surveillance added: “As health organisations around the world seek to understand and combat this virus, access to real-time information is important. Qsurveillance will offer the UK having a daily insight into developments. It is vitally critical that as a lot of GP practices as possible link up to the database, to ensure that a comprehensive picture emerges. ”

Instructions on how you can activate the QSurveillance module inside the EMIS LV system

Source
QSurveillanceSee our Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Blog

Emergency care staff are likely to bear the emotional brunt of the effects of a pandemic within the UK, and hospital trusts need to prepare them adequately and take actions to look following them properly at this time, warn researchers in guidance published ahead of print in Emergency Medicine Journal.

Although the guidance was written with a pandemic sparked by bird flu in mind, its recommendations apply equally to the current outbreak of swine flu, which may become a pandemic.

The guidance is according to learning from the expertise of the handling of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong, and draws on feedback from emergency and intensive care staff at hospitals in Hong Kong.

It outlines 10 important steps for emergency care departments, such as protecting staff from airborne infection, the provision of suitable training, and ensuring that robust staffing and medical procedures for dealing with infected patients are in place.

But it also emphasises the support staff will need, pointing out that the SARS encounter suggests that: “… living by way of an epidemic or pandemic would be one of the most emotive and challenging experiences of our skilled lives.”

During the SARS epidemic, staff in Hong Kong did not return house for up to three months in a bid to curb the risk of passing on the infection to family and friends. They stayed in hospital or nearby rented accommodation.

The guidance recommends that NHS staff might require to think about comparable options, which includes making alternative arrangements for the care of young children or elderly relatives.

It also urges trusts to think about how they might boost staff morale, which will inevitably suffer as a consequence of long hours in a high risk environment away from families.

Based on feedback from frontline staff, trusts might desire to take into account the availability of healthy food on tap throughout the day, free coffee and snacks, laundry facilities, free phone calls as well as the availability of Skype or Google Talk, the guidance recommends.

The guidance also warns that staff will inevitably have to create difficult choices as demand for care will outstrip capacity, no matter how well prepared a trust is.

“It will not be doable to admit all patients with flu throughout a pandemic outbreak. Difficult decisions will need to be made,” says the guidance, pointing out that some people will die, since there simply won’t be enough critical care or ventilator support obtainable to cope.

“10 things your emergency department ought to consider to prepare for pandemic influenza”
Online First Emerg Med J 2009; doi 10.1136/emj.2008.061499See our Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Blog

5 (1 votes)

People who desire to take extra precautions against swine flu ought to lookfor masks with built-in filters, according to Dr Robin J Harman, apharmaceutical and regulatory expert,” There has been considerably debate about thebenefits of wearing a mask to stop infection with swine flu. Ordinarysurgical masks provide some protection from airborne particles, but the UKDepartment of Health has stated that `basic face masks don’t safeguard peoplefrom becoming infected’. Even so, masks with built-in particle filtersthat are CE marked and meet the European Standard class FFP3 have efficiencyof 99% or far more.” A filtering facepiece (FFP3) device can be a mask that providesa high level of filtering capability and face fit, and generates an effectivebarrier to each droplets and fine aerosols.

Swine flu virus is spread when miniscule droplets emitted by coughing andsneezing or deposited on hands and surfaces reach the nose or mouth. If youblock the particles from becoming inhaled, for example, having a mask with abuilt-in particle filter, you can support minimize your risks of becominginfected.

A scientific study has shown that 20-85% of virus particles can penetratetwo ordinary types of surgical mask, and potentially expose the wearer toinfection(two). But masks with FFP3 respirators, like the Covaflu FFP3 facemask, will block a lot more than 99% of airborne virus droplets that are 0.3microns in size – the majority of swine flu-infected droplets will be largerthan this.

UK manufacturer, Clinova, has seen a surge in demand within the past week forCovaflu FFP3 face masks, which meet Globe Wellness Organisation, US Centers forDisease Control, and also the UK Health and Safety Executive standards for use ininfluenza pandemics. “Our Covaflu FFP3 face masks meet the highest criteriafor preventing harmful particles entering the system, which could result ininfection. We have increased production by 10,000% to meet demand and set upa special order form on our site, so that folks who wish to take extrameasures to shield themselves in a pandemic will have access to the bestpossible protective masks,” said Jim Tremouliaris, MRPharmS MPharm,Pharmacist and Chief Operating Officer, Clinova Ltd.

Source
ClinovaSee our Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Blog

Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ: LMNX), the worldwide leader in multiplexed solutions, today issued a follow-up statement to an announcement on Monday, April 27, 2009, confirming that the xTAG? Respiratory Viral Panel (RVP) assay has been demonstrated to be effective in surveillance of swine flu. Specifically, Luminex has verified by way of testing on confirmed swine flu-positive samples that the xTAG RVP assay will correctly identify these samples as positive for influenza A and negative for common seasonal flu strains of influenza A H1 and H3. This can be the expected outcome for novel influenza A strains which prompts follow-up testing by state or federal public well being labs with assays including the Centers for Illness Control (CDC) swine flu assay.

Over the past several days, scientists at Luminex have reviewed information provided by public wellness laboratories in Canada and the United States, and have internally generated information that indicate that the xTAG RVP assay is successful in swine flu surveillance. As a result of xTAG RVP’s distinctive ability to simultaneously identify the influenza A virus matrix gene and specific common seasonal flu subtypes of that virus, H1 and H3, xTAG RVP could be an powerful tool in a public wellness setting. In this environment, a test with this capability could prove to be crucial for an effective surveillance program.

“xTAG RVP’s ability to figure out if a patient is carrying a normal, seasonal respiratory virus or an unknown H1 flu A virus might be a critical very first line of defense in separating standard respiratory infections from swine flu situations,” said Patrick J. Balthrop, Sr., president and chief executive officer of Luminex. “Luminex is very pleased to have the opportunity to have a positive impact in this surveillance effort. This can be a crucial situation, and we are hopeful that xTAG RVP will be useful in protecting the public well being. Our investment in the research and development of unique, innovative items like xTAG RVP has been a top priority for our organization. We look forward to continuing to work with public well being officials and wellness care specialists, which includes our customers, to deliver quality results and improve the lives of men and women worldwide.”

xTAG RVP was cleared by the FDA in January 2008, and will be the only commercially-available test that can simultaneously detect 12 respiratory viruses and subtypes, which includes Flu A with subtyping, in the DNA/RNA level. Through an outbreak this test can provide the physician with valuable data as most patients will be positive for one of the much more common viruses included within the panel. Within the event that a rare Flu A virus is detected, as included in the xTAG RVP labeling and package insert reviewed and cleared by FDA, samples that test positive for total Flu A but aren’t positive for the included seasonal flu subtypes should be referred to a public wellness lab like CDC for follow up.

Luminex is continuing to work with numerous existing customers, including public health laboratories and officials to gather extra information and samples to further confirm their findings.

xTAG RVP is available in the U.S. via Luminex Molecular Diagnostics, Fisher HealthCare and Abbott Laboratories. It truly is accessible worldwide from Luminex Molecular Diagnostics and Abbott.

For more information on xTAG RVP, please check out www.luminexcorp.com/rvp. See our Map Of H1N1 OutbreaksSee our Mexico Swine Flu Blog