Despite the fact that the H1N1 virus appears to be waning at present, GlaxoSmithKline will maintain shipments of the swine flu vaccine in the upcoming weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Centers for Disease Control is estimating that 80 million Americans have been infected with the virus since the pandemic began in March 2009. A total of 1,779 have died from flu including h1n1 virus since Aug 30, 2009 while 360,000 patients have been hospitalized with the illness.
Although there has been an intense push by the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) for immunization, fully 90% of those who are the most vulnerable to the virus have not been immunized. This has left the United States and other governments with massive quantities of the vaccine still on hand.
However, this might not be such a bad thing. According to the Eurosurveillance Scientific Journal, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is warning that the public should not let down their guard just yet. As a pandemic flu virus starts to decline, it can easily start to mutate, spawning entirely new flu strains.
On January 8, ECDC flu expert Angus Nicoll told Reuters that it’s too early to tell whether or not the pandemic is over, despite the current wane.
Nicoll reminded reporters that in the 1968-70 flu pandemic, the virus caused more deaths in the second winter in two European countries; during this time period, it became more easily transmittable. He cited statistics from the 1957-58 pandemic; although infections declined before Christmas in 1957, it rallied during the first few months of 1958, causing another rise in fatalities.
In this regard, it may be that the surplus of the H1N1 vaccine may be of some use, even if there are mutations. The CDC reports that the current swine flu vaccine might help ward off some of the other strains, or at least minimize the damage they cause.
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