WASHINGTON — Independent health advisers begin monitoring safety of the swine flu vaccine today, an extra step the government promised in this year’s unprecedented program to watch for possible side effects.
Decades of safe influenza inoculations mean specialists aren’t expecting problems with the swine flu vaccine because it’s made the same way as the regular winter flu vaccine. But systems to track the health of millions of Americans are being tapped to spot any problems quickly, and to explain the inevitable false alarms when common disorders coincide with inoculation.
U.S. health officials have spotted no concerns to date, said Dr. Bruce Gellin, head of the National Vaccine Program Office.
The working group of independent experts will track the vaccine’s safety, too. Although the group will deliberate in private meetings, starting today, its charge is to raise a red flag if members feel the feds miss anything.
“Given the rapidity with which this particular vaccine was rolled out, there seems to be an extra-special obligation to make sure things remain as uncomplicated as they have in the past,” said Dr. Marie McCormick of the Harvard School of Public Health, who chairs the working group.
More doses coming
Ten million new doses of vaccine against swine flu, which scientists call the 2009 H1N1 strain, will become available in the United States in the next week, easing the shortages of vaccine that have occurred around the country, administration officials said over the weekend.
Presidential adviser David Axelrod predicted that the United States would have all the vaccine it needed “in very short order.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that the United States still intended to donate 10 percent of its vaccine supply to developing countries but that that would not occur until after priority U.S. populations had been vaccinated.
Vaccines for terror suspects
Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, military spokesman Army Maj. James Crabtree said Sunday.
He said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations.
He acknowledged there may be an “emotional response” from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage.
But he said U.S. military officials are “responsible for the health and care of the detainee population.”
Crabtree said detainees will be vaccinated on a voluntary basis.
Pig DNA decoded
An international group of scientists has decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, research that may one day prove useful in finding new treatments for both pigs and people, and perhaps aid in efforts for a new swine flu vaccine for pigs.
Pigs and humans are similar in size and makeup, and swine are often used in human research. Scientists say they rely on pigs to study everything from obesity and heart disease to skin disorders.
“The pig is the ideal animal to look at lifestyle and health issues in the United States,” said Larry Schook, a University of Illinois in Champaign biomedical science professor who led the DNA sequencing project.
Researchers announced the results of their work Monday at a meeting at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K., one of the organizations involved in the research. They’ll spend the meeting discussing ways to use the new information, Schook said.
One of those ways could be the development of a swine flu vaccine for pigs to protect them from the new H1N1 virus that is spreading among people.
The new pandemic swine flu is not spread by handling or eating pork products.
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