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We’re not done with swine flu yet… or maybe swine flu isn’t done with us.
As of the beginning of June, the U.S.

When the Health Blog Googled “flu” this morning, we were surprised to see an ad for the New York City Health Department show up at the top of the search results page. This is what it looked like:

So what’s a public-health agency doing buying search ads? We gave the health department a call to learn [...]

WHO
WHO’s pandemic alert levels.

The director-general of the WHO is likely to declare a full-blown flu pandemic in the next few weeks, Bloomberg News is reporting today, citing three unnamed sources.
Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s top flu official, publicly suggested something similar yesterday, when he said that the WHO is “getting closer” to upping the pandemic-alert level [...]

Those keeping score at home can cross one more job off the list of long-unfilled federal health positions: By a voice vote, the Senate yesterday confirmed Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg to lead the FDA.
It’s been pretty clear for a while that the Senate would greenlight Hamburg for the job; some key Republicans piped up in her [...]

For now, companies should keep cranking out vaccine against seasonal flu, while research continues into the best way to make a vaccine against the new strain of H1N1 flu.
That was the conclusion of a group of WHO advisers, who wrote that it would be “premature to recommend that commercial-scale production of influenza A (H1N1) [...]

With all the talk about swine flu in the news lately, you may have heard mention of a “flu kit” — basically, a bunch of stuff to keep handy in case you come down with some form of influenza. The things in your flu kit can help keep you comfortable while the virus runs [...]

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CDC Acting Director Richard Besser are updating reporters about the flu outbreak. Here’s what they’re saying.
1:31 Sebelius: My first out-of-Washington trip is to the CDC in Atlanta. I bring the president’s thanks to the staff of the CDC. We’re learning more about the H1N1 virus every day. [...]

The WHO’s Keiji Fukuda is talking with reporters about the latest on the flu outbreak. Here’s what he’s saying.
11:07 We continue to see an increase in cases being reported by countries. The most recent numbers: 1,490 laboratory-confirmed cases and 30 deaths. The deaths were primarily in Mexico, with one reported in the U.S. This is [...]

The current strain of swine flu appears to be sensitive to the anti-virals Tamiflu and Relenza.
That’s causing huge demand for these medications, with many pharmacies rapidly selling out. For instance, a typical pharmacy may fill one prescription of Tamiflu a week, but now, dispenses up to 25 packages per day.
There’s clear stockpiling going on, [...]

With swine flu in the news, some are wondering what the responsibilities of health care providers are in case of a full-blown pandemic.
Shadowfax has unearthed an article citing little-known laws in some states, “that authorize government officials to order health care professionals to work during declared public health emergencies, even when doing so would pose [...]