writteninfo.com

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 [...]

Merton Bernstein’s post on a single-payer approach to health reform tops the Health Affairs Blog most-read list for May. Top 10 posts also debate the public plan option now consuming Congress. Additional commenting is always welcome.

Propaganda and Prejudice Distort The Health Reform Debate
by Merton Bernstein
The Public Plan: Not Worth The Risks
by Jeff Goldsmith
Beyond The Public [...]

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
An Eton courtyard with a statue of King Henry VI, who founded the school

A few flu news items from around the world:
Eton, the British boys’ school founded in 1410, will be closed until June 7 because a 13-year-old student was diagnosed with the H1N1 swine flu. The boy has mild symptoms and [...]

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 [...]

Associated Press
Margaret Chan at the World Health Assembly, flanked by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the U.S. and Mexico Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos.

After wall-to-wall coverage of the swine-flu outbreak for nearly a month, things seemed to have calmed down recently, with many of the new cases less severe than had initially been expected. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The news are full of the “new epidemic”, Mexican Swine Flu. But looking at that new influenza bug with some perspective, it seems that we may be falling for the hype another time. After SARS and the Bird Flu, is Swine Flu now destined to join the ranks of epidemics that ‘almost were’? Here is [...]