![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
More H5N1 Flu News: Roche Goes Generic and Science Links
found via Americablog:
I'm the first to yell when big anything steps on the little guy, so it's only fair that I show some love with a Big Pharma company does the right thing.
According to AP, Roche Pharmaceuticals is in talks with four generics manufacturers (and possibly more companies in the comming weeks) to increase production of Tamiflu and break the bottleneck on availability.
If this is pulled off, yes, Roche will be compensated and yes, it's good PR. However, the company doesn't have to do it. The fact the company is doing it before the need for something like Tamiflu becomes critical deserves applause.
As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
midnightsjane pointed out in comments to my post about Preparing for H5N1, anti-virals like Tamiflu and Relenza have one thing in common with antibiotics: improper use or overuse can result in resistant viruses. Like bacteria (and all living things, really), viruses can evolve and adapt to new conditions. The Tamiflu Package Insert for the U.S. has more information on actual and potential drug resistance to Tamiflu. There's already been one report of H5N1 resistance to Tamiflu, although the virus did show vulnerability to Relenza,
So while anti-virals are good, treat them like you're hunting a were-rabbit and have only three golden bullets.
Some additional links:
caille offered Bird Flu Facts and Fiction from Acid Test. An excellent read.
While not H5N1-specific, this Aetiology strikes me as an awesome blog about the science of infectious disease, assuming you're into the science of infectious disease. Obviously H5N1 has a big chunk of real estate, but today's top story is about the measels vaccine. If you're looking for commonsense discusion, check it out. Frankly, it's a geek-out blog for me.
The Daily Kos has been all over the avain flu. Don't let the fact that it's a political blog allow you to dismiss it. They've been doing some good coverage.
Here's a great primer on how viruses work and evolve, with special loving attention given to influenza viruses and our friend, the Type A virus, which is H5N1's type. This entry is just posted today.
DemFromCT, a regular over on FluWiki, has a couple of articles up on preparedness, here and here. His diaries are rife with links to other sources, resources, and news articles.
I'm the first to yell when big anything steps on the little guy, so it's only fair that I show some love with a Big Pharma company does the right thing.
According to AP, Roche Pharmaceuticals is in talks with four generics manufacturers (and possibly more companies in the comming weeks) to increase production of Tamiflu and break the bottleneck on availability.
If this is pulled off, yes, Roche will be compensated and yes, it's good PR. However, the company doesn't have to do it. The fact the company is doing it before the need for something like Tamiflu becomes critical deserves applause.
As
midnightsjane pointed out in comments to my post about Preparing for H5N1, anti-virals like Tamiflu and Relenza have one thing in common with antibiotics: improper use or overuse can result in resistant viruses. Like bacteria (and all living things, really), viruses can evolve and adapt to new conditions. The Tamiflu Package Insert for the U.S. has more information on actual and potential drug resistance to Tamiflu. There's already been one report of H5N1 resistance to Tamiflu, although the virus did show vulnerability to Relenza,So while anti-virals are good, treat them like you're hunting a were-rabbit and have only three golden bullets.
Some additional links:
caille offered Bird Flu Facts and Fiction from Acid Test. An excellent read. While not H5N1-specific, this Aetiology strikes me as an awesome blog about the science of infectious disease, assuming you're into the science of infectious disease. Obviously H5N1 has a big chunk of real estate, but today's top story is about the measels vaccine. If you're looking for commonsense discusion, check it out. Frankly, it's a geek-out blog for me.
The Daily Kos has been all over the avain flu. Don't let the fact that it's a political blog allow you to dismiss it. They've been doing some good coverage.
Here's a great primer on how viruses work and evolve, with special loving attention given to influenza viruses and our friend, the Type A virus, which is H5N1's type. This entry is just posted today.
DemFromCT, a regular over on FluWiki, has a couple of articles up on preparedness, here and here. His diaries are rife with links to other sources, resources, and news articles.
no subject
Stocking up on supplies
1.) Let's assume for the sake of point one that this thing hits us and is anywhere near the scale of an issue as the one in 1912 which you brought up. How nasty can transmission be? Are you prepared for the kind of problems that could result from this? I actually think we might be less prepared for the kind of upheavals now than they were in 1912. Do you have a root cellar full of canned goods, maybe even canned yourself? Any kind of supplies laid in? I remember reading that the average american home has food on hand for approximately 3 days, and thats it. And the average grocery store has only enough on hand for three days worth of sales. So, in a disaster, which a pandemic qualifies as, everything gets real bare, real quick. Spend a hundred dollars and stock up on whatever you think you need. Honestly, after Katrina, me and my fiance took stock and realized we're not prepared for an emergency. We've started slowly stocking up. I took about fifteen dollars and bought ten of the 1000 calories meal replacement bars. Toss those in a ziplock and put em in the fridge (a note backpacking friend of mine told me. don't keep food in your bags when they're stored. Varmits, especially mice, will find them, even if you don't know they're in the house, and then your supplies are ruined) I buy a can of stew or soup every time we're at the grocery store and add it to the stockpile. Get a backpack or knapsack, put some emergency supplies in it. Right now I'm looking at a high quality backpacking water filter (currently I'm leaning towards the Katadyn Pocket filter, its about 200 bucks, but it can filter 13,000 (yes, 13k) gallons of water. ) Would have been alot easier for people in New Orleans if even one percent of the population who'd stayed behind had had some kind of water filter. Most won't take viruses out, but the Katadyn will go down to the .2 micron level, which gets almost everything out of the water. Add a charcoal filter to the line, and you've got clean water from filthy water. If viruses in your water supply are that much of a worry, then boil it for a few minutes. After a filter, a backpackers stove is my next planned purchase. I'd rather make sure I have some options than count on either outside help or the goodwill of my fellowcitizens (trust me, my neighborhood, as soon as it hits the fan, we're bugging out... we're the sane ones in our neighborhood... and if you know me, that says something...)
2.) I'm not necessarily opposed to tossing some anti-virals into the emergency kit, but whats the shelf life on these? Do they require any special storage requirements? What are the side-effects if any? One rule I always have is never take any med before it goes into generic production. That way you get a better chance of seeing any long term effects.
3.) One other thing... Since, as Liz mentioned, sometimes its the secondary infection that gets you, be careful about what you take as far as cough syrups, cough drops etc. Alot of them are based on sugar. Sounds stupid, but if you think about it, thats not necessarily a good thing to be putting in your body. You don't want to be giving the bacteria a plentiful food supply when you're trying to fight it off. You're sick... You're not supposed to feel good when you're sick, and candy flavored cough syrups or cough drops are just repressing your body's mechanism for getting stuff out (coughing is your body trying to get crap out of your lungs... do you really want to keep it down there?) Chicken soup, toast... give your body simple foods to work with, sleep and rest, get over it as soon as you can.
IceWing
Re: Stocking up on supplies
2. From the seller of Tamiflu, the 75 mg pill form has a shelf life of 36 months, and the oral suspension has a shelf life of only a year. Info as of 2002, from the Tamiflu wholeseller sheet.
3. You could make the same argument for using a fever reducer for mild fevers, since that's one of the bodies defence mechinisims. But for high fevers, you need to get your body temp down. A simliar argument could be made for cough syrups, as in if you're not sleeping beause you're coughing is keeping you up, you should take the cough syrup, since sleep is better than going without the suger syurp. I'm sure you can find some version that isn't 90% sucros too. Plus, coughing is another way that the virus can get around, so hacking up a lung in a public place can only get other people sick.