But with the students not expected to return until Monday, it’s unclear how much the extra cleaning will help.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “does not believe any additional disinfection of environmental surfaces beyond routine cleaning is required,” according to the flu guidelines for schools posted on the CDC Web site.

However, Rodney Owen, the custodial services supervisor for Springfield Public Schools, said the deep cleaning couldn’t hurt.

“If we can do more, we should, if it doesn’t add a big cost,” he said.

The district hopes to eliminate flu viruses at Delaware before students return on Monday. But how long can flu viruses live?

Full article: http://www.news-leader.com

“We have a lot of people who we knew had held off and were looking forward to the one on Friday. So we had to call a lot of our people who take Dial-a-Ride, who were coming in for their flu shot,” said Denise Haas, Administrative Coordinator for the Newington Senior and Disabled Center.

The problem is the Central Connecticut Health District, which provides the vaccine, ran out of seasonal flu shots. They went through the 3100 doses they ordered because the demand was so great at other clinics they’ve hosted.

“There were actually many folks that came into the clinic after looking around at other pharmacies and sites that have been posted for clinics. They found there wasn’t any vaccine at those sites so they were coming to us to get a shot,” said Paul Hutcheon, Director of Health for the Central Connecticut Health District.

Full article: http://www.nbcconnecticut.com

Dr. Rafer Leach, owner of Guardian Urgent Care in Denver, received a call from his distributor informing him that more than 1,000 seasonal flu shots that he has been waiting on, will not come, leaving him with only 50 shots for the entire flu season.

“That’s at least what I was told, that it’s not coming,” said Leach.

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment has insisted for months that shipments of the seasonal flu vaccine are on the way and that production has simply slowed due to production of the H1N1 flu vaccine.

Full article: http://www.thedenverchannel.com

It’s part of the Governors’ health initiative, but despite this free opportunity some parents have concerns.

These clinics are going on throughout the state. Before the clinics are done, kids and parents at about 1,100 schools will get a chance to be vaccinated.

However, a nation survey found that most parents don’t plan to get their kids vaccinated, something concerning health officials in Arkansas.

With a little encouragement from parents, kids at Fair Park Early Childhood Center, in Little Rock got their protective shields against H1N1 and seasonal flu.

As a teacher and the mother of three girls, Tina Ross is familiar with impact of germ-spreading school children.

“We’ve decided to go ahead and get the vaccination,” says Ross.

“As soon as they come in from school they wash their hands and depending on if anyone is sick in their class they change clothes,” says Ross.

Wednesday was day one of Arkansas’ pledge to vaccinate as many of its 460,000 plus public and charter schools students as possible.

Ed Barham with the Department of Health explains school kids make-up about 20 percent of the state’s population, so they’re important to preventing the spread of the flu.

“It’s one of the most efficient ways we can protect the population,” says Barham.

Full Article: http://www.todaysthv.com

Officials say a Cherokee County man in his 50s is the state’s 17th person to die from the virus.

Previous swine flu deaths have occurred this year in Bullock, Calhoun, Dale, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Macon, Madison, Mobile, Montgomery, Russell and Talladega counties.

The virus has accounted for about 99% of all flu cases this month.

For pet owners, the rising threat is H3N8 – dog flu – a highly contagious, potentially deadly respiratory infection. It started at a Florida greyhound track and has spread to 30 states. As of last year, 1,079 cases had been confirmed.

H3N8 is a type A influenza. Researchers say it began with horses and spread to the dogs. There is no evidence it can spread to people.

Virtually all dogs exposed to the virus become infected, though only about 80 percent will develop symptoms, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. As many as 5 percent of infected dogs die.

The veterinarian who helped identify it, Cynda Crawford, an assistant professor in the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine, has studied the illness since her original research with the racing greyhounds in 2004. The dogs had flu-like symptoms – runny noses, coughs and fever. Some caught pneumonia and died.

The virus spreads in places where dogs congregate or share the same cages and bowls.

The AVMA recommends that people who work with dogs in shelters, kennels and dog day care centers wash their hands with soap and water when the arrive at the facility, before and after handling any dog and after cleaning cages. The dog flu virus is easily killed with disinfectants.

Dog owners can protect their dogs by washing or disinfecting their hands after handling another dog. They can also get their dogs vaccinated, though veterinarians don’t recommend this for dogs that don’t come in contact with other dogs.

Crawford will be featured in an American Animal Hospital Association Web conference on canine influenza Oct. 22.

For more information, go to www.aahanet.org.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

The findings challenge public apathy evident in recent national and state polls over the need for healthy adults to get vaccinated against the swine flu, formally known as the H1N1 virus.

“This is not a year to be a skeptic about vaccination,” said the article’s author, Anand Kumar of the Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. Kumar also is an associate professor for critical care and infectious disease at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Camden.

Read Full Article Here: http://www.nj.com

In some cases, however, doctors will want a more precise diagnosis, which helps inform public health officials about outbreaks. A flu test is also sometimes given to people at risk of becoming very sick, such as hospitalized patients, infants and those with underlying health conditions. Health care workers may also receive a flu test.

In general, it’s not necessary for you to know whether your flu is H1N1 or a seasonal strain. They are treated similarly and have similar effects, although this H1N1 strain seems to be transmitted especially easily among children and young adults.

Q&A sample from: http://www.inforum.com

CVS MinuteClinics in Austin, Texas, and New York ran out of the seasonal-flu vaccine within the past week before restocking, according to calls to 13 stores by Bloomberg News. Calls to eight Walgreen stores in Manhattan on Oct. 5 determined none had it at the time. There are also shortages in the South and Southeast, said James Cohn, a Walgreen spokesman.

Demand for seasonal-flu vaccinations has soared because of public awareness of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, Cohn said. Walgreen administered twice as many doses in September as in the entire 2008 flu season, he said. CVS’s clinics have vaccinated a “significantly higher number of people” than last year, said Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman.

“We are experiencing very high demand for seasonal-flu shots and we are working closely with multiple suppliers to meet this demand on a day-to-day basis,” DeAngelis said in an e-mail yesterday. “When we experience isolated shortages of vaccine supply, we do all we can to replenish these locations.”

Seasonal-flu vaccines don’t prevent swine flu, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first doses of swine flu vaccine in the U.S. were given to health-care workers and children this week.

Walgreen administered 2.5 million seasonal-flu vaccine doses last month, more than twice the 1.2 million it gave out from Oct. 1, 2008, through Feb. 28, Cohn said.

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“We are encouraging consumers to get vaccinated early,” Cohn said by telephone.

Full Article: http://www.bloomberg.com/