2 deaths from swine flu in Germany

Two deaths from swine flu in Germany

03/01/2011

After the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the swine flu pandemic over in the summer, two people in Lower Saxony have died as a result of an infection with the H1N1 virus.

Swine flu calls two lives in Göttingen
According to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, a three-year-old girl and a 51-year-old man with pre-existing conditions have died as a result of a swine flu infection at the University Hospital Göttingen. Although the WHO had officially declared the swine flu pandemic to be over in August, so that the H1N1 pathogen is no longer the highest alert level, the WHO warned the global health authorities to be vigilant because the pathogen will be back this winter could occur. Since the beginning of the annual flu season, the number of proven flu viruses has risen significantly since the end of December 2010, according to the Lower Saxony State Health Office, the majority of the studies showed the swine flu virus H1N1. The peak of flu will probably reach the end of January or in February, said the President of the State Health Department, Matthias Pulz.

The Lower Saxony health minister Aygül Özkan (CDU) called on the population therefore again to protect themselves with a flu vaccine. This year's vaccine also includes a component that protects against swine flu, so that extra protection is no longer necessary. The vaccine protection could also be set up well in advance of the flu epidemic, said the minister. The current deaths, however, offer „no reason to panic“, as the ministry spokesman Thomas Spieker added. However, the tragic cases in Göttingen show, „that the influenza is not a harmless disease, but can also take a heavy course“, said the Lower Saxony Minister of Health Aygül Özkan.

Health authorities call for vaccinations
The Working Group on Influenza at the Robert Koch Institute has also called the population for vaccination at the beginning of the flu season, but the swine flu played only a minor role, because in the opinion of the expert, the usual influenza is far more dangerous. Christian Meyer from the Bernhard Nocht Institute (BNI) for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg shares this position, explaining that the importance of swine flu has generally been overestimated. From the excitement last winter, only the vaccine manufacturers would have benefited, the expert said. „Given the discrepancy in the millions between the number of purchased and actually administered vaccine doses, one must say that the swine flu was in any case a powerful loss business“, Meyer emphasized. The expert is of the opinion that even this winter, the common flu viruses are far more dangerous, because every year 10,000 to 12,000 people in Germany would die as a result of ordinary influenza. Therefore, the Hamburg tropical medicine also recommends a flu vaccine, especially for at-risk patients over the age of 60 years. The peak of the wave of illnesses is according to experience only reached in January / February, so that it „for a vaccine (...) not too late“ is, Meyer explained.

Reservations in the population about flu vaccines
According to official figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), since the first outbreak of swine flu in the spring of 2009, the H1N1 virus has killed more than 18,400 people in about 200 countries worldwide. In Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), more than 226,000 swine flu cases were reported between autumn 2009 and August 2010, with 258 of the patients dying as a result of the disease. However, the experts estimate that the number of infections is many times higher. The number of illnesses in this country had reached their peak in autumn and winter 2009. However, vaccination rates in the population were relatively low, at only about eight percent, despite extensive calls from health authorities and the immediate introduction of a vaccine in Germany.

The hesitation of the Germans seems in view of the fierce criticism of many experts on the handling of the World Health Organization with the swine flu but not completely unfounded. Thus, not only the Hamburg tropical medicine Meyer assessed WHO's behavior as exaggerated, since the extent of the pandemic was much lower than initially assumed. Criticism has also been voiced that some of the authors who helped with WHO guidelines on dealing with swine flu pandemics were also receiving money from drug companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Roche. Since the potentiators in the finally introduced vaccine also caused considerable side effects in many patients, the reservations in the population with regard to the vaccinations are well founded.

Influenza vaccination on trip to the southern hemisphere
On the part of the WHO, however, the criticism was always rejected and WHO Special Adviser Keiji Fukuda warned once again against the downplaying of the H1N1 pathogen. „It can be said that the countries in the northern hemisphere feel that it is over now. But there are many discussions in the southern hemisphere“, Fukuda explained. Because even though the pandemic is over, „the virus is still there“, stressed the expert. Also, according to the Hamburg tropical medicine Meyer in the vaccinations, the shift in the seasons between the two hemispheres of the earth to be considered. Germans, who want to travel to the southern hemisphere in the summer months, should therefore also be vaccinated against flu, said Meyer and added: „The flu vaccine is not considered to be one of the most important travel vaccinations“. However, given the skepticism that has grown in the population over the past year as a result of the swine flu pandemic, it remains to be questioned whether Germans will increasingly follow the call for vaccination. So far, vaccination rates remain at a very modest level. (Fp)

Also read:
Facts about the swine flu
Flu vaccine also protects against swine flu
Slight fever no reason to panic
Home remedies for common cold

Picture: Gerd Altmann