Federal panel issues H1N1 vaccine guidelines

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal advisory committee issued sweeping guidelines Wednesday for a vaccination campaign against the pandemic swine flu strain, identifying more than half the U.S. population as targets for the first round of vaccinations.


The advisory panel's guidelines don't trigger the start of vaccinations but are usually accepted by the government.

The priority groups include pregnant women; health care and emergency services personnel; children, adolescents and young adults up to age 24; household and caregiver contacts of children younger than six months; and healthy adults with certain medical conditions.

The guidelines were approved in a near-unanimous vote by the 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. One person dissented on whether to include people ages 19 to 24 among those targeted.

The vote does not trigger a decision to vaccinate against the disease, also called H1N1, but the federal government typically follows the committee's recommendations.

The recommendations could prove especially important if the pandemic strain, which emerged this spring, spreads widely before sufficient quantities of vaccine can be produced to protect everyone. The recommendations are intended to ensure that members of the most vulnerable groups get priority.

Earlier Wednesday, federal officials said they are on track to initiate a mass vaccination campaign by October, although many details remain to be worked out. Clinical trials to assess vaccine safety and efficacy are just getting under way at a handful of centers across the country.

Dr. William Schaffner, a flu researcher at Vanderbilt University, which is running one of the clinical trials, played down safety concerns that have been raised because safety data are limited.

"There is no alternative" to approving the new vaccine based on the limited data, he said. Fortunately, he added, "the novel H1N1 vaccine is created exactly the same way our seasonal vaccine is created, year in and year out."

Dr. Wellington Sun of the Food and Drug Administration said data from those trials would probably be available in September.

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Argentina's swine flu efforts

CNN's Brian Byrnes looks at what officials in Argentina are doing to curtail the spread of the H1N1 virus.

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Quarantined teacher 'speaks out'

A Cornish teacher who is quarantined in a Beijing hotel after one of the pupils he was chaperoning on a trip contracted swine flu has spoken of his experience.

Dave Bennett, a teacher at Penair School in Cornwall, is being held in the hotel along with another member of staff and 15 pupils from the school.

Their enforced stay at the hotel is as a result of one their party - a Year 10 female student - contracting the virus.

Mr Bennett said their stay was being made "as comfortable" as possible.

The teenager who contracted swine flu is being cared for in hospital.

She has mild symptoms, is being treated with anti-viral drugs in hospital and is said to be responding well.

She and her fellow students were part way through a two-week cultural exchange visit to China when she was diagnosed with the virus.

'Bit daunted'

Mr Bennett said: "The children are being extremely well looked after.

"They are a little bit daunted by the fact that we have two tests each day on our temperature, to see whether we have caught that, and I think everyone is slightly anxious at those times that they might not pass the test.

"But in every other respect the Chinese government have really made exceptional efforts to make our stay here as comfortable as they can."

Nine British school pupils have so far been diagnosed with swine flu in Beijing, according to Chinese health officials.

Nine US teenagers are also being treated in hospital after contracting the virus.

More than 80 British school pupils and teachers remain in quarantine in the Yanxiang Hotel, along with a number from the US.

However, the first batch of British school pupils who were quarantined in China have been released.

A total of 20 students and three teachers were allowed to leave Yanxiang Hotel after seven days of restrictions.

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Labour hopeful's swine flu fear

Labour's candidate in the Norwich North by-election is being treated in hospital for suspected swine flu.

A scheduled visit by Lord Mandelson was cancelled because party workers had been in contact with Chris Ostrowski.

It is not known if he has swine flu but a party spokesman said "every possible precaution" was being taken.

Twelve people are standing in Thursday's by-election. Labour MP Ian Gibson resigned after he was deselected over his expenses claims.

A spokesman for Labour's Norwich North Labour campaign said Mr Ostrowski had felt unwell and was taken to hospital on Tuesday morning.

He said he had collapsed at home and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

"Chris is receiving world class care from an excellent team of doctors, nurses and staff," he said.

"Clearly, our priority is to ensure that nobody falls ill from swine flu unnecessarily and we will follow the medical advice and take every precaution necessary."

Collapsed at home

Dr Gibson had a majority of 5,459 over the Conservatives in 2005 but announced he was quitting on 5 June amid a row about the way he had been treated by the party.

The by-election is the first parliamentary contest since the MPs' expenses scandal broke and the parties have been campaigning hard in the constituency.

The Conservatives have been running a high profile campaign for their candidate Chloe Smith - party leader David Cameron made his fifth visit to the constituency on Monday. April Pond is standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Rupert Read is standing for the Greens, Glenn Tingle for the UK Independence Party and Robert West for the BNP.

Among the independents standing is Craig Murray, former Ambassador to Uzbekistan, who left the post in 2004 after criticising its human rights.

Laud Howling is standing on behalf of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party while Thomas Burridge is representing The Libertarian Party and Anne Fryatt is representing the None of The Above Party.

Peter Baggs and Bill Holden are also standing as independents.

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Baby delivered prematurely from swine flu patient dies

By Rich Phillips

CNN Senior Producer

(CNN) -- An infant girl delivered prematurely from her mother, who has the swine flu virus, has died, hospital officials said Monday.

Parker Christine Opdyke was delivered 14 weeks early by doctors at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Florida's Palm Beach County.

Her mother, Aubrey Opdyke, was placed into a medically induced coma June 3 to help give the baby as much oxygen as possible. But doctors delivered Parker on Saturday after her mother suffered a collapsed lung last week.

Aubrey Opdyke remains comatose and in critical condition in Wellington's intensive care unit.

"Despite heroic efforts on the part of physicians and nurses, we are sad to announce that baby Parker Christine Opdyke has expired," said a written statement from the hospital.

No other details were available Monday. Attempts by CNN to reach the family were unsuccessful.

Even under the best circumstances, delivering a child at 27 weeks is a very early birth, Dr. David Feld, a Palm Beach County obstetrician and gynecologist, told CNN affiliate WPEC.

"When you have an infectious case, I don't think you're going to see that lung maturity as quickly, and I think that is the issue," he said. But, he said, now that Aubrey Opdyke is no longer pregnant, she will be able to fight for her own life.

Palm Beach County has had 247 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, but only one death. In late June, a 25-year-old pregnant woman died, but her baby survived.

Pregnant women have long been a prime concern of health care officials regarding the flu virus, but are of particular concern during this outbreak of swine flu. Pregnant women have always been advised to get a flu shot because they are at greater risk because of the weakened immune system resulting from their pregnancy. But the H1N1 epidemic has seen new complications and challenges.

"We have seen, with this virus, worse complications and severe infections in pregnant women," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're urging women who are pregnant who develop fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly."

The CDC said it is vitally important for pregnant women to recognize the signs and symptoms, like fever and cough, to get to their doctor quickly and to begin taking antiviral medicines early on.

"I know that many pregnant women don't want to take anything while they're pregnant," said Schuchat. "This is a situation where you need to be more worried about your health and the baby's health."

The CDC also recommends that pregnant women get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, in addition to an annual flu shot. "For people who are at high risk, like pregnant women, planning to receive both vaccines is probably the right way to go," Schuchat said.

The CDC's advisory committee will meet later this month to make recommendations on at-risk groups who should receive the new vaccine.

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