
Health experts had for some unexplained reason placed their faith in the drug Tamiflu originally to help persons infected with Swine Flu , which begs the question why this has suddenly changed so late.
Just what is going on is near disbelief and stinks high heaven of either hidden agendas, or sheer negligence, take your pick, the stories within the Australian news media are near absurd and at best contradictory not to mention government coordination of the various Health departtments handling Swine Flu crisis seems to be lacking.
The house of an Australian family which contracted both swine flu and influenza A on the Pacific Dawn cruise ship could be the perfect breeding ground for a superbug.
An Australian couple recovering from swine flu in quarantine at home while their children have contracted influenza A. Scientists have warned if the two viruses mix it could lead to an aggressive new superbug or, at the very least, one that is resistant to Tamiflu.
AustralianGold Coast influenza expert Professor Mark von Itzstein yesterday described the situation as 'a dangerous environment'. Prof von Itzstein said the house would be a 'melting pot' that could lead to a virus rapidly morphing. He said people in this situation should be kept in hospital as a matter of priority.
Yet no one at Queensland Health warned the family of the risks of having the different illness mixing at home, Queensland Health was unable to comment last night.
Prof von Itzstein. said "If you start co-infecting each other with a different virus, that's the mixing pot," "These people should be quarantined in a hospital somewhere,"
The two viruses could either 're-assort' to create a superbug, or, if the influenza A strain was resistant to Tamiflu, make a superbug also resistant to the anti-viral drug. Prof von Itzstein said all governments should be considering the scenario.
Prof Del Mar also said he was concerned Australia and other countries were being too liberal in the use of Tamiflu. Some health authorities interstate and overseas have been handing out the drug to school children who may have been exposed but weren't sick. "It might be a very good thing if we're all sick and dying."
Mean while CSL says it expects the first doses of Swine Flu Vaccine to be available by late July or early August. Tens of millions of hen's eggs that can be used to "grow" enough viruses to inoculate potentially half the population of Australia are being sourced for Melbourne based vaccine maker CSL. Three farms that jointly provide 300,000 eggs a day to CSL have been asked to maintain supplies at the maximum level indefinitely.
CSL clinched a US government order worth $232 million for bulk antigen, or vaccine material. Equivalent to roughly 40million doses of vaccine, which could be as much as four times the size of Thursday's order from the Australian Government, which was for enough vaccine to protect 10million people. The reason that Tens of millions of eggs will be needed to grow the swine flu virus is so that there is enough of it to trigger an immune response. The grown virus is chemically killed before the vaccine is finished, eggs used in vaccines are subject to strict quality checks, and come from separate flocks whose eggs do not enter the human food chain at any time.
