Three Swine Flu Deaths in France; WHO Says Not Enough Vaccine to Go Around

September 20, 2009 (LPAC) — In one week, three Frenchmen with no pre-existing medical conditions, have died of A/H1N1 influenza, the so-called "swine flu." In Saint-Etienne, in mainland France, a 26-year-old man in good health became comatose two hours after being admitted to the intensive care unit, and died on Sept. 13. In Athens, Greece, authorities announced the death of a 29-year-old French tourist, who had been admitted to intensive care there. And on the night of Sept. 18, a 32-year-old man died in the hospital in Saint Denis, the capital of France's island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

"Forty percent of the most serious cases, as well as the fatal ones, are striking individuals generally considered in good health," declared Sin Lun Tam, an expert of the World Health Organization speaking at the European Conference of Lung Diseases which ended on Sept. 16 in Vienna. Up to 50% of those infected by the severe forms of H1N1 swine flu are below age 20. Otherwise, between 15-30% of those requiring hospitalization, need to be admitted to intensive care units. The highest death rate appears to be among the 25-49 age category, according to the latest statistics of the WHO.

French virologist Prof. Claude Hannoun underlines that while any flu virus can cause Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in healthy individuals, "these complications are rare in seasonal epidemics, more common in pandemics." However, not all pandemic viruses are of the same severity for the lungs. "Viral pneumonias were more frequent [in the flu pandemics] in 1918 and 1957, than in 1968," the author of Influenza, Intimate Enemy told Le Figaro of Sept. 16. "The H1N1 of 2009 seems to be in the high range." Figaro continues, that "in the exception, pandemics are also capable of causing death through encephalitis."

According to the WHO, so far, there have been 3,486 deaths of swine flu, of which 281 occurred last week.

On Friday the World Health Organization warned that vaccine production against the H1N1 influenza A virus will be much less than the 4.9 billion doses originally forecast. Pharmaceutical production has been lower than the 94 million does per week that the WHO expected when it made its forecast, which is attributed to production problems and the need to also produce seasonal flu vaccine. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl reported that 85 of the WHO's 193 member countries do not have access to H1N1 vaccine supplies. The pledge, earlier this week, by a number of countries, led by the U.S., to donate 10% of their vaccine supplies to needy countries is supposed to reduce this problem.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that distribution of H1N1 vaccine will begin in the United States, next month, with 3.4 million does of nasal spray vaccine, which can only be used by those between the ages of 2 and 49, and then, later in the month, injectable vaccine, at the rate of 20 million does a week, will become available.