CDC FAQ & Updates

Previous Flu Strains:
1918 - H1N1 - Pandemic - Fifty million people died
1957 - H2N2 - one million people died
1968 - H3N2 - one million people died
1997 - H5N1 - six people died - 18 people in Hong Kong were infected
2003 - H7N7 - one death - 84 people in the Netherlands were infected

To Date H5N1: Over one hundred people have died of Bird Flu in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam) since 2003. China has not been forthcoming about their flu-related statistics. Avian Flu has been discovered in some of the following areas in 2005: Russia, England, Turkey, Romania, France, Greece, Holland, Bali. It is rumored to be headed towards the Middle East and countries in Africa by early 2006.

01 November 2005: Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy
To prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu as a first wave of protection. It is unclear what or when the second and third wave of protection will occur.

Bush must also approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. The number of American vaccine manufacturers has plummeted because the industry has been hit with a flood of lawsuits. United States was increasing stockpiles of antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu and Relenza. Such drugs cannot prevent people from catching the flu, but they can reduce the severity of the illness when taken within 48 hours of getting sick.

Bush outlined a strategy that would cost $7.1 billion including:
__ $1.2 billion for the government to buy enough doses of the vaccine against the current strain of bird flu to protect 20 million Americans; the administration wants to have sufficient vaccine for front-line emergency personnel and at-risk populations, including military personnel;

__ $1 billion to stockpile more anti-viral drugs that lessen the severity of the flu symptoms;

__ $2.8 billion to speed the development of vaccines as new strains emerge, a process that now takes months. The goal is to have the manufacturing capability by 2010 to brew enough vaccine for every American within six months' of a pandemic's start.

__ $583 million for states and local governments to prepare emergency plans to respond to an outbreak.

The estimated current U.S. population is: 297,565,261

The principal goal of Bush's plan, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said, "is the capacity for every American to have a vaccine in the case of a pandemic, no matter what the virus is."

Today, most of the world's vaccine against regular winter flu, including much of that used by Americans each flu season, is manufactured in factories in Britain and Europe.

The government already has ordered $162.5 million worth of vaccine to be made and stockpiled against the Asian bird flu, more than half to be made in a U.S. factory.

But the administration plan, to be released in more detail on Wednesday, calls for more than stockpiling shots. It will stress a new method of manufacturing flu vaccines — growing the virus to make them in easy-to-handle cell cultures instead of today's cumbersome process that uses millions of chicken eggs — as well as incentives for new U.S.-based vaccine factories to open.

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