Genómica, a company of the Zeltia Group (ZEL.MC) leader in molecular diagnostic products, is developing an updated version of its product CLART® PneumoVir for the specific and urgent detection of the New A/H1N1 Influenza. For the development of this test, Genómica is collaborating with various Spanish and international hospitals. Over the past two months a great number of suspicious samples have been analyzed. Positive and negative cases were confirmed in all the tests and the results have been validated by the different Spanish and international centres of reference.

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22 June 2009 07:00 GMT

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The Ministry of Health in Iran has reported the country’s first confirmed case of H1N1 swine flu, in a 16 year-old Iranian boy who lives in the US and was visiting Iran. According to a statement from the Ministry of Health released through the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the boy entered the country with symptoms of “respiratory infection” and tests confirmed “the contraction” of the virus.

The statement, reported by the Associated Press, said the boy was reponding well to treatment and his general situation was now “satisfactory”.

The Iranian Health Ministry has advised people in Iran to avoid unnecessary travel to countries with a high rate of swine flu infection, such as Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Thailand, Britain and Germany, reported Xinhua news agency.

The Iranian government has set up a committee that includes four ministers and two vice presidents to oversee management of the flu epidemic in the country.

According to the latest update from the World Health Organization issued earlier today, the number of officially confirmed cases of novel H1N1 swine flu worldwide now totals 52,160, including 231 deaths.

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(ChinaPost.com.tw) – Chinese authorities tracked down Los Angeles resident Mike Su recently at a networking banquet in Beijing. They forced him to pack his bags, then whisked him to a budget hotel on the edge of the city where they detained him for a week.

Su’s crime?

On his flight from Los Angeles, the Web-site director had the misfortune of sitting near someone alleged to have contracted H1N1 flu.

“I felt like I was going to prison,” said Su, 33. “I read the headlines in the news, but I never thought I’d be the guy who gets quarantined.”

The detention meant Su didn’t get a chance to strike deals in China for his company, Beverly Hills-based Break Media. He never exhibited signs of illness.

In the two months since H1N1 flu first emerged, China continues to wield some of the toughest controls to combat the spread of the recently designated pandemic. Those include denying visas to travelers from countries where the virus is prevalent, screening airline passengers and enforcing quarantines.

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(ChinaPost.com.tw) – The bride wore white and a face mask. A Chicago couple married in surgical masks and latex gloves Sunday after learning less than 48 hours before that they both had swine flu. Ilana Jackson and Jeremy Fierstien went ahead with the ceremony after doctors assured them guests wouldn’t be at serious risk.

But to be sure, the 26-year-olds kept a 10-foot distance from family and friends at all times, even walking around the gathering instead of down the aisle at a Highland Park synagogue.

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(ChinaPost.com.tw) – Swine flu may have started spreading in Singapore after the city-state confirmed 23 new cases, of which eight had not traveled to affected areas or had known contact with other confirmed cases.

The infections bring Singapore’s total to 126, the Ministry of Health said in a statement late yesterday. The government will continue trying to contain the virus “for as long as it is practical to do so,” it said. “Singaporeans can protect themselves and others by practicing good personal hygiene and being socially responsible,” the ministry said in the statement.

Among the city-state’s new infections was a member of a Philippines youth football team, which is contesting the Asian Youth Games in Singapore, the ministry said.

The other 17 members of the team, and two coaches, have been quarantined, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

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Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. (ABI) (OTCBB: AMAR) announced that the screening of volunteers for inclusion in a Phase 2 clinical study of the company’s oral interferon product at the University of Western Australia is now complete. The investigators met their target of screening at least 200 healthy adults for participation in the trial. A total of 215 volunteers were evaluated and 134 of them have been enrolled into the study to date. About 90% of the screened subjects have been found to qualify for the study, so additional enrollments are expected over the next 2 weeks to bring the total number of study participants up to or above the targeted 160 subjects.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial is being conducted by Dr. Manfred Beilharz and colleagues. The study is expected to show that lozenges containing a low dose of interferon-alpha can prevent infection or reduce the severity of infection with influenza and other common respiratory viruses when taken once a day during a typical winter cold/flu season.

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Senate Passes Bill Including Flu Funds The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a $105.9 billion war-funding bill that “includes $7.7 billion to prepare for pandemic flu,” the Washington Post reports (Bacon, Washington Post, 6/19).

South Africa Confirms First Case of H1N1

Also on Thursday, South Africa’s Department of Health confirmed the country’s first H1N1 case, Reuters reports. The department released a written statement saying, “The patient, a 12-year-old who flew in from the U.S. on Sunday, was admitted to hospital on Monday and was kept in isolation,” Reuters writes. He has since been released from the hospital (Bosch, Reuters, 6/18).

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Due to overriding concern for the health and safety of Jerry’s Kids, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) announced today that it is immediately canceling the remainder of its annual summer camp program because of the H1N1 virus. “These children are much more vulnerable because of their weakened respiratory muscles, so we are taking this preemptive action to protect them from possible exposure to the swine flu,” said Dr. Valerie Cwik, MDA medical director.

Approximately 1,800 children have attended 33 MDA summer camps in the past month, with another 2,500 scheduled to attend the remaining 47 camps that have now been canceled. An equal number of volunteer counselors also attend each camp.

Out of 1,800 children who’ve attended MDA camps this year, 11 cases of swine flu were reported after the children left camp. Six suspected cases have been reported at the MDA Summer Camp in Worcester, Pa., which ends tomorrow.

One child from the Pennsylvania camp has been hospitalized and is in stable condition. Another child, who attended camp in Utah, was hospitalized, treated and released. In Minnesota, 10 cases of swine flu were reported after camp ended there June 12.

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A letter to the editor by Rhode Island Hospital infectious diseases specialist Leonard Mermel, DO, identifies characteristics of the outbreak of H1N1 in 1977 and speculates its impact on this pandemic. His letter is published in the June 20 edition of the journal the Lancet 2009 (vol 373 p2108-09). Mermel notes that in the late 1970s, an influenza H1N1 reappeared in humans. It had a pandemic-like spread that began in younger aged individuals. This strain, known as the “Russian flu” H1N1, was similar to H1N1 strains that circulated internationally between 1946 and 1957. The Russian flu spread rapidly across the former Soviet Union, initially affecting individuals between the ages of 14 and 20 in schools, as well as young military personnel, and later spread to preschool children. Individuals older than age 30, however, had dramatically lower attack rates and the overall mortality was low. The epidemic peaked rapidly, with a relatively short duration.

In the United States, the first outbreak of the Russian flu occurred in a Wyoming high school. The attack rate there was over 70 percent, however, it affected students only; no faculty were reported to have the illness. High attack rates were seen in schools as well as military bases throughout the United States, similar to the outbreak in Russia. There were few reports of the H1N1 strain in individuals older than age 26, and again, the mortality rate was low.

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