Secondary bacterial infections spike

Pneumovax vaccine

Federal health officials have warned that there's been a "worrisome spike" in secondary bacterial infections among Americans with swine flu. Officials are urging more people at risk to get the vaccine which prevents some of those vaccine.

Dr Anna Schuchat, director of immunization and respiratory disease for the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC), told the New York Times that bacterial infections are a common and sometimes deadly flu complications for the elderly. Despite the fact it's normally only common in adults, this pandemic is becoming more common among children and younger adults.

Dr Schuchat said that Denver, one of 10 cities where her agency monitors circulating bacterial strains, has 20 serious cases in a typical October. Last month it had 58, two-thirds in adults under 60 years of age. Experts believe that bacteria living in the nose and throat can get into lung tissue that has been inflamed by fighting the flu virus and cause pneumonia. They may then reach the blood or brain, causing even more dangerous infections. The most common sign, DrSchuchat said, is a sudden relapse in a flu patient who had been recovering.

Pneumovax vaccine

Dr Schuchat is now alerting doctors to watch for such infections and endorsing a vaccine that prevents them. The Pneumovax vaccine, which protects against 23 strains of the most common pneumonia bacteria, is routinely given to adults over 65. But any adult with asthma, emphysema, a smoking habit, diabetes, or lung, heart, kidney or liver disease should get it now. Only a quarter of those younger adults have probably had it. Meanwhile, more swine flu vaccines are becoming available every week, with 61 million doses are available now.

Monitoring swine flu vaccine

Officials have been monitoring reports of side effects among the tens of millions of people who have been vaccinated since the campaign began on 5 October. In a national database, tracking bad events after vaccinations, 94 percent were classified "not serious."

However, there have been six serious allergic reactions, all successfully treated, which is "not more than we'd expect," Dr Schuchat said; 11 deaths have also been reported, but some were diagnosed as having other causes, like heart attacks or kidney failure in dialysis patients. One person died in a car crash immediately after leaving the clinic.

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