The original source is the best place to go every time.

You can read transcript or listen to the audio version of a news briefing from the CDC about H1N1.

The speaker was Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• You will learn that 100 pregnant women have been hospitalized with H1N1 and 28 of them died. That is a mortality rate of 28%, consistent with the small study done by the CDC in the spring—-the one which triggered the alarm about pregnant women.

• You will read that obstetricians with whom the CDC has been speaking are talking about “never having seen this in practice” before.

• The concern about pregnant women is palpable.

• Children are of special concern. The doctor says that parents must make their own decisions but she calls attention to the well-not well cycle that indicates a need for care. She offered some specific advice for parents of young children.

• The safety of health care workers was discussed.

• She describes what vaccine is being shipped and how the process will work.

• In response to reporters’ questions about the worry that some people have about the H1N1 vaccine being “rushed,” she explained the process was the same as for seasonal flu. All the same safety checks were used for seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines.

• Many people don’t believe flu shots “work.” Others say that they got the flu from the shot. These vaccines have no live virus in them so it is not possible to get the flu from a shot. However, it is possible to get the shot and, before the immunity develops, get the flu anyway. One of the positive developments this year was the rapid response people had to the H1N1 vaccine, with immunity appearing in 10 days to two weeks.

• The website, Flu.gov, provides you with one source for getting information or answers to your questions. Information is added often. Check it out.

CDC

Source: CDC Press Briefing, October 1, 2009