If you ride BART and still haven’t gotten the swine flue vaccine then you're in luck: the vaccine will be available this week at Oakland's 12 Street BART station. The swine flu vaccine will be offered at a clinic in the BART station on Wednesday January 26th at 3pm until 6pm or until supply runs out. This partnership is between public health and transportation agencies.

12th Street BART station isn’t the only place to get vaccinated. Walgreens is also offering the vaccine for $18. After worrying that there weren’t enough of the vaccines to go around, people now can get vaccinated during their commute or while developing pictures.

One in five Americans have been vaccinated based on the results of two government telephone surveys.

“The surveys concluded that an estimated 61 million people -- or about 20 percent of the population -- got a shot or nasal spray vaccination against the H1N1 virus since the vaccine became available in the fall.”

(via The Washington Post)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded in November of 2009 that 50 million Americas were stricken with the swine flu and that number of deaths had reached 10,000.
 

The H1N1 virus has people on the edge of their seat. In the United States alone, there are 33, 902 H1N1 cases and 170 deaths. Now a 13-year-old domestic shorthaired cat has become the first animal infected with the H1N1 virus.

“It's not yet clear how vulnerable cats, dogs and other household animals may be to the new virus, but the Iowa cat's case reinforces just how different H1N1 is from seasonal flu viruses." via Time

The cat’s owners were recently suffering from influenza-like illness. Does this mean that H1N1 can be transferred from humans to house pets?

SACRAMENTO, CA-- Health officials across the country are working hard to stop the spread of the dreaded H1N1 flu virus. Of particular concern is the unusual infection pattern this particular strain of flu is exhibiting. According to Mike Sicilia, Assistant Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the California Department of Public Health, statistics are showing that "people aged 5-24 have the greatest rate of infection".32 of the 249 people who have died in California from H1N1 have been under the age of 18.

The pattern is atypical for the seasonal flu, which usually affects the very young and the very old. According to Mr. Sicilia "older people appear to have a natural immunity... something like this virus may have appeared in the past."

As the flu vaccine- still in limited supply- begins to be distributed so too do fears about the safety of the vaccine. These fears are based in part on the last time the "swine flu" threatened the United States. "In 1976 we had something called swine flu and it wound up being a disaster," says Sicilia. While the feared flu epidemic failed to appear hundreds who received the vaccine came down with the rare autoimmune disorder known as Guillian-Barre syndrome.

More, about what YOU can do to fight the flu, after the jump...

Internet networks may also need a vaccine for the H1N1 virus. A federal report shows that so many people are searching for information about the flu, that it could potentially overload internet networks.

The federal government is in disarray when it comes to dealing with such a scenario, the GAO reported. The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of communications networks during times of national emergency. But it says it doesn't have a plan to deal with overloaded Internet networks -- an essential resource to keep the economy humming and residents informed and connected during a pandemic. And the DHS hasn't coordinated with agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to create clear guidelines for how telecom, cable and satellite providers can minimize congestion.

The swine flu doesn’t only make humans sick anymore; it has taken on a new prey, my computer. But what confuses me about this story is this: aren’t there about a million people on the Internet daily all searching for the same thing? What makes the swine flu different?.

(via The Washington Post)

As an aspiring nurse, I was happy to hear about the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of a health care bill aimed at covering about 94% of Americans. With that many people getting medical care, you’d think the government would have thought about the workforce necessary to give that care.

Apparently it hasn’t.

The current health care bill doesn’t address the shortage in health care workers, especially primary care physicians. That affects nurses too because the more patients there are, the more doctors are needed. And the more nurses are necessary to support those doctors.

But even without an increase in patients, there’s already a nursing shortage.  I’m worried because once I become a nurse, I don’t want there to be too few healthcare workers to care for all the sick people. Patients will suffer and the doctors and nurses will get overworked.