Obama Declares Nat'l Emergency
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Obama Declares Nat'l Emergency
(A-O Newswire) -- President Obama has declared a national emergency for the H1N1 Swine Flu virus. The declaration was made Friday nite, (10/23) and will make it easier for U.S. medical facilities to handle a surge in flue patients by allowing the waver of some requirements for Medicare, Medicaid as well as other federal health insurance programs.
On the previous day, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that swine flu had become widespread across 46 of the 50 United States. The situation is comparable to the peak of an ordinary flu season, but the flu season has barely begun. Seasonal flu normally peaks sometime between late November and early March and kills about 36,000 Americans in an average year.
Medical experts expect a flood of cases in the near term possibly resulting in pandemic conditions. Indeed, there were indications this past week that swine flu was indeed threatening to spiral out of control. Media reports on Friday noted that hundreds of schools across the nation had closed down due to reports of massive cases of flu. May schools reported more than half their student body was infected by the virus.
The Presidential declaration is considred to be a pro-active measure to prepare the country in case epidemic or pandemic conditions develop that would overwhelm the healthcare industry. The presidential declaration is similar to disaster declarations before hurricanes hit coastal areas and allows federal bureaucracy to begin focusing and prepare for crisis conditions. A White House spokesman noted: "H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected. By the time regions or healthcare systems recognize they are becoming overburdened, they need to implement disaster plans quickly."
The new declaration clears the way for waivers of federal requirements that, for example, could prevent hospitals from establishing off-site, alternate care facilities that could help them deal with emergency department demands, the White House said.
Compounding the problem, according to medical experts, is a delay in vaccine shipments due to production difficulties. Novartis, the nation's largest supplier of the H1N1 vaccine says that most of its vaccine will not be deliverable until after the first three months of 2010. Originally, it was expected to crank out most of its production by the holidays.
HHS has also moved to make available stockpiles of antiviral drugs oseltamivir, made by Roche AG (ROG.VX) under the brand name Tamiflu, and zanamivir, an inhaled drug made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) under the brand name Relenza.
On Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also issued an emergency use authorization for an experimental new drug called peramivir, made by Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc (BCRX.O) and licensed to Shionogi & Co Ltd. The authorization allows the intravenous drug to be used in hospitalized patients who cannot take pills or inhale Relenza or when Tamiflu or Relenza do not seem to be helping. (Additional reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Eric Beech and Mohammad Zargham)
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