H1N1 Influenza Virus
(as we written in our
September newsletter)
The Chief Medical
Officer
has responded to our request for advice for ME patients as to whether he considers people with ME to be more at risk
from the H1N1 strain of the flu virus,
and whether Tamiflu will be immediately available if requested.
His reply is
available here.
The CMO states that the ME "is not
known to increase the severity or duration of community
acquired infections" and he is "not aware of evidence that
ME leads to more severe and complicated influenza, and ME is
not a condition which leads to the inclusion of sufferers in
the population groups offered vaccination for seasonal
influenza".
The CMO's web pages which describe the
"population groups" offered vaccination
as -
|
Following advice from independent expert
committees including the Joint Committee for Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI), the following groups should be
prioritised for vaccination in the following order, once the
vaccine has been licensed:
i. individuals aged six months and up to 65
years in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical
at-risk groups
ii. all pregnant women, subject to licensing
conditions on trimesters
iii. household contacts of immunocompromised
individuals
iv. people aged 65 and over in the current
seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups
These groups were selected
because they are at highest risk of severe
illness.
[http://tinyurl.com/mke5qk] |
We
know that the
Department of Health officially classes CFS/ME as "a chronic neurological condition”. The NHS
website includes chronic neurological diseases among high risk groups
needing preferential treatment - see the influenza immunisation programme 2009/10 in
Annex 5 under Clinical Risk groups is included Chronic
Neurological disease -
[http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_097535.pdf]
That qualifies ME as one of the high risk
groups.
The CMO states in his web page -
that
any vaccine for H1N1 would be given to "household contacts
of immunocompromised
individuals"
yet he also states in his letter to Invest
in ME -
that ME " is not a condition
which leads to the inclusion of sufferers in the population
groups offered vaccination for seasonal influenza".
There is an obvious and dangerous
inconsistency here.
There is a great deal of research indicating
that patients are "immunocompromised" and, if the CMO had
come to any of our conferences, he could have been made
aware of that from the leading experts on ME. The role of
enteroviruses and herpes viruses in this illness has had
much peer-reviewed research of which the CMO ought to be
aware. These are known to persist in ME patients.
We have written back to the CMO [click
here] to determine
if he would like to revise his
position and his statements on this subject.
The CMO's
reply regarding
H1N1 influenza virus and the development of a vaccine mixes ME and
chronic fatigue. It didn't answer our questions on the differences between the
information on the CMO and the DoH web pages.
The CMO has replied -
see here.
See also Information Centre H1N1 -
click here
