Save our troops from swine flu!

That is what most people must yell to the Pentagon, as only 150,000 vaccines against H1N1 were delivered to U.S. troops when they had asked for 300,000. It is unclear when the other vaccines are arriving.

All the U.S. troops based in the Korean peninsula have been already vaccinated against H1N1, but troops at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are not scheduled to get vaccinations until the end of November. Morel defended plans to vaccinate prisoners at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, after criticism from members of Congress who said the detainees should not get the inoculations before U.S. citizens.

"We should save the vaccine for those who need it most, and as of today, women, children and other at-risk individuals should fall squarely in line under that category. It should be made available to them before we hand it out to terrorists at Gitmo," said Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, in a written statement.

The Pentagon has said detainees at Guatanamo would be offered the vaccine after all U.S. active military and civilians at the Guantanamo base have been vaccinated.

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Health system reformation NEEDED!

I hate having my blogposts one next to the last one but I can wait for this one.

Today I arrived home and they sent me directly to my grandpa's house. Why? My sister has the flu, even tough it is not for sure swine flu they want to prevent. But what made me think was that they told me that they went to the hospital but they told her:

"No te podemos hacer la prueba hasta de dentro 48 horas para estar seguros que presntes sintomas"

Why wait, my sister could be dying and she is not being tkaen care of? My mom had to take her to Secretaría Sanitaria.

This gets me thinking. Mexico really needs a health system reformation, but if people do not complain we will never go any further so me and my grandfathers persuaded her of making a formal complaint. Maybe one person is not the difference but for sure, 10 million will be.

So if you know of someone that his rights are being violated persuade them to make a complaint, is the only peacful way to getting a change.

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Swine Flu in the UK

Professor Andrew Pollard from the University of Oxford is heading a research on swine flu vaccines. This 2 types of vaccines are put to trial in the UK since yesterday.

"We are doing this trial to compare head-to-head the two vaccines which are going to be used in the UK against swine flu to see which one works best in children and which one is best tolerated. We are sort of in a race against time because we know the flu season is already started. We hope to immunise the children over the next 10 days or so. There are very few exclusions - people with immune system problems and egg-allergic children because one of the vaccines is made using egg." - Professor Andrew Pollard

The Baxter vaccine, (the other vaccine put into trial) is made in cell culture, so is suitable for those who have an egg allergy. Among the expected side-effects are sore arms and fevers.

They are aiming to recruit 1,000 youngsters aged six months to 12 years to try the vaccines.

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