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Jan. 24--California public health officials today said that 95 people statewide have died of the flu, confirming that the H1N1 virus now circulating is genetically no different than viral strain behind the H1N1 2009 worldwide pandemic.

"The virulence of the virus is dictated by the structure of the virus," Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist said in a press conference. "As far as we know there have been no changes genetically to this virus and the one we had seen during the pandemic. We consider this and the 2009 pandemic virus to be the same strain."

Typically, viral strains mutate from year to year, prompting slight changes in flu vaccines as public health oficials try to stay ahead of the mutations. But The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta had warned clinicians to expect this year's season to mirror the 2009 season with young adults and otherwise healthy middle-aged people hit hard, as well as those with underlying medical conditions.

Today's figures of 95 deaths more than doubled the number of fatalities -- 45 statewide -- released last week. At this time last season, Chavez said, nine people had died of influenza-like symptoms.

Chavez said the state determinined that 80 percent of those who perished did not have a flu vaccine. But 20 percent of the deceased did get immunized with the flu vaccine.

"We know that no vaccine is 100 percent effective, he said. "We are always going to have some people who get vaccinated and do not develop full immunity. Unfortunately we can see from the numbers, some of those may end up dying."

In Sacramento County, 14 people have died of the flu so far, said Olivia Kasirye, the county's public health officer.

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(c)2014 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)

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Killer Flu Roams California

Yes, it is that time of the year again - peak season for the common cold and the influenza virus. More people contract the flu and other devastating colds between now and the end of the winter than any other time of the year.

Fortunately for you, there are ways you can fight back. By modifying, adding, and subtracting from your diet, you can help boost your immune system and ability to resist infection. Adequately feeding your immune system boosts its fighting power. Immune boosters work in many ways. They increase the number of white cells in the immune system army, train them to fight better, and help them form an overall better battle plan. Boosters also help to eliminate the deadwood in the army, substances that drag the body down. Here are the top eight nutrients to add to your family's diet to cut down on days missed from work and school because of illness.

1. Vitamin C. Vitamin C tops the list of immune boosters for many reasons. There has been more research about the immune-boosting effects of Vitamin C than perhaps any other nutrient. Vitamin C supplements are inexpensive to produce, and it's available naturally in many fruits and vegetables (citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers and tomatoes to mention a few). Here's what the research shows about how this mighty vitamin protects your body. Promotes wound healing. Commonly used for supporting immune function and protection from viral disease and cancer. It may also help in people with high cholesterol, cataracts, diabetes, allergies and asthma, and periodontal disease. As an antioxidant, it protects blood vessels and the lenses in your eyes, and helps keep body tissues strong. Popular for warding off and shortening the unpleasant effects of the common cold.

2. Vitamin E. This important antioxidant and immune booster doesn't get as much press as vitamin C, yet it's important to a healthy immune system. It's not difficult to get 30 to 60 milligrams every day of Vitamin E from a diet rich in seeds, vegetable oils, and grains, but it's difficult for most people to consume more than 60 milligrams a day consistently through diet alone. Supplements may be necessary to get enough vitamin E to boost your immune system. People who don't exercise, who smoke, and who consume high amounts of alcoholic beverages will need the higher dosage. Those with a more moderate lifestyle can get by with lower levels of supplementation.

3. Carotenoids. Beta carotene increases the number of infection-fighting cells, natural killer cells, and helper T-cells, as well as being a powerful antioxidant that mops up excess free radicals that accelerate aging. Like the other "big three" antioxidants, vitamins C and E, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by interfering with how the fats and cholesterol in the bloodstream oxidize to form arterial plaques. Carotenoids can be found in Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Carrots, Spinach, Collards, Lettuce, and Turnips.

4. Bioflavonoids. A group of phytonutrients called bioflavonoids aids the immune system by protecting the cells of the body against environmental pollutants. Bioflavonoids protect the cell membranes against the pollutants trying to attach to them. Along the membrane of each cell there are microscopic parking spaces, called receptor sites. Pollutants, toxins, or germs can park here and gradually eat their way into the membrane of the cell, but when bioflavonoids fill up these parking spots there is no room for toxins to park. Good sources of bioflavonoids are Red Bell Peppers, Strawberries, Oranges, and Broccoli.

5. Zinc. This valuable mineral increases the production of white blood cells that fight infection and helps them fight more aggressively. It also increases killer cells that fight against cancer and helps white cells release more antibodies. Zinc supplements have been shown to slow the growth of cancer. Zinc increases the number of infection-fighting T-cells, especially in elderly people who are often deficient in zinc, and whose immune system often weakens with age. Eat some Oysters, fortified cereals, crab, beef, turkey or beans.

6. Garlic. This flavorful member of the onion family is a powerful immune booster that stimulates the multiplication of infection-fighting white cells, boosts natural killer cell activity, and increases the efficiency of antibody production. The immune-boosting properties of garlic seem to be due to its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin and sulfides. Garlic can also act as an antioxidant that reduces the build-up of free radicals in the bloodstream.

7. Selenium. This mineral increases natural killer cells and mobilizes cancer-fighting cells. Best food sources of selenium are tuna, red snapper, lobster, shrimp, whole grains, vegetables (depending on the selenium content of the soil they're grown in), brown rice, egg yolks, cottage cheese, chicken (white meat), sunflower seeds, garlic, Brazil nuts, and lamb chops.

8. Omega-3 fatty acids. A study found that children taking a half teaspoon of flax oil a day experienced fewer and less severe respiratory infections and fewer days of being absent from school. The omega 3 fatty acids in flax oil and fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel) act as immune boosters by increasing the activity of phagocytes, the white blood cells that eat up bacteria.

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Nutrition & Immunity

PHILLIPSBURG, Ohio (WDTN) - A Phillipsburg firefighter is struggling to survive after complications with the H1N1 virus.

Firefighters in Phillipsburg are trying everything they can to help one of their own through a difficult time.

"When you're in the fire service, you consider yourself a brother," said Lt. Nick Magoteaux with the Phillipsburg Fire Department. "No matter if you like the person or don't, you're brothers for life."

Inside the walls of the fire department of East Poplar Street, the crew is as close as family.

But they never imagined the struggle one of their own would be going through that could potentially take his life.

"I mean, it hit us real hard," said Magoteaux.

Earlier in the month, Phillipsburg firefighter Art Springer was admitted into Sycamore Hospital in Miamisburg with double pneumonia.

Doctors quickly discovered it was caused by the H1N1 virus.

Since then, Springer has been in the fight of his life. He as been placed into the intensive care unit at the hospital and put under a medically induced coma.

"He's doing well," said Magoteaux. "He does have his ups and downs. He is in a struggle for his life right now."

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Community rallies for sick firefighter

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Download Ultimate Virus Killer Keygen - Video

Image: Thomas Fuchs

In the spring of 2013 a strain of influenza virus that had never infected humans before began to make people in China extremely ill. Although the virus, known as H7N9, had evolved among birds, it had mutated in a way that allowed it to spread to men, women and children. Within several months H7N9 sickened 135 individuals, of whom 44 died, before subsiding with the advance of summer weather.

We got lucky with H7N9. Had it triggered a pandemican explosion of infectious disease across a large geographical areawe would have been woefully unprepared, and millions might have died. The trouble is that every new virus requires a new vaccine, and making new vaccines takes time. Even a typical flu season is brimming with slightly mutated versions of familiar viruses. In most cases, manufacturers anticipate these changes and tweak existing formulas so that they will still work against the new strains. When a virus like H7N9 makes a surprise appearance in people, however, manufacturers must scramble to concoct an entirely new vaccine from scratch, which takes too long to prevent a large number of people from becoming sick and dying.

Public health officials have longed for years to turn the tables, envisioning a universal flu vaccine that would be ready and waiting on the shelves to defeat either a marginally mutated strain or a completely unexpected virus. After numerous disappointments, a handful of recent studies indicate that a universal vaccine may at last be close at hand. In an interview last summer National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins suggested that one might be achieved in the laboratory in just five years. Before such a vaccine can reach the general public, however, researchers will have to convince either manufacturers or the government to pay for more studies and demonstrate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the new vaccines are just as safe as those we already use.

Stalking a Killer Flu vaccines have worked on the same principles since investigators first made them in the 1940s. Each vaccine contains flu antigensbits of viral molecules that can trigger an immune response. The antigens used in routine flu vaccines are fragments of a mushroom-shaped protein, called a hemagglutinin, that protrudes from a flu virus's surface and helps the pathogen cling to cells inside an infected individual. Once exposed to those bits of protein, a person's immune system produces sentinel molecules called antibodies that will recognize any flu virus possessing the same hemagglutinin and direct an attack against it.

Flu is a rapidly evolving virus, however, and the structure of hemagglutinin in a given strain changes in small ways every season. Even a minor alteration can make it much more difficult for the immune system to identify and eliminate a flu virus that is nearly identical to its earlier version. This is why we have to get new flu shots every year.

Scientists have searched for decades for a way to outsmart the flu virus rather than always hurrying to outpace it. The first glimpse of more efficient vaccines appeared in 1993, when Japanese researchers discovered that mice sometimes generate a single antibody that blocks infection by two flu strains with different hemagglutinins. Fifteen years later several different teams demonstrated that humans occasionally make these cross-protective, or broadly neutralizing, antibodies as well. Most of these antibodies bind not to a hemagglutinin's mushroom cap but rather to its slender stema region of the molecule where, as it turns out, less structural mutation takes place. Because the stem's makeup is similar across many strains of flu, the researchers reasoned, an antibody that recognizes it could potentially protect against a range of viral strains with distinct caps.

Building on this discovery, several groups have altered the structure of hemagglutinins, creating a cap to which the immune system does not react. Animals exposed to these tweaked proteins produce cross-protective antibodies that bind to the stalk rather than strain-specific antibodies that home in on the cap. Other scientists are trying to get animals and people to make antibodies against a different viral protein, M2, which is embedded in the flu virus's membrane and helps it enter cells. Like the hemagglutinin stalk, M2 changes little.

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A Flu Vaccine That s Always in Season