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Americans Show Little Fear Of H1N1 Virus
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Many Americans seem unconcerned about the H1N1 flu and most have rejected the need for the vaccine, according to poll results released Friday by the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Harvard poll found that 44 percent of Americans believe the H1N1 flu outbreak is over. It also found that 40 percent of parents had gotten the vaccine for their children and 13 percent more planned to.
Although it still the dominant form of influenza, H1N1 is declining globally as some seasonal flu strains begin to emerge in China and Africa, the World Health Organization reports. But the United States remains one of the countries most hard hit by H1N1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nine more children died from H1N1 last week. It estimates that as many as 80 million Americans have been infected with the virus and that 11,000 people have died.
"Many people believe the outbreak is over and I think it is too soon for us to have that complacency," Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC told reporters Friday. "This pandemic isn't over yet."
Sixty-one percent of the 1,400 adults polled by Harvard at the end of January said they had not received a swine flu vaccine and had no intention of getting one. Schuchat said only 37 percent of children who needed to get two doses for full protection had received the second dose.
She said 70 million Americans had been vaccinated against H1N1, which leaves the U.S. government with millions of unused doses because 155 million have been shipped and 229 million ordered from five makers -- AstraZeneca unit MedImmune, Sanofi Aventis, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and CSL.
Schuchat said it is easy to be vaccinated now, after severe shortages of vaccine last year, and she urged Americans to get the vaccine.
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