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  asianyetgaijin at 11:35 AM JST - 9th October

  Kirakira,

  I am curious too. And I am curious what they meant by 'brain fever'. Even though it is rare, Influenza can cause aseptic meningitis, and it doesn't have anything to do with the temperature (I mean, the meningitis cause the high temperature, not the other way around). Meningitis (viral/bacterial) can cause multiple organ failure (acute kidney failure is the most often, if I remember correctly) like other systemic infection and leads to death.

  I am also curiously waiting for further report if this boy has resistance towards Tamiflu.

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  nedinjapan at 12:26 PM JST - 9th October

  By Brain Fever, they probably mean "Encephalitis". Viral encephalitis can be deadly and treatment is largely supportive. Poor translation of difficult Japanese medical terminology ....

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  kirakira25 at 01:00 PM JST - 9th October

  Hmmm, its impossible to say without knowing more detailed information, but I think everyones take on "brain fever" is right - be it inflammation of the meninges or the encephales, or in fact elsewhere, although either of these would be the most rational explanation.

  It sounds like one of those incredibly rare cases where a simple viral infection led to a chain reaction. My friend died of viral encephalitis when we were 17, starting with a simple cold virus. She went downhill very very suddenly and there really was absolutely nothing that could have been done. It was very sad (she was a beloved only child). It happens but it is rare. RIP to the poor little boy and condolences to the family. Must be devastating for them.

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  adm_kenshin at 02:08 PM JST - 9th October

  Just hope jgov wont use this tragedy to push for mass vacination against H1N1. In Sweden the government is doing just that, and they're planning to use the vaccine by baxter international (the one that contains a lot of mercury), which has not been thoroughly tested.

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  Disillusioned at 02:28 PM JST - 9th October

  From Wikipedia: Brain fever describes a medical condition where a part of the brain becomes inflamed and causes symptoms that present as fever. The inflammation of brain fever causes acute and chronic changes in the brain tissue, as well as causing mental, emotional, and motor difficulties and deterioration. Once antibiotics were discovered, physicians could treat the inflammation, but the deficits were permanent, with little benefit from physical or occupational therapies.

  • It appears this kid died because he was not given sufficient amounts of antibiotics and/or they were too slow to be administered. Tamiflu does not contain penicillin.

  • According to the CDC 99.6% of all seasonal H1N1 flu strains tested are resistant to Tamiflu but only eight virus samples or 0.6% of the 2009 pandemic flu have thus far shown any signs of resistance.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamiflu

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  asianyetgaijin at 02:54 PM JST - 9th October

  Disilusioned,

  Antibiotics only works for bacterial encephalitis/meningitis. This kid was most likely had aseptic/viral encephalitis/meningitis. I don't think antibiotics will work, unless there was a secondary bacterial infection.

  The thing with Tamiflu is, as an antiviral, resistance can develop quickly, especially with the highly mutate viruses such as Influenza. I wonder if that is the case with this boy though.

  adm kenshin,

  where did you get the information about the mercury-contained vaccine that Baxter has? I am seriously interested this. I know Baxter is developing Infleunza vaccine using vero cells (green monkey kidney cells), which is a faster and supposedly cheaper method than the conventional egg-based method. And since this system is not as well-developed as egg-based system, I do share my doubts about its safety, but I wonder in which part does mercury play a role in the vaccine development. If you can share a link about it, it will be greatly appreciated.

  RIP to the boy..

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  Miyaratmosphere at 03:54 PM JST - 9th October

  @nedinjapan

  I got to agree 100% with you.

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  sicklittlemonkey at 04:13 PM JST - 9th October

  @asianyetgaijin: I don't think it does. According to their website it is thiomersal free:

  http://www.baxtervaccines.com/?node_id=316

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  proxy at 04:52 PM JST - 9th October

  When my daughter was 4 one of her classmates died of a flu related fever but it never made the national news. This is not that uncommon but devastating news. We never did tell her why Hana-chan stopped going to kindergarten.

  A good friend's daughter had a similar fever of 40C and the doctors were trying everything to get it down quick. They tried every drug on the shelf and ever put her in an ice bath. My friend, who is a salesman for a major drug company called in a Shito priest to do drive away the evil spirits and by coincidence her fever broke right away. She was a lucky girl she was a few hours away from brain damage or death.

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  Disillusioned at 06:58 PM JST - 9th October

  asianyetgaijin - You seem to be well educated in medical matters. Could you explain the difference between a viral infection and a bacterial infection? And, why antibiotics work for one and not the other?

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  lunchmeat at 08:04 PM JST - 9th October

  Six months into the swine flu outbreak China, with a population of over 1.3 billion or a fifth of the word's population, has just reported its first swine flu death?

  According to the WHO, 250,000 - 500,000 people worldwide die of seasonal flu each year.

  Do the math for yourself on this one.

  http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSSP152667

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  sicklittlemonkey at 08:06 PM JST - 9th October

  Disillusioned, have a read of these, and follow some links on wikipedia:

  http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/virusbacteria.htm

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infection#Bacterialorviral

  And here is a fun interactive size comparison in flash:

  http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm

  You can see how a virus is thousands of times smaller than a bacteria, because a bacteria is a living cell (similar to our own) that eats, excretes (sometimes toxins) and divides, whereas a virus is just a package of DNA inside a protective sheath, which needs a host cell and its machinery to reproduce.

  Bacteria are easier to attack because like any other cell they are complicated machines - if you break any of their critical parts (e.g. by disabling an enzyme with an antibiotic) the bacteria is unable to function and dies.

  A virus on the other hand is not alive (this is a common debate) but a tiny molecular machine that injects DNA into a host cell to hijack it and use it to create copies of itself. Sometimes this process kills the host cell.

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  asianyetgaijin at 08:21 PM JST - 9th October

  sicklittlemonkey, I agree, but maybe adm kenshin has other source than th baxter website.

  Disilusioned virus and bacteria are two different microorganisms, with different characteristics, for example, most bacteria can produce its own substances necessary for growth/replication while virus don't. Virus uses host's cell, nutrition, etc in order to grow and replicate. That is why most viral diseases are self-limiting, it doesn't need antimicrobial agents to cure, once the host's cells destroyed, the virus will also die cos then it doesn't have any source of nutrition anymore. However, some viruses can cause further damage before it is self-destroyed. In this case, antiviral is needed to eradicate the virus. Tamiflu, is an antivirus, it works for viral infection such as Infleunza, but it does not work for bacterial infection. As for bacterial infection, in most cases, antibiotics (actually anti-bacterial is a correct term, but antibiotics is a more common term) is needed cos the bacteria have enough sources within themselves to replicate and cause further damage to the host. Penicillin, for example works by destroying bacterial cell wall, thus it works well in the case of infection caused by bacteris that have cell wall. Virus doesn't have cell wall. So penicilin will not work on them.

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  mikihouse at 11:52 PM JST - 9th October

  virus vs bacteria... A virus is a piece of codes necessary for replication. A bacteria is a living organism. A virus once enter the body cells will hijack the normal cell function and command the cells to produce more of its kind then the cell will burst giving more virus. However, the body will mount a defense by identifying the infected cells and will destroy these cells before the virus can replicate. The process takes time because the body initially has to identify a distinct pattern of the virus before it starts killing cells. After the body identify a distinct pattern, it will now start to produce soldiers to eradicate the virus. In the meantime, it will also enter the data of the virus to memory so that the next time the same virus enters the body, it can be destroyed immediately, which precisely vaccines are for. Vaccines are virus that contains these blueprints and allowing the body to commit the blueprints to memory so that you are immune to these virus.

  Influenza is a difficult case. Influenza has more than a hundred of blueprints and changes its form therefore certain agent that can kill a certain influenza will not work with another. Take Tamiflu. Tamiflu is designed to combat a certain blueprint of influenza virus but if the virus changed its blueprint then its totally useless.

  Bacteria are living organisms that can be killed by shotgun theraphy...it means medicines make no distinction between a normal cell, good bacteria or bad bacteria at all. All rapidly dividing cells are targets of these drugs by either preventing cell multiplication or killing cells that rapidly divides regardless.

  In summary, virus infection can be cured without drugs because the body, after identifying the virus can mount a very precise defense and obliterates the virus normally within a week. The problem comes when the body can not mount a defense and counter-attack thats why you need help from antivirus drugs. Bacteria? well,give them the shotgun and hit everybody hoping you kill more bacteria than normal cells. And i forgot to mention, bacteria can identify these drugs and if the drugs failed to kill them, they will produce bacteria that can render the effect of drugs useless. Thats when they become resistant. Virus become resistant because they changed forms. Bacteria become resitant by learning the ability of the drug and counter its effectiveness.

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  proxy at 12:30 AM JST - 10th October

  And the worst of the worse is a retrovirus that contains mRNA and uses the host to make DNA; example are HIV and Hep. B. They are real meanies.

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