Health Highlights: Oct. 21, 2009

Oct. 22 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Swine Flu Vaccine Production Behind Schedule

Federal health officials acknowledged Wednesday that the production of swine flu vaccine has fallen weeks behind, with only 13 million of an expected 120 million doses actually distributed.

The Associated Press reported that health officials place the blame both on a painstakingly slow production process and the pressure on vaccine makers to produce seasonal flu vaccine and swine flu H1N1 vaccine simultaneously. Not only that, companies that load the vaccine into syringes have also become backlogged, and the government even experienced a delay in developing the tests that clear each batch for distribution, the wire service reported.

Although most cases of the swine flu in the United States have been relatively mild, it has killed more than 800 people since it first showed up in April, including 86 children, 39 of them in the past month and a half, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of all hospitalizations since the beginning of September involved patients under the age of 24, the AP reported.

"We're in this race against the virus, and only Mother Nature knows how many cases are going to occur over the next six to 10 weeks," Michael Osterholm, a vaccine expert at the University of Minnesota, told the wire service.

Meanwhile, many states have had to postpone mass vaccinations, and doctors are being swamped bombarded with calls from worried and angry parents, the AP reported.

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CDC Panel Recommends HPV Vaccine Cervarix

An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday recommended the cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix for use in girls and women.

If approved for widespread use, the vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, would join Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, which gained approval in 2006, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The CDC currently recommends that Gardasil be offered to girls 11 and 12 years old, since the vaccine is most effective before the onset of sexual activity.

Cervarix gained approval last week from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which recommended the shot for females ages 10 to 26. Both Cervarix and Gardasil protect against strains 16 and 18 of the human papilloma virus (HPV), thought to be the cause of nearly 70 percent of all cervical cancers.