WASHINGTON – Health officials say influenza is circulating unusually early this year with cases in every state — and nearly all the infections are swine flu.
The highest concentrations of flu cases are in the Southeast and a few other states. The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday also came with good news: Testing of vaccines for swine flu show that they work with a single dose and take effect rapidly.
Supplies of swine flu vaccine are expected to be available in mid-October. But the seasonal flu vaccine is available now, and officials are encouraging people to get it.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC says the swine flu broke out in the spring and "never went away." Currently 98 percent of the flu viruses circulating are swine flu. Schuchat says cases are mainly in children and young adults.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the swine flu may have gotten more manageable.
Australian and U.S. researchers said Thursday that one dose of the new swine flu vaccine looks strong enough to protect adults — and can begin protection within 10 days of the shot.
Australian drug maker CSL Ltd. published results of a study that found 75 percent to 96 percent of vaccinated people should be protected with a single dose — the same degree of effectiveness as the regular winter flu shot. That's remarkable considering scientists thought it would take two doses.
U.S. data to be released Friday confirm those findings and show the protection starts rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press.
"This is quite good news," Fauci said.
The dose question has an important ramification: It means people will have to line up for influenza vaccinations twice this year instead of three times — once for the regular winter flu shot and a second time to be inoculated against swine flu, what doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain.
Thursday's swine flu vaccine reports center on adults; studies in children aren't finished yet.
But scientists had feared that people of all ages would need two shots about a month apart because the new H1N1 strain is so genetically different from normally circulating flu strains that most of the population has little if any immunity.
Chinese manufacturers gave the first hint a week ago that one dose could be enough. But different manufacturers make different formulations of the vaccine, so more evidence was needed.
Thus the CSL study, rushed out by the New England Journal of Medicine late Thursday, is welcome news. In a study of 240 adults, half younger than 50 and half over, one shot prompted the same kind of immune response indicating protection that is seen with regular flu vaccine. And a standard 15-microgram dose — not the double dose that also was tested — was enough.
CSL, which is one U.S. vaccine supplier, found the same side effects in its study that people experience with regular flu vaccine, which is no surprise since this shot is merely a recipe change from the annual standby. About 45 percent of recipients had mild reactions such as a headache, sore arm or redness at the shot site.
On Friday, the NIH is set to release results of its own studies of hundreds of adults that confirm that one shot works, Fauci said. Plus, the U.S. work shows that people are protected eight to 10 days after that inoculation, he said.
One dose means tight supplies of H1N1 vaccine won't be stretched so thin after all. The U.S. has ordered 195 million doses, based on the hope that 15 micrograms was indeed the right dose. Had it taken twice that dosage, or two shots apiece, half as many people could have received the vaccine.

The winter flu vaccine is widely available now, and U.S. health authorities urged people to get it out of the way now before swine flu shots start arriving in mid-October.

Despite all the headlines about swine flu, which has become the main influenza strain circulating in the world, doctors do expect some garden-variety flu to hit this fall too — the kind that every year kills 36,000 Americans and hospitalizes 200,000.

"Take some individual responsibility to stay healthy during the flu season," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who scheduled her own seasonal shot for Friday. Waiting to get the first inoculation out of the way "is not in anybody's best interest," added Dr. Nancy Nielsen, past president of the American Medical Association. She said busy doctors need to have completed regular vaccinations by the time they have to deal with H1N1 shots.

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On the Net:

Flu information: http://www.flu.gov

LOS ANGELES – Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the films "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!" and television's "M-A-S-H," is dead.
Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home Friday morning after a long battle with cancer, said Creative Artists Agency, which represented him. He was 81.
His wife of 53 years, Pat Gelbart, told The Associated Press Friday that after being married for so long, "we finished each other's sentences." She declined to specify the type of cancer he had.
"It wasn't a surprise. He had cancer, we've known that. We didn't know what the outcome would be, the result, whatever. And so here we are and we were sort of prepared for this," she said. "It's enough to be able to be resourceful and go forward."
Gelbart, who won a Tony for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," an Emmy for "M-A-S-H" and was nominated for two Oscars, is most likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War.
Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and colleague, called Gelbart "the Jonathan Swift of our day."
"It's a great, great, great, great, great, great loss. You can't put enough `greats' in front of it," said Reiner, who directed "Oh, God!" from Gelbart's Oscar-nominated script. "The mores of our time were never more dissected and discussed. He had the ability to make an elaborate joke given nothing but one line."
"M-A-S-H" debuted on CBS in 1972, when the nation was still embroiled in the Vietnam War, and some viewers were initially puzzled or offended by its depiction of the cynical, wisecracking physicians who worked frantically to save the lives of soldiers.
By its second season it had caught on, however, and it remained one of television's top-10 rated shows for a decade, until its final episode in 1983. Along the way, it won numerous awards including the Emmy for best comedy series.
"What attracted me to `M-A-S-H' was the theme song, `Suicide is Painless,'" Gelbart once remarked. "It was written in a very minor key and appealed to me emotionally."
The show, based on a book and the 1970 Robert Altman film of the same name, starred Alan Alda. Gelbart was brought into the project by producer-director Gene Reynolds who worked with him shaping the show.
After writing 97 half-hour episodes and winning an Emmy, Gelbart quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."
But Pat Gelbart recalled the fondness with which people in the industry regarded him.
"Strangely enough, the thing that transpired in his rise to success was that everybody he worked with — co-writers, producers, actors, actresses — had nothing but a good word to say about him. He was never considered anything but reasonable, considerate, and never did anything untoward," she said. "I thought that was a singular kind of wonderful and most rare part of him. He didn't try to be a goody two-shoes. He just had that kind of character."
His entry into the entertainment business 30 years before had been worthy of a TV script itself.
Gelbart's father was a Los Angeles barber with a clientele of Hollywood notables, including Danny Thomas. While cutting Thomas' hair one day, he bragged of his 16-year-old son's writing ability and the comedian asked to see some of his work. Soon Thomas had hired Gelbart to write for his radio show.
"A comedy prodigy does not exist. A kid can make other kids laugh, but to make adults laugh with sophisticated humor at that age, it's not heard of," Reiner said Friday. "He had an unerring ear and eye for humor. He had a funny mother, which helps, and a father who loved jokes."
He went on to write gags for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis. In 1953 he accepted Sid Caesar's offer of $1,000 a week to work for "Caesar's Hour," joining a legendary writing team that included Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

"He's the fastest of the fast, the wittiest man in the business," Brooks once said of him.

Deciding to expand his horizons, Gelbart also co-authored a revue, "My L.A.," which was a local hit in 1948.

His first foray to Broadway was far less successful. His 1961 play, "The Conquering Hero" closed after seven performances.

His next Broadway show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," written with Burt Shevelove, enjoyed a far better fate the following year. Based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim, the show was a runaway hit, resulting in road companies and a 1966 movie with Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers.

After the play's success, Gelbart decided to move with his wife and five children to England, quipping that he wanted "to escape religious freedom in America."

They remained there for nine years, and his only notable work during that time was a script, written with Shevelove, for the 1966 black comedy, "The Wrong Box."

By the time he returned to Hollywood, however, he had a broader view of the world that he said helped him tackle "M-A-S-H."

"I make jokes all the time," Gelbart once said of his penchant for comedy. "It's a tic — a way of making myself comfortable. I can't imagine not having humor to lean on."

Gelbart also returned to the theater with "Sly Fox," which transformed Ben Jonson's Elizabethan "Volpone" to Gold Rush San Francisco. Starring George C. Scott as the devious miser, it was a solid success.

"Mastergate," a scathing treatment of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, flopped in 1989, but Gelbart scored the same year with "City of Angels," a musical spoof of Hollywood movies and crime novels.

His films "Oh, God!" with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and "Tootsie," with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie "Barbarians at the Gate," about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.

Larry Simon Gelbart was born in Chicago, moving to Los Angeles while in high school.

He married singer and actress Pat Marshall in 1956 and they raised their two children, Becky and Adam, and her three by a previous marriage, Cathy, Gary and Paul. Cathy died of cancer at age 50.

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AP writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts took a cross-country detour and landed safely in California on Friday after stormy weather prevented them from returning home to Florida for the second day in a row.
Discovery swooped through the sky and touched down at Edwards Air Force Base an hour before sunset, ending its delivery trip to the international space station.
"Welcome home, Discovery," Mission Control radioed. "Congratulations on an extremely successful mission."
Stormy weather made it too risky to bring Discovery back to its home port Thursday, and conditions were even worse Friday. So flight director Richard Jones opted for the clear flying conditions of the Mojave Desert.
NASA prefers Florida landings because the cross-country ferry trip, which involves transporting the shuttle atop a modified jumbo jet, costs $1.7 million and takes more than a week.
Thunderstorms also delayed the beginning of Discovery's mission. The shuttle blasted off Aug. 28 and logged 5.7 million miles.
Discovery and its crew, led by commander Rick Sturckow, dropped off tons of supplies and equipment, including a $5 million treadmill named after Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. That was his consolation prize after pushing for naming rights to a new space station room. NASA chose Tranquility for the yet-to-be-launched room, even though Colbert won the online vote.
The treadmill will be assembled later this month. The space station's newest resident, Nicole Stott, who rode up on Discovery, is expected to break it in as the first runner.
Coming back aboard Discovery was the astronaut whom Stott replaced, Timothy Kopra. He spent nearly two months in orbit and said he was looking forward to seeing his wife and two children, and enjoying a sip of beer.
Also hitching a ride back was Buzz Lightyear. The 12-inch action figure flew up in mid-2008 as part of an educational program. The doll will return to Walt Disney World for a tickertape parade at the beginning of October.
Discovery's crew performed three spacewalks at the space station, installing a fresh tank of ammonia coolant, new antennas and cabling for Tranquility, the living quarters that's due to arrive early next year. One cable connector could not be hooked up, and that ended up being one of the few snags of the 14-day shuttle flight. NASA is devising repairs for the next shuttle visitors in November.
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On the Net:
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission(underscore)pages/shuttle/main/index.html

VENICE (Reuters) –
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Venice on Monday to attend the world premiere of Oliver Stone's documentary about him and his strained relations with the United States.

"South of the Border" is a sympathetic portrait of the leader, casting him as a champion of the poor who has stood up to Washington.

Chavez, surrounded by bodyguards, strolled with Stone on the Lido red carpet and signed autographs like a movie star ahead of the premiere at the Venice film festival.

"What's happening in Latin America is like a Renaissance," the Venezuelan leader told reporters.

Chavez landed in Venice after visiting Iran and Turkmenistan.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)