Top stories in health and medicine, May 29, 2013
Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Don’t Stop Warfarin for Dental Visits. Patients taking aspirin or warfarin (Coumadin) for prevention after a stroke don’t need to stop the drug for dental procedures and probably can stay on it for most other minor medical procedures.
2. Silent Afib Linked to Stroke in Diabetics. Asymptomatic atrial fibrillation might lie behind stroke of unknown origin in patients with type 2 diabetes.
3. Tamiflu Resistance Confirmed in H7N9 Flu Cases. Chinese researchers reported, for the first time, clinical evidence of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) resistance in patients infected with the novel a...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 29, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: News Heart Infectious disease Neurology Source Type: blogs
Earth’s virology course
The spring semester has just ended at Columbia University, which means that my annual virology course has also concluded.
The course met twice weekly, during which time we discussed the basic principles of virology, including how virions are built, how they replicate, and how they cause disease. For the last two lectures of the course we discussed viruses in the public eye, namely XMRV and influenza H5N1.
Each lecture in my virology course was recorded as a videocast and is available at the course website, at iTunes University, or on YouTube. One hundred and eighty-five Columbia University undergraduates registered for...
Source: virology blog - May 28, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information class course itunes university lecture MOOC viral virus Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning
Hello, everyone, and nice to see you again. We hope you enjoyed the long weekend - at least on this side of the pond - and feel somewhat refreshed and reinvigorated. After all, that familiar routine of meetings and deadlines has returned. To fortify ourselves, yes, we are turning to our ritualistic cup of stimulation. We need all the help we can get. As always, we invite you to join us. While you do so, here are some tidbits. Have a great day and do stay in touch...
AstraZeneca To Buy Omthera Pharma For Up To $433 Million (Reuters)
Is Amarin Valued At Less Thanks To Astra Deal To Buy Omthera? (The Street)
FDA Rejects Valea...
Source: Pharmalot - May 28, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Inefficient influenza H7N9 virus aerosol transmission among ferrets
There have been 131 confirmed human infections with avian influenza H7N9 virus in China, but so far there is little evidence for human to human transmission. Three out of four patients report exposure to animals, ‘mostly chickens‘, suggesting that most of the infections are zoonoses. Whether or not the virus will evolve to transmit among humans is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile it has been found that one of the H7N9 virus isolates from Shanghai can transmit by aerosol among ferrets, albeit inefficiently.
Ferrets were inoculated intranasally with influenza A/Shanghai/02/2013 virus or A/California/07/2009, the 2...
Source: virology blog - May 23, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H7N9 ferret fouchier H1N1 kawaoka pathogenesis viral virus Source Type: blogs
Update on influenza H7N9 virus at ASM in Denver
At the 2013 ASM meeting in Denver, Colorado, Stanley Maloy discussed human infections with avian influenza H7N9 virus with Ronald Atlas, Ph.D., University of Louisville, KY; Robert Webster; St. Jude’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN; Albert Osterhaus; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; and Carole Heilman, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 22, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information Albert Osterhaus avian influenza H7N9 Carole Heilman China H2N9 H5N1 pandemic Robert Webster Ron Atlas Stan Maloy viral virus Source Type: blogs
TWiV 233: We’re surrounded
On episode #233 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Rich, Alan and Kathy review aerosol transmission studies of influenza H1N1 x H5N1 reassortants, H7N9 infections in China, and the MERS coronavirus.
You can find TWiV #233 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 19, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology aerosol transmission avian influenza CoV-MERS gain of function guinea pig H1N1 H5N1 h7n9 MERS coronavirus Middle East coronavirus reassortants respiratory infection TWiV viral virulence Source Type: blogs
Further defense of the Chinese H1N1 – H5N1 study
Robert Herriman of The Global Dispatch interviewed me this week on the H1N1 – H5N1 reassortant study that has been in the headlines:
There was much written concerning the research published earlier this month in Science, where researchers from China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute reported creating an avian H5N1 (highly pathogenic) and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (easily transmissible) hybrid, that according to them, achieved airborne spread between guinea pigs.
Read the rest of the article at The Global Dispatch. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 17, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 ferret guinea pig H1N1 reassortant viral virus Source Type: blogs
Ferreting out the truth on Science Sunday Hangout on Air
I joined Buddhini Samarasinghe, Scott Lewis, Tommy Leung, and William McEwan for a discussion of the avian influenza H5N1 virus transmission experiments done in ferrets.
(Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - May 14, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier kawaoka pandemic viral virus Source Type: blogs
Top stories in health and medicine, May 14, 2013
Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Adult-Observed ADHD Reflects True Rate in Kids. Parent- and teacher-reported rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder do not appear to overestimate the true prevalence of the condition.
2. H7N9 Pandemic? Not Yet but Still Worrisome. The H7N9 avian influenza now circulating in China has two of the three characteristics of a pandemic virus.
3. If Job Stress Mounts, Healthy Living May Be Lifesaver. A handful of studies have suggested that high stress work environments are bad for the heart, but some of the job-related risk may be reduced by avoiding a quartet of known lifestyle ris...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 14, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: News Infectious disease Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Influenza H5N1 x H1N1 reassortants: ignore the headlines, it’s good science
Those of you with an interest in virology, or perhaps simply sensationalism, have probably seen the recent headlines proclaiming another laboratory-made killer influenza virus. From The Independent: ‘Appalling irresponsibility: Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus’; and from InSing.com: ‘Made-in-China killer flu virus’. It’s unfortunate that the comments of several scientists have tainted what is a very well done set of experiments. Let’s deconstruct the situation with an analysis of the science that was done.
It is known that avian inf...
Source: virology blog - May 8, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol transmission avian H5N1 ferret guinea pig H1N1 Hualan Chen hybrid virus influenza reassortant viral Source Type: blogs
TWiV 230: Gene goes to Washington, flu chickens out
On episode #230 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Rich, Alan and Kathy review H7N9 infections in China, the debate over patenting genes, and receptor-binding by ferret-transmissible avian H5 influenza virus.
You can find TWiV #230 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - April 28, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology aerosol avian influenza H7N9 China ferret gene patent H5N1 poultry receptor binding Shanghai sialic acid Supreme Court of the United States transmission viral virus Source Type: blogs
Trying to sort out all the STEM and STEM related departments, graduate programs , at #UCDavis
Well, I was in a meeting yesterday for the UC Davis ADVANCE program. This program is an NSF funded project to improve presence of women and underrepresented minorities on the faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). So I decided to see - how many departments at UC Davis might participate in such an initiative. And, well, wow. I knew there were a lot of STEM or STEM-related departments at UC Davis but I did not know there were this many.
Here is a list I compiled of UC Davis STEM or STEM-related Departments. I included medical departments here since many people in such...
Source: The Tree of Life - April 27, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Human infections with avian influenza H7N9 virus from wet market poultry
Results of a study of four patients in Zhejiang, China, who developed influenza H7N9 virus infection suggests sporadic poultry-to-human transmission:
We diagnosed avian influenza A H7N9 in all four patients (who were epidemiologically unlinked), two of whom died and two of whom were recovering at the time of writing. All patients had histories of occupational or wet market exposure to poultry. The genes of the H7N9 virus in patient 3′s isolate were phylogenetically clustered with those of the epidemiologically linked wet market chicken H7N9 isolate. These findings suggest sporadic poultry-to-person transmission.
The...
Source: virology blog - April 26, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information avian influenza H7N9 China pandemic poultry transmission viral virus Zhejiang Source Type: blogs
WHO report on human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) infection
The World Health Organization has been publishing weekly reports on the avian influenza A(H7N9) outbreak which include the geographical location of each case, the cumulative number of cases, and the epidemiological curve. Go to this page at the WHO website for an archive of the weekly reports (there you will also find other useful information on the H7N9 outbreak). Images for report #3 of 24 April 2013 are reproduced below. Click each image for a larger view. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - April 25, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information avian influenza H7N9 China pandemic Shanghai viral virus WHO world health organization Source Type: blogs
First imported human infection with avian influenza H7N9
From the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan:
In the late afternoon of April 24, 2013, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) confirmed the first imported case of H7N9 avian influenza in a 53-year-old male Taiwanese citizen who worked in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China prior to illness onset. He developed his illness three days after returning to Taiwan. Infection with avian influenza A (H7N9) was confirmed on April 24, 2013. The patient is currently in a severe condition and being treated in a negative-pressure isolation room.
It’s not clear how the patient acquired the infection in China; he had no contact wi...
Source: virology blog - April 24, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Events Information avian influenza H7N9 China imported infection Jiangsu Province pandemic Suzhou Taiwan viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
