CDC to Prepare Vaccine for A(H7N9) Bird Flu Strain Just in Case
The World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been monitoring an outbreak of avian influenza A (H7N9) in China. The cases are the first time the virus has been detected in humans. There have been 11 lab-confirmed cases and four deaths according to the last WHO update. The first cases were announced on April 1st.
So far, there have been no cases involving human-to-human spread of the bird flu. WHO says people in close contact with the infected are being closely monitored, but none have developed any symptoms to date.
NBC reports that the CDC has announced plans to star...
Source: HealthNewsBlog.com - April 4, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: flu bird-flu a-h7n9 Source Type: blogs
H7N9 bird flu
Is another bird flu on the rise? Report from Nature on H7N9 type A influenza virus and reported outbreak in China.
Scientists and public health officials worldwide are on alert after China announced on 31 March that two people had died and a third had been seriously sickened from infections with a new avian flu virus, H7N9, that has never been seen before in humans.
via Novel bird flu kills two in China : Nature News & Comment.
There are numerous subtypes of flu, labelled with an H number, referring to the specific type of protein hemagglutinin and an N number, neuraminidase enzyme type. There are 17 H antigens (H1 to ...
Source: Sciencebase Science Blog - April 3, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: David Bradley Tags: Science Source Type: blogs
Service Member Shares Vaccine Experience
From an anonymous service member,
“I do not know what-all was in these vaccines, but I thought I would share my story of three vaccines, all received in the last three years in the US Navy. I had never had a serious reaction to any vaccine before, and it was after the third round of it that I decided to do some research for myself. Now I am carrying my first child, and I am grateful that I have done this research so that I can spare my child the results of a criminal undertaking in the form of mass vaccination.
First up: bird flu.
December 2009, Great Lakes. Avian Influenza was scaring half the world out of its mind ...
Source: vactruth.com - March 19, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: VT Tags: Questions About Vaccines Vaccine Safety Vaccine Side Effects Source Type: blogs
Circovirus in Shanghai
Recently thousands of dead and decaying pigs were pulled from rivers in Shanghai and Jiaxing, China. Apparently farmers dumped the animals into the water after the pigs became ill. Porcine circovirus has been detected in the in pig carcasses and in the water.
Porcine circoviruses are small, icosahedral viruses that were discovered in 1974 as contaminants of a porcine kidney cell line. They were later called circoviruses when their genome was found to be a circular, single-stranded DNA molecule. Upon entry into cells, the viral ssDNA genome enters the nucleus where it is made double-stranded by host enzymes. It is then tran...
Source: virology blog - March 19, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information China PCV-1 PCV-2 pigs porcine circovirus Shanghai viral water Source Type: blogs
Going viral at Studio 360
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a radio show co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC. The show for the week of 8 March 2013 is called ‘Going Viral‘ and includes seven segments entitled ‘Viruses at the movies’, ‘Does your zombie have rabies’, and ‘Playing against the virus’. They did speak with one virologist for a segment called ‘Reconstructing viruses‘.
To record this segment of Studio 360 I traveled down to the WNYC studios on Varick Street in New York. I sat in a glass-walled, silent room with headphones and before a large microphone. I spoke with t...
Source: virology blog - March 12, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism DURC Kurt Andersen Studio 360 viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
The Lurking Plague of the 21st Century
The worry of panhelic -- worldwide infections -- has us focused on buzzwords like SARS, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, AIDS, and other viruses. But perhaps it will be a "bacteria" that takes our breath away.Contributor: Tom Mc ClurePublished: Mar 01, 2013 (Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content)
Source: Most Recent Health Wellness - Associated Content - March 1, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Source Type: blogs
New Smaller, Cheaper PCR Machine for Disease Diagnosis in Remote Parts of The World
Back in 2006, researchers at Caltech created a relatively small and cheap PCR machine that was commercialized as the Eco device and sold for $13,000. This was a breakthrough, allowing public health professionals to screen people effectively during a viral epidemic like that experienced from H5N1 bird flu.While cheap enough and not too big for diagnostic work at a hospital, the Eco was still too bulky to use in areas where proper clinics don’t exist and the device required a bit of professional expertise to operate. To help tame disease in the world’s remote areas, and allow PCR testing to be performed by just ...
Source: Medgadget - February 27, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: Diagnostics in the news... Source Type: blogs
Proposed US policy on dual use research of concern
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released proposed guidelines for maximizing the benefits and minimizing misuse of life sciences research. The measures establish oversight responsibilities for universities and other institutions that receive Federal funding:
Specifically, such institutions would be required to review their current life sciences research involving those pathogens or toxins deemed to be the most dangerous or most amenable to misuse, and then work with the researchers and funding agencies to develop appropriate risk mitigation plans.
This adds to a previously announced internal policy...
Source: virology blog - February 26, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism DURC life sciences research OSTP viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
Flu Vaccine Shows Only Modest Protection
Flu vaccine statistics reported by the CDC for this year’s flu season has shown only modest protection in preventing people from contracting the disease overall and very poor coverage of those aged 65 and older.
Flu virus
The post Flu Vaccine Shows Only Modest Protection appeared first on InsideSurgery Medical Information Blog. (Source: Inside Surgery)
Source: Inside Surgery - February 21, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Bird Flu Infectious Disease CDC coverage vaccine Source Type: blogs
Harvard University: Great virology, bad science writing
Harvard University is home to some of the world’s finest virologists. But apparently they do not communicate with the writers at Harvard Magazine, where a botched story on the avian H5N1 influenza virus has just been published.
The problems begin with the first paragraph:
But when Dutch researchers recently created an even more deadly strain of the virus in a laboratory for research purposes, they stirred grave concerns about what would happen if it escaped into the outside world.
Readers of virology blog will know by now that the Dutch researchers did not make an ‘even more deadly strain of the virus’ &#...
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 ferret fouchier kawaoka pandemic viral virus Source Type: blogs
Comment on H5N1 lethality in humans
In a brief letter to Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Alan Zelicoff notes a problem with serosurveys for influenza H5N1 infection:
…peak titers after H5N1 infection occur at about 4 to 6 weeks postinfection and may drop by as much as 32-fold over the course of a year, probably decreasing the sensitivity of serologic testing for past asymptomatic infections. Micro-neutralization testing may be more sensitive.
He cites a serological survey carried out on poultry workers in South Korea, in which 9 of 2,500 subjects were found to have antibodies to H5N1 virus, in the absence of illness. These seropositive individuals carrie...
Source: virology blog - February 18, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism microneutralization serological survey serosurvey viral virus Source Type: blogs
Human infections with influenza H5N1 virus: How many?
The lethality of avian influenza H5N1 infections in humans has been a matter of extensive debate. The >50% case fatality rate established by WHO is high, but the lethality of the virus might be lower if there are many infections accompanied by mild or no disease. One way to answer this question is to determine how many individuals carry antibodies to the virus in populations that are at risk for infection. A number of such studies have been done, and some have concluded that the results imply a low but substantial level of infection (even less than one percent of millions of people is a lot of infections). The conclusio...
Source: virology blog - February 7, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information antibodies avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism case fatality ratio fatality rate infection pandemic serological survey serosurvey viral virus Source Type: blogs
8 Damn Good Reasons Not to Get the Flu Shot
Are you thinking about getting the flu vaccine?
Every year the mainstream media war drum beats for you to get vaccinated against the flu. They rarely discuss anything but the benefits of the vaccine.
Why?
Maybe it is because many people are already skeptical about the flu vaccine.
I’m going to be very up front with you here. You rarely hear about the adverse reactions or about the toxic chemicals being injected into you. My goal is to get you to investigate vaccines more closely. Here are eight reasons to question the flu shot.
Let’s begin…
REASON #1: NEUROTOXIC INGREDIENTS
A common urban myth is that the mercury ha...
Source: vactruth.com - February 1, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jeffry John Aufderheide Tags: Jeffry John Aufderheide Top Stories American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Dr. Gary Goldman Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Thimerosal vaccine ingredients Vaccine Safety Viral Shedding Source Type: blogs
The risks and benefits of influenza H5N1 research
Both Nature and the New York Times have weighed in on the resumption of influenza H5N1 research. In an editorial from 23 January 2013, Nature opines that “Experiments that make deadly pathogens more dangerous demand the utmost scrutiny”:
As several critics point out, the assessments of the relative risks and benefits of such research remain restricted to largely qualitative arguments. The formal, quantitative risk assessment common in the nuclear power and other industries could have helped to nail down and quantify risks, and would have informed the debate better. One year on, an irreproachable, independent ri...
Source: virology blog - January 29, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary aerosol transmission avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier kawaoka risk benefit analysis viral virus Source Type: blogs
TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot
On episode #217 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.
You can find TWiV #217 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 27, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology adjuvant afluria cell culture efficacy egg fluarix flulaval flumist fluvirin H5N1 influenza LAIV narcolepsy pandemic pandemrix TIV vaccine viral virus Source Type: blogs
