Zika virus, like all other viruses, is mutating
Not long after the appearance of an outbreak of viral disease, first scientists, and then newswriters, blame it all on mutation of the virus. It happened during the Ebolavirus outbreak in West Africa, and now it’s happening with Zika virus.
The latest example is by parasitologist Peter Hotez, who writes in the New York Times:
There are many theories for Zika’s rapid rise, but the most plausible is that the virus mutated from an African to a pandemic strain a decade or more ago and then spread east across the Pacific from Micronesia and French Polynesia, until it struck Brazil.
After its discovery in 1947 in Uganda...
Source: virology blog - April 15, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information genome microcephaly mutation pandemic transmission viral virulence virus viruses zika virus Source Type: blogs
Tamiflu For All? Evidence Of Morbidity In CDC’s Antiviral Guidelines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has boiled down its public health campaign against influenza to a single slogan: “Take 3.” Vaccines, everyday preventive actions like handwashing, and influenza antivirals.
Last year, because of a mismatch between the vaccine and circulating virus, the message was reduced to—essentially—“Take 1,” as the CDC emphatically promoted oseltamivir (Tamiflu) for treating disease. The agency has stated: “Antiviral flu medicines are underutilized. If you get them early, they could keep you out of the hospital and might even save your life.”
The CDC is one ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Peter Doshi, Kenneth Mandl and Florence Bourgeois Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Global Health Health Professionals Public Health Quality CDC clinical trials drug safety FDA influenza Physicians Prevention Research vaccines Source Type: blogs
Health Is Not Always Local: Beginning A Cross-Border Health Dialogue
Is health always local? We typically assume that health is always a domestic issue—that is, we tend to focus on the health of a community or a state, but rarely internationally—but if we just keep looking inward, we could lose out on some valuable lessons. Take the example of William Osler, one of the four founding physicians of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Patient interaction was fundamental to Osler’s teachings. He once said, “Listen to your patient, he is telling you the diagnosis.”
Osler was Canadian, and while at Hopkins, he revolutionized the teaching of medicine in both the United States an...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 22, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Oliver Kim and Dani Peters Tags: Featured Global Health GrantWatch Public Health Canada culture of health Effectiveness Health Care Delivery Health Philanthropy Policy Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Source Type: blogs
Moving beyond metagenomics to find the next pandemic virus
I was asked to write a commentary for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to accompany an article entitled SARS-like WIV1-CoV poised for human emergence. I’d like to explain why I wrote it and why I spent the last five paragraphs railing against regulating gain-of-function experiments.
Towards the end of 2014 the US government announced a pause of gain-of-function research involving research on influenza virus, SARS virus, and MERS virus that “may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity and/or tra...
Source: virology blog - March 14, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol transmission benefits coronavirus ferret gain of function H5N1 influenza MERS metagenomics moratorium pathogenicity pause risks SARS viral viruses Source Type: blogs
No, DDT won’t save us from the Zika virus
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last decade-plus of blogging about medicine and alternative medicine, it’s that any time there is an outbreak or pandemic of infectious disease, there will inevitably follow major conspiracy theories about it. It happened during the H1N1 pandemic in the 2009-2010 influenza season, the Ebola outbreak in late… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 22, 2016 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Biology Medicine Politics Popular culture Source Type: blogs
Allocation of Ventilators in an Influenza Pandemic
A few weeks ago, the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law at the New York State Department of Health released updated guidelines on "Allocation of Ventilators in an Influenza Pandemic."
In short, the Guidelines incorporate an ethical framewor... (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - December 17, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope Tags: Health Care medical futility blog syndicated Source Type: blogs
Influenza virus in breast milk
During breastfeeding, mothers provide the infant with nutrients, beneficial bacteria, and immune protection. Fluids from the infant may also enter the mammary gland through retrograde flux of the nipple. Studies in a ferret model reveal that influenza virus replicates in the mammary gland, is shed in breast milk and transmitted to the infant. Virus may also travel in the opposite direction, from infant to mother.
The role of the mammary gland in influenza virus transmission was studied using a ferret model comprising lactating mothers and nursing infants. Intranasal inoculation of nursing mother ferrets with the 2009 H1N1 ...
Source: virology blog - November 12, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information aerosol breast breastfeeding H1N1 infant influenza influenza virus mammary gland milk mother pandemic transmission viral Source Type: blogs
Profit over Safety – Centers for Disease Control Names 271 New Vaccinations
Conclusion
How many vaccinations will be considered to be a sensible number? If all of the vaccinations currently under development are deemed a success, how many of them will be added to the schedule? As there is little research to determine which ingredients are in the vaccinations listed as “under development” by the CDC, many parents are concerned about their toxicity and how best to protect their children.
I will leave you with the wise words of Robert F, Kennedy Jr: “Vaccine industry money has neutralized virtually all of the checks and balances that once stood between a rapacious pharmaceutical industry and ou...
Source: vactruth.com - August 3, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Logical Top Stories Centers for Disease Control (CDC) PhRMA Robert F. Kennedy Jr. World Health Organization (WHO) Source Type: blogs
Ben Goldacre writes in the BMJ - How medicine is broken, and how we can fix it
The chief medical officer ’s review on statins and oseltamivir may look for answers in the wrong placesLast week there was extensive news coverage of a leaked letter written by the chief medical officer to the Academy of Medical Sciences. This letter focused especially on concerns around statins and oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and asked the academy for an “authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs.”1 The academy has since announced that it is convening a working group on the subject.With any such report there are two major risks. The first is a focus on “trust...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 23, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Ben Goldacre writes in the BMJ - How medicine is broken, and how we can fix it
The chief medical officer’s review on statins and oseltamivir may look for answers in the wrong placesLast week there was extensive news coverage of a leaked letter written by the chief medical officer to the Academy of Medical Sciences. This letter focused especially on concerns around statins and oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and asked the academy for an “authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs.”1 The academy has since announced that it is convening a working group on the subject.With any such report there are two major risks. The first is a focus on “trust”...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 22, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Drinking diarrhea to save lives
If it weren’t for the coming together of people from all over the globe, the influenza pandemic of 1918, also known as the Spanish Flu, would not have had the devastating effect that it did. It is estimated that at one point this deadly strain infected one out of every five people on earth and ended up claiming the lives of approximately fifty million people (in comparison, nine million combatants and seven million civilians died during the First World War).
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Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 30, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Alberto Hazan, MD Tags: Conditions Infectious disease Source Type: blogs
You Won’t Believe Which Big-Name Groups are Opposed to Flu Vaccine Mandates
Conclusion
Millions of people are refusing vaccines, in record numbers, as they realize that vaccines are dangerous and ineffective. Now, unions and professional organizations are joining the ranks of anti-vaxers, at least with regard to mandatory vaccination. Those organizations value their members and know that they deserve choices about their bodies and their health care.
In return, those groups will be rewarded with a collectively healthier, more innovative work force, because their employees will not be forced to receive injections laced with toxic chemicals. Their employees will also know their ideas and opinions are...
Source: vactruth.com - January 17, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Missy Fluegge Tags: Missy Fluegge Top Stories American Medical Association (AMA) Mandatory Vaccination National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act truth about vaccines Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) Source Type: blogs
Forecasting Infectious Disease Spread with Web Data
Just as you might turn to Twitter or Facebook for a pulse on what’s happening around you, researchers involved in an infectious disease computational modeling project are turning to anonymized social media and other publicly available Web data to improve their ability to forecast emerging outbreaks and develop tools that can help health officials as they respond.
Mining Wikipedia Data
Incorporating real-time, anonymized data from Wikipedia and other novel sources of information is aiding efforts to forecast and respond to emerging outbreaks. Credit: Stock image.
“When it comes to infectious disease forecasting, gett...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - December 12, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Emily Carlson Tags: Computers in Biology Source Type: blogs
