Showing posts with label Referral. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Referral. Show all posts

Branswell On Flu Vaccine Matches

Photo Credit – CDC

# 6853

Last Friday, in FluView Week 1 & MMWR Vaccine Effectiveness Report, we looked at the first estimate of this year’s flu vaccine’s effectiveness, and early numbers suggest it to be around 62%.

An estimate that is very close to what the 2011 study by Michael Osterholm and his team at CIDRAP - A Comprehensive Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Meta-Analysis - found; that most years the flu vaccine was `moderately’ protective.

Unfortunately for the elderly and for those with immune problems – the people most at risk of complications from the flu – the flu vaccine’s effectiveness is often even lower (see Study: Flu Vaccines And The Elderly).

Today the inimitable Helen Branswell, ace health reporter for The Canadian Press gives us a terrific look at the vaccine effectiveness issue, with interviews of Dr. Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP, Dr. Nancy Cox at the CDC, and Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, and Dr. Edward Belongia of the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

At this point, I’ll just step out of the way and invite you to read:

Flu studies suggest vaccine `match' not super predictor of effectiveness

Helen Branswell,

Sunday, January 13, 2013 7:55 PM

Highly Recommended.

Referral: McKenna On MRSA In UK Milk

MRSA - Photo Credit – CDC PHIL

# 6805

During the summer of 2011 news of a new strain of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) found in milk in the UK made considerable headlines.

Although I wrote about it in UK: `New MRSA’ Strain Spreading, the real expert in all things antibiotic resistant in the blogosphere is Maryn Mckenna on her Superbug Blog, who provided in-depth coverage in More MRSA, in milk: A new strain in cows and humans.

Today Maryn is back with another report, this time on the detection of the ST398 strain of MRSA, recently detected in Milk produced in England.

Follow the link below to read:

Livestock MRSA Found For First Time In UK Milk

By Maryn McKenna

12.26.12

8:29 AM

Referral: McKenna On The Steroid-Linked Meningitis Outbreak

CDC update 12/3/12

# 6762

Maryn McKenna, writing on her Superbug Blog this morning, has the details of a special briefing provided to her and others from the Association of Health Care Journalists by the CDC on the multi-state meningitis outbreak linked to contaminated steroid injections.

Follow the link to read:

Fungal Meningitis From Injections: Not Even Close To Over

By Maryn McKenna

12.04.12

9:30 AM

Referral: CIDRAP News Summarizes The Coronavirus Story

Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL

# 6648

Yesterday Robert Roos, News Editor at CIDRAP News, undertook a difficult assignment; taking the often fragmentary (and sometimes contradictory) reports on the 7 confirmed (and 1 suspected) coronavirus cases in the Middle East - and putting them into a coherent narrative.

Extremely well done, and highly recommended.

WHO cites 7th coronavirus case, gives surveillance guidance

Robert Roos News Editor

Nov 29, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – A third case in a family cluster of novel coronavirus infections has been confirmed, raising the global case count to seven, and the fourth illness in the family is now listed as a probable case, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.

In a statement dated yesterday, the WHO also indicated that only one death has been attributed to the novel virus so far, contradicting a Nov 23 announcement that reported two deaths among the first six cases.

(Continue . . . )

Referral: McKenna On The NEJM Coronavirus Report

Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL

# 6642

Maryn McKenna, author of the Superbug Blog and two must read science books, takes a look at yesterday’s NEJM brief report and editorial on the novel Coronavirus isolated in a patient in Saudi Arabia.

Follow the link to read:

The New Coronavirus: Uncertainty, And How To Talk About It

By Maryn McKenna

October 17, 2012 |

Maryn McKenna Video On Disease, Cities, and Our Crowded Future

# 6512

Maryn McKenna, everyone’s favorite `scary disease girl’, has a new blog post up, along with a link to her 70 minute video presentation at the Science Gallery’s Hack The City gathering this summer in Dublin.

When you can set aside a little more than an hour of your undivided attention, by all means go and watch:

Diseases, Cities And The Coming Crowded Future

Maryn McKenna August 22, 2012

Highly recommended.

If you haven’t already, you may want to read Maryn’s terrific 2010 book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. Here is a link to my review.

Referral: McKenna On Pertussis Vaccines

# 6465

Maryn McKenna has a terrific blog this morning about an extraordinarily difficult subject – the recent rise in Pertussis cases even among those who have previously been vaccinated.

I’ll just step aside and invite you to read:

Is Childhood Pertussis Vaccine Less Effective Than We Thought?

By Maryn McKenna
August 1, 2012 |

Referral: Ed Yong On Poultry Vaccine Recombination

# 6433

A fascinating report appears in the journal Science today, which looked at the unexpected recombination of two weakened herpesviruses used in poultry vaccines, that resulted in the generation of a more fit and virulent virus.

Attenuated Vaccines Can Recombine to Form Virulent Field Viruses

Sang-Won Lee, Philip F. Markham, Mauricio J. C. Coppo, Alistair R. Legione, John F. Markham, Amir H. Noormohammadi, Glenn F. Browning, Nino Ficorilli, Carol A. Hartley, Joanne M. Devlin

Ed Yong, writing in his excellent Not Exactly Rocket Science Blog for Discover Magazine has the details, background, and analysis of why this sort of unexpected merging of live attenuated viruses is unlikely to be a problem with human vaccines.

By all means, take a side trip to read Ed’s:

Chicken vaccines merged to form live viruses and caused outbreaks of irony

Referral: McKenna On Resistant UTIs

# 6429

Maryn McKenna, everybody’s favorite scary disease girl, has a double whammy for us this morning. A blog post, and an extended investigative report in The Atlantic, on the suspected link between resistant UTIs and the routine feeding of antibiotics to poultry.

First stop, is Maryn’s SUPERBUG BLOG, where she previews her investigative article – produced with the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

Investigation: Drug Resistance, Chicken And 8 Million UTIs

By Maryn McKenna July 11, 2012

If Maryn’s blog post is a tasty Hors d'oeuvre, then the main course is served up in The Atlantic.

How Your Chicken Dinner Is Creating a Drug-Resistant Superbug

By Maryn McKenna

Jul 11 2012, 5:16 PM ET 1

Continuing to treat urinary tract infections as a short-term, routine ailment rather than a long-term food safety issue risks turning the responsible bacteria into a major health crisis.

(Continue . . . )

Both pieces are highly recommended.

And finally, for anyone who has not yet read Maryn’s terrific 2010 book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, a link to my review.

Researchers Discover New Flu Gene

# 6409

A reoccurring theme in this blog is just how much we have yet to learn about how our immune systems, influenza viruses, and other pathogens function.

Illustrative of this fact is the surprise announcement yesterday that researchers at Universities of Cambridge, Cork, Edinburgh and Utah, the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle and the NIH have discovered a previously unknown gene hidden inside the influenza virus genome.

Dubbed PA-X, this gene (when active) helps attenuates the virulence of the virus. When this gene does not function properly, the flu virus can over stimulate the immune system, making the infection worse.

This discovery appears in a research article published yesterday by Science.

An Overlapping Protein-Coding Region in Influenza A Virus Segment 3 Modulates the Host Response

B. W. Jagger, H. M. Wise,J. C. Kash, K.-A. Walters, N. M. Wills, Y.-L. Xiao, R. L. Dunfee, L. M. Schwartzman, A. Ozinsky, G. L. Bell, R. M. Dalton, A. Lo, S. Efstathiou, J. F. Atkins, A. E. Firth, J. K. Taubenberger, P. Digard

While a short press release from the University of Edinburgh is available (see Gene discovery helps explain how flu can cause severe infections), Ed Yong’s Blog at Discover Magazine provides some of the best analysis of this research that I’ve seen.

At this point, I will step aside and invite you to read Ed’s excellent article:

New flu gene found hiding in plain sight, and affects severity of infections

Ed Yong – Not Exactly Rocket Science

Referral: McKenna Times Four

# 6367

Maryn McKenna has two new blogs up, both dealing with the dangers of antibiotics in livestock, and a new article in SELF Magazine, and all three are very much worth taking the time to read this morning.

As an added bonus, Maryn will also be conducting a twitter chat tomorrow (details below), so block out an hour of your time and start thinking about your questions.

While I scrounge around looking for something for my own blog this morning, I would invite you to jump over to Maryn’s site to read:

Court Scolds FDA Over Ag Antibiotic Use

By Maryn McKenna June 5, 2012

The Superbugs In Your Dinner (Bonus: Twitterchat!)

By Maryn McKenna June 6, 2012 |
6:00 am

As her second blog explains, Maryn has a major new article up on SELF Magazine, and tomorrow Maryn will hold a twitter chat. The details from Maryn’s blog follow:

Now: Bonus! With SELF’s help, Lisa and I are going to conduct a Twitterchat tomorrow (Thursday, June 7), starting at 4 pm ET and going for an hour. To participate, follow me (@marynmck), Lisa (@adamslisa) or SELF (@SELFMagazine), or watch for the hashtag #superbugs. Send us your questions in advance or during the chat. We really want to hear from you.

And finally, for anyone who has not yet read Maryn’s eye-opening 2010 book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, a link to my review.

Laurie Garrett: Risks Of FMD & Bird Flu Destabilizing Egypt

Photo Credit – FAO

# 6325

From Laurie Garrett and Steven A. Cook an important story in The Atlantic this morning on the growing destabilization of Egypt due to the spread of FMD and Avian flu.

I’ll just step aside and invite you to read:

Egypt's Real Crisis: The Dual Epidemics Quietely Ravaging Public Health

International May 14 2012, 7:01 AM ET

A combination of avian flu and foot and mouth disease risk destroying the protein supply, eroding public trust, and further destabilizing the Arab world's most populous country . . .

(Continue . . . )

Four Million Fears, BC

# 6303

One of the recurring themes in this blog is that disasters can strike anytime, and just about anywhere. For most people, that remains an abstract concept and hard to accept possibility.

Which is why it is useful to identify local hazards and point them out to the residents. Here in Florida, talk of hurricane preparedness begins every year several weeks before the season starts.

Fellow blogger Crawford Kilian (aka Crof) has a nice feature in The Tyee today, that looks at five disasters that – given enough time – are likely to impact the roughly four million residents of British Columbia.

Five Disasters to Befall BC

TYEE LIST #12: Earthquakes, pandemics, solar flares; a calamitous pall hangs over our province.

By Crawford Kilian, Today, TheTyee.ca

Natural disasters are exciting when they happen to other people, but we'd rather not think about undergoing them ourselves. As Woody Allen famously observed, "I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Still, we should make our wills even when we're in our prime, and we should bear in mind that some events are so extensive that we will indeed be there when they happen. So let us consider five certain disasters B.C. will face at some point in the future.

(Continue . . . )

As always, Crof provides an interesting and informative read.

As if to drive home the point, in the overnight hours the island of Vancouver has experienced no fewer than three 4.0+ magnitude quakes. Not enough to do any real damage – but a not so gentle reminder that millions of us stand on shaky ground.

For another take on all of this - last year in Just A Matter Of Time - I took a long look at the devastating potential of a Vancouver earthquake – tsunami combination.

Laurie Garrett Blogs On The H5N1 Research Controversy

# 6156

Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist (1996 for her series on Ebola) and author of 3 books (including The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance), has been writing extensively these past couple of months about the H5N1 research controversy.

I mentioned earlier essays of hers here and here, and she was part of the NYAS discussion panel on this research earlier this month which you can view at the following link:

"Dual Use Research: H5N1 Influenza Virus and Beyond" Panel Sparks Lively Debate

This week Garrett has also been blogging extensively while technical talks were held in Geneva over the fate of the Fouchier and Kawaoka research papers.

She is roughly at the halfway point of what she expects will be a weeklong series. You can access all of them at her blog.

As of this posting, the following essays are up:

The Man-made H5N1 Controversy Heats Up: What Next? (Part One)

The Man-made H5N1 Controversy Heats Up: What Next? (Part Two)

The Man-made H5N1 Controversy Heats Up: What Next? (Part Three A)

The Man-made H5N1 Controversy Heats Up: What Next? (Part Three B)

The Man-made H5N1 Controversy Heats Up: What Next? (Part Four)

Referral: McKenna On India’s Denial Of TDR-TB

# 6108

When I saw the reports on Friday about India’s Health Ministry’s attempts to downplay reports of totally drug resistant tuberculosis, I was immediately reminded of the old joke about the doctor who couldn’t cure you, but for a small fee he’d touch up your X-rays.

Today, Maryn McKenna takes a closer look at India’s denials (which are similar to the official reaction we saw last year over NDM-1) in her Superbug Blog.

Follow the link to read:

TDR-TB: The Indian Government Denies It

By Maryn McKenna

January 29, 2012

An update to the news two weeks ago of totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, TDR-TB, being identified in India (and earlier in Italy and Iran): The Indian government has announced that it doesn’t exist, and is putting pressure on the physicians who identified it to say they made a mistake.

(Continue . . . )

Referral: Crof On Cholera

# 6072

Crof, who has covered the Haitian cholera epidemic and subsequent local and international repercussions since the outbreak began, continues his exemplary coverage this weekend.

Fifteen months after it emerged, cholera continues to claim lives and exact a miserable toll on that impoverished Caribbean nation.

You’ll find several new reports well worth reading this weekend on Crofsblog regarding a fresh outbreak in Pestel, including:

Haiti: Dr. John Carroll on cholera in Pestel, January 14, 2012 (updated)

Haiti: Cholera in Pestel so far

Haiti: More cholera news from Pestel

Referral: A Summary Of Worldwide H5N1 Cases in 2011

# 6048

One of the senior moderators at FluTrackers, who goes by the moniker Laidback Al, has put together an impressive overview of human H5N1 cases reported during the year just past.

Al, who is well known at FluTrackers for his skill with maps and charts, uses visual representations of the data to good effect here.

I’ve posted just a snippet from the abstract and smaller versions of a couple of his graphics below, but I encourage everyone to go to the thread and read it in its entirety.

This is as fine of an overview of the situation as you are apt to find anywhere, and I’ve already downloaded a copy and put in into the reference folder on my desktop.

It’s a keeper, and highly recommended.

A Summary of Worldwide Human H5N1 Cases in 2011

Laidback Al, Senior Moderator, www.FluTrackers.com
January 1, 2012

Abstract – In 2011, 59 human cases of H5N1 were reported from around the world, a 23% increase over 2010. Five countries reported cases in 2011, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, and Indonesia. Almost half of the 59 cases (about 45%) were children under 10 years old. The fatality rate did not appreciably decline in 2011, about half of all the reported cases died. Four small family clusters were noted during the year. The source of exposure for all of the cluster cases has been reported as exposure to sick and dying poultry. None of these clusters resulted in sustained human to human transmission. Based on an analysis of the 2011 data, the potential for a virulent H5N1 pandemic has not diminished.

(Continue . . . )

Referral: Maryn McKenna On Regulatory Obstacles To Fecal Transplants

# 5999

Maryn has a fascinating article this morning on her Superbug Blog on the regulatory obstacles that are hindering what appears to be a safe, cheap, and extremely effective cure for often intractable and devastating C. diff infections; Fecal Transplants.

First a link to Maryn’s article (which goes along with a series she is writing for Scientific American), and then I’ll return with a brief anecdote.

Fecal Transplants: They Work, the Regulations Don’t

By Maryn McKenna December 9, 2011

A little over 40 years ago (1970 to be precise), I read a book that had a profound effect on my future. It was Dr. William Nolen’s The Making of A Surgeon, which recounted his surgical internship at Bellevue Hospital during the 1950s.

It is what inspired me to become a paramedic.

One of the stories he relates in this book was of a patient in the surgical ward suffering from uncontrollable diarrhea due to what was likely C. diff, who was at genuine risk of dying.

Nolen and two other interns were at wit’s end, trying to treat this person, until one of them reasoned that if they could introduce good bacteria from a healthy patient into this patient's gut, they might effect a cure.

What followed next essentially involved chocolate milk, a `secret ingredient’, a lot of stirring, and no informed consent.

When their resident found out what they’d done, he went ballistic, and for a time all three interns thought their careers were ended. They waited in fear for days for the patient to die from their ill advised treatment.

As it turned out, the `cure’ worked.

Although the delivery method (and donor screening) used by Nolen and his cohorts needed substantial upgrades, it is a bit amazing that 60 years later this technique hasn’t become routine.

While it is a bit dated, I highly recommend Dr. Nolen’s book to anyone who has an interest in the hectic, and often hilarious, learning curve of medical interns.

Nature: Special Influenza Supplement

# 5995

The journal Nature has released a special, freely accessible, influenza-centric supplement on their website today.

You’ll find articles on antiviral drugs, vaccines, epidemiology, and viral evolution. While I’ve only just quickly scanned a couple of the articles, it looks very much worth perusing.

Follow the link below to read:

Influenza

Vol. 480, No. 7376 (08 December 2011)

Produced with support from Sanofi Pasteur, Crucell and Baxter.

Our centuries-old battle against influenza occasionally erupts into mass death – the 1918 pandemic alone killed at least 50 million people. What makes this virus such a tough foe is its ability to mutate so that vaccines and drugs quickly become obsolete. Can new research offer hope for defeating this pathogen for good?

Referral: Zimmer On Bird Flu Research

Photo Credit CDC PHIL

# 5988

Over the past couple of weeks bird flu researchers have been slammed repeatedly in the popular press for conducting experiments that have produced a better H5N1 virus.

One that is not only lethal, but transmits well among mammals. (see New Scientist: Five Easy Mutations)

Many media pundits have seized the populist high ground on this issue by calling these researchers `mad scientists’ and by evoking visions of bioterrorists making up vials of this (admittedly) nasty pathogen in their basement.

It’s not hard to demonize a person, a project, or an idea . . . if you know how.

Use the right `buzz’ words, ridicule or defame a person or their goals – no matter how worthy - and in short order complex issues become one-sided affairs.

Soon nearly everyone is on the bandwagon, and very quickly any opposing views are marginalized.

Of course, things are rarely as simple, or one-sided, as many people would have you believe (see The Bird Flu Research Debate Continues).

While there are legitimate issues over how much detail of these experiments should end up published, the actual research is important if we are to understand the evolution (and true threat) of the H5N1 virus.

Carl Zimmer is a well known author (12 books & counting) and science writer, who among other things, pens The Loom blog on Discover Magazine.

Today he explains why this research matters, and how little these scientists actually had to do to facilitate the creation of this lethal strain.

Very much worth reading. Follow the link to read:

Making viruses the natural way

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