swine flu
grrlscientist | July 4, 2009
Auror and actor, Ronald Weasley, has appeared in all the biographical Harry Potter films.
Harry Potter's best friend, Ronald Weasley, is recovering from a "mild bout" of swine flu, his publicist has said.
After kissing a pig that had been charmed by his older brother and businessman, George Weasley, he became ill. He was successfully treated at St. Mungo's hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Weasley has now returned to work as an auror alongside his best friend and fellow school dropout, Harry Potter.
And he is well enough to attend the world premiere of the biographical film,…
revere | July 4, 2009The number of people who die from seasonal flu every year varies greatly from year to year. No one really knows what it is. The most frequently (mis)quoted figure is 36,000 deaths directly or indirectly, although this figure is a long term seasonal average of excess mortality correlated with flu season. We discussed this in more detail in an earlier post and for the purposes of this one, only the rough order of magnitude is pertinent. Let's just say it's in the tens of thousands -- roughly. Let's also agree on the several hundred thousand hospitalizations from flu or flu related illness -- on…
revere | July 3, 2009It's not even three months since the first H1N1 swine flu cases were diagnosed in San Diego, but already there is a significant amount of science published on the subject. Lots of genetic sequences from various isolates, clinical descriptions of hospitalized and fatal cases and now animal experiments. Two teams, one in The Netherlands and one in the US, have infected ferrets and mice with pandemic H1N1 isolates from Europe, the US and Mexico and compared transmissibility, virulence and pathology with seasonal H1N1 strains. The two papers were published yesterday in the journal, Science (…
ddobbs | July 2, 2009Helen Branswell delivers some sobering news:Swine flu viruses are missing at least two key features seen in all flu viruses present and past that transmit well among people and yet the viruses are spreading quite efficiently, two new studies suggest.
The research groups which produced the work differ slightly in their views of the degree to which the novel H1N1 virus is spreading, with one finding transmission isn't yet as efficient as with human flu viruses while the other finding transmission rates are in lockstep with those of seasonal flu cousins.
There is no disputing the evidence,…
edyong | July 2, 2009The swine flu pandemic is well under way. With the WHO citing almost 60,000 laboratory-confirmed cases at the time of writing, the race is truly on to understand more about the virus. Now, two new studies have painted a fresh but partly contradictory picture about two of the virus's most important aspects - its infectivity (its ability to spread from host to host) and its virulence (its ability to cause disease in a host). These two traits will largely determine the threat that the virus poses, especially in relation to more familiar garden varieties of seasonal flu.
Both groups, one based…
revere | July 2, 2009The first cases of swine flu were diagnosed in the US in San Diego in mid-April. The discovery was serendipitous, the result of out-of-season US-Mexican border surveillance and use of a new diagnostic test at the Naval Health Research Center. When the new test protocol showed infection with influenza A with undeterminable subtype, follow-up testing showed it to be an previously unknown swine flu virus. Detection of a second, apparently unlinked swine flu infection in San Diego got the outbreak (now pandemic) investigation rolling.
That was just over 2 months ago, but it established the…
ddobbs | June 30, 2009
U.S. Cases of New Flu Hit a High This Week, notes the WS Journal. Or, as the BBC puts it, US passes million swine flu cases. Effect Measure, meanwhile, ponders the flu's course in South America, where Hospitals `Overwhelmedâ By Flu Cases In Argentina.
We have just 90 days till flu season resumes here. H5N1 considers how to get ready, including a handy hydration formula.
revere | June 30, 2009Currently the only antiviral drugs effective against the swine flu (novel H1N1) virus are the two neuriminidase inhibitors, oseltamivir (trade name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (trade name Relenza). Relenza is in active form at the outset and cannot be absorbed orally. It must be inhaled, leading to asthmatic reactions in some, ineffective dosage in those with breathing difficulties, and no drug at sites beyond the respiratory tract. Despite these drawbacks, it has so far produced little or no viral resistance. Tamiflu is absorbed orally and converted by the liver into the active form, so it gets…
edyong | June 29, 2009The swine flu pandemic (S-OIV) currently sweeping the world is the result of an influenza H1N1 virus that made the leap from pigs to humans. But this jump is just the latest leg of a journey that has taken over 90 years and shows no signs of finishing.
Today's pandemic is a fourth-generation descendant of the 1918 flu virus that infected around a third of the world's population. This original virus is an incredible survivor and one that has spawned a huge legacy of daughter viruses. By importing and exporting its genes, it has contributed to several new strains that have been responsible for…
revere | June 29, 2009Crafting a message on swine flu is not easy, and it's easy to make missteps. I think CDC has gotten it pretty much right over the last two months, but not everyone has. We've written here since the beginning (some examples here and here) that describing any flu outbreak as "mild" is inapt. Flu always has the potential to be a serious disease and kill people, even in flu seasons termed "mild" by comparing them to flu seasons that are "bad." Even with virulent flu viruses many people have minimal illness -- in comparison to those who don't. But flu, even in its most common form of a self-…
revere | June 28, 2009A few days ago we posted about hedge funds getting ready for a swine flu pandemic. At the time we wondered what other industries and businesses were getting ready. We don't know the answer, but we are seeing more signs the message has gotten through. Yesterday we saw this story about a regional airport in Arizona:
The Valley's Mesa-based reliever airport is gearing up to operate with a surprisingly lean staff should the Swine Flu pandemic decimate the airfield's workforce.
Keeping Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport flightworthy with a skeleton crew was added earlier this month to mandatory…
revere | June 27, 2009Early returns on what is happening in the southern hemisphere suggest that novel H1N1 is crowding out the expected seasonal strains, something that pandemic strains have usually done. In 1918 there was a pandemic with the H1N1 subtype that settled down as the dominant seasonal flu virus until the "Asian flu" pandemic of 1957 when it was bumped by H2N2. That subtype ruled the seasonal flu roost for only 9 years when a new subtype, H3N2 took its place in the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968. Both pandemics were much less severe than 1918 but still resulted in millions of excess deaths globally.…
revere | June 25, 2009A story in yesterday's New York Times was headlined: In New Theory, Swine Flu Started in Asia, Not Mexico. That sounded pretty interesting. What's the new evidence? The answer? None. Just speculation. So what's going on?
Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human.
But they emphasized that there was no way to prove their theory and only sketchy data underpinning it.
There is no evidence that this new virus…
revere | June 24, 2009For years those concerned about the consequences of an influenza pandemic from an exceptionally virulent flu virus, like A/H5N1 ("bird flu") have despaired about motivating business, government and neighbors to take it seriously enough to make serious preparations. It's understandable. There's are a lot of potential catastrophes competing for our attention and while each can be made plausible if we can get someone to listen long enough, it's rare we can do this. As I said, too much competition. Now that a real life influenza pandemic has arrived, the concern of some is that the public isn't…
revere | June 23, 2009CDC has another snapshot of what the flu surveillance system is seeing up through week 23 (ending June 13). It shows flu still circulating in many communities at a time when most seasonal flu is normally at a very low level. Indeed of the 2765 specimens tested in CDC's network of 150 laboratories, virtually all of the roughly 40% were influenza A (seasonal influenza B has all but disappeared; the others were not influenza). Not all the flu A viruses were or could be subtyped, but of those that were or could be, 98% were novel H1N1. IN other words, there's lots of flu around, but essentially…
revere | June 20, 2009Two elite flu reporters, Helen Branswell (Canadian Press) and Declan Butler (Nature), both noted yesterday the dearth of clinic information on the serious and fatal swine flu cases. First Butler:
Clinical researchers have been slow to respond to the 2009 flu pandemic, lament researchers writing in today's Lancet. "Public health officials, virologists, epidemiologists, and policy makers have done well in responding to a rapidly emerging and complex problem. By contrast, the clinical research community's response has been delayed and modest, " writes Jeremy Farrar, a researcher in Ho Chi Minh…
revere | June 19, 2009Swine flu infection of health care workers (or as CDC refers to them, health care personnel or HCP) was of interest early in the pre-pandemic phase for at last two reasons. One was the obvious goal of estimating the risk to front line workers and devising best practices for their protection. Another was the belief, reinforced by the SARS outbreak in 2003, that spread to HCP was an early warning that the virus was easily transmissible from person to person. SARS is a disease where patients are most infectious in the later stages when they are extremely ill, and HCP were among the hardest hit…
revere | June 17, 2009I've been getting questions about whether it is safe to send sons and daughters to travel to places where there might be a lot of swine flu about. Many are from people in North America whose children are due to travel to Asia or Africa. The irony is that it is North America which is where most of the cases are, but that will undoubtedly change. And the real fear, I think, is what happens if someone gets really sick far from home, possible somewhere where the medical care is sub-optimal. That's not just a swine flu concern. Those of us who travel often take out medical travel insurance that…
ddobbs | June 16, 2009SciAm ponders evidence that fish hatcheries are watering down the trout and salmon gene pool.
Matt Yglesias looks at one of many lies being told by those opposing health-care reform â confirming Salon's prediction that the opponents of reform are not going to play nice. See also The American Prospect on How Big Pharma Intends to Kill the Public Option. I should add this campaign is having an effect: On the radio this morning I heard NPR Steve Insky Inskeep vigorously press the "public plan as trojan horse" attack on Kathleen Sibelius; I can only hope he'll as vigorously ask people such as…
revere | June 14, 2009Swine flu is a depressing and worrying topic, but into each depressing and worrying topic a little sun must shine. Or an opportunity glimpsed. Or something like that:
The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday, raising its pandemic warning from phase 5 to 6, making swine flu the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. Now that H1N1 "Swine Flu" has been elevated to pandemic status, with reports of outbreaks in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, San Francisco, USA-based Cannabis Science Inc. (OTCBB: CBIS) CEO Steven Kubby urges public health officials around the world to…