Almost A No Show?

This article, published in The Canandian Press by Helen Branswell, was written on March 7, 2012 and is called “Why So Little Flu this Year? Experts Baffled.” The author begins by saying how mild the seasonal flu has been in places such as the US and Canada. Many people are unsure as to why there haven’t been as many cases of the flu as there usually are.

The truth is, as the article states, there is a lot we do not know about the flu. We aren’t sure why it is bad some years and not so bad other years. It is possible, as Dr. Anthony Mounts from the WHO in Geneva said, that this winter’s mild weather could be the cause. If people are outside more, which was often the case this warm winter, then they would not be crowded indoors, where it is easier to spread germs.

Scientists said there is unlikely to be one single answer as to why there were few flu cases this year. Many even think that the answers are beyond temperature and humidity indications. As Dr. Allison McGeer said, “It's very clear that it's not just having a milder than usual winter that makes a difference."

Even in parts of Europe where this winter has been particularly bad, there has been little flu activity.

In addition, increased levels of flu vaccines don’t really explain the low levels of flu cases. Even vaccinating 25-40% of a whole population won’t stop the flu from striking.

Even though the number of cases of flu have been significantly low this year, it is still important to note that there have still been many cases. It just has not hit the peak that it has been known to reach in the past. The closest peak Toronto has seen was in the past two weeks when there has been about 250 hospitalizations.

The circulating viruses have been around for some time, which means people will have many antibodies for the different influenza strains from the last couple of years.
The mild flu season this past year is worrisome as to what next year will bring. Some think it will be a hard hit. McGeer adds that the severity of the flu season is something we will never really be able to predict.

This article ties directly into our Influenza unit. We studied how the different H and N strains determine the seasonal flu, and the author of this article describes how tricky it can be to tell which one is coming. Scientists are also worried we could get a bad hit of influenza like the year 1918.

I think this article was really interesting and it caught my eye immediately. After hearing about all of the horrible deaths from influenza in the past, to see an article about how mild the disease was this season really shocked me. It also makes me think if there will be a serious outbreak in the near future, and how it can affect a town such as Reading.

For more information, visit:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120307/mild-flu-season-influenza-120307/

Haiti Cholera Source Revealed

In the article "Haiti: Cholera Epidemic’s First Victim Identified as River Bather Who Forsook Clean Water", the author writes about how the person who caused the cholera outbreak in Haiti has undoubtedly been identified. Researchers believe that a man known in the town of Mirebalais as the "crazy man" was the first to contract cholera. It is said that he had clean water to drink, but he would walk through the town of Mirebalais nude and bathe in the Latem River, which was just downstream from the Meye River, a place where raw sewage drained from a United Nations peacekeepers encampment from Nepal. The mentally handicapped man became ill with diarrhea and died within 24 hours. Two man became ill with cholera after washing the "crazy man's" body for his funeral, and they both died within 48 hours.

This article relates directly to the unit we learned about cholera. Researchers had to track the outbreak to one person, and they were able to track the London outbreak to the Lewis baby. Just like the London outbreak, researchers used resources and were able to discover the cause of the cholera outbreak in Haiti. I think it is interesting that researchers were able to track the outbreak back to this man based on his daily habits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/haitian-cholera-epidemic-traced-to-first-known-victim.html?_r=1&ref=epidemics

MRSA Found in Livestock and Causing Concern to Humans

In class this week we have been talking about the spread of disease from animals to humans, so this article caught my eye. The main concept of the article is the concern that livestock are becoming resistant to antibiotics to treat bacterial infections including MRSA. New studies are revealing that the diseases can be transmitted from livestock to human.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known simply as MRSA is causing the most stir in this study. The concern with MRSA is that it does not react to any form of medication and is a highly contagious staph bacteria. MRSA in humans has been causing concern recently as a student athlete at a Florida college is fighting for her life after being infected. The disease is deadly and although some cases are mild, they can become dangerous very quickly. However an alarming 20,000 or so Americans die each year to MRSA. Typically the disease infects the skin, but can also cause respitory complications.

In the past the disease has been detected in common livestock, however researches attributed the findings to a strain found in humans. However they believe that the disease mutated itself into several different forms in the livestock and created the dangerous antibiotic resistance form.

In the years following, livestock were fed drugs in their animal feed to grow them healthier and larger to produce better meat. Another advantage to feed the animals this drug was that it prevented bacteria growth including E. Coli which can infect humans when poorly prepared food is eaten. But the negative to the drug is that it creates that antibiotic resistance in the livestock. The article focuses on the debate over whether or not to continue to feed this drug to the livestock.

As I mentioned before we have recently been studying how birds specifically have been transmitting flu to humans since 1918 and possibly further back. Im not sure however, where I stand on the issue of whether or not these drugs should still be fed to livestock. I don't agree that the drugs should be used only to make the livestock bigger, but less fatty, because I believe that is more to keep business up. However, there is more to it than a business deal. I see benefits to the drug because it does prevent the growth of bacteria like E. Coli which can infect us from poorly cooked meat. Yet while the drug does good, it also creates antibiotic resistant bacteria which can be dangerous regarding the spread of MRSA. What stood out to me from the article was that MRSA has become so dangerous in the United States for those handeling livestock. It then spreads to other humans who may not even be in contact with the animals. Then, being a strain of staph, it can spread through sweat and is often an issue for athletes or gym goers. Being an athlete myself it really makes me contemplate whether the drug should be fed to the livestock, because I never knew the disease began this way. A number that really stood out to me was "Zervos said about 20,000 Americans die each year due to MRSA complications, meaning there are more deaths related to the staph infection than AIDS each year. About 16,000 people in the United States die of AIDS each year, according to the CDC. " So should these animals be fed this drug?

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mrsa-livestock-spread-humans/story?id=15753074

In class we have been discussing Influenza for the past few days. in the article WHO: Bird Flu Study Could Be Published in Full After Risks Assessed , by Liz Klimas written on February 22, 2012 discuses the risks involved with the publication of the study of the mutated form of the bird flu or H1N5.
If the flu
was to fall into the wrong hands of a person, there could be a major epidemic
break out or even worse a pandemic. After the meeting of flu experts and other
researchers in Geneva, there was
still a great debate over should the research be published or not.
Publishing
something so dangerous in newspapers and broadcasting on the news could
advertise this research to the wrong people.
Gregory Hartl, a WHO (world health
organization) spokesman, said that “there must be a much fuller discussion of
risk and benefits of research in this area and risks of the virus itself.” This
topic is just like any other risk people take, except there could be a severe
problem if the flu got out and into the wrong hands, does the public really
need to know all about whats going on in those labs?
Personally
I think this could be published if it was done so in an appropriate way. Such
as not telling of the location of where the virus is being studied and held
along with who is conducting the research and the workers.
All of the
information about the research could one day be published but only after there
is a definite known vaccination or cure for this mutated form of the flu in
case the virus did in fact enter the wrong hands.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/who-bird-full-study-could-be-published-in-full-after-risks-assessed/

Precaution During Pandemic Outbreaks

This February, McMaster University led a study about health precautions during pandemics and topics brought about mainly included closing elementary and secondary schools to help slow the outbreak of pandemics.

Supporting arguments and details include the Alberta school case. In Alberta during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, research shows that during the summer, when schools were closed, person to person transmission was decreased drastically. The leader of the study, author David Earn firmly believes that children are the number one "drivers" when it comes to transmitting disease.

During the first, and second, wave of the pandemic Alberta was the only Canadian province to have extensive virologic testing. As the pandemic continued on they were able to realize what incidence happened with each outbreak. They were able to demonstrate that transmission of disease stopped by at least fifty percent.

Those included in this study strongly urge to close schools during pandemics to stop spread of disease. This article relates to what we learn in class because we always cover what to do in case of pandemics, and what measures need to be taken. Safety precautions are one of the most important factors when it comes to pandemics and need to be treated as such.

US scientist handle a deadly virus to increase knowledge of the Bird Flu

In Washington, a scientist created an easier-to-spread version of the bird flu that would be used for testing. This scientist believes that people shouldn’t be as fearful of this experiment.

When the bird flu strikes it is deadly. However, this is very rare and usually only occurs when a human is in contact with infected poultry. Bird flu is deadly because of its ability to mutate and potentially cause a pandemic. “Researchers in the Netherlands and Wisconsin were studying how that might happen when they created bird flu strains that at least some mammals — ferrets — can spread by coughing or sneezing.” This means that the scientists are testing the virus and observing its mutations to further understand the virus.

This experiment caused a lot of controversy. Bioterrorism was one concern and U.S. health officials urged the details be kept secret. Critics also feared that there could be a lab accident where the virus could escape and possibly start an epidemic.

However, on Wednesday Dr. Ron Fouchier of the Netherlands' Erasmus University told a group of U.S. scientists that the virus did not kill the ferrets. Also, those ferrets that have previously been exposed to the flu virus were protected. This experiment gives scientist a better understanding of the bird flu.

This article is significant because the bird flu has the potential to cause an epidemic if it is not monitored by scientists. This kind of experiment may be controversial but it is crucial. We need to protect ourselves from this deadly virus and understand how it can mutate. This article directly relates to our class since we are studying the influenza epidemic that occurred in 1918. I think its interesting how epidemics of the past have the potential to reoccur. The outbreak of influenza in the past was horrific and scientists need to study the virus to make sure that will never happen again.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-health/20120229/US.MED.Bird.Flu/

Bird flu, pig flu, now bat flu? Human risk unclear.

Scientist recently have found evidence of a flu found in Bats. It is a never before seen strand of flu, and the risk to humans is still unclear. The Bats that the virus was found in was a kind of bat that only eats fruits, a little yellow-shouldered bat from Guatemala. They don't bite us so it can't spread that way. But it can spread by the bat leaving the virus on a piece of fruit and us humans eating it. But some people are still skeptical. Richard "Mick" Fulton said "In my mind, if you can't grow the virus, how do you know that the virus is there?” That is up to the scientist to decide with more research and more testing. So far, the virus hasn’t mutated and it still is unable to be transmitted from bat to human. If it stays that way, we will be safe. The next step is to try to find a way to keep the virus from ever being a threat to us. The scientists will do the necessary steps in order to find a way to keep it unthreatening.

With all the talk about swine flu in the past few years, I can only imagine what bat flu is. The Scientists say that they can't even grow the newly found flu virus on chicken eggs or a human cell culture. And they don't even know if it is going to be a risk to us yet. The risk is if the virus somehow got exposed to the more common influenza we know, and then mutate into something that can affect us and that we don't have a cure for yet. Just like the scenario in the recent movie Contagion, when the bird flu found a way to get transmitted human to human, and it caused massive amounts of deaths, in a short period of time. Hopefully that won’t happen!

In my opinion, I think this "Bat Flu" will be fully investigated by the scientists, and they will be able to keep it under control. It won't be a threat to humans, but that is just speculation. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

To read more on this article go to:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/28/bird-flu-pig-flu-now-bat-flu-human-risk-unclear/