Skip to main content

Home/ WSU Virology/ Group items tagged pandemic

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
laceemarie

Airborne Transmission of Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Between Ferrets - 12 views

www.sciencemag.org/...1534.full

shared by laceemarie on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • The MBCS in HA can be cleaved by ubiquitously expressed host proteases; this cleavage facilitates systemic virus replication and results in mortality of up to 100% in poultry (9, 10).
  • Although limited A/H5N1 virus transmission between persons in close contact has been reported, sustained human-to-human transmission of HPAI A/H5N1 virus has not been detected (13–15).
    • Casey Finnerty
      Casey Finnerty on 05 Sep 14
       
      Could this not be happening?
  • The viruses that caused the major pandemics of the past century emerged upon reassortment (that is, genetic mixing) of animal and human influenza viruses (22).
    • Casey Finnerty
      Casey Finnerty on 05 Sep 14
       
      How many pandemics are they talking about? Put another way, for how many pandemics in human history, do we have the virus on hand to analyze?
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Influenza A viruses show pronounced genetic variation of the surface glycoproteins HA and NA
    • slgoogin8981
      slgoogin8981 on 05 Sep 14
       
      Why is this an important site for variation?
    • laceemarie
      laceemarie on 08 Sep 14
       
      To be able to bind to a variety of different cells?
  • the factors that determine airborne transmission of influenza viruses among mammals, a trait necessary for a virus to become pandemic, have remained largely unknown (18–21)
  • Casey Finnerty on 04 Sep 14
     
    This is the H5N1 mammal transmissibility paper from the Fouchier group.
Sarah Muncy

Koala pandemic genetics: Viruses have inserted themselves into the human genome 31 time... - 1 views

www.slate.com/...themselves_into_the_human.html

shared by Sarah Muncy on 07 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • And in future generations, those genes will gradually mutate and lose their ability to make new viruses. Eventually, the koala retrovirus will become extinct. All that will remain will be its imprisoned DNA.
    • Sarah Muncy
      Sarah Muncy on 12 Dec 12
       
      Wow- they seem pretty confident in what will happen, what mutations will take place and what their effects will be. Hmm.
  • In many koalas, the virus’ genes aren’t present just in the immune cells. The koalas carry the virus genes in every cell of their bodies, from their vestigial tails to their snub noses and in every organ in between
    • Sarah Muncy
      Sarah Muncy on 12 Dec 12
       
      Wait, so if the virus can infect EVERY kind of cell, it must either have lots of receptors or a wide range of receptor specificity, right? If it's THAT much of a generalist, then surely it must be infectious to other organisms- or at least capable of entry. Does that mean it's at risk for spread in other mammals?
  • Koalas had long been known to have terrible health
    • Sarah Muncy
      Sarah Muncy on 12 Dec 12
       
      I've never heard of a wild animal population having "terrible health." That's something you hear about in pure-bred populations, such as with pure bred dogs. If they have notoriously poor health, why do they exist?
Casey Finnerty

An Old Disease Returns: Dengue Is in Florida and May Be Heading North | Wired Science |... - 0 views

www.wired.com/...dengue-returns-us

DHV Dengue virology microbiology

shared by Casey Finnerty on 29 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Casey Finnerty on 29 Jan 13
     
    "series on pandemics"
Casey Finnerty

Flu Deaths Reach Epidemic Level, but May Be at Peak - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...levels-but-may-be-peaking.html

virology influenza microbiology

shared by Casey Finnerty on 13 Jan 13 - Cached
  • Although the report supported getting flu shots, it said that new vaccines offering lifelong protection against all flu strains, instead of annual partial protection against a mix-and-match set, must be created.
  • “Vaccine effectiveness” is a very different metric from vaccine-virus match, which is done in a lab. Vaccine efficacy is measured by interviewing hundreds of sick or recovering patients who had positive flu tests and asking whether and when they had received shots.
  • During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, many elderly Americans had natural protection, presumably from flus they caught in the 1930s or ’40s.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • “Think about that,” Dr. Osterholm said. “Even though they were old, they were still protected. We’ve got to figure out how to capture that kind of immunity — which current vaccines do not.”
  • Dr. Bresee acknowledged the difficulties, saying: “If I had the perfect answer as to how to make a better flu vaccine, I’d probably get a Nobel Prize.”
  • a preliminary study rated this year’s vaccine as 62 percent effective, even though it is a good match for the most worrisome virus circulating.
  • urged Americans to keep getting flu shots.
  • Even though deaths stepped — barely — into epidemic territory for the first time last Saturday, the C.D.C. officials expressed no alarm, and said it was possible that new flu infections were peaking in some parts of the country.
  • Epidemiologists count how many death certificates are filed in a flu year, compare the number with normal years, and estimate what percentage were probably flu-related.
  • The C.D.C.’s vaccine effectiveness study bore out the point of view of a report released last year by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. It said that the shot’s effectiveness had been “overpromoted and overhyped,” said Michael T. Osterholm, the center’s director.
  • At the same time, he praised the C.D.C. for measuring vaccine effectiveness in midseason. “We’re the only ones in the world who have data like that,” he said.
  • “To get a vaccine across the ‘Valley of Death’ is likely to cost $1 billion,”
  • the metric means the shot “reduces by 62 percent your chance of getting a flu so bad that you have to go to a doctor or hospital.”
  • “far from perfect, but by far the best tool we have to prevent influenza.”
  • Most vaccinations given in childhood for threats like measles and diphtheria are 90 percent effective or better. But flu viruses mutate so fast that they must be remade annually.
Casey Finnerty

Interim Guidance on Environmental Management of Pandemic Influenza Virus | Flu.gov - 0 views

www.flu.gov/...influenzaguidance.html

microbiology influenza virology

shared by Casey Finnerty on 09 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Influenza A and B viruses can persist on both nonporous and porous environmental surfaces for hours to days depending on a variety of human and environmental factors.
mattgreatens

Spreading Patterns of the Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic - 0 views

www.plosone.org/...10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017823

H1N1 Avian Influenza

shared by mattgreatens on 02 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • mattgreatens on 02 Oct 12
     
    This is the final supplementary article.
Casey Finnerty

Production of swine flu vaccine is way behind - Yahoo! News - 2 views

news.yahoo.com/...us_med_swine_flu_chicken___egg

vaccine virology

shared by Casey Finnerty on 29 Aug 12 - Cached
  • Also, Protein Sciences Corp. of Meriden, Conn., landed a five-year, $147 million contract to develop a vaccine using its recombinant technology — flu proteins grown in insect cells. The hope is that the first doses would be available within 12 weeks of the beginning of a pandemic. That is about twice as fast as flu vaccine produced from eggs.
1 - 17 of 17
Showing 20▼ items per page