Are Ducks Contributing to the Endemicity of Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus in Asia?

Wild aquatic birds, including ducks, are the natural reservoir of influenza type A viruses and play an important role in the viruses’ ecology and propagation. Influenza A viruses can occasionally be transmitted to other avian and mammalian hosts, including humans, and can cause outbreaks of severe disease. Influenza viruses in wild aquatic birds have long been in a state of evolutionary equilibrium (stasis), and infected hosts usually show no signs of disease. Most avian influenza viruses replicate preferentially in the gastrointestinal tract of wild ducks, are excreted at high levels in feces, and are transmitted through the fecal-oral route .

However, since late 2002, H5N1 outbreaks in Asia have resulted in mortality among waterfowl in recreational parks, domestic flocks, and wild migratory birds, which contradicts the previous belief that influenza A viruses are usually nonpathogenic to the Wild waterfowl. The evolutionary stasis between influenza virus and its natural host may have been disrupted, prompting us to ask whether waterfowl are resistant to H5N1 influenza virus disease and whether they can still act as a reservoir for these viruses. To better understand the biology of H5N1 viruses in ducks and attempt to answer this question, researchers inoculated juvenile mallards with 23 different H5N1 influenza viruses isolated in Asia between 2003 and 2004. All virus isolates replicated efficiently in inoculated ducks, and 22 were transmitted to susceptible contacts. Viruses replicated to higher levels in the trachea than in the cloaca of both inoculated and contact birds, suggesting that the digestive tract is not the main site of H5N1 influenza virus replication in ducks and that the fecal-oral route may no longer be the main transmission path. The virus isolates’ pathogenicities varied from completely nonpathogenic to highly lethal and were positively correlated with tracheal virus titers. Nevertheless, the eight virus isolates that were nonpathogenic in ducks replicated and transmitted efficiently to naïve contacts, suggesting that highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses causing minimal signs of disease in ducks can propagate silently and efficiently among domestic and wild ducks in Asia and that they represent a serious threat to human and veterinary public health.

To learn more about this study, please view the in depth analysis.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

A spatial risk assessment of West Nile virus in British Columbia

The spread of the West Nile virus in North America and human cases in British Columbia's surrounding provinces/states.

West Nile virus has recently emerged as a health threat to the North American population after the initial disease outbreak in New York City in 1999. Since then, West Nile virus has spread widely and quickly across North America.

In this study researchers developed models of mosquito populations and created a spatial risk assessment of West Nile virus prior to its arrival in British Columbia by creating a raster-based mosquito abundance model using basic geographic and temperature data.

The result of the spatially-explicit mosquito abundance model indicates that the Okanagan Valley, the Thompson Region, Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and southeastern Vancouver Island have the highest potential abundance of the mosquitoes. After including human population data, Greater Vancouver, due to its high population density, increases in significance relative to the other areas.

Creating a raster-based mosquito abundance map enabled researchers to quantitatively evaluate West Nile virus risk throughout British Columbia and to identify the areas of greatest potential risk, prior to West Nile virus introduction. In producing the map knowledge related to mosquito ecology in British Columbia were identified and it became evident that increased efforts in bird and mosquito surveillance are required if more accurate models and maps are to be produced. Also access to real time climatic data is key for developing a real time early warning system for forecasting vector borne disease outbreaks, while including social factors is important when producing a detailed assessment in urban areas.

To learn more about this study, please view the in depth analysis.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

The Russian Influenza in Sweden in 1889-90

Viruses have changed history and are linked to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people over time. They have caused old diseases, such as Yellow Fever, Small Pox and influenza and they are also the cause of emerging diseases, including West Nile virus illness, Dengue fever and HIV/AIDS. The spatial patterns of viruses are often of key interest for control and surveillance.

Lars Skog, from the Royal Institute of Technology, took the time to explain The Russian Influenza in Sweden in 1889-90 at the second annual URISA: GIS in Public Health Conference. From the speech we learned that using data from a study of the 1889-90 Russian flu in Sweden with the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) allowed researchers to improve analyses and presentation of surveillance data. In 1890, immediately after the outbreak, all Swedish doctors were asked to provide information about the start and the peak of the epidemic, and the total number of cases in their region and to fill in a questionnaire on the number, sex and age of infected persons in the households they visited. General answers on the epidemic were received from 398 physicians and data on individual patients were available for more than 32,000 persons. These historic data were all reanalyzed with the use of GIS, in map documents and in animated video sequences, to depict the onset, the intensity and the spread of the disease over time. Having prepared GIS layers of the population (divided into parishes), estimations could be made for all the Swedish parishes on the number of infected persons for each of the 15 weeks studied.

To learn more about this subject matter, please view the indepth analysis.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

2009 URISA/NENA Addressing Conference

2009 URISA/NENA Addressing Conference
August 4-6, 2009
Providence, Rhode Island

Topics for the conference include: Addressing Basics, Coordination, and Standards, which focuses on both the automated and manual aspects and phases associated with administering addresses, including the new FGDC Street Address Data Standard, and preparation for the 2010 Census and LUCA (Local Update of Census Addresses) program. Sessions within this track will provide insight on topics including identifying standards, developing documentation and policy, establishing workflow, collecting inventory and issuing citations.

Emergency Response and 9-1-1 is another topic that will be presented at the program that will focus on projects at the local, state, and Federal levels of effective emergency response using GIS. Presentations in this track demonstrate what is possible when two powerful technologies collaborate for informed emergency response.

Case Studies of GIS Integration with Public Safety will be the final topic discussed and it will focus on presentations from real-life experiences in integration of GIS and public safety technologies; what works and what doesn’t.

For more information or to register, Click Here !

Interested in Exhibiting or Sponsoring? Click Here!

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

Emerging Zoonotic Diseases and the Need for Global Surveillance

Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD

Dr. Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD, Coordinator of International Veterinary Medicine for the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, provided the opening keynote address on Saturday, June 6 at the URISA second annual GIS in Public Health Conference on the topic of: Emerging Zoonotic Diseases and the Need for Global Surveillance.

As keynote speaker, Dr. Brown highlighted key ideas valuable to the world of global infectious disease challenges. Dr. Brown took time to discuss how globalization is changing epidemiology. Because there is an increase in globalized trade and travel between countries, there is becoming less separation of people, animals, and places. Because of this, emerging effects include the spreading of animal and human diseases, e.g., SARS, HPAI, Nipah, BSE. These emerging zoonotic diseases pose a great threat to the world.

Dr. Brown also spent time describing the three “steps” to battling disease in a global context. These steps include each country addressing: (1) surveillance, which refers to “keeping an eye out” for recurring or new disease, (2) will to report, which refers to a country’s decision to formally announce that disease has been found within the country’s borders, and (3) capacity to respond, which involves all sorts of response efforts from education to treatment.

Dr. Brown also informed that the concept of “one medicine,” which has been discussed for decades, has special resonance now, and it is imperative that awareness and response systems between animal and human health be coordinated and integrated, in order to effectively safeguard the global public health.

To learn more, check out this link.

Also take a look at this presentation that relates to the talk she gave at the conference.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

Grenada government turns away cruise ship with suspected flu virus

I recently came upon a post where Grenada’s Ministry of Health recently refused cruise ship passengers to dock at their St George’s Port. The M.V Ocean Dream was said to be carrying as many as 40 passengers and crew who were experiencing flu-like symptoms. Grenada’s action came just days after the WHO declared H1N1, which has spread to 74 countries, as a global flu pandemic. Rising cases of the virus are being seen in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Chile.

H1N1 flu first emerged in Mexico in April. Grenada immediately set up screening at the seaport and at Maurice Bishop and International Airport.

Grenada’s ability to deal with the H1N1 virus is becoming a great concern. The Ministry of Health continues its educational program on ways to prevent the virus which is good, but if there is a medical emergency, there exists a shortage of respirators at the island’s main medical center. In fact, there is only one respirator and if there is a medical scare on the island with the virus, the hospital would not be able to treat cases.

To learn more, view the three related articles posted here.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

Health Plan

The table is set. Everyone’s been in their seats for a while. The restaurant is getting crowded. More than a few customers are already disputing the bill.

Is it almost time for President Obama to start ordering off the menu?

It’s a moment, of course, that the president has been putting off — his inclination being to let Congress handle the messy work, and show up in time to embrace something that’s been tidied up.

But the first full week of health care debate on Capitol Hill makes clear that the default position — the easiest outcome to achieve — is going to be getting nothing done. All of which might make it helpful for Democrats (and maybe a few Republicans) to know what something should look like.

Enter Obama (again), selling people what they think they need, still aren’t sure they want, are pretty sure they don’t understand, and are growing convinced that they can’t afford.

“Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll,” Kevin Sack and Marjorie Connelly write in the Sunday New York Times.

Yet: “It is not clear how fully the public understands the complexities of the government plan proposal, and the poll results indicate that those who said they were following the debate were somewhat less supportive,” Sack and Connelly write. “It is not clear how fully the public understands the complexities of the government plan proposal, and the poll results indicate that those who said they were following the debate were somewhat less supportive.”

Read more

Improving Catastrophe Preparedness

This is another example of a scenario that could be used for plan C

A new computer model incorporating a wider range of variables can foster better outcomes in large-scale emergency situations. PLAN C is an agent-based modeling approach that allows researchers to assess both individual and system-wide effects in public health disasters. Its purpose is to help evaluate both explicit tracing of individual behavior and macroscopic analysis of population trends in catastrophic events, the researchers said. The model integrates dose response, surge response, and psychosocial characteristics — an appropriate amount of complexity, factual data, timeliness, and functionality.

To test the PLAN C model in a hypothetical scenario, the nerve agent sarin was released in three locations in New York City: the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Grand Central Terminal, and Penn Station. The evaluation looked at emergency medical services, hospital surge capacity, and behavioral and psychosocial characteristics of the victims — particularly patient “worry” using GIS technology. The researchers found that in a passive release of sarin ranging from 5 to 15 L, mortality increased from 0.13% to 8.69%, reaching 55.4% with active dispersion.

The increase in mortality rate was most pronounced in the 80% to 100% emergency department occupancy range and adverse psychosocial characteristics — such as excess worry and low compliance — increased demands on healthcare resources. Further work is needed to address theoretical and computational limitations, refinement, and the integration of additional parameters of interests, other participants in disaster response, alternative hazard scenarios, and consequences of model overfitting.

To learn more, read the full article here.

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

Third New Jersey resident dies with swine flu

A 10-year-old boy is the third New Jersey resident with H1N1 influenza to die.  The child, who had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized June 14 after developing a cough and fever. He died Wednesday at Morristown Memorial Hospital.

New Jersey currently has 415 confirmed cases of the novel flu virus in 19 counties, with 252 probable cases awaiting confirmatory testing by the state laboratory.

Two other two New Jersey residents to die with H1N1 influenza were a 49-year-old West Orange man, Michael Reiser, who died June 13 at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, and a 15-year-old boy who died June 8 at home in Somerset County.

Some symptoms of H1N1 influenza — fever, body ache, cough, sore throat, chills, fatigue, and in some cases diarrhea and vomiting — are similar to those of seasonal flu.

State epidemiologist Christina Tan has said people with conditions including weakened immune systems and respiratory ailments are more likely to develop severe cases of H1N1 influenza.

The virus, recently declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, has now reached 88 countries. On Wednesday the WHO reported 39,620 cases have been confirmed worldwide, included 167 deaths. The United States has reported 17,855 confirmed cases with 44 deaths, according to the WHO.

The best way for people to protect themselves is to practice good hygiene. People are advised to cover sneezes and coughs with a tissue, wash hands frequently with soap and water or hand sanitizer, and stay home from work or school for a week if experiencing a fever of 100 degrees or higher with a cough or sore throat.

To learn more, view the Full Star-Ledger coverage of the Swine flu in New Jersey

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC

HIV in Colorado

Just because an illness isn’t too common in an area doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t know about it. This is one of the main reasons why northeastern Colorado residents had the opportunity to attend a Community HIV/AIDS Education and Action Conference hosted by Rural Solutions recently.

Speakers spoke about HIV in rural America as well as HIV in northeast Colorado. Speakers let it be known that an estimated 51,000 people in rural areas are living with HIV or AIDS. HIV risk factors more common in rural areas, including: a decreased likelihood of using condoms, people being more likely to believe their partners don’t have HIV or STD’s and high alcohol and methamphetamine use.

Jack Westfall, associate dean of rural health at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, talks about HIV in northeast Colorado.

It is common knowledge for residents that there isn’t a lot known about HIV/AIDS in eastern Colorado. People don’t usually talk about the issue in the area and found it was something that was glossed over. Usually it is thought of as either not a problem in the community or it’s a problem but no more than normal. I t is really hidden and secret, and the people in the area just don’t know about it and don’t talk about it.

This problem that exists needs to be fixed. Hiding HIV and hiding risk factors increases the transmission of HIV. The secrecy inhibits people from accessing HIV and safe sex education. One of the first steps in dealing with this issue is getting a group of people together to identify what are the needs, what are the priorities and what resources are there to address these needs. Increasing awareness and decreasing the stigma through education will greatly help the cause. This can also help with the development of a surveillance system and plan for who will be testing and who will be reporting, along with a plan in case of an outbreak.

For more information, please check out the full article at http://www.journal-advocate.com/news/2009/jun/16/conference-seeks-increase-hiv-awareness/

Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC