UC Berkeley Prepares For H1N1 influenza (Swine Flu)

UC Berkeley
BERKELEY — A campus team led by University Health Services (UHS) is preparing for the arrival at Berkeley of an unwanted visitor: H1N1 influenza. First called swine flu, H1N1 flu has already gotten a toehold in Northern California and is expected to hit schools and colleges this fall. Because of the possibility that large numbers within the campus community could be affected, officials here have been planning actively for the fall semester since the initial H1N1 outbreak in April.
The flu, whose spread the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is calling a pandemic, travels from human to human. Fortunately, at this point the severity of illness caused by the H1N1 virus is mild in most people.
To protect the health of students, faculty, and staff, UHS has teamed up with contagious-disease and flu experts from the School of Public Health, the city of Berkeley's public-health office, and campus representatives from housing and dining, academic services, recreational sports, and human resources.
"Active and concerted prevention efforts are going to be key to limiting the impact of this illness on our students and on campus operations as a whole," says Brad Buchman, medical director of University Health Services. "We have pulled together key campus departments and incorporated guidance from the UCOP Pandemic Advisory Board to help us prepare for what could potentially be a significant burden of illness on campus in the upcoming months."

An ounce of prevention

Preventive measures will help ward off the H1N1 flu. Two simple actions (both recommended by UHS) are washing your hands frequently and coughing into your sleeve. The campus is focusing prevention efforts at locations where the H1N1 flu could spread rapidly, including residence halls, dining halls, and the Recreational Sports Facility.
Signs that you're coming down with the flu include a sudden spike in temperature and a cough, says Buchman, while noting that it's not easy to differentiate between seasonal and H1N1 varieties based on symptoms. In either case, he says, the CDC recommends "self-isolation" — staying home — until 24 hours after your temperature has returned to normal.
\In addition to its annual seasonal-flu clinic, this year the Tang Center will provide H1N1 vaccinations — though the targeted vaccine won't arrive until late October. (Seasonal-flu-vaccine clinics will start as soon as that vaccine is received in the latter half of September.) UHS has forwarded its H1N1-vaccine request to the California Department of Public Health, based on estimates of campus population groups at highest risk, which include students, faculty, and staff with underlying medical conditions; the large percentage of students and staff between the ages of 18 and 24 years old; and health workers and emergency-preparedness personnel.
In addition to campus-wide prevention efforts and vaccination, UHS and other departments are planning for the possibility that the illness could become significantly widespread at Berkeley, and for the more remote possibility that the illness caused by the H1N1 virus could become more severe.

Malaria, Chimps Gift To Mankind.

UCI’s Francisco Ayala

Deadly parasite jumped to humans from chimpanzees, perhaps through one mosquito

— Irvine, Calif., August 3, 2009 —

Researchers have identified what they believe is the original source of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa.

UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala and colleagues think the deadly parasite was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees perhaps as recently as 5,000 years ago - and possibly through a single mosquito, genetic analyses indicate. Previously, malaria's origin had been unclear.

This discovery could aid the development of a vaccine for malaria, which sickens about 500 million people and kills about 1.5 million each year. It also furthers understanding of how infectious diseases such as HIV, SARS, and avian and swine flu can be transmitted to humans from animals.

"When malaria transferred to humans, it became very severe very quickly," said Ayala, co-author of the study that reports these findings. "The disease in humans has become resistant to many drugs. It's my hope that our discovery will bring us closer to making a vaccine."

The study appears online the week of Aug. 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Human malignant malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for 85 percent of all infections and nearly all malaria deaths. Chimpanzees were known to carry a closely related parasite called Plasmodium reichenowi, but most scientists assumed the two had existed separately in humans and chimpanzees for the last 5 million years.

Scientists in the current study examined several new strains of the parasite found in blood taken from wild and wild-born chimpanzees in Cameroon and Ivory Coast sanctuaries during routine health exams.

A gene analysis linked one chimpanzee strain to all worldwide strains of the human malaria parasite. This connection suggests that one mosquito may have transferred malaria to humans. Because there is little genetic variance among strains of the human parasite, scientists believe the transmission occurred in the recent past - maybe 5,000 to 2 million years ago - though an exact time could not be determined.

The results support an earlier hypothesis by Dr. Ajit Varki of UC San Diego and colleagues that genetic mutations made humans first resistant to sickness from the chimpanzee parasite, then extremely susceptible to illness from the human form.

They also corroborate an earlier finding by Ayala and former UCI graduate student Stephen Rich that malignant malaria started spreading throughout the tropics and world about 5,000 years ago, when agriculture began in Africa. Rich, now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the lead author of the current PNAS study.

In addition to Ayala and Rich, Nathan Wolfe of Stanford University worked on the study, along with collaborators from the Robert Koch Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany; the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative in San Francisco; the Biotechnology Centre in Cameroon; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the Ebola Tai Forest Project in the Ivory Coast.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, with additional support from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the National Geographic Society Committee for Research & Exploration.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,200 staff. The top employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4.2 billion. For more UCI news, visit http://today.uci.edu/.

Tags: University of California, Plasmodium reichenowi, Plasmodium falciparum, malaria origin, malignant malaria, HIV, SARS, avian flu, Swine Flu

Swine Flu (H1N1) Estimated To Have Jumped 1Million Mark

Map of the spread of Influenza A(H1N1): number of laboratory confirmed cases and deaths
Click on the image for a larger version

Even though the official lab reported by WHO figures remain less than 100,000, Centers for Decease Control (CDC) have issued estimations based on surveys which says the ballpark figure to be over 1 million people. It continues to rise as the number of infections seem to continue.

So far the flu has spread to many areas of the country, Dr. Schuchat noted, and the C.D.C. has heard of outbreaks in 34 summer camps in 16 states. In total about 3,000 Americans have been hospitalized, she said, and 127 have died.

According to Dr. Schuchat, five American vaccine companies are working on a swine flu vaccine. It is estimated that once the new vaccine is tested for both safety and effectiveness, there will be about 60 million doses will be available by September. Since there will be difficult choices to take determining whom to give the vaccines, it will be beneficial to keep your health in top form.

Tags: CDC, H1N1 Flu, Swine Flu, WHO, swine flu vaccine

Swine Flu (H1N1), What You Could Do TO Stay Healthy.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a page dedicated to Swine Flu or otherwise known as H1N1 Flu information. I think it is a very important resources that you could use to stay informed. The following guidelines are directly from the site. To get more information follow the links given below.

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• Stay informed. The CDC website will be updated regularly as information becomes available.
• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• Take everyday actions to stay healthy.
  • Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
  • Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
• Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.
• Develop a family emergency plan as a precaution. This should include storing a supply of food, medicines, facemasks, alcohol-based hand rubs and other essential supplies.
• Call 1-800-CDC-INFO for more information.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) H1N1 website.

Tags: CDC, Swine Flu, H1N1 Flu, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention