News Reports for May 8, 2012

H1N1 discovery paves way for universal flu vaccine: UBC research

University of British Columbia researchers have found a potential way to develop universal flu vaccines and eliminate the need for seasonal flu vaccinations.
(Snip)
Led by Prof. John Schrader, Canada Research Chair in Immunology and director of UBC's Biomedical Research Centre, the research team found that the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu" vaccine triggers antibodies that protect against many influenza viruses, including the lethal avian H5N1 "bird flu" strain.
(Snip)
"The flu virus has a protein called hemagglutinin, or HA for short. This protein is like a flower with a head and a stem," says Schrader, a professor in Medicine and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "The flu virus binds to human cells via the head of the HA, much like a socket and plug. "Current flu vaccines target the head of the HA to prevent infections, but because the flu virus mutates very quickly, this part of the HA changes rapidly, hence the need for different vaccines every flu season."

(Snip) the research team found that the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine induced broadly protective antibodies capable of fighting different variants of the flu virus. "This is because, rather than attacking the variable head of the HA, the antibodies attacked the stem of the HA, neutralizing the flu virus," says Schrader. "The stem plays such an integral role in penetrating the cell that it cannot change between different variants of the flu virus."

The new discovery could pave the way to developing universal flu vaccines.

Schrader says the characteristics of the human immune system make it difficult for influenza vaccines to induce broadly protective antibodies against the HA stem. "The pandemic H1N1 swine flu was different, because humans had not been exposed to a similar virus," he adds.

Schrader has evidence that a vaccine based on a mixture of influenza viruses not circulating in humans but in animals should have the same effect and potentially make influenza pandemics and seasonal influenza a thing of the past. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 05:13:40 AM UTC

CIDRAP: Study - H1N1 resistance to oseltamivir may spread

May 7, 2012 (CIDRAP News) - A detailed genetic analysis of an oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 virus responsible for a cluster of illnesses in Australia in 2011 found evidence that the viruses maintained their fitness when the resistance mutation was present, suggesting that widespread emergence of the strain may be more likely, according to the researchers.

During Australia's 2011 flu season, researchers identified 29 2009 H1N1 viruses containing the H275Y resistance mutation between May and October, and all were found in an analysis of patients from the country's Hunter New England region. Most of the patients lived within 30 miles of Newcastle, and some had family or other contacts infected with the same strain. Only one of the patients had been treated with oseltamivir.

(Snip)

The researchers first described the cluster in August 2011 in a post on ProMED Mail, the online reporting system of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. Four months later, they shared more detailed findings in a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, which revealed that the virus appeared to be a single variant that was closely related to the vaccine strain and was also resistant to adamantanes but sensitive to zanamivir (Relenza). They warned that the changes bear watching and urged clinicians to be alert for similar clusters during the Northern Hemisphere flu season, which is just ending.

So far, testing of  samples from the Northern Hemisphere's flu season has turned up few oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 viruses, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said recently that 11 of 16 oseltamivir-resistant viruses this season so far have been from Texas, which has seen higher levels of 2009 H1N1 activity. The CDC said that though the level of oseltamivir-resistance in Texas was higher than for other states, it was still considered quite low.

The group based its latest findings on 29 viruses with oseltamivir resistance that were found among 191 2009 H1N1 viruses from the Hunter New England region that were tested from May through September 2011. The authors interviewed patients infected with the virus using a structured questionnaire to assess medical and antiviral treatment history.

They tested the samples for sensitivity to neuraminidase inhibitors, screened them for the H275Y mutation, constructed phylogenetic trees, and used computational structural analysis to assess protein stability changes associated with mutations.

They found that 26 of the 29 patients infected with resistant viruses lived in five adjacent towns, and three lived in rural towns located 90, 150, and 490 kilometers from Newcastle. For comparison, only five oseltamivir-resistant viruses containing the H275Y substitution were found during testing of 737 2009 H1N1 viruses in the rest of Australia during the 2011 flu season. Two were from hospitalized immunocompromised patients who were treated with oseltamivir in other states, and three were from otherwise healthy children who had not been treated with the drug. One patient from Perth, 4,000 kilometers west of Newcastle. None of the children or their families had traveled recently to Newcastle.

Genetic analysis revealed that the H275Y variants from all of the locations were virtually identical, suggesting that they emerged from a single source, the researchers reported.

The high frequency of oseltamivir resistance in patients with 2009 H1N1 infections who weren't treated with the drug suggests that the viruses are not less fit than sensitive ones, a scenario that is similar to the emergence of oseltamivir-resistant seasonal H1N1 viruses in Norway in 2007.

The group identified three neuraminidase mutations in the cluster isolates that they said could offset a destabilizing effect of the H275Y substitution: V241I, N369K, and N386S. They noted that two of the substitutions have also been seen in viral sequences from North American and Japanese oseltamivir-resistant H275Y strains.

The 2009 H1N1 virus might be becoming more tolerant of the H275Y mutation than when it first emerged, and widespread emergence of oseltamivir-resistant viruses may now be more likely, they wrote.  Continued with lots more: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

See also:

May 4 CIDRAP News scan "CDC reports declining flu activity, Tamiflu resistance in Texas" http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

Aug 26, 2011, CIDRAP News story "Australia reports oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 cluster" http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

Dec 29, 2011, CIDRAP News scan "Tamiflu-resistant pH1N1 reportedly on rise in Australia" http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 05:44:56 AM UTC

CIDRAP: US - Twin Cities medicine-by-mail test called successful (Minnesota)

Minneapolis-Saint Paul - May 7, 2012 (CIDRAP News) - Without any major hitches, mail carriers delivered empty pill bottles and fliers to about 37,000 Twin Cities area homes yesterday to rehearse part of the planned response to an anthrax attack or widespread disease outbreak, according to officials involved in the exercise.

Mail trucks hit the streets at 6 o'clock in the morning, and deliveries were completed by about 3 p.m., said Buddy Ferguson, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), which led the exercise along with the US Postal Service (USPS).

"We're very, very pleased with the way it went," he said. "I think we've demonstrated that the postal plan is a very promising option for getting people emergency medications during a public health crisis." "It's not the only way we'd be distributing medicine [in a real disease emergency], but we think it's an important supplement to the medication centers we'd have set up," he added.

In "Operation Medicine Delivery," residents in four zip codes received an empty pill bottle with an explanatory label, plus a flier with information in English and five other languages. The areas included two sections of St. Paul (55101 and 55102), the north side of Minneapolis (55411), and parts of Robbinsdale, Golden Valley, and Crystal (55422). The four zones were chosen to include a wide variety of housing configurations and delivery requirements for postal workers, the MDH said before the exercise. Continued: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

See also:

May 3 MDH release
http://www.health.state.mn.us/...

MDH fact sheet
http://www.health.state.mn.us/...

Mar 21 CIDRAP News story "Twin Cities to test mass delivery of emergency meds by mail" http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...
 

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 06:07:21 AM UTC

India: Kurnool district in the grip of swine flu (Andhra Pradesh)

KURNOOL: People in Kurnool district are in the grip of swine flu. With medical tests and medicines for the disease not available in Kurnool district, people suffering from swine flu are being forced to got to Hyderabad for treatment.

According to unconfirmed reports, about seven persons died of the disease in two weeks and 13 more, found to be suffering from its symptoms, are undergoing treatment in various hospitals in the district. Of the 15 people who died of swine flu in the state, seven belonged to Kurnool district and people fear it would become a hub of the disease.

(Snip) There is criticism that the health officials are not taking necessary precautionary measures to check the spread of the disease.

(Snip)

Patients in the Kurnool General Hospital are also worried of contracting swine flu as doctors have set up the swine flu ward in AMC Block where all other types of diseases are treated. "It would be better if they can set up the ward away from other patients," feels M Navaneeta, a woman attending to an in-patient from Nandyal.

A special committee was formed to check the spread of the disease but even this also seems to be of little use.
(Snip)
Thousands of people from Rayalaseema and Telangana districts visit Kurnool for various reasons making the bus and railway stations busy. There are chances for spread of the disease in such places. The C Camp area, near rythu bazar, in Kurnool is also an overcrowded place. http://expressbuzz.com/states/...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 06:41:51 AM UTC

India: Four more A(H1N1) cases (Tamil Nadu)

CHENNAI - Four women, three of them from the city, tested positive for A (H1N1) influenza on Monday. (Snip) the number of persons who have contracted the virus in the city rose to 76. A total of 148 persons across the State have so far contracted the virus.

A 19-year-old woman from T. Nagar, a 26-year-old woman from Korattur and a 21-year-old woman from Madras Medical College's (Snip) were confirmed to have contracted the infection, while a 41-year-old woman from Thanjavur (Snip) tested positive.

According to Director of Public Health (Snip), "In an epidemic it is normal to register four or five cases of the flu each day." http://www.thehindu.com/news/c...  

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 23:02:48 PM UTC

India: Health workers to get swine flu vaccine soon (Andhra Pradesh)

HYDERABAD: Following the recent swine flu outbreak in the state, the government is all set to launch swine flu vaccination drive for healthcare workers for the second time after 2010. The state has received 50,000 doses of swine flu vaccine from the ministry of health and family welfare for inoculation of health professionals in both public as well as private sector.

In a short span of four months, as many as 131 swine flu cases were reported in the state this year including 15 deaths as per official records.

While swine flu cases are not as rampant this month as against those reported towards the end of March and April, officials said that sporadic cases continue to be reported and, hence, it is important that the health professionals are vaccinated. All government hospitals in the state would get the vaccine doses. The vaccine however provides immunity against the H1N1 Influenza only for a year. While reviewing the situation in the state, Dr Geeta Prasadini, joint director, infectious diseases, said that all measures have been initiated in Kurnool district, which has seen a surge in the number of cases and three deaths over the last few days. "Season is not yet over and sporadic cases are being reported. Government is taking all the necessary precautions," she said during a press briefing on Tuesday. Continued: http://timesofindia.indiatimes...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 23:11:15 PM UTC

US: Seniors hospitalized after flu outbreak hits Gaithersburg assisted living center (Maryland)

More than a dozen seniors have been sent to local hospitals and specialized medical care facilities after a flu outbreak at an assisted living facility in Gaithersburg.

County and state health officials are monitoring the 126 residents at Kindley Assisted Living, part of the senior community Asbury Methodist Village, for signs commonly associated with the flu - high fever, muscle aches, and cough, said David Denton, executive director of Asbury.

While there have been only three confirmed cases of Influenza-A since April 27 at Kindley, health officials have found 25 cases of acute respiratory illness, similar to the flu, Denton said. Of those cases, 13 have been sent to area hospitals or Asbury's Wilson Health Care Center.

Dorri Henry, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said they have sent epidemiologists to assist county health officials with overseeing the situation at Kindley.
(Snip)
No patients at Kindley have died from the flu this year, Denton said. All patients are offered flu shots every year in the fall. Continued: http://www.gazette.net/article...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

---

by: Carol@SC @ Tue May 08, 2012 at 23:20:22 PM UTC

Please post new news stories to...

News Reports for May 9, 2012

Thank you!

---

by: AlohaOR @ Wed May 09, 2012 at 05:19:24 AM UTC