Category: AIDS/HIV • Public health • Science education • Various viruses
Readers may be interested in participating in this, from Dave Wessner at Davidson College:
Building on a project I piloted last fall, I will explore the potential role of Twitter more intentionally this fall in a course I teach on HIV/AIDS at Davidson College. I invite you to join me in this exploration.
Here are a few details:
Basically, I am interested in extending the class conversation outside the classroom walls and beyond the appointed class hours. I want the students to begin thinking on their own about what aspects of the subject (HIV/AIDS, in this case) truly interest them. I want to move away from the professor as purveyor of all information model. I want students to improve their ability to critically analyze information from disparate sources.
With Twitter, students can gather information from a wide variety of sources, some very reliable, some less reliable. They also can post information/questions/thoughts and get feedback from a wide variety of sources - again, some reliable and some not. Finally, Twitter provides a platform that they can easily access in their dorm room, the student union, or the local coffee shop (at any time of the day or night). And accessing Twitter, I hope, will not seem as overtly class-related to the students as accessing, for instance, course material via Blackboard.
This fall, I am requiring the students in my seminar to have a Twitter account. Students will post items on a regular basis, using the hashtag #BIO361. We also will devote some time on a regular basis to discussing items or responses from Twitter. Our first post probably will be on the first day of classes - Tuesday, August 24, 2010.
For this project to work most effectively, we need a critical mass of people outside of our class to participate. If you, your students, friends, or colleagues would like to join us, please do. We will appreciate any new comments, retweets, or responses. I'm looking forward to an engaging discussion throughout the semester.
This is up and running now, so keep an eye on #BIO361 and @dawessner.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 5:13 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Activism • Public health
The Skepchicks are sponsoring a pertussis vaccination clinic at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend. They're teaming up with the Georgia Dept. of Health, who is providing free assistance and vaccines, but they need some assistance raising funds to cover space rental, posters, and other miscellaneous charges. If you're able to assist, you can donate to their "Hug me! I'm vaccinated!" campaign at the links included in the post.
And while I'm nagging about donations, I'll also note that donations to help the flooded in Pakistan have been slow, especially compared to the Haiti earthquake. If you can spare a few dollars, Doctors Without Borders is one of my favorite charities (though I've not seen a dedicated Pakistan donation page there), and here is one list of other charities working there. With either of these causes, remember that every little bit helps.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia • Skepticism • wtf?
PZ has some additional thoughts on the Bibleflugate retraction up at Pharyngula. Choice quote:
This is a serious concern, to my mind. Scientists are expected to be open and communicative about their work, explaining all the details about how we achieve our results. Yet then we hand that work over to a publisher (usually a for-profit organization), where it is subjected to an arcane process cloaked in mystery that they call peer review. And every once in a while, some strange fluke exposes the inherently arbitrary and chaotic nature of that process, everyone asks "how the hell did that get published?", and some guy in a business suit steps out to unconvincingly tell us "oops" and reassure us that all is well in the machineries of their journal.
I don't think it's enough. If a publisher wants to manage this profitable business of publishing science journals, there ought to be an expectation of transparency -- a fuller explanation of how submissions are handled, and when mistakes are made, a more thorough explanation of exactly how it happened. Without an open explanation of how such mistakes occur, I can't have any confidence that efforts will be made to correct the process that led to them.
He also notes the lead author responded to a request for comments, basically saying he was surprised at the response and was only meant to be "thought-provoking."
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 12:46 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General Epidemiology • Infectious disease • Skepticism • Various viruses • wtf?
Well, that was quick. Yesterday's post highlighting a really terrible paper in BMC's Virology Journal drew a lot of comments here and at Pharyngula, and attention at the journal (where it currently stands as the 5th most-accessed article in the last 30 days). The journal's Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Robert F. Garry, this in the comments section to my post:
As Editor-in-Chief of Virology Journal I wish to apologize for the publication of the article entitled ''Influenza or not influenza: Analysis of a case of high fever that happened 2000 years ago in Biblical time", which clearly does not provide the type of robust supporting data required for a case report and does not meet the high standards expected of a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Virology Journal has always operated an exceptionally high standard of thorough peer review; this article has clearly not met these thresholds for balance and supporting data and as such, the article will be retracted. I should like to apologize for any confusion or concern that this article may have caused among our readership, or more widely.
Whilst only ever intended as an opinion piece and also a bit of relief from the 'normal' business of the journal, the speculations contained within this article clearly would be better expressed outside the confines of a peer-reviewed journal. Biomed Central does not support any views outlined in this article.
He also noted that the retraction will appear shortly. (This comment also appears in the comments section of the paper itself).
While saying it's "only opinion" and removing the paper is a good first step, it's still unclear to me how this passed peer review in the first place. I have a ton of opinions that have way more scientific support than that manuscript did, but I'm sensible enough to realize that they still won't be able to pass any rigorous peer-review muster--that's one reason I have a blog, after all, is to air these random musings. Articles that are a bit more amusing and a departure from the norm of the journal are all well and good (check out this article, for example), but for the "Biblical flu" one, either the reviewers/editor got conned or really let something slip through the cracks.
Either way, the retraction is a deserved result and a quick response by the journal and Dr. Garry, but something that really shouldn't have been fodder for me to mock in the first place.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 5:35 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Public health • Science journalism • Skepticism • wtf?
Interesting post today at juggle.com, showing the evolution of a conspiracy theory akin to a game of telephone. Interestingly, it starts with an article in Wired by author (and former Scienceblogger) Johah Lehrer. Lehrer wrote an article on the effects of chronic stress on health outcomes, and one researcher's work to develop something akin to a vaccine to mitigate the stress effects. Sounds reasonable, no?
Next, the Daily Mail picked up the article, and focused on the "stress vaccine" angle.
Finally, the folks at Alex Jones' Prison Planet--who've never met a conspiracy theory they didn't like--took the Daily Mail story and morphed it into a discussion of "brain eating vaccines," and a government conspiracy to eliminate all emotions from an unknowing public (follow-up here, and they even have a third article bashing Lehrer. Impressive!
Now, I'm not necessarily blaming the Daily Mail as the intermediate in this. Yes, their story was certainly more sensational and less nuanced than the original Wired piece, but PrisonPlanet could also take the most innocuous story on any scientific breakthrough and make it out to be some kind of vast governmental-scientific-pharmaceutical plot. However, it does emphasize again the need to be aware of what's going on out there in these corners of the internets--look how they encouraged their readers to manipulate Google so that "brain-eating vaccines" would trend on the site. This kind of thing is their bread-and-butter, and the fact is that "the facts" don't always win converts to any scientific argument.
Addendum: several on Twitter pointed out this PhD comic, which succinctly summarizes the cycle.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 10:40 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Infectious disease • Outbreak • Public health • Various viruses
At his new digs, PalMD discusses recent news revealing the presence of dengue virus in the Florida Keys--the first appearance in the state in almost 75 years. Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause serious disease, including a hemorrhagic manifestation, and the current outbreak is pitting public health professionals against the tourism industry in the Keys. It's also brought to public attention the closing of CDC's vector-borne disease branch due to funding difficulties. The intersection of these--viral emergence, politics, and economic interests--has the potential to cause a huge mess on the gulf coast, where they've obviously already had enough recent heartbreak.
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 1:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General Epidemiology • Infectious causes of chronic disease • Infectious disease • Public health • Various viruses
Student guest post Dayna Groskreutz
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) refers to a condition in which there is high blood pressure in the vessels carrying blood from the heart to the lungs. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a subset of PH referring specifically to an increase in the pressure within the pulmonary arteries (rather than the pulmonary veins or capillaries). The high blood pressure in the vessels causes thickening of these arteries, making it hard for the heart to pump blood to the lungs. Pressure builds up and backs up. Over time, stress on the heart causes it to enlarge, and it becomes more difficult for blood to get to the lungs so that it can get oxygen. Patients become tired, dizzy, and short of breath. Their quality of life is significantly reduced. Data from the National Institute of Health PAH registry in the 1980s concluded that the average survival of untreated PAH is 2.8 years from diagnosis, with 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival rates of 68%, 48%, and 34%, respectively. With the development of effective therapy over the last 30 years, survival has improved slightly.
In some cases, PH is caused by an underlying disease, such as sleep apnea, lung disease, or heart disease. A familial form of PH has been described and characterized. PH caused by diet medications like Fen-Phen has been widely publicized. One infectious agent, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), has been shown to be an independent risk factor for pulmonary hypertension, but neither the virus nor its proteins have been demonstrated in the pulmonary arteries. In many cases, the cause of PH is idiopathic, meaning we do not know why the patient has pulmonary hypertension. This lack of knowledge has led researchers to search for an infectious agent as a cause for idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH).
Although a causal relationship between IPAH and a viral infection has not been established, a relationship is suspected. Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and Castleman's disease, a rare blood disorder. In 2003, Bull and colleagues reported HHV-8 infection in the lung tissue and in the cells of the pulmonary artery of a patient with PH and Castleman's disease. They suggested that HHV-8 might be a causative agent for this patient's PH. The same year this group published a case-control study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The cases consisted of 16 patients with IPAH, and the controls consisted of 14 patients with PH caused by an underlying disease (or secondary PH). They detected HHV-8 infection using both antibody and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based techniques. 10 of 16 patients (62%) with IPAH had HHV-8 detected with antibody and PCR techniques, while none of the control (secondary) PH group had HHV-8 detected with antibody, and one patient had PCR evidence of virus. This study provided evidence of HHV-8 infection in the lung and pulmonary arterial cells of patients with IPAH; however, the study did not provide evidence of causation as it was not prospective in design.
A subsequent study by Laney et al compared 19 patients with IPAH, 29 patients with secondary PH, and 150 controls, and looked for evidence of HHV-8 in their blood using serologic tests. The rate of HHV-8 in the blood of IPAH was 0%, controls 0.7%, and secondary PH 10.3%. Two of the three secondary PH patients with HHV-8 in their blood had HIV-associated PH, and the association of HIV and HHV-8 is well documented. The authors concluded that HHV-8 does not have a role in IPAH or non-HIV-associated PH.
Nicastri et al next retrospectively analyzed data from 75 patients referred to their institution for lung transplant. 16 had IPAH, 17 had secondary PH, 7 had PH due to repetitive blood clots in the lung, and the remaining 10 had PH associated with miscellaneous other diseases including autoimmune disease and HIV. The 42 patients without PH consisted of patients with cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. They performed antibody tests to detect HHV-8 in the blood. Of the patients with PH, 3% had HHV-8 detected in their blood, while 19% of patients without PH had HHV-8 detected. The authors concluded there was no direct relationship between HHV-8 infection and PH.
Finally, a German study by Henke-Gendo et al examined lung tissue from 26 patients who underwent lung transplant for IPAH from 1993-2003. Using an antibody test, they detected HHV-8 protein in the diseased lungs removed at the time of transplant in 61.5% of the cases; however, they were unable to confirm HHV-8 infection by PCR in all cases. They concluded that HHV-8 is unlikely to play a role in the pathogenesis of IPAH.
In recent years, there has been a search for a causative infectious agent for idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Two papers published by the same group at the University of Colorado provided some evidence that an association might exist, but these findings have not been confirmed in three subsequent studies by other investigators. The original authors at the University of Colorado recently published a cell-based study showing that HHV-8 can infect pulmonary endothelial cells, or the cells that make up the pulmonary arteries, lending further plausibility to the association
However, in absence of further evidence at this time, HHV-8 and PH appears to be an inconclusively proven association.
References
1. D'Alonzo, G. E., Barst, R. J., Ayres, S. M., Bergofsky, E. H., Brundage, B. H., Detre, K. M., Fishman, A. P., Goldring, R. M., Groves, B. M., Kernis, J. T., and et al. (1991) Ann Intern Med 115, 343-349
2. Keogh, A., McNeil, K., Williams, T. J., Gabbay, E., Proudman, S., Weintraub, R. G., Wlodarczyk, J., and Dalton, B. (2009) Intern Med J
3. Bull, T. M., Cool, C. D., Serls, A. E., Rai, P. R., Parr, J., Neid, J. M., Geraci, M. W., Campbell, T. B., Voelkel, N. F., and Badesch, D. B. (2003) Eur Respir J 22, 403-407
4. Cool, C. D., Rai, P. R., Yeager, M. E., Hernandez-Saavedra, D., Serls, A. E., Bull, T. M., Geraci, M. W., Brown, K. K., Routes, J. M., Tuder, R. M., and Voelkel, N. F. (2003) N Engl J Med 349, 1113-1122
5. Laney, A. S., De Marco, T., Peters, J. S., Malloy, M., Teehankee, C., Moore, P. S., and Chang, Y. (2005) Chest 127, 762-767
6. Nicastri, E., Vizza, C. D., Carletti, F., Cicalini, S., Badagliacca, R., Poscia, R., Ippolito, G., Fedele, F., and Petrosillo, N. (2005) Emerg Infect Dis 11, 1480-1482
7. Henke-Gendo, C., Mengel, M., Hoeper, M. M., Alkharsah, K., and Schulz, T. F. (2005) Am J Respir Crit Care Med 172, 1581-1585
8. Bull, T. M., Meadows, C. A., Coldren, C. D., Moore, M., Sotto-Santiago, S. M., Nana-Sinkam, S. P., Campbell, T. B., and Geraci, M. W. (2008) Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 39, 706-716
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 4:00 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
