public health
j7uy5 | May 18, 2009This is a continuation from
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2009/05/peak_oil_imminent_public_healt.php">last
time. Sort of. Last time I wrote about some things from
a recent program at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of
Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. I took the material from one of the many
presentations. since then, I have looked thought the slides from
the other presentations. It turns out that the majority of the
material relates more to Peak Oil than to Public Health. Perhaps
that is because most of…
denialism | May 18, 2009It's good news though! A description of the tactics and appropriate response to denialism was published in the European Journal of Public Health by authors Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee. It's entitled "Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?" and I think it does an excellent job explaining the harms of deniailsm, critical elements of denialism, as well as providing interesting historical examples of corporate denialism on the part of tobacco companies.
HIV does not cause AIDS. The world was created in 4004 BCE. Smoking does not cause cancer. And if climate change is…
j7uy5 | May 13, 2009A post at Energy Bulletin recaps a recent presentation at the
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, in
conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/48895">The post is U.S.
public health community begins discussing peak oil.
The presentation was:
href="http://www.jhsph.edu/preparedness/events/eventscalendar.html">Peak
Oil: Implications for Disaster Preparedness & Response (the
link goes to the event calendar, so it probably won't be valid after a
while. The archives are
href="http://www.jhsph.edu…
mikethemadbiologist | May 6, 2009According to economist Simon Johnson, economists can learn a lot from the swine flu public health response--and, while he might not mean it, that says a great deal about economics. And you thought the Mad Biologist can be pessimistic:
Experience from the past two years surely teaches us that economics is in a position similar to that of medicine before the germ theory of disease, and we should plan accordingly.
Johnson argues that there are five advantages public health has over the field of economics. The first is that "we take public health professionals very seriously" which is due to "…
j7uy5 | May 5, 2009Not sure what to make of this, as the prediction appears to be based entirely upon the intuition of an experienced pediatric infectious disease specialist. It is reported on Medscape (open access, free registration required).
PAS 2009: H1N1 Flu Predicted to Wane and Reemerge in Fall
Martha Kerr
May 4, 2009 (Baltimore, Maryland) -- Pediatric infectious diseases specialists and public health experts used the stage of the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting to update their colleagues on the latest statistics and projections on the H1N1 "swine flu" outbreak.
"I believe that we will…
mikethemadbiologist | May 5, 2009Before I get to the substance of this post, let me state that I'm not a big fan of genetically modified food crops (GMO crops). And there are few bloggers who have spent more time blogging about antibiotic resistance (never mind spending part of his professional career addressing the problem). But this claim that GMOs have led to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is absurd:
Instead of blaming multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis on patients and their alleged non-adherence to the prescribed drug regime, it would be prudent to investigate and eradicate the underlying cause for multi-drug-…
tsmith | May 4, 2009Back to the grind this week unfortunately, but the swine flu/H1N1 story is still developing and still fascinating. The most recent numbers show 286 confirmed US cases in 36 states.
There are many remaining questions on the evolution and epidemiology of this strain--and many pundits sure they know what's going to happen next. Mike takes one of them down--Wendy Orent, who I've blogged about previously. Orent is claiming (based on a black/white version of the evolution of virulence in pathogens) that the spread of this strain is attenuating the virus, and that future outbreaks will be…
tsmith | May 3, 2009Over at DailyKos, DemfromCT has an excellent post explaining why it may be beneficial for schools to close temporarily, even if they only have one confirmed case of swine influenza: H1N1: Why Do Schools Close, And When Do They Open?
DarkSyde also has one up on the basic biology and evolution of the flu.
Nick Kristof discusses our lack of attention to public health and what it means in the event of a pandemic in today's NY Times.
[Updated: and via the comment theads, this post which further discusses what I mentioned here regarding testing--and how the confirmed cases are only the tip…
scientificactivist | May 2, 2009Although I've only written a bit about the recent outbreak of influenza A H1N1 (swine flu), I'd encourage you to take a look at this post by Kent Newsome that discusses where to find reliable information on this topic. This post is particularly nice, because it gives concrete examples of some of the useful things this blogger has learned from these various sources. Granted, most of the sources he discusses are affiliated with ScienceBlogs, but that shouldn't really be surprising, given that there has been so much quality blogging here recently on the topic of swine flu (particularly by…
mikethemadbiologist | May 1, 2009For keeping the big picture in mind when it comes to influenza--as the CDC decides to proceed with seasonal influenza vaccine production:
Dr. Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist, said the decision to proceed with seasonal flu vaccine production is evidence "that garden-variety seasonal flu kills on the order of 36,000 people a year, and while we are in a crisis and it might seem to make sense to ignore that, you can't."
..."We want to make sure in the vaccine manufacturing that we were still able to protect the country from seasonal flu and be able to protect from…
scientificactivist | May 1, 2009On Wednesday, the CDC reported that influenza A H1N1 viruses from 13 patients with confirmed diagnoses of swine flu had been tested for resistance to a variety of antiviral drugs. The good news was that all of the isolates were susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). However, all 13 were resistant to adamantane-based drugs (amantadine and rimantadine). Resistance to adamantane drugs (which were developed first) has actually become quite widespread among flu viruses in general, so oseltamivir and zanamivir are commonly the drugs of choice.
The…
tsmith | April 30, 2009I've been seeing a lot of comments mocking the current outbreak of H1N1, and a lot of people (and journalists) who don't understand what "big deal" is about the "snoutbreak" of swine influenza, or don't get what the raising of the World Health Organization's pandemic alert phase up to 5 means. I noted here what the alert level meant, but wanted to discuss it a bit more in a full post; after the jump.
So, some comments I've seen thrown about:
This is all just media hype! Lies about the Mexican cases! The WHO just revised their numbers down to 26 cases and 7 deaths! Why should I believe…
mikethemadbiologist | April 30, 2009...Oh my? The CDC is being very smart about this issue. As long time readers of this blog will know, the Mad Biologist is very concerned about the evolution of resistance to antibacterials (antibiotics) and antivirals. One such antiviral is Tamiflu which is used to treat influenza infections.
The CDC has flown in experts on the evolution of antiviral resistance to advise them on when and how Tamiflu should be used, so as to limit the evolution of resistance to Tamiflu.
And the CDC seems to be listening. You might have noticed that there has been very little public discussion of Tamiflu--…
tsmith | April 29, 2009It was only a matter of time:
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver says the state has two probable causes of swine flu.
Speaking Wednesday at a Statehouse news conference, Culver told reporters that officials would know Thursday if the cases are swine flu.
Officials say one case was from a California resident who visited Scott and Clinton counties last week. The other was a woman who returned from Mexico and traveled through Johnson, Des Moines and Muscatine counties.
State Medical Director Patricia Quinlisk says both of the people infected were now recovering.
Should know by tomorrow if they are confirmed…
tsmith | April 29, 2009Brandon Keim at WiredScience has a new article on swine flu genomics.
"This is what we call a reassortment between two currently circulating pig flu viruses," said Andrew Rambaut, a University of Edinburgh viral geneticist. "Why it's emerged in humans is anyone's guess. It hasn't been seen before in pigs as far as I know."
***
"The new neuraminidase gene that came in from Eurasian swine is one we've never before seen circulating in humans," said Rambaut. "That's one of the reasons it's spreading rapidly. Very few people will have any immunity to this particular combination, which is what…
tsmith | April 29, 2009The latest numbers of confirmed cases from the CDC were released about an hour ago. 91 cases have been confirmed, with the largest numbers in New York (51), California (14), and Texas (16). One new case has also been confirmed in Nevada, one in Indiana, one in Arizona, and 2 in Michigan; the other Ohio case I know of is still pending, apparently. Ongoing investigations are also taking place in multiple states, so expect the number to keep rising for the time being. [Update: 2 cases just confirmed in Massachussets, and three in Maine.]
The first fatality has also been reported: a 23-month-…
tsmith | April 28, 2009Back in 2007, I wrote about an outbreak of swine influenza from an Ohio county fair. The peer-reviewed paper analyzing the swine influenza isolated from that outbreak has just recently come out. From the abstract:
The swine isolate, A/SW/OH/511445/2007 (OH07), was evaluated in an experimental challenge and transmission study reported here. Our results indicate that the OH07 virus was pathogenic in pigs, was transmissible among pigs, and failed to cross-react with many swine H1 anti-sera. Naturally exposed pigs shed virus as early as 3 days and as long as 7 days after contact with…
tsmith | April 28, 2009Revere on quarantine versus isolation. This is a topic I've covered previously (here) as well, and an important distinction (though the two are often muddled together in the press).
Christine Gorman talks about getting the facts straight on swine flu, and offers up many additional resources to keep you updated.
Skepchick provides "Things More Likely to Save You From Swine Flu Than Homeopathy". Colon cleanse and chiropractic are noticeably absent...
1976 swine flu Public Service Announcements. They don't make 'em like that anymore... (h/t http://twitter.com/tomburket)
Finally, my…
tsmith | April 28, 2009Stories in Spanish: Costa Rica becomes the first Central American country to confirm swine flu ("gripe porcina"). A 21 year old who had traveled to Mexico is in stable condition. An additional 16 cases were examined but were negative. Brazil is also examining 11 travelers; cases are also being examined in Panama, Honduras, Argentina, and Uruguay, and Chile.
In Asia, South Korea is examining a possible case, while China's stepped up its efforts to look for cases (and blocked import of pork from the US and Mexico).
Most of the cases that are being examined have traveled to Mexico…
tsmith | April 28, 2009I was introduced to snake oil salesmen at a young age. My mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was in kindergarten, and while she has mostly followed the advice of her neurologists, she's also looked into "alternate" therapies, ranging from the relatively harmless (massages, oils, etc.) to more invasive methods (chelation, all sorts of expensive but worthless supplements). Some of these I've been able to talk her out of (and I personally think her current doctor--NOT a neurologist--is a total quack), but others she's taken because, hey, "what's the harm?" It's frustrating to…