2009 - Year of the pandemic?

From SDF planes to fly home Japanese stranded in event of flu pandemic

The Defense Ministry has drafted an action plan that will allow government aircraft to bring home stranded Japanese following the overseas outbreak of a new type of pandemic influenza, it has been learned.

The plan calls for the dispatch of Self-Defense Force's aircraft, including chartered government jets, if an outbreak of influenza leads to the suspension of commercial airline and passenger-ship services, preventing Japanese from returning home. It also refers to treating these people at SDF hospitals after they return.

The plan is expected to be announced as early as March, according to sources.


From Bird flu confirmed in W Canada

An apparently low pathogenic strain of the bird flu has been detected on a turkey farm in western Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Saturday.

The agency confirmed "the presence of H5 avian influenza (AI) virus" in the farm located in Fraser Valley of British Columbia province, where avian flu has been discovered in recent years.

Further testing is underway to assess the precise strain of the virus, but preliminary tests indicated that it was low pathogenic, the agency said.

"Tests to date indicate that the strain of AI in this case is low pathogenic," said the CFIA.


From US, Japanese Researchers Mix Samples of 1918 Flu Pandemic to Recreate Deadly Code

Three genes can turn normal flu into a killer, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers find 30 Dec 2008 Three key genes can turn a regular flu virus into a super killer like the strain that devastated the world 90 years ago and one that could come again, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found in a study involving ferrets. The discovery by a team led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka could help scientists better recognize new flu strains capable of causing a global epidemic, or pandemic, and develop drugs to ward off any kind of flu, the researchers said. Kawaoka said the goal was to find out why recreate the 1918 flu virus, known as the Spanish flu, was so deadly, killing up to 50 million people.

Researchers recreate 1918 flu pandemic virus --Why? And, why is no one *asking* why? 29 Dec 2008 Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain. Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when [the US unleashes it] or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

From Chances are the next deadly pandemic will have originated among animals

The businessman was one of the 800 or so people who died from this new disease – severe acute respiratory syndrome or Sars for short – during the 2002-03 global outbreak.

The disease is thought to have originated in China's southern Guangdong province in November 2002. When a Chinese professor of respiratory medicine treating people with the syndrome fell ill he travelled to Hong Kong, carrying the virus with him.

By February 2003 it had spread around the world, thanks to the ease and efficiency of air travel. Between March and July 2003, 8,400 probable cases of Sars had been reported in 32 countries.

Like the majority of new and emerging diseases, Sars originated in animals: it is a previously unknown type of coronavirus, which was found in Himalayan palm civets, a raccoon dog and a Chinese ferret badger.

It was also detected among people working in a live animal market in the southern Guangdong area where the outbreak first began. High levels of antibodies to the virus were also found in people trading masked palm civets, which are considered a delicacy in parts of China.

Dr Roland Salmon, director of the National Public Health Service for Wales' (NPHS) Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, said: “It is thought that 60% to 70% of disease are zoonoses – animal diseases – although some people believe that is an underestimate.”

History is littered with deadly examples of animal diseases crossing the species barrier, from plague, which originated in the Himalayan foothills and began to spread when it got into marmots; measles, which is closely linked to the dog distemper virus; HIV, which originated in great apes; to the current concerns about highly pathogenic avian flu H5N1, which has already killed a number of people working in close contact with infected birds.

“Often these diseases don't have any effect, or a minimal effect on the animals themselves,” said Dr Rob Smith an NPHS clinical scientist. “But if it gets into a new host it can present differently. Humans pick up these infections through direct contact by touching the infected animals, by eating food which is contaminated with the animal pathogen – like E.coli O157 – or through another vector, like water.”


From Non-medical sectors told to be prepared for bird flu pandemic

Preparations for a possible bird flu pandemic must involve sectors outside the health field, for sound cooperation to help mitigate the pandemic's impacts, a top official warned Tuesday.

"All sectors have to possess plans on pandemic preparedness, including the private sector and community groups," said Bayu Krisnamurthi, executive director of the National Commission on Bird Flu Preparedness.

"There is no single country in the world fully ready to face the global pandemic, including Indonesia."


From House-passed stimulus bill includes pandemic funding

Yesterday the US House of Representatives passed an $819 billion economic stimulus bill that included funding for pandemic influenza and bioterrorism countermeasures, and now the Senate will debate its version of the measure, which also includes spending on some of the same items.

President Barack Obama and several Democratic legislators have hailed the public health spending provisions as a way to create jobs and boost the productivity of the American workforce. However, some lawmakers oppose spending provisions, particularly those aimed at government departments.

The House bill includes $900 million for biomedical advanced research and development, pandemic flu, and cyber security to help the nation better prevent or respond to a natural or man-made biological threat, according to a Jan 15 statement from Trust for America's Health (TFAH), a nonprofit health advocacy group in Washington, DC.

The House plan also includes $3 billion for disease prevention, including funding for state and local health departments and immunization programs, and $20 billion for health information technology.

Jeff Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH, said in the statement, "This is an unprecedented one-time investment in public health." In 2008, a TFAH expert panel reported that the country faces annual $20 billion shortfalls in critical public health program funding across state, local, and federal levels.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) said in a Jan 15 statement that federal support for effective public health programs has eroded steadily over several years. "This (House) bill would reverse that course and set the stage for an emphasis on wellness in forthcoming discussions of reform of the nation's health system," the group said.

On Jan 27 TFAH released a statement applauding the Senate Appropriations Committee for including $16 billion for public health in its version of the stimulus bill. "This funding is desperately needed to revitalize and modernize the country's ailing public health system, and we'll be putting more Americans to work in programs that will directly improve the health of communities where they live," Levi said.

The Senate bill includes $870 million to complete funding for the nation's pandemic influenza plan. It also includes $5.8 billion for prevention and wellness efforts, including $600 million to boost the healthcare, and $5 billion toward the modernization of health information technology.

TFAH said the Senate's stimulus bill includes funding to modernize the nation's capacity to respond to a pandemic outbreak, along with equipment and medications to detect, contain, and treat pandemic influenza.

Yesterday the House passed its stimulus measure by a 244-to-188 margin, with Republicans unanimously opposing the bill. It's unclear how the bill will fare in the Senate, where Democrats have a slimmer majority.

Senate debate on the bill could begin as early as Feb 2, the Associated Press reported today.


From Pandemic Alert! Could a Cough Detector Be the Future of Airport Security?

In the near future, every American will have a digital avatar made with real life census data, to help predict the spread of infectious diseases. But what about when we're traveling? Jared Diamond holds that air travel can hastened the spread of pandemics all over the world. Enter a Belgian company called Biorics , which has developed a device that can reportedly enable airport security to tell whether someone is carrying a pandemic virus by the sound of their cough.

The company's plan is to place multiple microphones in the waiting areas of airports, and then process the sound to get rid of background noise. By singling out cough sounds from regular cell phone conversations and airport chatter, the device can supposedly tell if a person is just clearing their throat, or if they have a cough that indicates they are infected with a virus. The loudness of the cough would help authorities locate the sick person.

From MN Department of Health issues pandemic flu plan

The numbers sound frightening. If a flu pandemic like the one of 1918 strikes, up to a third of Minnesota's population could become sick. Over 32,000 Minnesotans might die. Normal health care and emergency services and the distribution of essential goods could be crippled.

So say officials at the Minnesota Department of Health, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics.

And because of that potential threat, officials on Friday took another step in the state's preparations for a severe global flu pandemic. They released for public scrutiny and comment two reports with draft ethical frameworks for allocating critical health care resources during a pandemic.


From Is China Covering up a New Bird Flu Epidemic?

Is China covering up a new outbreak of bird flu? Certainly there seems to be very strong evidence it is. There have already been eight reported cases of humans contracting the potential deadly H5N1 virus, from which five people have died this year. And despite the fact that Hong Kong officials have been finding dead birds infected with the virus washing up onto its shores in recent days from the mainland, China has not made any official statement concerning an outbreak among birds. At least one Hong Kong health adviser to the government, Lo Wing-lok, says the government “just isn't admitting” to the problem.

If this is true, both Chinese health officials and the state media must share the blame. Surely after so many human infections people must be asking questions of how the caught the virus, as human to human transmission is highly unlikely. But China has a horrible track record of squelching bad news at the cost of public safety, usually with the complicity of the local media. Back in 2003 Guangdong provincials covered up the SARS epidemic for 22 weeks before informing neighboring Hong Kong. By that time it was too late, and nearly 300 people died of SARS in Hong Kong, as did hundreds more worldwide. You would have thought that China had learned its lesson back then.