Women Stronger than Men

Scientists at the University of Ghent in Belgium have found evidence to explain why men are more susceptible to infectious diseases, such as influenza, than women. MicroRNA are found in abundance on the female X chromosome, yet the male Y chromosome contains no trace of microRNA. The researchers note that women’s “cellular backup” may give them more immunity to infection and septic shock. MicroRNAs have been associated with cancer and heart disease. Do these microRNA create an immune system advantage for women over men?

Check out the article J

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1062554

Monica 

“Stomach Flu Not Linked to Cerebral Palsy”

This article explains that pregnant mothers should be cautious of infections, which can increase the risk that their baby will be born with cerebral palsy. However, the common cold and stomach flus are not linked to cerebral palsy. But we all know that the stomach flu is not really influenza. This article, written by an Australian reporter, highlights the misrepresentation of influenza in mainstream media. What message is the media giving to the public about influenza? An article such as this has the ability to change public perception of influenza, while not referring to the actual influenza virus at all. Is this acceptable? Should we work to sort out this confusion and inform the public?

Check out the misnomer (“stomach flu”)

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90061676?Common%20colds%2C%20stomach%20flu%20not%20linked%20to%20cerebral%20palsy

Monica

Poverty and Influenza

This article, found in The Lancet, discusses poverty’s potential role in a future pandemic and what can be done to prevent a country’s economic situation from determining whether one dies or not. According to Neil Ferguson, the author of this article, “a novel 1918-like virus would cause a death toll of 62 million people worldwide, 96% of whom would be in the developing world.” Despite all of the advances that we have made since 1918, people in the developing world are unlikely to benefit from them, in part because they do not have access to them. In addition, malnutrition and comorbidities such as hiv and malaria may reduce the effectiveness of those medical advancements. In order to deal with these problems, Neil Ferguson suggests that all countries work to increase access to vaccines and drugs to individuals and countries who may not be able to provide for themselves. He also proposes the idea of increased surveillance in order to prevent the spread of any disease and to attract the help of more economically developed countries.

Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)69870-X/fulltext

Taubenberger’s Study of Autopsied Lungs

Upon studying preserved lung tissue from 68 soldiers who died during the 1918 pandemic, Taubenberger states, "Data from the case series do not support the hypothesis that high mortality in the 1918 pandemic resulted from unique pathogenic mechanisms." Taubenberger and his group studied prepandemic lung tissue and tissue from soldiers who died during the peak of the pandemic. There was a similar distribution of viral antigens found in prepandemic and pandemic lung tissue. Though three of the four prepandemic tissues showed a mixture of “avian-liike” and “human-like” binding specificity, the authors of the study remark that this unique binding specificity is unrelated to viral antigen distribution. The study did not find that the 1918 influenza strain had “unique pathogenic mechanisms” and the cellular distribution of viral antigens observed was found to be similar to that of 2009 H1N1 influenza patients infected with pneumonia. The authors remarked that the 1918 virus "differed in degree, but not in kind, from previous and subsequent pandemics."

So, we still don’t know why the 1918 pandemic virus caused a pandemic. But, I am confindent that Science will prevail and the answer will be revealed!

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/sep2011panwaves.html

Monica Vu

“Twitter Used to Report Flu Outbreaks”

This article from 2010 discusses the use of twitter for influenza surveillance, technology that Lalith introduced during his presentation. Professor Aron Culotta, of Southeastern Louisiana University discusses the benefits of the use of twitter over both Google Flu Trends and syndromic surveillance, used by the CDC. A greater amount and higher frequency of messages are posted on Twitter than Google Flu Trends. The use of Twitter for surveillance is inexpensive and less time consuming compared to other surveillance methods. Culotta notes that the CDC’s weekly influenza estimates usually lag one or two weeks behind. Twitter surveillance is much faster and data collected using Twitter surveillance are consistent with CDC statistics and data collected from Google flu trends. Twitter also captures a diverse demographic.

Twitter flu surveillance receives two thumbs up from me!!

Check it out: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928153809.htm

--Monica Vu

Promising mushroom?

After Nina's presentation on alternative medicine, I became interested in looking at the various types of alternative medicine studies that are happening and I came across an article this week that seems very promising in the effort to battle influenza!

Taken from http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2011/252501.pdf, Han, from the Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Guo from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have hypothesized that there are several biologically active compounds in mushrooms (including beta-D-glucans and other polysaccharides) that are able to boost the immune system, which can increase the chance of survival in response to the H1N1 virus.

Their hypothesis is backed by several previous studies done on mice, showing the effective response elicited by mushroom extracted compounds against viruses. For example, active hexose is a compound in mushrooms that has been reported to boost natural killer activity. Other compounds such as ganodermadiol, lucidadiol and applanoxidic acid G have been shown to be effective against influenza type A viruses and the herpes simplex virus type 1.

I can't wait to see the results on this study!

Marketing Flu Shots

This year companies have made ~10million more vaccines than they did last year. With this increase in supply, demand hasn't really kept up. This has caused pharmacies and retailers to try and "lure consumers into their stores." Hahaha.

Anyway, ok, so some of these strategies include free coupon books with your flu shot, in-store coupons, price-cuts, and the like. In North Carolina, Guilford county is even taking advantage of text messaging. Customers can enter a drawing to win four tickets to any professional sports even of their choice in the state by texting "TACKLEFLU" to a number. Draw participants will also receive reminders to get vaccinated!

Kind of funny what retailers are turning to to market vaccination.

Texting:

http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/09/22/article/guilford_using_texting_contest_to_promote_flu_shots

Overall suggestions for marketing flu shots:

http://www.pharmacyowners.com/blog/bid/42659/24-Awesome-Flu-Shot-Marketing-Strategies-for-Independent-Pharmacies