Word: influenza
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...entire Harvard community evacuation. In the past week, members of the University’s Incident Support Team—which is comprised of Wrinn, the director of University Health Services, and the HUPD chief—have met to discuss a perhaps more likely scenario: avian influenza. The group met with other emergency management teams from across the University to draft a pandemic emergency plan, according to the Harvard Gazette...
...determine the right approach for contingency,” Certon said yesterday. “We are interested in getting public strategies and non-pharmaceutical approaches that people could try while dealing with the flu.” The current pandemic threat results from an outbreak of avian influenza in Europe and in Asia. Certon said that these basic methods of contagion control were necessary because they may be the only option. “We may very well find ourselves in a situation where that’s all we’ve got for a period of time...
...major killer in developing countries, in the rich world it is usually no more than an irritant. So developed nations channel health-care funds into areas perceived as presenting greater risks. Antiviral drugs are purchased and vaccines are ordered to guard against the potential threat from avian influenza instead of getting packages of rehydration solution costing just 6? a liter to those at risk of dying from diarrhea elsewhere. But far more children die from diarrhea every day than have ever died from avian...
...newest vaccine, called FluLaval, and distributed by GlaxoSmith Kline, is similar to the four other shots currently available (Fluzone, from Sanofi Pasteur and Connaught Laboratories; Fluvirin, from Novartis and Evans; FluMist , from MedImmune; and Fluarix, also from GlaxoSmith Kline). Like them, it is made by incubating strains of the influenza virus in chicken eggs. What it does contribute, however, are more doses of vaccine - a fact that federal health officials are especially keen on stressing, imm, since an unexpected shutdown of a major vaccine manufacturer in 2004 left the U.S. with a shortage of shots. "We are thrilled with...
...reported that humans have an altered form of a molecule called sialic acid on the surface of their cells. This variant is coded for by a single gene, which is damaged in humans. Since sialic acids act in part as a docking site for many pathogens, like malaria and influenza, this may explain why people are more susceptible to these diseases than, say, chimpanzees...