Recent Posts
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The H1N1 pandemic is over. What does it mean?
Posted by Atila Iamarino | December 15, 2010 |WHO Pandemic Warning Phases.Source [pdf].
What is a pandemic?
The World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Committee declared on August 10 that we left the pandemic phase of the H1N1 virus. “The world is no longer in phase 6 of influenza pandemic alert. We are now moving into the post-pandemic period. The new H1N1 virus has largely run [...]
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The pandemic Influenza keeps reassorting
Posted by Atila Iamarino | October 19, 2010 |After more than a year of the Influenza A H1N1 episode, the virus is still being monitored all over the world, both the flu cases and genetics diversity of the virus. Following up the genetic diversity helps to understand if the vaccine is still efficient and helps identifying the possible appearance of new strains.
In Hong [...] -
Influenza A H1N1: current state
Posted by Atila Iamarino | October 14, 2010 |A year has passed since the first cases of Influenza A H1N1 in Mexico, we had over 18000 deaths confirmed by lab diagnosis and reported to WHO. Surely an underestimate of the total number of cases.
The average mortality was of 0.5% of the confirmed cases, close to the seasonal flu. The mortality values varied a [...] -
Pigs are reservoirs of Influenza
Posted by Atila Iamarino | June 22, 2010 |Why were the older people less affected by the new flu?
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The elderly, especially those older than 65 years, that is, born before 1944, constitute the part of the population less affected by H1N1. It was suggested and later confirmed by CDC that it is about the prior immunity to the virus. These people probably have [...]
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Transmission of Avian Influenza restricted by cold nose
Posted by Atila Iamarino | June 20, 2010 |One of the greater uncertanties about Avian Influenza is why it is not efficiently transmitted among humans. Thus, it is clear how likely it is that the virus is able to cross this barrier and a more efficient line appears. For example, until now the H5N1 was transmitted mainly to breeders and people in very [...]
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A universal flu vaccine
Posted by Atila Iamarino | June 13, 2010 | 2 CommentsWill we have a universal Influenza vaccine someday? Will we find something that eliminates the need of developing a new vaccine every year and ensuring that great part of the population receives it?
The annual development of flu vaccines is a very expensive way of avoiding this disease even if it is the most efficient way. [...]
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H5N1, the bird flu: the virus
Posted by Atila Iamarino | June 6, 2010 | 1 CommentIn the last text, it was discussed the capacity of H5N1 of infecting a number of hosts and causing very harsh symptoms, causing deaths in over 50% of the recorded human cases. Despite this, its transmission from person to person seems to be well limited. Now we will see its characteristics that contribute to this.
As [...] -
Pandemic Influenza: the role of poultry birds
Posted by Atila Iamarino | June 1, 2010 | 1 CommentNever in history of mankind have we reared as many pigs and chickens as now. The growing demand for meat, especially in developing countries like China, exerts a great pressure in the increase of the quantity of meat in commerce. Therefore, more wild birds are being caught and more domestic birds are being bred. The [...]
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Contaminated Vaccines
Posted by Atila Iamarino | May 12, 2010 | 3 CommentsAlthough H1N1 is circulating around us at least a little bit before 1918, we passed almost 20 years free of it. In 1957, a line of influenza virus received three genes of an avian virus, among them new HA and NA, and started to be called H2N2. With these new proteins, it did not meet [...]
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Pandemic Influenza: the role of pigs
Posted by Atila Iamarino | February 16, 2010 | 3 CommentsBirds are important in the natural history of Influenza and flu, but there is another character besides us humans. The pigs.
Our knowledge of Influenza in pig dates back to at least 1918 when it was observed that they could also catch the flu during a time when the human flu caused an uneven pandemic. In [...]
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Diversity of the Influenza and the reassortment
Posted by Atila Iamarino | February 9, 2010 | 1 CommentOne of the most important characteristics to be considered about the Influenza, in the preparation for pandemics, is the reassortment. A mixture of genes of two or more different viruses is able to generate a new variety. Such as the new Influenza A (H1N1).
Although the mutations have an important role in the diversity of the [...] -
Mutations and the escape from immunity
Posted by Atila Iamarino | January 22, 2010 | 7 CommentsIf measles is caused by a virus and it can only be caught once in a life time, why do we catch the flu every year?
When we have the flu, in a few days the body seems to get rid of the virus. The symptoms rarely last for two weeks and, in a higher period; [...]
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Flu and art
Posted by Atila Iamarino | January 17, 2010 |Despite the negative image we have about the flu, nothing prevents it from having a certain beauty. This is how the English artist Luke Jerran transforms the way how we see the Influenza. With his glass sculptures, the virus gains an incredible and realistic beauty, once their size is smaller than the length of [...]
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Influenza A H1N1: The coming plague
Posted by Atila Iamarino | November 14, 2009 | 2 CommentsThere are e-mails in circulation stating that some magazines had surprisingly predicted the epidemic of Influenza A (H1N1) years in advance. I immediately remembered an excellent book, The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, a journalist who won the Pulitzer Award for his work in epidemics.
In this book, besides discussing a number of very dangerous epidemics, [...] -
H5N1, the bird flu: the hosts
Posted by Atila Iamarino | November 12, 2009 |In 1997, a lineage of H5N1 bird flu was transmitted to a child in Hong Kong who died of respiratory problems. This was the first of a number of recorded cases of transmission of this virus from poultry to humans.
Since then, the world follows the circulation of this virus with concern. Although we associate it [...] -
Less known but worrying variants of the influenza
Posted by Atila Iamarino | November 10, 2009 |Although we are acquainted with the influenza A (H1N1) and types such as H5N1 or H3N2, there are other influenza variants that infect humans and cause us concern.
The influenza H7 comprises various lineages, H7N7, H7N3 and H7N2 are those who knowingly infect humans. Some lineages are not very pathogenic (LPAI) and others highly pathogenic (HPAI), [...] -
The Flu seasonality
Posted by Atila Iamarino | November 7, 2009 | 2 CommentsThe impression that the flu appears during winter is very common but does it have any real basis?
In a broad way and with many exceptions, infectious diseases may be divided into acute and chronic. The acute infection occurs when the virus quickly infects the host, causes symptoms, is or is not transmitted and the disease [...] -
Antivirals and resistance: Adamantanes
Posted by Atila Iamarino | November 6, 2009 |In the case of a pandemic, and during the seasonal epidemics, once a person has already contracted the influenza, we can do little, other than monitor and treat him with antivirals. However, they are not always a guarantee of success, especially in the case of resistant viruses.
Amantadine and rimantadine are the first drugs used against [...] -
Antiviral and resistance: sialidase inhibitors
Posted by Atila Iamarino | October 21, 2009 | 5 CommentsFrom adamantine therapeutics failures, interest in developing new drugs against the flu virus had come up. Hence, appeared oseltamivir and zanamivir, neuraminidase inhibitors, the first class of planned drugs against Influenza. Here, the path taken for their production was reverse of that of amantadine. Instead of testing the drug and finding out later how [...]
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Vaccine against flu: Distribution
Posted by Atila Iamarino | October 16, 2009 | 2 CommentsIf you think that all problems are solved after you have read all about the long vaccine production, you’re wrong. There is still the issue of distribution:
As the vaccine manufacturing process is slow and continuous, it is not possible to produce enough doses for everyone. Nowadays, our yearly vaccine production is of 700 to 900 [...]