Sunday, December 20, 2009

Weekly Roundup of Flublogia


# 4173

 

 

An experiment today, since the holidays are upon us and Sundays are generally slow news days, anyway.

 

For the next few weeks I will attempt to do a weekly recap of some of the biggest stories, the best blog posts, and most interesting information from Flublogia each Sunday or Monday Morning.

 

This will be a subjective list of things that caught my eye, and is by no means intended to recap all of the news reports or mention every worthy blog post out there.  It is more of a sampling.

 

My apologies for the good stories I may miss.

 

 

From Maryn McKenna at the Superbug Blog we get an impassioned plea to support ProMed Mail, a service of the ISID and one that I avail myself of daily.  Her post A plea, and not for me: Support ProMED explains why ProMed deserves our support.

 

And while you can get lost for hours exploring the Superbug Blog, be sure to check out Maryn’s interview this week with Guest Q&A: Dr. Brad Spellberg and RISING PLAGUE and also seriously consider pre-ordering Maryn’s soon-to-be published book on MRSA Book news: SUPERBUG available for pre-order!

 

Vincent Racaniello’s Virology Blog is always an excellent read, and while not always flu-related it is always of interest to disease geeks.  He writes about colony collapse disorder in Are the bees vanishing? and the role of Zinc in the inhibition of replication in Rhinoviruses Rhinovirus and zinc part 5: Magnesium is not the culprit.

 

I’m am also an unabashed fan of Racaniello’s TWiV podcast, and eagerly await each new episode.

 

Revere at Effect Measure hit one out of the park this week with Mild pandemic? Bite your tongue which builds on an essay (Making sense of the H1N1 pandemic: What's going on? avail by Subscription) written by Michael T. Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP


Effect Measure also weighs in on the curious report of prolonged viral replication and shedding in some H1N1 cases in  Prolonged shedding of swine flu virus.

 

Speaking of CIDRAP, their Promising Practices website is a repository of locally created preparedness programs that can serve as an outline for other communities to learn from or follow.  They’ve recently upgraded the site, and are adding new initiatives practically every week.

 

CIDRAP provides some of the best disease news coverage available, of course, with terrific writers like Robert Roos, Lisa Schnirring and Maryn McKenna

 

But their special features  such as their continually updated overview of swine flu  Novel H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu), and their recently released HR Toolkit Doing Business During An Influenza Pandemic deserve special mention.  

 

You could spend days exploring the CIDRAP site, and they would be days well spent.

 

Mystery Rays From Outer Space is the cleverly named blog written by an assistant professor of immunology and virology at Michigan State University named Ian York, Ph. D.   He writes an eclectic, entertaining, and informative blog. 

 

This week in Influenza before 1918, part II: 1872 York reminds us of the Epizootic of 1872 – which affected nearly every horse in North America.  A fascinating bit of virological  history.

 

When it comes to a daily tracking of flu news, no one does a better, or more comprehensive job than Crof at Crofsblog.  Crof has a nose for news, and an uncanny ability to ferret out stories from all over the world.  

 

The newshounds on the flu forums (I frequent Flu Wiki and FluTrackers) continue to provide the best stream of raw news and information on emerging infectious diseases, often translating articles from Chinese, Bahasan, Korean, and other languages.

 

A personal note to John Solomon who writes the excellent In Case Of Emergency blog.  He has posted a personal health update.   Best wishes John, for a speedy recovery.

 

This past week we’ve seen a number of reports and studies.  A few highlights include:

 

FluView Week 49

Canada: FluWatch Week 49
Researchers Find Human Protein that Prevents H1N1 Influenza Infection
UK: Weekly Pandemic Flu Update
TFAH: Ready Or Not 2009

 

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This week PBS unveiled their documentary and companion website  Anatomy of a Pandemic which may be viewed online.

 

As part of the PBS Newshour documentary Anatomy of a Pandemic Rear Admiral Ann Schuchat M.D., Director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and Michael T. Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP at the University of Minnesota – answer a number of viewer questions regarding the documentary and the pandemic virus.

 

You can either listen online, save the MP3 file (about 18 Mbytes) to your computer, or read the transcript from the links below.

audioDownload
TranscriptTranscript

 

With cooler weather in place, avian flu has once again begun to present itself around the world with reports from Egypt, Vietnam, and Cambodia. 

 

WHO: Human H5N1 Infection In Cambodia
B2B Bird Flu In Vietnam And Egypt

 

And finally, a short list of some of the more interesting stories I’ve covered over the past week in this blog:

 

A Worthless Argument
Taking One For The Team
Looking Ahead To The Rest Of The Flu Season
Sanofi: Non-Safety Related Recall Of 800K Doses Of Vaccine

 

 

All of this represents just a sampling of this week in Flublogia.  As you can see, this is a collaborative effort. No one reporter, blogger, or flu forum could cover it all. 

 

Hopefully this recap will highlight some of the stories you may have missed over the past week.