Avian Flu Diary: Weekly Roundup Of Flublogia

# 4286

Once again I’m back with a recap of some of the stories from in and around Flublogia (and or science blogs) from the past week (or so).

This is a subjective list of things that I found of interest, and by no means mentions every worthy blog post out there. It is more of a sampling, and not always restricted to flu.

My apologies for the good stories I may miss. So, with that said, in no particularly order . . .

We start this roundup with two pieces by Maryn McKenna on how MRSA is introduced and spread in a hospital environment. The first appeared on CIDRAP (see New tool helps trace MRSA's local, global spread) and the second was a follow up blog post on Maryn’s Superbug Blog.

Maryn also shared with us a sneak peek at the cover art for her upcoming book on MRSA. Congratulations, Maryn.

Next up are two pieces by the Reveres at Effect Measure.

The first looks at attempts to define (and possibly control) the tools (at a cellular level) that influenza viruses need in order to replicate. In New tool to figure out what the flu virus does (and what it needs to do it), Revere looks at research that may lead someday to new types of antivirals.

In Another swine flu virus, the authors of Effect Measure look at the recent report that boy in Iowa recently (last September) contracted an H3N2 version of swine flu. While no further spread has been detected, the Reveres remind us of why surveillance of these types of viruses is so important.

You can find my post on this story at H3N2 Swine Flu.

Although we’ve dozens of terrific newshounds working the Flu and Emerging Infectious Disease beat, I’d like to call your attention to two of them this morning, and their respective websites.

First is Ida at The Bird Flu Information Corner.

BFIC is a joint effort between Kobe University in Japan and the Institute of Tropical Disease, Airlangga University, Indonesia and provides us with some of the best coverage and translations of Indonesian (Bahasan) news stories on the web.

Second is Commonground at Pandemic Information News.

Commonground is one of the most active of the flu forum newshounds, and posts at FluTrackers as well as on her own site. She often finds and publishes foreign language stories out of Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia (and other countries) days before the English language media picks up on them.

When you combine their work with that of dozens of others on flu forums (I follow the Flu Wiki and FluTrackers), you end up with a pretty effective news retrieval system. The time, patience, and expertise required to find, translate, and interpret these news stories in enormous.

My thanks and kudos go to all of the newshounds.

Another blog post that caught my eye this past week (I’m a sucker for disease history) was one from Professor Ian York at Mystery Rays from Outer Space.

In The good old days York unveils some very old disease maps of the United States and the West Indies (circa 1856).

While the reporting from CIDRAP news is always top-notch, a detailed examination of the Michigan Facemask/Hand Hygiene study by news Editor Robert Roos belongs near the top of my list of essential reading this week.

Masks plus hand hygiene reduced ILI in college dorm study

Of course, for the best daily news summary, I can think of no better stop than to visit Crof at Crofsblog. And for news stories on a variety of infectious diseases, along with the latest out of Haiti, I’d direct you to Chen Qi.

A few of my own contributions this week to the Blogosphere include: