Chinese health officials this week tried to pacify public fears, saying that a virus that has killed at least 20 children does “not resemble” 2003’s SARS epidemic. Government health authorities also claimed there was no cover-up of facts surrounding the disease.

Simple hygiene steps will prevent the spread of enterovirus 71, or EV71, which began spreading in Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui in early March.

“You can’t talk about EV71 and SARS in the same breath. SARS was a new infectious disease, and anyone could be infected. SARS was also very deadly,” Yang Weizhong, deputy chief of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.

An initial cover-up of the SARS epidemic led to the sacking of Beijing’s mayor and the health minister, and some in the Chinese media speculated that the same could happen again in Fuyang.

Yang, however, said the reason for the delay in this case was because medical teams were trying to “work out” what the illness was.

“In the initial stages of the probe a lot of effort was expended, to rule out some serious infectious diseases like SARS, bird flu, and meningitis,” says Yang.

Chen Xianyi, head of the Ministry of Health’s emergency response department, said that the epidemic had been reported to the central authorities properly.

“The confirming of the cause of this illness, the raising of the treatment rate and clear improvement in preventative measures all came from the hard work of the central government, province, city, and county. So I think it was reported in time,” he indicated.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director

Chinese press is speculating that there is a new, SARS-like epidemic emerging.

Posted: April 30th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, SARS.
Comments: none

A new, deadly bacteria has emerged in metro Detroit, and doctors there fear the drug-resistant micro-organism may develop the ability to spread quickly.

“We are alarmed,” says Dr. Marcus Zervos, head of infectious diseases for the Henry Ford Health System. “We don’t want this bacteria to become more communicable. We know that would be a nightmare.”

The bacteria often causes skin boils, and is called Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or VRSA.

The disease is a cousin of MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the antibiotic-resistant infection that is ravaging hospitals around the U.S. and U.K.

Physicians say VRSA could lead to death if it infects the blood or vital organs.

Officials are worried, as VRSA is resistant to the drug vancomycin, one of a handful of pharmaceuticals used to treat infections resistant to commonly used antibiotics, including penicillin. Vancomycin often is used to treat MRSA.

“We don’t want to lose one of our very important guns in terms of fighting infection,” said Dr. Eden Wells of the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Spread of the VRSA bacteria potentially could increase medical costs and the risk of death as doctors try several drugs on infected patients before turning to expensive new drugs, Zervos said.

People infected with VRSA have been found in Southfield, Troy, and Royal Oak, with the two most recent cases in October and December of last year. One case was found each in New York and Pennsylvania.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, MA, Editorial Director

A new, drug-resistant bacteria seen in Detroit metro area.

Posted: April 30th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Impaired Immunity.
Comments: none

New medical informatics software graphs the incidence of health care associated infections (HAIs) in all of the units in a hospital and compares the current infection rate at its facility, as compared to its peers. The tool also indicates whether the infection rate in each unit is improving. MedMined launched the benchmarking tool in February as an additional feature for 46 hospitals in Alabama. The software was developed by Cardinal Health and is called MedMined.

Hospitals can compare their incidence of HAIs with other hospitals in the same peer category. Comparisons are crafted using multiple factors including the size and type of the unit and the hospital, as well as the severity of illness of patients in each hospital unit.

Hospitals rely on the information to help identify best practices and areas for improvement. 

“Hospitals are finding value in the ability to compare their results with their peers,” says J. Michael Horsley, president of the Alabama Hospital Association. “When hospitals know which area needs the most focus and which hospitals perform best for that type of unit, we can open a dialogue for improvement that raises performance across all hospitals.”

The benchmarking capability will be rolled out to hospitals across the U.S. starting in May.

Healthcare facilities utilizing this new tool can voluntarily allow other hospitals to see the name of their institution in the benchmarking results. Those hospitals that choose to disclose their facility can, in turn, also see other hospitals who also granted permission to reveal their names in the results. Hospitals that choose to remain anonymous cannot view any other specific hospital names in the benchmarking results, developers said.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

New software may help hospitals reduce infections.

Posted: April 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Impaired Immunity, MRSA.
Comments: none

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has discovered a new way to combat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and circumvent problems with drug resistance. In findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists write they have blocked HIV infection in the test tube by inactivating a human protein expressed in key immune cells.

Most of the drugs used to fight HIV, which a retrovirus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), attack the virus’s own proteins. But, since HIV has a high rate of genetic mutation, there is an emergence of drug-resistant viral strains.

Physicians have tried to outmaneuver the rapidly mutating virus by prescribing multi-drug regimens. However, these strategies can actually increase the risk of toxic side effects, and cause other problems.

In the new research, Pamela Schwartzberg, MD, PhD, a senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of NIH; Andrew J. Henderson, PhD, of Boston University, and their colleagues found that when they interfered with a human protein called interleukin-2-inducible T cell kinase (ITK) they inhibited HIV infection of key human immune cells, called T cells.

“This new insight represents an important contribution to HIV research,” says NHGRI Scientific Director Eric D. Green, MD, PhD. “Finding a cellular target that can be inhibited so as to block HIV validates a novel concept and is an exciting model for deriving potential new HIV therapies.”

Researchers note the following facts:

* When HIV enters the body, it infects T cells and takes over the activities of these white blood cells so that the virus can replicate.
* HIV infection compromises the entire immune system and causes AIDS.

The new research demonstrates that without active ITK protein, HIV cannot effectively take advantage of many signaling pathways within T cells, which in turn slows or blocks the spread of the virus.

“We were pleased and excited to realize the outcome of our approach,” Dr. Schwartzberg says.

– by the Editors of Infection Protection, a 2008 Gold Medal Award Winner from the 25th Annual Healthcare Marketing Awards.

Researchers finding new ways to halt HIV.

Posted: April 29th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, HIV, Impaired Immunity.
Comments: none

Government health officials in Washington D.C. are planning to expand needle-exchange programs in Washington, D.C. this summer. According to news media reports, a total of $494,000 in city funding will begin flowing to four organizations on the front line of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The district decided to invest in needle-exchange programs to help prevent the spread of HIV among injection drug users in the city after President Bush signed a fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending bill (HR 2764) that effectively lifted a ban on city funding for needle-exchange.

Since 1999, the district has been the only U.S. city barred by federal law from using local funds for needle-exchange programs.

A report released in November 2007 by district health officials found that injection drug use was the second most common cause of HIV transmission in the city.

According to the best-selling book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, needle exchanges have been effective in the inner city only when health officials can make contacts with neighborhood residents who have dozens of contacts in the drug community, and can actually get the drug addicts clean needles. Otherwise, the addicts inject themselves five or six times a day with dirty needles, spreading disease to those they share those needles with regularly.

Often, individuals will come to the community health center, or visit with health workers, driving around in vans, during the week, and bring them old needles they have found on the streets, or in alleys. These workers then resell the needles to the addicts for $1 a piece, and make a modest living doing so.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Needle exchanges back on the agenda in D.C.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Diseases, HIV.
Comments: none

A genetically altered virus is helping eye surgeons treat a rare, inherited form of blindness, according to researchers. .

Called Leber’s congenital amaurosis, the degenerative disease of the retina harms the tissue at the back of the eye where images are focused. Patients have a defective gene, RPE65, which produces a protein required to convey images to the brain. Using a virus, researchers injected normal versions of the gene into the eyes of six adults with advanced disease and their vision improved.

The technology may also work for other types of eye disease, although the data needs to be confirmed in larger, longer trials before the approach is used widely, researchers said. The studies were reported yesterday at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This result is important for the entire field of gene therapy,” says Katherine High, lead author from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and past-president of the American Society of Gene Therapy. “Gene transfer has been in clinical trials for over 15 years now, and although it has an excellent safety record, examples of therapeutic effect are still relatively few.”

All three patients in an international study had improved vision, as did a patient in London, where the human trials first began. One of the Italian patients developed a hole in the retina, the only significant side effect uncovered during the studies that ran for five to 12 months. No surgical site infections have been reported by resarchers. Infections are very common in U.K. hospitals, and surgical site infections can compromise the immunity of patients.
The doctors employed a modified virus made by Targeted Genetics Corp., a Seattle-based maker of experimental gene therapies, to get healthy copies of the genes into the cells in the patients’ eyes. Surgeons had to partially detach the retina before injecting the mixture with a fine needle to get the genes into the proper position deep in the eye.

“It is tremendously exciting to see that this technique is safe in an extremely fragile tissue and can improve vision in a condition previously considered wholly untreatable,” says James Bainbridge, who led the surgical team in London.

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Researchers demonstrate how creating an infection in the eye with a virus can treat blindness.

Posted: April 28th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Impaired Immunity.
Comments: none

More than 2 million people contracted Clostridium difficile-associated disease - known as CDAD - between 1993 and 2005, according to a new federal  public health report. The study is generating some national media coverage on MSNBC.com,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24277609/from/ET/

The disease is very similar to MRSA in that it resists treatment by many drugs and is often acquired by patients in the hospital or at a medical office.

– the Editors

Posted: April 25th, 2008 under Diseases, Impaired Immunity.
Comments: none

The cells that fight viruses have to reach the site of an infection promptly to protect the body — in the same way that paramedics motor to the scene of a car crash to save the victims. New research by University of Washington (UW) scientists indicates that specialized types of white blood cells, called regulatory T cells, serve as the body’s dispatchers, notifying the other cells to speed to the site of viral invasion.

Researchers believe that regulatory T cells may call a halt to immune responses as the body nears success in eliminating an infection. This suppression as the fight draws to an end would reduce tissue damage from immune responses that are too dramatic. Knowledge about these cells may help fight autoimmune disorders, and impaired immunity.

The researchers have discovered a delay in the deployment of killer cells, dendritic cells, the cells that capture and present foreign proteins to other immune cells, and T cells arriving at the site of infection, where they were supposed to go earlier to fulfill their virus-fighting roles. The researchers suggested that a possible reason for this tardiness is an alteration in the chemical cues necessary for these cells to migrate to the site of infection.

The authors described the finding of an immune-response promoting role for regulatory T cells during the early stages of a local infection as “unexpected,” considering the cells’ suppressor roles during later stages of an immune response.

The authors of the study, “Coordination of Early Protective Immunity to Viral Infections by Regulatory T Cells,” are Jennifer M. Lund, senior fellow in immunology; Lianne Hsing, immunology graduate student; Thuy T. Pham, senior biology major; and Alexander Y. Rudensky, professor of immunology.

Findings appear in the April 24 edition of Science Express.

– by the Editors

Regulatory T-Cells in action, signaling the onset of infection.

Posted: April 25th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Impaired Immunity.
Comments: none

Malaria is a remarkably resilient infectious disease, and is resurging because of the emergence of “drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes,” according to reports from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“New approaches and strategies will be required to sustain the successes of control programs over the long term,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the NIH, said.

Scientists have made progress in understanding malaria parasite and mosquito biology and in translating these findings into techniques to prevent and treat disease.

According to Dr. B.F. Lee Hall, MD, PhD, chief of parasitology at NIAID, a promising malaria vaccine known as RTS,S has been shown to offer partial protection against malaria in studies among children and infants in Africa. A clinical trial conducted in 40 adult volunteers in Mali demonstrated that a second candidate malaria vaccine based on the malaria protein AMA-1 is safe and elicits a “strong immune response,” he said.

The control, elimination and eradication of malaria will require a long-term, sustained effort that will necessitate strengthening the many partnerships that already exist with the NIH and other governments and drug companies as well as forming new collaborations, said Fauci.

“The goals of these research partnerships in malaria are ambitious, and the challenges correspondingly formidable; however, the objectives are worthy of our greatest efforts and scientific minds. Together, the global community will continue to transform scientific advances into highly effective interventions against the ancient scourge of malaria, and eventually defeat this global disease,” said Fauci.

- by the Editors

For more information,

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/Malaria/default.htm

Infection path of malaria. Source: Harvard Medical School.

Posted: April 25th, 2008 under Diseases, Impaired Immunity, Malaria.
Comments: none

Patients who learn through genetic tests that they might be prone to devastating infections won’t have to fret about losing their jobs — or their health care coverage — under anti-discrimination legislation the U.S. Senate passed earlier today, according to news media reports.

The 95-0 Senate vote sends the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) to the House of Representatives, which may approve it early week. President Bush supports the bill.

Described by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as “the first major new civil rights bill of the new century,” the bill bars health insurance companies from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility for patients.

“For the first time we act to prevent discrimination before it has taken firm hold and that’s why this legislation is unique and groundbreaking,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) who sponsored the bill.

There are more than 1,100 genetic tests available today, and testing leads to early interventions for an array of diseases with hereditary links, including breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease. There is speculation that some forms of cancer, and even Parkinson’s disease, may be linked to infectious agents in the medical community.

Congressional efforts to set federal standards to protect people from genetic discrimination go back more than a decade, to a time when there were only a small number of genetic tests.

Bill sponsors said that improving technology for screening has increased the likelihood that a prospective health insurance company or employer will reject a person because of concerns that person will suffer a costly disease in the future.

Dr. Francis Collins, genetics chief at the National Institutes of Health, said it’s hard to know how often genetic discrimination has occurred in the U.S., as victims are reluctant to come forward.

One example — a Texas-based railroad that once conducted genetic tests on workers complaining of carpal tunnel syndrome in an effort to argue the injuries weren’t job related if patients had a genetic predisposition.

“All of us carry glitches in our DNA and we’re learning more and more about those every day,” he said. “A system that allows that information to be used to deny people health care or a job is a system that has lost its way. This is a civil rights issue and it’s high time we took care of it.”

– by Gene J. Koprowski, Editorial Director

Genetic testing soon to be circumscribed by law. Image Courtesy of Gendia.

Posted: April 24th, 2008 under Developing Diseases, Impaired Immunity, Parkinson's.
Comments: 1