Posts Tagged ‘World Health Organization’

SARS déjà vu?

May 11th, 2013

Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) began to receive reports of human cases with SARS-like infections caused by a new coronavirus. According to WHO, 30 cases of this new illness have been found and 60% of the infections have been fatal. So far, the cases have been limited to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and France. Symptoms are pretty serious and include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Most of the people infected have required hospitalization. It looks like the virus spreads person to person, but scientists don’t yet know enough to say for sure.

CDC, WHO, and other public health organizations are looking into all severe acute respiratory cases, especially those with recent travel to the Arabian Peninsula to identify any new cases of the virus and learn more about how it might be spreading. No cases have been found in the US.  Here’s some up to date information if you’re interested in learning more.

Yesterday I blogged about what we’ve learned since we first discovered SARS. 

 

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SARS… A 10-Year Retrospective

May 10th, 2013

This Spring marks 10 years since Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) arrived on the global public health scene.  It started as a mystery illness in SE Asia- without name, origin, or cure in February of 2003.  The CDC immediately began working with the World Health Organization to investigate the outbreak.  Public health scientists across the globe scrambled to understand and contain this health threat… which ultimately infected more than 8,000 people- killing about 10% of them. 

By March of 2003, the CDC had confirmed that the disease wasn’t caused by an influenza virus, but they didn’t know the culprit…  so they named it after the symptoms (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) rather than the causative agent (it turned out to be a new Coronavirus).  March of ’03 also marked the time when the CDC figured out that the virus was spread via face-to-face human contact.  That’s also when the CDC and WHO recommended strict infection control measures including hand washing, gloves, avoiding sharing household items, and limiting interaction between ill patients and others. 

Exactly 10 years ago today CDC figured out that there were some “super-spreaders” that were a particular problem with the growing epidemic.  May ’03 also marked the month in which the investigation and public health and clinical interventions matured- bringing the full weight of the global public health and clinical management system to bear on the virus.  Interventions like concise case definitions and reporting standards, laboratory diagnostic tests, travel restrictions, and clear clinical management and infection control guidelines all worked together to eradicate the virus by the Summer of 2003. 

The forensic investigation continued for a few months after the virus was eradicated.  The investigation kept pointing toward an animal called a Civet as the source of the new Coronavirus.  A SARS-like virus had been isolated from civets captured in areas of China where the SARS outbreak originated and sold in live animal markets.  It’s a mammal with a catlike body, long legs, a long tail, and a masked face resembling a raccoon or weasel.  By January of ’04 it was pretty clear that a Civet was the probable source, and the CDC issued a  “Notice of Embargo of Civets”, which banned the importation of civets into the US. The ban is currently still in effect.  China also implemented some control measures on them. 

Interested in the whole story?  Check out “Remembering SARS: 10 Years Later” on the CDC’s website.

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Next Season’s Influenza Vaccine

March 5th, 2013

Just as our influenza season winds down (and it is), it’s time to plan for the next one.  Every February the World Health Organization convenes a panel of experts to look at the most current data on the circulating flu strains from around the world and makes recommendations for the next season’s Northern Hemisphere flu vaccine.  At this week’s meeting in Geneva, the group recommended changing a B component of the vaccine, but sticking with the A/H3N2 and A/H1N1 components for next year. 

It may seem too early to be thinking about next year’s flu vaccine, but planning in February allows time for vaccine companies to grow the viruses and process the vaccine. The vaccine-making process still takes about 6 months… so it’s important to start as early as possible to ensure that vaccine is available for the start of the next flu season. Getting vaccinated against the flu every year is important, especially because the vaccine strains can change from year to year, as will happen for the 2013-2014 season.

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Flu Down Under- 2012

August 24th, 2012

The Southern Hemisphere has its flu season during our Summer- so every year around now we watch influenza activity “down under” to get an idea of what we might expect for our upcoming flu season.   Here’s the scoop right now.  Flu south of the equator has already peaked and continues to decline.  There’s been a lot of variation in the dominant viruses in each country this season.  Many South American countries have mostly had the H1N1 “pandemic strain” while others like Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand all had a lot of influenza A (H3N2), with co-circulation of influenza B.  You can check out more on the World Health Organization’s main influenza website and the Australian Health Ministry’s surveillance website.  

The formula in this year’s US vaccine is a good match for what’s been circulating in the Southern Hemisphere so far this year (Influenza A H3N2 and H1N1, and influenza B).   Some of the manufacturers of the vaccine have already delivered some doses- and you’ll no doubt start seeing those “flu shots here” signs at a pharmacy near you shortly.

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The Dose Makes the Poison

June 19th, 2012

The first thing that you learn in a Toxicology 101 class is the old saying coined by the Renaissance German scientist Paracelsus that: “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.” We’ve shortened that to: ‘the dose makes the poison”.  Anyway… a key question for public health is to figure out how much exposure (dose) to the thousands of chemicals that we’re exposed to every day is safe.  

Figuring out how toxic chemicals are and whether or not they cause cancer is really important- because without that kind of key information the international public health system can’t develop targeted interventions or inform regulatory policy makers as they develop regulations to limit human exposure. So who does the research and who decides how toxic things are and what causes cancer? 

A combination of forces do the work. Most of the primary research is done in Academia using various funding sources. Collections of researchers and experts evaluate published data to come up with consensus opinions. Internationally- the published work is evaluated by an arm of the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). For example, this week IARC classified diesel engine exhaust as “carcinogenic to humans”. 

In the US- it’s the EPA’s job to decide how toxic things are and what causes cancer. Probably the best source of information is the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System, which compiles and presents the data that comes out of their external peer review procedures that assess toxicity and carcinogenicity. Using these data sources, policy makers can develop better informed regulations to limit human exposure and improve health outcomes. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ATSDR- which is associated with the CDC- is the public health arm that works with EPA to apply toxicity information to practical matters at polluted sites etc. I started my career at ADHS in 1992 working in our ATSDR grant funded program.

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FDA Approves Vaccines for the 2011-2012 Influenza Season

July 25th, 2011

The FDA approved the 2011-2012 influenza vaccine this week. The strains in this year’s vaccine were recommended by the CDC and the World Healthy Organization after studying virus samples collected from around the world to find the influenza viruses that are the most likely to cause illness during the upcoming flu season.  The strains selected for this season are the same as last year: A/California/7/09 (H1N1)-like virus (pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza virus), A/Perth /16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus and B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus. 

 People should get immunized against the flu every year- even when there’s no change in the strain from the previous year (like this time).  Immunity to influenza viruses declines over time and might be too low to provide protection after a year.

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Cell phones and cancer

June 1st, 2011

The World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer met this week in Lyon, France to analyze health-risk data regarding the electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones.  Their initial report was published this week, concluding that the chronic use of cell phones could be “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.  The group didn’t do any primary research themselves; rather, they reviewed the published literature to draw their conclusion.  The group concluded that, “Over the last few years, there has been mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices…  (and that) the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion…  that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk.”

This statement is a far cry from drawing a direct link between cell phone use and cancer.  But, the report also made some recommendations that, pending the availability of more research, it makes sense to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as using hands‐free devices or texting (electromagnetic fields drop off exponentially with distance, meaning that even moving the phone a few centimeters away from the head drops the exposure dramatically).  A concise report summarizing the main conclusions of the IARC Working Group and the evaluations of the carcinogenic hazard from radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (including the use of mobile telephones) will be published in a few days in The Lancet Oncology.

And remember, the most important thing to remember is to avoid distracted driving, which is an absolute and clear danger (to yourself and others).

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Arizonans are Kicking the Habit / World No Tobacco Day

May 31st, 2011

Over 166,000 Arizonans kicked their tobacco habit in 2010.  Our smoking rate now stands at only 13.5%.  This news is exciting when you consider that many states have seen increases in tobacco use over the last couple of years.  This brand-new data isn’t published yet, but our team thinks that this will put is neck-and-neck with Utah for the lowest smoking rate in the nation.

How did we get here you ask?  We’ve been working hard with our community partners have not taken their foot off the accelerator in their statewide effort to help people to quit and to prevent kids from starting.  Calls to the Arizona Smokers Helpline have soared because of our targeted “call to action” campaign.  For example, in the first six weeks of our You Can Quit- We Can Help campaign, the ASHline received more calls than it had in the previous five months. Enrollment rates have climbed, and the ASHLine has a nearly 40% quit rate after six months (best in the country). We also think that our youth prevention campaign and the implementation of the Smoke Free Arizona Act in 2007 are factors that have helped us make progress.

We expect this recent success to continue as more Arizonans see their family members, friends, and co-workers break their addiction to tobacco.  The social determinants are now weighed heavily in favor of healthy lifestyle choices and being tobacco-free is now the norm!

But that’s not the case in the rest of the world -that’s why the World Health Organization (WHO) set aside today – May 31, 2011 – as World No Tobacco Day.  According to the WHO website:

This year, the tobacco epidemic will kill nearly 6 million people, including some 600,000 nonsmokers who will die from exposure to tobacco smoke. By 2030, it could kill 8 million.

So keep up the good work Arizonans – we’re showing the world it is possible to kick the habit.

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Giving Babies a Boost

June 28th, 2010

We kicked off an initiative this month to increase the percentage of mom’s that choose to breastfeed their newborn.  The real key to success turns out to be the first couple of days after the baby is born (actually the first few hours are the most important). Our new program is called Baby Steps to Breastfeeding.  It’s a voluntary 5-point plan that we’d like hospitals to implement (for newborns and moms) before they leave the hospital.  When they implement the program they become an ADHS “Baby Friendly Hospital”.

The program is sponsored by WIC, and it’s based on the WHO’s Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.   We’ll be providing guidance, training, ongoing technical support, materials and model policies for hospitals that want to participate.  The initiative provides benefits to the participating hospitals, including marketing opportunities through our website, increased patient satisfaction and compliance with governing organizations requirements and standards. But, the biggest beneficiary will be Arizona mothers and infants, as private and public sectors work together to promote, protect and support this valuable foundation of good health.

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