AL Hoang for District for Health Insurance

2 (1 votes)

The Mississippi State Department of Wellness (MSDH) reports the first laboratory confirmed influenza case of the 2008-2009 season. The presence of Influenza B in a sample from a patient inside the Covington County area was documented in the MSDH Laboratory on Friday.

“This is National Influenza Vaccination Week which, in conjunction with our first lab confirmed case of the year, serves as a great reminder that it is not too late to obtain your flu shot,” said State Health Officer Dr. Ed Thompson. He noted that the flu shot takes one to two weeks to produce immunity, and that even though flu season usually peaks in January through March, it sometimes reaches high levels as early as December.

Health departments and clinics throughout Mississippi began distributing the flu vaccine in mid-October. The charge for flu vaccination is $25. Medicare Part B covers the cost of flu vaccination, so those with Medicare Part B ought to bring their cards with them towards the clinic. Youngsters ages six months through 18 years can obtain flu vaccinations for $10.

Although flu is not a reportable illness, wellness officials monitor flu through the Influenza-Like Illness Sentinel System, made up of healthcare providers in Mississippi such as family practice clinics, student health centers, pediatricians, infectious illness specialists and emergency medicine personnel, to report flu-like symptoms into a statewide database.

Symptoms of the flu include fever, cough, and often, extreme fatigue. Sore throat, headache, muscle aches, and a runny or stuffy nose are also often present.

While vaccination is the most effective protection, basic infection control measures can also help to help lessen the spread of flu. These measures include covering your mouth when coughing and sneezing, staying at home when you are sick and washing your hands regularly.

Mississippi State Department of Wellness

The Rochester Human Immunology Center (RHIC) has been awarded a $4 million renewal of its grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Illness (NIAID). The renewal enables RHIC to continue leading the field of immunology in a worldwide effort to standardize how researchers use complex technologies like flow cytometry which are central to the discovery of new treatments.

When standardization is achieved, researchers is going to be better able to compare data collected worldwide, with the outcomes of numerous studies combined into massive datasets to guide the construction of hyper-accurate computer models of the mechanisms of disease. Such simulations will yield scientific conclusions which are dramatically far more valid and reproducible in areas like infectious disease, transplantation and cancer, researchers said. The resulting sophistication in understanding of the human immune system, and of how it responds to influenza, HIV or smallpox for instance, will guide the far more precise design of near-future vaccines.

Since its founding four years ago, the RHIC has proven that it can drive the development of standard operating procedures, having helped a lot more than 39 investigators and teams standardize their testing, and lending expertise that helped result in the winning of 22 major grants. As an internationally identified resource, the RHIC is part of working groups seeking to standardize methods for analyzing flu viruses and HIV in partnership with the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Illnesses at NIAID, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and also the New York Influenza Center of Excellence.

“Standardizing test methods to achieve comparable outcomes goes far beyond getting able to compare apples to apples,” stated Sally Quataert, Ph.D., director of Core Facilities for the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and co-principle investigator for the grant renewal. “Validated methods assure researchers that their experimental outcomes are good science, and truly meaningful. Standard methods also directly contribute to translational science, where the results of studies are far more readily affirmed by regulatory bodies, and with fewer conflicting studies.”

Prior to 2004, Quataert was director of Immunobiological Laboratory Services at Wyeth Vaccines Investigation in Rochester for seven years. Her industry background prepared her to apply Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards to academic studies, making them much more likely to withstand scrutiny by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as sound evidence that new treatments are safe and effective. If applied internationally, such standards would make drug candidates discovered at universities much easier to license to industry, with possible to improve the number of new drugs becoming accessible.

Also recently joining the RHIC executive committee was Tim Bushnell, Ph.D., director of the Flow Cytometry Core in the University of Rochester Medical Center. Bushnell’s active role inside the International Society of Analytical Cytology (ISAC) has positioned RHIC, not just to create expertise, but also to take a leading role in the groups that are shaping related standards worldwide.

Flow cytometry is actually a method of counting and sorting cells that have already been labeled by fluorescent markers which correspond with physical and chemical qualities of the cell. Modern flow cytometers can analyze thousands of cells in real time to unravel the complicated interactions driving illness processes. The devices beam laser light into a stream of liquid which carries the cells to be analyzed. Detectors catch the patterns of fluorescent light that bounce off single cells as they pass through the laser. The cells have been prepared with fluorescent dyes that absorb the laser light and emit light at lower frequencies in scatter patterns that reveal details about the cell.

Modern instruments have numerous lasers and fluorescence detectors, with 18 fluorescence detectors now commonplace in larger analysis institutions. Increasing the number of lasers and detectors enables a lot more precise identification of target cell populations by their characteristics. Four years ago, the RHIC had eight-color flow cytometry, but has since upgraded to 11- and 18-color cytometers with support from the Medical Center and its Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Researchers receive training on flow cytometry along with other key discovery techniques and gain access to a growing suite of RHIC equipment. Using the renewal of the NIAID grant, the center will continue to create and standardize immunological methods.

Beyond general leadership and standard setting, the center will take the lead inside the next five years in helping the field to make better use of three cutting-edge technologies “of immense importance.” The goal is to advance technologies to maturity so that they may be applied widely, using the new standards communicated through publications, the RHIC Web site and symposia.

The first technology is arrayed image reflectometry, which promises to be extremely useful in large-scale analysis of immune responses against many disease-causing proteins like those encountered throughout influenza outbreaks. Immune system proteins may be coated having a thin film that prevents light from reflecting off of them, but that turn out to be a lot more reflective as the proteins bind to disease-related proteins. When several proteins to be tested are attached to a biochip, a great many proteins could be analyzed for little cost.

The grant renewal will also bring together RHIC experts in cytometry and in a second new technology: quantum dot nanostructures. These microscopic machines have optical qualities that could be harnessed to measure cellular qualities via flow cytometry with far more precision than fluorescent dyes. Like dyes, the dots could be designed to inhabit certain regions of the cell, or cling to certain proteins, so that their number and characteristics could be measured. Dyes are an older technology, limited in number and with overlapping emission spectra, which indicates they interfere with every single other. RHIC teams will seek to establish new Q-dot production methods to replace and extend dye capability. As RHIC machinery gets far more complex, it will turn into increasingly in a position to pick apart and to build accurate immune cell models.

Thirdly, the team will seek to design better “gating” procedures. Flow cytometry separates cell types by brightness into groups, and gating is the process by which researchers select which cells go into every single group. The present process in a lot of labs is arbitrary, tedious and has poor reproducibility in between operators because study teams select patterns of cell characteristics “by eye.” The field of flow cytometry is in desperate need of high-speed automation to process the “mountains of data” generated by the tests, and when gating the outcomes, researchers said. The existing process is greatly slowing the pace of discovery as investigation teams do double duty with lab function and time-consuming computational function.

One unique capability that drove the RHIC renewal was that the Medical Center has a world-leading core of biostatisticians along with leading immunologists. Led by Hulin Wu, Ph.D., chief of the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, the biostatistics team within RHIC will seek to establish statistically-rigorous, automated gating protocols for flow cytometry analysis that will greatly enhance the reproducibility of data and also the speed of flow cytometry lab by lab.

“The NIAID reviewers that voted to renew the RHIC grant seem to have validated the fundamental idea of our center – that centralizing the development and deployment of sophisticated technologies increases the efficiency of numerous other studies,” stated Tim Mosmann, Ph.D., principal investigator of the RHIC grant, and director and Michael and Angela Pichichero Director’s Endowed Chair of the David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology in the Medical Center. “Although investigation core facilities can give centralized expertise on a fee-for-service basis, the RHIC grant allows us to move beyond this model by actively pursuing new technologies and creating promising methods via direct funding, and by providing expertise in human immunology on a collaborative basis. Secondly, the RHIC has a strong training function, so that expertise developed within the RHIC spreads rapidly through the research community. We are delighted that several researchers see the RHIC as an asset, and it’s their achievements, publications and grant awards that had been a major reason for the RHIC grant renewal.”

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Source: Greg Williams
University of Rochester Medical Center

four.57 (7 votes)3.five (two votes)

Did you know that most of the time, it’s your own hands that make you sick?

Germs on your hands cause most contagious illnesses. Your hands can pick up germs from coughing and sneezing onto them, from touching other persons’ unclean hands, and from surfaces or substances that have disease-causing germs. Even when they look clean, contaminated hands that touch your eyes, nose or mouth, or any broken skin, allow germs to enter your body, according to public well being officials in the Oklahoma State Department of Wellness (OSDH).

“Most respiratory illnesses including colds and influenza (flu), gastrointestinal illnesses such as diarrhea, and skin infections like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are spread by unclean hands. Germs multiply quickly on your skin and hands, so cleaning your hands properly and often is important,” said OSDH Acute Disease Service Epidemiologist Becky Coffman.

Hand hygiene includes hand washing and hand sanitizing. Washing hands with soap and water helps physically remove germs, and is the only way to clean hands that are visibly soiled. First, wet your hands with warm water, then use liquid or clean bar soap to function up a lather. Rub your hands together vigorously for at least 15 to 20 seconds to dislodge and remove germs. Remember to scrub your nail area, thumbs, wrists and back of hands because these areas are often neglected. Finish by rinsing your hands nicely, then drying having a clean towel. In public areas, safeguard yourself from contamination right after washing your hands by using the paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door.

Hand sanitizing occurs when hands are visibly clean but may be decontaminated by using an alcohol-based hand item including a gel or foam. Check the label to be sure the item contains in between 60 and 95 percent alcohol. Alcohol-based hand merchandise only function on hands that seem to be clean because they cannot remove debris. Use enough of the item to thoroughly moisten your hands, and then rub the product in until your hands are dry. Hand sanitizers are fast and convenient.

OSDH public wellness officials are using National Handwashing Awareness Week, Dec. 7-13, 2008, as an opportunity to remind everyone about these simple and inexpensive disease prevention techniques. Prevent the spread of infectious illnesses by remembering to wash your hands:

- Ahead of, in the course of and soon after you prepare food
- Before you eat
- Ahead of you touch your eyes, nose or mouth
- Just before you insert or remove contact lenses
- Just before and following using sports/fitness equipment
- Prior to and soon after treating a cut or wound
- After you blow your nose
- After you cough or sneeze into your hands
- Right after you use the bathroom or change a diaper
- Right after handling uncooked foods, especially meat, poultry or fish
- Following handling animals or animal waste
- After you handle garbage or dirty laundry
- Far more often when someone in your home is sick
- Whenever your hands are dirty

In observance of National Handwashing Awareness Week and to prevent illness this winter, enhance your hand hygiene habits, and encourage your family members and coworkers to do the same.

Oklahoma State Department of Well being

Health care workers and emergency services personnel who could have direct contact with individuals who are ill through an influenza pandemic should be protected with antiviral drugs throughout the pandemic, even just before these workers are exposed or turn out to be ill themselves, according to guidance released by the U.S. Department of Well being and Human Services.

Stockpiling these antiviral drugs and planning for their use is the responsibility of employers as part of comprehensive pandemic preparedness, the guidance stated.

The guidance also recommends preventive antiviral drug use for certain individuals following exposure to someone who is sick with pandemic influenza. These individuals include people with weakened immune systems, too as for well being care and emergency services workers like law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency services personnel who do not routinely come in contact with ill individuals, and for residents in nursing homes, prisons, as well as other group residential settings if an outbreak of pandemic illness occurs in the facility.

HHS continues to recommend using antiviral drugs to treat folks with pandemic influenza illness as a way to slow the spread of pandemic illness. National and state antiviral drug stockpiles, intended primarily for these uses, contain enough antiviral drugs for much more than 72 million people.

By placing responsibility on employers, the new antiviral drug guidance highlights the importance of preparedness within both the public and private sectors.

“Planning and preparing for a pandemic influenza requires action by each part of society, including individuals and families, communities, and private sector employers too as all levels of government,” said Dr. Craig Vanderwagen, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, a rear admiral within the U.S. Public Health Service. “Employers will play a key role in protecting employees’ health and safety, which in turn reduces the impact of a pandemic on the nation’s health, the economy and society.”

In a related document, HHS supplied recommendations for employers to consider broadly, suggesting that antiviral drugs could possibly be part of a comprehensive pandemic preparedness plan and describing how an antiviral drug strategy could be implemented.

“Businesses really should have a plan in place for responding immediately in the first sign a pandemic to be sure the business can protect the wellness of the workforce and continue to operate,” Vanderwagen stated. “Employers could want to consider stockpiling antiviral drugs as 1 part of that plan.”

Using antiviral drugs might offer an extra layer of protection throughout a pandemic, along with advising sick employees to stay property and promoting changes in behaviors and work practices to reduce close contact in between people and to improve hygiene, like hand washing.

The HHS guidance recommends that employers have a clear understanding of the legal, regulatory, ethical, logistical, medical and economic issues involved in ordering, storing, securing, and dispensing prescription medications. The guidance also urges employers to work with their health providers or well being services, and state and local well being departments, to plan any stockpiling of antiviral drugs.

Federal officials developed the new guidance with major input from state, nearby, territorial, and tribal public health experts. Proposed guidance was shared broadly with well being care and emergency services organizations, and other businesses, and further input was received through a public comment period; antiviral drug manufacturers had been not involved inside the development of the new guidance.

The guidance just isn’t intended as a mandate, but gives recommendations for a prudent approach to planning for and responding to an influenza pandemic. Today’s guidance and accompanying considerations for employers replaces the prior antiviral drug use recommendations which are included in the 2005 HHS Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan.

For a copy of the guidance, visit http://www.pandemicflu.gov.

HHS

two.67 (three votes)

Sickly Brits will spend much more than three-and-a-half years of their lives suffering from colds and flu, new analysis has revealed. Every year, according to a recent survey of 2000 folks commissioned by Dettol, the average Brit will suffer from three colds, every bout lasting just more than five days. We also suffer from flu once a year so the average adult is laid up with a cold and flu for almost three weeks every year.

Over the average adult lifetime, that adds up to a staggering 3 years, five months and 15 days of suffering.

Three quarters of folk think becoming sneezed on is the most frequent way to catch a cold, yet practically two thirds admitted they had no idea that the cold and flu virus can survive on household surfaces for up to two days.

A spokesman for Dettol, which carried out the poll, said: ”We all know that catching a cold or flu can make you really feel dreadful, but now we know it can lead to years of suffering! There’s a real role for home hygiene here as disinfection on targeted germ hotspots can help stop the spread of cold and flu viruses.”

Researchers also discovered that 71 per cent believe someone coughing on you will lead to catching a cold. Practically 59 per cent think simply breathing inside the same air as someone who is ill indicates they are most likely to catch it and more than half worry they will get it if they shake hands with someone who has covered their mouths while coughing.

Leading virologist, Professor John Oxford of the UK Hygiene Council added: “The cold virus is really a hardy 1 because it survives on surfaces for so lengthy and can then be passed on, putting the whole family at risk of infection. The poll also revealed that 17 per cent say their festive season is ruined at least every single other year by colds or flu, which of course is no fun for anyone. Using a quality disinfectant item that kills bacteria and viruses including cold and flu viruses can help defend you and your family this Christmas.”

The study also located that our suffering of colds and flu is bad news for employers as 44 per cent admit they take time off function when they feel below the weather having a cold. Another 71 per cent call in sick when they have flu.

Interestingly though,, though 49 per cent of men and women don’t think a cold is really a good enough reason for taking time off, far more than three quarters of us get annoyed if a function colleague comes in while suffering from the sniffles.

Dettol

four (1 votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts
A girl in Lehigh County is this season’s first state laboratory-confirmed case of influenza in Pennsylvania’s northeast region, the Department of Wellness stated nowadays.

“We want to remind Pennsylvanians that it is still early within the flu season and it really is not too late to obtain a flu shot,” stated acting Health Secretary Everette James. “It is the very best way to defend yourself and those around you, and there is certainly plenty of vaccine obtainable.”

The influenza vaccine is advised for the following high-risk individuals:

— All youngsters 6 months through 18 years of age;

— Men and women 50 years of age and older regardless of their medical history;

— Individuals with underlying wellness conditions including heart, respiratory, kidney, liver metabolic, and immune system problems;

— Individuals with weakened immune systems for example HIV/AIDS, long-term treatment of steroids, and cancer treatment with X-rays or drugs;

— People who have cognitive dysfunction, and muscle or nerve disorders (for example spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or seizure disorders) that can result in breathing or swallowing problems;

— Individuals who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy who, therefore, might be at risk for Reyes syndrome following influenza infection;

— Residents of nursing homes along with other chronic-care facilities;

— Women who will probably be pregnant anytime throughout the influenza season;

— Household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of young children 0-59 months of age;

— Physicians, nurses, family members, or anyone else in close contact with any of these groups at risk for influenza; and

— Anyone wishing to reduce the likelihood of becoming ill from influenza.

Each year, an estimated 36,000 individuals die from influenza-related illnesses and far more than 200,000 men and women are hospitalized nationwide. Rates of serious illness and death are highest among individuals over the age of 65 and individuals of any age who have chronic medical conditions that place them at elevated risk for complications from influenza.

Recommended ways to prevent the spread of the flu include frequent hand washing, covering your nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing, and, when feasible, avoiding contact with others when you are sick. It really is also important to consult with your medical provider as soon as the first symptoms of influenza appear since certain antiviral prescription drugs might lessen the duration and severity of the illness if taken early.

Flu cases traditionally peak between January and March, so individuals ought to consider finding vaccinated now. It takes one to two weeks to build up immunity following receiving the flu vaccine.

Pennsylvania Department of Health
http://www.state.pa.us

3.45 (11 votes)two.6 (five votes)

Article Opinions:1 posts
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) these days announced that the Committee for Medicinal Items for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has issued a positive opinion for the marketing authorization of CELVAPAN, the first cell culture-based H5N1 (avian flu) pandemic vaccine, within the European Union.

The positive opinion precedes the licensure of the “mock-up” vaccine, which allows CELVAPAN to be employed if the World Well being Organization (WHO) officially declares a pandemic. The positive opinion was based on outcomes from a comprehensive clinical development program, including a Phase III clinical trial that demonstrated vaccines for two different H5N1 virus strains had been properly tolerated and generated a functional immune response.

“We are really pleased to obtain the EMEA’s positive opinion for CELVAPAN,” said Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., vice president, BioScience global analysis and development. “This is another step towards our goal of supplying a safe and efficient vaccine to shield the population against a feasible influenza pandemic.”

A “mock up” vaccine is identical towards the future pandemic vaccine in composition and manufacturing; however, since the actual pandemic strain is not identified, the vaccine contains another influenza strain not yet exposed towards the general population. Once a pandemic is declared, this licensure allows for a fast track approval of the vaccine containing the actual pandemic strain.

CELVAPAN is made using Baxter’s proprietary Vero cell technology, which offers advantages against conventional egg-based vaccine technology. Baxter’s Vero cell manufacturing process is a lot more rapid due to its ability to use the “native” virus that does not need to be modified in order to grow in chicken eggs. The shorter time for vaccine production is critical in accelerating vaccine supply in response to an influenza pandemic.

CELVAPAN is produced in Bohumil, Czech Republic, at one of the largest cell culture vaccine production facilities within the world. Vero cell technology uses a well-established continuous mammalian cell line to produce the pandemic vaccine.

Baxter’s candidate avian flu vaccine is derived from the H5N1 strain A/Vietnam/1203/2004. Its antigen composition and structure are identical to the actual virus circulating in nature. This vaccine formulation alleviates the need to improve the immune response by including adjuvants (additives) that may possibly cause side effects. Within the Phase III study, CELVAPAN induced an immune response which is similar towards the body’s defense against a natural influenza virus infection.

Phase III Clinical Trial Results

The purpose of the randomized Phase III study was to evaluate safety and immune responses to 7.five ???g of the Vietnam strain vaccine in two age groups (adults 18-59 and elderly, i.e., older than 60). The antibody persistence and immune response to a booster with either the same or a different strain was also measured. The study also investigated the ability of the vaccine to induce cross-immunity against divergent H5N1 strains.

Overall, the vaccine was properly tolerated right after the first and second vaccination too as right after the booster, having a safety profile similar to presently licensed seasonal influenza vaccines. One of the most common side effects had been injection site pain and headache, fatigue or malaise.

A positive immune response was induced even soon after only 1 immunization as determined by measurement of functional antibodies using a microneutralization assay (50.7 percent within the adult group; 54.4 percent inside the elderly group). Following the second immunization, 73 percent of subjects within the adult and 74 percent inside the elderly age group demonstrated seroneutralizing levels of antibody, meaning the vaccine was found to be at least equally immunogenic inside the elderly as within the adult age group. A six-month booster vaccination with either A/Vietnam/1203/2004 or A/Indonesia/05/2005 strain vaccines induced a substantial booster response. A booster vaccination using a different strain resulted in high levels of antibodies against the initial and the booster strain, which is indicative of cross-protective immunological memory.

Last June, The New England Journal of Medicine published data demonstrating CELVAPAN met Phase I/II trial endpoints for safety and immunogenicity (generating a functional immune response). This was the first peer-reviewed publication of study outcomes for CELVAPAN, the first cell culture-derived avian influenza vaccine to undergo clinical evaluation.

About Pandemic Flu

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak caused by an agent for which there is little or no immunity in the human population and which can spread easily from person-to-person worldwide causing serious illness and death. Most cases of avian flu infection in humans have so far resulted from direct or close contact with infected poultry (e.g., domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces possibly contaminated from feces of infected birds. Avian influenza infection follows an unusually aggressive clinical course, with rapid deterioration and a high fatality rate.

About Baxter

Baxter International Inc. develops, manufactures and markets goods that save and sustain the lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma, along with other chronic and acute medical conditions. As a global, diversified healthcare firm, Baxter applies a unique combination of expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to create merchandise that advance patient care worldwide.