Flu surveillance boosts control, treatment options (w/ Video)
October 14, 2009Because pandemics unfold in unpredictable ways, surveillance of travel-related illness is among the most powerful tools health officials and doctors can use to detect and respond to new pathogens like the novel H1N1 influenza, says the physician who heads the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Travelers' Clinic.
"Being able to track disease outbreaks in real time enables you to know, in real-time, what works and what doesn't work in terms of treatment," says David Freedman, M.D., director of the clinic.
Freedman is also co-director of GeoSentinel, a global online network of 48 travel- and tropical-medicine clinics spread across several continents. The network is a partnership between UAB, the International Society of Travel Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other groups - and an important part of that surveillance toolkit.
"GeoSentinel is showing us travelers and mobile populations getting the flu," Freedman says. "We are tracking which countries and places have intense enough transmission that they are then exporting flu and potentially seeding other countries.
This video is not supported by your browser at this time.
This video shows pandemic H1N1 surveillance via traveler health. Credit: UAB
"Today, if a GeoSentinel-linked doctor in Singapore has 10 infected patients and treats them a certain way that works well, that information can be disseminated on the same day, as well," he says.The H1N1 flu virus was first identified in Mexico and quickly spread through human infection to more than 70 countries. H1N1 disease cases began immediately showing up as clickable dots on the GeoSentinel secure Web site in April of this year, Freedman says.
Unlike traditional surveillance maps, the GeoSentinel shows locations where someone got sick during travel, as opposed to where they live or where they may be recuperating.
Tracking and understanding the patterns of H1N1's spread remains crucial as more dots show up on the GeoSentinel map, Freedman says. Member clinics log on to the network and submit disease cases through a standardized Internet form, which links to global positioning. Qualified researchers, doctors and others use those reports for pandemic modeling and monitoring, and to gain a big-picture look at disease transmission.
"The most striking thing is how rapidly the swine flu spread," Freedman says. "Although the H1N1 virus is fairly mild compared to a lot of other novel flu viruses, it is very contagious. Back in 1918 and 1919 when we had the great flu epidemic, it took six months or more to spread across the world.
"The new H1N1 swine flu spread across the world in six weeks."
One important pattern to emerge through GeoSentinel monitoring was naming North America as the early source for spreading H1N1 person-to-person, Freedman says. The initial surveillance data was continuously shared with public-health groups, governmental agencies and doctors who needed to respond swiftly to the pathogen.
"With the speed of modern travel, and the fact that our countries draw visitors from a lot of different nationalities, the ingredients for a pandemic were there. Americans were top of the list for exporting this disease," he says.
-
WHO consults emergency flu committee
Jun 05, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
World 'getting closer' to swine flu pandemic: WHO
Jun 02, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Humans may give swine flu to pigs in new twist to pandemic
Jul 09, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Neglected tropical diseases burden those overseas, but travelers also at risk
Dec 26, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Swine flu virus starting to look less threatening
May 01, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (33) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Overeating may double risk of memory loss
New research suggests that consuming between 2,100 and 6,000 calories per day may double the risk of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older. The study was released today and will be ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
1 hour ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Injured boomers beware: Know when to see doctor
(AP) -- It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box.
6 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
Starve a virus, feed a cure? Findings show how some cells protect themselves against HIV
A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online ...
4 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
|
FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the brain, reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers' findings, published in the journal Science, show t ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 09, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (58) |
15
|
Green tea found to reduce disability in the elderly
(Medical Xpress) -- A lot of research has been done over the past several years looking into the health benefits of green tea. As a result, scientists have found that regular consumption of the beverage leads ...
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy
For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...
New method to examine batteries -- MRI from the inside
There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived ...
Lab study raises questions over nano-particle impact
Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.
A mitosis mystery solved: How chromosomes align perfectly in a dividing cell
Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric ...
Researchers find extensive RNA editing in human transcriptome
In a new study published online in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, reported the evidence of extensive RNA editing in a human cell line by analysis of RNA-seq data, demons ...