Drug companies are sprinting ahead in a race against the clock to deliver millions of doses of vaccine for the H1N1 influenza virus before cooler weather ushers in the 20092010 flu season. A twopart cover story in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS weekly newsmagazine, focuses on that topic and efforts to develop antiviral drugs for flu infections.

C&EN senior correspondent Ann Thayer cites World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that onethird of the worlds population 2.2 billion people will be exposed to the H1N1 virus. Although antiviral drugs can help limit the spread of H1N1, a vaccine offers the best means to prevent infection, the article notes.

Although the H1N1 virus just emerged in April, vaccine developers have made an effective vaccine. However, WHO says that only a fraction of the potential supply will be ready for distribution before flu season starts in October in the Northern Hemisphere. The article describes how at least nine countries have pledged to donate vaccines to help fight the pandemic in developing countries and two vaccine manufacturers have earmarked a portion of their production for developing countries. That generosity will help protect populations that otherwise would not have access to vaccines, the article notes.

ARTICLE
“Flu Vaccine Race against the Clock”
This twopart story is available at
pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/87/8739cover.html
pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/87/8739cover2.html

Source
Michael Woods

Additional countries are expected to soon announce they will follow in the footsteps of nine developed countries who recently said they would donate H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine supplies to poorer nations, David Nabarro, of the U.N. said Friday, Reuters reports.

“It is most likely that there will be other countries donating 10 percent of their H1N1 vaccine stocks,” Nabarro said. Nabarro declined to name who the new donors would be, according to Reuters. A report released last week concluded “85 developing countries would have to rely entirely on donations for vaccine supplies,” the news service writes (Evans, 9/25).

VOA News reports the WHO also continues to solicit vaccine donations and reduced prices on H1N1 vaccines from pharmaceutical companies (Schlein, 9/25). In related news, Daily Nation/allAfrica.com reports Kenya will soon receive four million doses of H1N1 vaccine from the WHO (9/25).

H1N1Related Deaths Near 4,000
Also on Friday, the WHO reported that over 3,900 people have died from H1N1 “a jump of 431 deaths compared to a week ago,” according to Agence FrancePresse/the Australian. “The Americas region continued to post the highest number of fatal cases, at 2948,” the news service writes (9/25).

H1N1 Moves Through South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mexico

In South Africa, the number of H1N1related deaths climbed to 59, according to a spokesperson from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, BuaNews reports (9/25). ZimOnline examines the rising number of H1N1 cases in Zimbabwe, “where health facilities have collapsed after a decade of economic recession” (Nyamhangambiri, 9/26).

The Associated Press/Detroit Free Press reports on the “next wave” of H1N1 in Mexico. Despite “[d]aily diagnoses reach[ing] higher levels in September than the H1N1 peak in April, with 483 new cases in just one day this month alone,” the news service writes, “Its unlikely there will be largescale closings of schools and stadiums … because health officials know the virus is benign if treated early” (9/27).

No Major Changes In H1N1 Virus, U.S. Health Officials Say

HealthDay News/Atlanta JournalConstitution reports that U.S. health officials on Friday reported there were no major changes in the genetic composition of the H1N1 virus, “making the forthcoming vaccine a good match for the virus” and signifying the virus has not mutated into a deadlier form (9/25).

News Outlets Explore U.S. Efforts To Track Adverse Effects Of H1N1 Vaccine

AP examines the U.S. system to track H1N1 vaccinerelated side effects. The article includes information about several governmentfunded projects that will help stay on top of the outcomes of people who take the H1N1 vaccine (Neergaard, 9/27). The New York Times also features a piece on how the government is preparing to separate commonly occurring medical events from events that can be linked back to being a side effect of the H1N1 vaccine. The CDC “has compiled data on how many problems like heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages, seizures and sudden infant deaths normally occur” and “has broken those figures down for various highpriority vaccine groups, like pregnant women or children with asthma,” the newspaper writes, adding, “When vaccinations begin, it plans to gather reports from vaccine providers, hospitals and doctors, looking for signs of adverse events, so it can detect problems before rumors grow” (McNeil, 9/27).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM) a research institute of the Texas A&M Health Science Center has created a grantinaid program specifically to assist University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) scientists obtain access to research materials in an effort to help speed the recovery of UTMBs research programs from some of the injuries caused by Hurricane Ike.

The UTMB campus in Galveston, Texas, suffered significant damage from Hurricane Ike in September 2008, causing major delays in ongoing studies and deferral of future experiments. While UTMBs animal research facility was only a small part of the campus that was affected, it was critical to researchers throughout UTMB.

To help UTMB scientists accelerate future studies and restore their competitiveness, TIGM has created a grantinaid program specifically for UTMB faculty. This program will allow UTMB investigators access to TIGMs resource. The UTMB primary investigator will need to submit a simple application that will be reviewed by TIGM prior to approval. Once accepted, TIGM will create and ship the materials from its resource of genetic models of human disease.

“UTMB is our neighbor, and in times of crisis, we should always do our best to help our neighbors,” stated Dr. Richard Finnell, Executive Director of TIGM. “The research and innovation generated by UTMB faculty are all part of the greater effort by Texas scientists to produce medical discoveries that will benefit the world. We must do our part as a Texas research resource to help them get back on their feet.”

Dr. Maki Wakamiya, director of UTMBs Transgenic Mouse Facility, expressed gratitude for TIGMs assistance. “TIGM is giving UTMB investigators a boost into new projects at a time when were still working to make up for lost time, data and resources,” Wakamiya said. “We really appreciate the help, and believe it will make a big difference in maintaining our competitive edge.”

About the Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM)

Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine is a research institution within the Texas A&M Health Science Center. TIGMs mission is to accelerate the pace of medical discoveries and pioneer scientific breakthroughs through internal research and effective collaborations. TIGM maintains the worlds largest gene trap library. This resource is used for internal research and research conducted through strategic alliances. TIGM also provides its resource to academic and commercial institutions around the world. The institute headquarters and laboratory facilities are based in the Texas Medical Center in Houston with additional facilities currently under way in College Station, Texas. For more information, visit tigm.org or call 888377TIGM (toll free in North America).

Source

Researchers in Malaysia have found that an emerging new form of malaria, thought previously only to infect monkeys, that can be easily confused with a less serious type, is widespread among humans in the region and is potentially fatal if not diagnosed and treated early.

The Wellcome Trust funded study about the discovery is published in the 15 September 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, and was led by Professors Balbir Singh and Janet CoxSingh of the University Malaysia Sarawak, Kapit Hospital (also in Sarawak, Malaysia) and the University of Western Australia.

The researchers conducted a prospective study to identify key laboratory and clinical features of the new form of malarial infection, which is caused by the mosquito parasite Plasmodium knowlesi, previously thought to infect only monkeys, particularly the longtailed and pigtailed macaques that live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia.

Singh and CoxSingh and colleagues recently showed that the parasite was also widespread among humans in Malaysia, which with further reports from neighbouring countries have led experts to recognize P. knowlesi as the fifth cause of malaria in humans.

Around one million people die from malaria every year. The illness is caused by a mosquito parasite that gets into the bloodstream of humans via bites from infected mosquitoes.

There are many species of malaria parasite, four of which commonly cause disease in humans. The most deadly to humans is P. falciparum, found mostly in African countries. Another species is P. malariae, which usually causes milder symptoms and is found in tropical and subtropical regions around the world.

Singh told the press that

“P. knowlesi malaria can easily be confused with P. malariae since these two parasites look similar by microscopy, but the latter causes a benign form of malaria.”

He explained that infection by P. knowlesi is potentially fatal because the parasites reproduce every 24 hours in the blood, making early diagnosis and treatment essential.

“Understanding the most common features of the disease will be important in helping make this diagnosis and in planning appropriate clinical management,” he added.

The researchers recruited over 150 patients who were hospitalized in Kapit Hospital in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, between July 2006 and January 2008. Tests using blood film slides showed that all patients were infected with Plasmodium, and molecular detection revealed that P. knowlesi was present in over two thirds of the patients.

Malaria parasites cause in a wide spectrum of diseases in humans, and P. knowles is no different. Among the study participants, most infections were uncomplicated and responded to the two commonly used antimalaria drugs chloroquine and primaquine.

However, about 1 in 10 patients had developed complications and two of the patients died. The complications included breathing and kidney problems, including kidney failure in a small number of cases (this is also common in severe cases of P. falciparum infection).

The researchers calculated that the fatality rate of P. knowlesi was just under 2 per cent, which is about the same as P. falciparum malaria. However, they stressed that there werent enough participants in the sample to be sure about this figure.

An unexpected characteristic of P. knowlesi infection was that they found all the patients infected with this parasite, including those who had not complications, had a low blood platelet count. Low blood platelet counts usually occur in fewer than 80 per cent of other types of human malaria cases.

The researchers also found that the blood platelet counts were much lower than for other types of malaria and said this feature could be used to help diagnose infection by P. knowlesi.

But, although blood platelets are important for blood to be able to clot, the researchers said they saw no cases of excessive problems with clotting or bleeding among the participants.

There have been reports in recent years of Europeans who after travelling in Malaysia, and also one American who travelled in the Philippines, having to be hospitalized with malaria when they got back home and who were then found to be infected with the knowlesi species of Plasmodium.

Doctors in Western countries should be aware of the possibility that patients who present with malaria symptoms and who have recently returned from an area where P. knowlesi is spreading may need urgent diagnosis and treatment.

“The increase in tourism in Southeast Asia may mean that more cases are detected in the future, including in Western countries,” said Singh.

“Clinicians assessing a patient who has visited an area with known or possible transmission should be aware of the diagnosis, clinical manifestations, and rapid and potentially serious course of P. knowlesi malaria,” he added.

“Clinical and Laboratory Features of Human Plasmodium knowlesi Infection.”
Cyrus Daneshvar, Timothy M. E. Davis, Janet CoxSingh, Mohammad Zakri Rafaee, Siti Khatijah Zakaria, Paul C. S. Divis, and Balbir Singh.
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009; Vol 49, No 6, pp 852860.
DOI 10.1086/605439

Sources Wellcome Trust.

Written by Catharine Paddock, PhD

There is more to life satisfaction than money, and public policy programs aiming to tackle poverty need to move beyond simply raising peoples income to also improving their quality of life in other areas. These findings1 by Professor Mariano Rojas from Mexicos Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales are published online in Springers journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life.

The reduction of poverty is one of the main considerations in the design of both domestic and foreignaid programs. To date, the focus of these programs has been to get people out of poverty by increasing their buying power and there has been an assumption that raising peoples income translates into greater wellbeing. Professor Rojas challenges this assumption and argues that measures of life satisfaction should also be taken into account when designing and evaluating povertyabatement programs.

Professor Rojas used data from a yearly national survey run by the University of Costa Rica covering the years 20042006. In addition to questions about household income and dependency on household income, he added more subjective questions about life satisfaction in general, as well as satisfaction with health, job, family relations, friendship and self, as well as the community environment.

The majority of people rated their lives as satisfactory or more than satisfactory. Not all people who were considered poor experienced low life satisfaction and not all people who were not considered poor were happy with their lives. Professor Rojas observed that only 24 percent of people classified as poor rated their life satisfaction as low. Furthermore, 18 percent of people in the nonpoor category also reported low life satisfaction. It is therefore clear that poverty alone does not define an individuals overall wellbeing and it is possible for someone to come out of poverty and remain less than satisfied with his life. On the other hand, a person can be satisfied with his life even if his income is low, as long as he is moderately satisfied in other areas of life such as family, self, health, job and economic.

Professor Rojas argues that social programs need to recognize that wellbeing depends on satisfaction in many domains of life, and that many qualities and attributes need to be considered when designing these programs, including leisure, education, the community and consumer skills (learning to spend higher income sensibly).

Professor Rojas concludes “This paper has shown that it is possible to jump over the income poverty line with little effect on life satisfaction. Income is not an end but a means to an end. There is a big risk of neglecting and underestimating the importance of wellbeingenhancing factors when focusing only on income poverty. It is important to worry about getting people out of income poverty, but it is more beneficial to also worry about the additional skills people need to have a more satisfying life.”

Reference
1. Rojas M (2009). Enhancing povertyabatement programs a subjective wellbeing contribution. Applied Research in Quality of Life; DOI 10.1007/s1148200990710

Source
Ana Granadillo Markl

UNICEF launched today an appeal for $6.1 million to meet the needs of women and children affected by the current fighting in Yemens northern region of Saada.

The appeal is part of the interagency Flash Appeal launched by the United Nations for nearly $23.5 million, to cover humanitarian needs until the end of the current year.

“Children have been deeply affected by this conflict and will continue to feel its impact for many years to come,” said Aboudou Karimou Adjibade, UNICEF Representative in Yemen. “The international community needs to rally together to help all those children who have little if any access to food, health, education and protection.”

Nearly half of the funding $3 million will help provide for the immediate water, sanitation and hygiene needs of the displaced population and the host communities. Access to safe water is severely limited, and hygiene conditions in the camps are posing serious health hazards. To protect children from possible disease outbreaks, UNICEF will work with partners from the Government, United Nations agencies and international as well local nongovernmental organizations to provide safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene kits.

The number of schoolaged children among internally displaced persons is estimated at 55,000. To ensure that these childrens schooling is not interrupted by the conflict. UNICEF will set up learning spaces, distribute learning materials and train teachers. Some $1.25 million have been requested for education programmes.

UNICEF is also requesting funding to address malnutrition among displaced children as well as children of host communities. Some 250,000 persons are expected to benefit from such programmes, including 75,000 children under the age of five.

Over the next four months, UNICEF and partners will also

Protect separated children and unaccompanied minors in camps,
Provide displaced children with psychosocial support,
Raise awareness on the threats that children face in emergency situations,
Promote birth registration for displaced children.

UNICEF is concerned about the humanitarian situation in northern Yemen. It is estimated that around 150,000 persons have been uprooted by the fighting with no access to basic services. Children represent at least over 60 per cent of the displaced. Due to the ongoing fighting and lack of security, many of the displaced have been beyond the reach of the aid community.

Note

A Flash Appeal is how many UN agencies respond to a sudden humanitarian crisis coordinate their response and present a unified set of needs to donors. It provides a concise overview of urgent lifesaving needs and maps out a plan to address acute needs for up to six months based on the best available information at the time of the appeal.

Source

The world is slowly losing the fight against hunger in the Horn of Africa, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which renewed its call for emergency food supplies, water and recovery activities to help about 2.5 million food insecure people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, Xinhua/CRIENGLISH.com reports. The IFRCs revised emergency appeal seeks $67 million to assist 2.5 million people over five years.

“The battle against persistent, chronic malnutrition and hunger is at risk of slowly being lost. Our message to the world is simple in the Horn of Africa, hunger, a result of chronic, major deficit in calorie intake, kills,” Asha Mohammed, head of IFRCs Eastern Africa zone, said in a statement issued in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday.

IFRC first highlighted the situation in 2008 and “has continued to assist more than 465,000 people in the four countries,” according to Xinhua/CRIENGLISH.com. The organization has used about $9.2 million from its own funds to combat hunger in the Horn of Africa, “last years emergency appeal only received a meagre 9 percent coverage,” the news agency writes.

IFRC said the coordinated work of authorities and the Red Cross Red Crescent in these regions has been complicated by outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea and cholera. In addition, a lack of resources and inadequate assistance has already resulted in internal conflicts in Kenya.

However, food assistance is “only a fraction of the solution to peoples problems,” said Roger Bracke, who is leading IFRCs work in the Horn of Africa. “Foodaid is critical but its impact ends as soon as it gets digested,” Bracke said, adding, “This operation urgently needs more support to enable it to assist the worst affected to develop alternative and additional sources of income that will allow them to become selfsustainable without total reliance on animals or rains” (Xinhua/CRIENGLISH.com, 6/25).

Kenya Will Receive Most IFRC Funds

Business Daily reports on the “food crisis” in Kenya, which has been exacerbated due to “[u]npredictable rainfall patterns, low harvests and the displacement of people during last years postelection violence.”

“Most of the funds” requested in the IFRCs renewed appeal will “be used in Kenya where the agency said almost 3.5 million people had their food supplies interrupted, leading to food insecurity,” according to Business Daily. Inadequate rains, “extremely low” harvests, and an influx of refugees from Somalia, including the deteriorating situation at the Daadab refugee camp, have contributed to the situation.

According to the publication, the Kenya Red Cross Society aims to reach almost 1 million people through food distributions, and an additional 500,000 children through a schoolfeeding program. The IFRC said that emergency efforts will focus on providing food assistance, healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (Menya, Business Daily, 6/25).

Global Financial Situation Affecting Cost Of Food In Somalia; Hospital Patients Go Hungry

In Somalia, the global financial slowdown has cut remittances from Somalis living in other countries during a time of widespread displacement and significant food price inflation, Mark Bowden, a U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the country, said, Reuters reports. “The money that the diaspora sends, we know has gone down by 25 percent this year and remittances of at least $1 billion a year come into Somalia,” Bowden said.

Reuters writes, “An estimated 3.4 million Somalis depend on food aid, the country is facing its worst drought in a decade and an upsurge in violence … is making the situation worse.” Increasing insecurity and drought has boosted food price inflation to 300 percent in many parts of Somalia, Bowden said, adding, “There is a real danger that Somalia can become more dependent on humanitarian assistance than never before” (Nyakairu, Reuters, 6/23).

IRIN examines the situation in hospitals in Mogadishu, Somalia, where patients are “facing hunger.”

“Hospitals in Mogadishu have reportedly been overwhelmed by the number of the injured seeking treatment since fighting intensified in early May,” IRIN writes. “Patients are going hungry because we dont have the means to feed them,” Dahir Mohamed deputy director of Medina hospital, the largest in the city said.

He said relatives used to bring food to patients, “but now the relatives are either in hospital themselves or have fled the city to safer areas,” adding that entire families were now in hospitals “with no one out there to support them.” Mohamed called on aid agencies to provide “wet feeding in the hospitals… It is a very desperate situation and I hope someone will come to our aid” (IRIN, 6/22).

BBC Examines Nutrition Sachets To Combat Hunger

BBC examines the use of peanut flavored nutrition sachets to help children “on the brink of death from starvation around the world.”

The sachets “contain a highenergy food crammed with highprotein peanut, milk, sugar, oils and fortified with extra vitamins and minerals,” and “can be eaten directly from the packet, do not require refrigeration or mixing with clean water often in short supply and can be stored for years,” BBC writes.

The article includes information about the companies that create these type of products, food fortification and the effects of the economic recession (Anderson, BBC, 6/24).