Tips for containing spread of swine flu

A swine flu outbreak appears to have killed dozens of people in Mexico and caused mild illnesses in the United States.

The Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New York City Department of Health are recommending several steps to prevent the spread of the virus.

• If you have flu symptoms, stay home from work or school to avoid spreading the disease. Do not return until two days after your symptoms are gone.
• Cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands frequently.
• Go to the hospital if you have severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing, but if your symptoms are mild stay home to avoid spreading the virus to others at the hospital. Read more »

H5N1 (avian / bird flu) pandemic educational information

One of the primary concerns is that the virus could quickly spread across countries as various birds follow their migration routes. In response, countries have begun planning in anticipation of an outbreak. While short-term strategies to deal with an outbreak focus on limiting travel and culling and vaccinating poultry, long-term strategies require substantial changes in the lifestyles of the most at-risk populations.

WHO announced on November, 16, 2005 that an outbreak is most likely to hit the Hong Kong Special Administrative issue by mid-December of this year. “If it were to hit in a highly residential area like Tin Hau, it would be sure to spread like wildfire.” Dr. N Column, Head of Epidemic Prevention announced.

The WHO divides a pandemic into six phases, ranging from minimal risk of an outbreak to full scale pandemic. Most health authorities categorize the situation as of 2005 at Phase 3, by which is meant that human infections of a new sub-type has occurred but there is little evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission.

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

Avian influenza, or �bird flu�, is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions, crossed the species barrier to infect humans.

In domestic poultry, infection with avian influenza viruses causes two main forms of disease. The so-called �low pathogenic� form commonly causes only mild symptoms (ruffled feathers, a drop in egg production) and may easily go undetected. The highly pathogenic form is far more dramatic. It spreads very rapidly through poultry flocks, causes disease affecting multiple internal organs, and has a mortality that can approach 100%, often within 48 hours.

Influenza A viruses have 16 H subtypes and 9 N subtypes. Only viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes are known to cause the highly pathogenic form of the disease. On present understanding, H5 and H7 viruses may circulate and infect poultry flocks in their low pathogenic form. The viruses can then mutate, usually within a few months, into the highly pathogenic form. This is why the presence of an H5 or H7 virus in poultry is always cause for concern, even when the initial signs of infection are mild. Read more »

Rabies

Background
Rabies is a viral disease that affects the CNS. The genus Lyssavirus contains more than 80 viruses. Classic rabies, the focus of this article, is the prototypical human Lyssavirus pathogen. Ten viruses are in the rabies serogroup, most of which only rarely cause human disease. The genus Lyssavirus, rabies serogroup, includes the classic rabies virus, Mokola virus, Duvenhage virus, Obodhiang virus, Kotonkan virus, Rochambeau virus, European bat Lyssavirus types 1 and 2, and Australian bat Lyssavirus. In 1997, an unusual bat Lyssavirus caused a brief outbreak of a rabieslike illness in Australia.

The fatal madness of rabies has been described throughout recorded history, and its association with rabid canines is well known. For centuries, dog bites were treated prophylactically with cautery, unfortunately, with predictable results. In the 19th century, Pasteur developed a vaccine that successfully prevented rabies after inoculation and launched a new era of hope in the management of this uniformly fatal disease. Rabies is recognized as a zoonosis worldwide. Animal-control and vaccination strategies currently supersede postexposure prophylaxis in preventing the spread of rabies. Through such programs, rabies has been eliminated in several nations and some areas in the US territories.

Human rabies reflects the prevalence of animal infection and the extent of contact this population has with humans. Less than 5% of cases in developed nations occur in domesticated dogs; however, unvaccinated dogs serve as the main reservoir worldwide. Undomesticated canines, such as coyotes, wolves, jackals, and foxes, are most prone to rabies and serve as reservoirs. These reservoirs allow rabies to remain an indefinite public health concern, and ongoing public health measures are critical to its control. Raccoons, skunks, and insect-eating bats remain the prime vectors in the United States, followed by cats and cattle. Increasingly in the United States, the source of exposures cannot be identified, but the risk of death from rabies is exceedingly low, with fewer than 5 cases documented per year. Opossums are rarely infected and are not considered a likely risk for exposure. Read more »

Influenza

Background
Influenza virus infection, one of the most common infectious diseases, is a highly contagious airborne disease that causes an acute febrile illness and results in variable degrees of systemic symptoms, ranging from mild fatigue to respiratory failure and death. These symptoms contribute to significant loss of workdays, human suffering, mortality, and significant morbidity. The 1918-1919 H1N1 type influenza pandemic killed an estimated 20-50 million persons, with 549,000 deaths in the United States alone.

Accurately diagnosing influenza A or B infection based solely on clinical criteria is difficult because of the overlapping symptoms caused by the various viruses associated with upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). In addition, several serious viruses, including adenoviruses, enteroviruses, and paramyxoviruses, may initially cause influenzalike symptoms. The early presentation of mild or moderate cases of flavivirus infections (eg, dengue) may initially mimic influenza. For example, some cases of West Nile fever acquired in New York in 1999 were clinically misdiagnosed as influenza.

Patients with influenza frequently present with various symptoms shared by many other viral infections. In the northern and southern hemispheres, these symptoms are more common in the winter months. As a result, during the winter, clinics and emergency department waiting rooms fill with patients who have influenza or other URTIs.
Pathophysiology
Influenza results from infection with 1 of 3 basic types of influenza virus—A, B, or C—which are classified within the family Orthomyxoviridae. These single-stranded RNA viruses are structurally and biologically similar but vary antigenically.

The RNA core consists of 8 gene segments surrounded by a coat of 10 (influenza A) or 11 (influenza B) proteins. Immunologically, the most significant surface proteins include hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The viruses are typed based on these proteins. For example, influenza A subtype H3N2 expresses hemagglutinin 3 and neuraminidase 2.

The most common prevailing influenza A subtypes that infect humans are H1N1 and H3N2. Each year, the trivalent vaccine used worldwide contains A strains from H1N1 and H3N2, along with an influenza B strain.

Influenza virus infection occurs after transfer of respiratory secretions from an infected individual to a person who is immunologically susceptible. If not neutralized by secretory antibodies, the virus invades airway and respiratory tract cells. Once within host cells, cellular dysfunction and degeneration occur, along with viral replication and release of viral progeny. Systemic symptoms result from inflammatory mediators, similar to other viruses. The incubation period of influenza ranges from 18-72 hours.

Influenza A is generally more pathogenic than influenza B. Influenza A is a zoonotic infection, and more than 100 types of influenza A infect most species of birds, pigs, horses, dogs and seals. Indeed, the 1918 pandemic that resulted in millions of human deaths worldwide is believed to have originated from a virulent strain of H1N1 from pigs or birds. Recently, scientists obtained and sequenced the 1918 H1N1 strain from a frozen corpse found in Alaska. The virus was reconstructed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laboratory in Atlanta and was found to be highly lethal when tested in mice; the virus was also found to be lethal to chicken embryos. This unique N1 neuraminidase is being studied in order to provide better insight into the N1 found in H5N1, the type responsible for avian influenza (also known as bird flu). Read more »

Medical Alert Companies Comparison – Medical Alert Monitoring Systems

When you compare medical alert companies, you are not comparing companies medical alert device companies but service provider companies. This makes comparison process little tricky. Let me use industry knowledge and experience to act as shopper and market researcher.

Think you are going out to stay at a hotel that you’ve never been to before. We will use this analogy to compare medical alert companies. The hotel may appear clean, have nice surrounding, and great amenities, but the wait staff may not be providing good service you are expecting you may have been better off asking a friend what their experience was like, read reviews by others online, or a review by a local travel critic. That’s where we come in.

Assume the hotel is type of the medical alert monitoring device that you will use. Does it have all of the physical features, functions, or the look and feel that you want?

What kinds of Medical Alert Companies are there?

• Full Service These medical alert companies provide the entire operation from sales, to equipment service, to central station monitoring, all themselves. They do not source-out the operations to any third parties.

• Reseller/Marketing Only These medical alert companies take care of the marketing only of the product and service. In today’s digital age, they typically have a website and place ads in magazines, on television, or through retail displays in their storefronts.

• Partial Service These medical alert companies typically take care of the sales and service, but hire out the central station monitoring to a third party. This is due to the very high costs of opening and maintaining a central monitoring station; especially if it is certified or listed by one or more agencies like Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

• The hostess is like the sales person you’ll be speaking with. Are they able to give you an accurate estimate of how long your wait time may be for a table? If they tell you they can accommodate your group size, or maybe a request for special accommodations for a handicapper or a child playing areas?

• The hotel staff is like the customer service representatives and central dispatch operators. These are the people that you or your loved one will spend the most of your time communicating with and get the most satisfaction from. Are they attentive, knowledgeable, friendly, and patient? Are they maintaining the highest standards available and required to have continual training to be sure they are?

Who are then actual Medical Alert Monitoring Companies?

That can sometimes be very difficult finding out who is really who. The full service companies can be easy as they will usually come right out and tell you! The partial service companies will usually tell you who will monitor your loved one typically after you come right out and ask. Very few are up front about it, but some are.

It is not easy to get correct information from some reseller companies. We try to uncover who these companies are, and let you know who is providing the monitoring services for them, so you can read about the actual medical alert company servicing your loved one.

Why You Should Care about Medical Alert Companies?

The full service medical alert companies have a much larger capital and human investment than the partial and marketing only companies. That gives them a vested interest in the quality and care provided to their customers from end-to-end.

The partial service companies have a much greater investment than the reseller/marketing only companies because they take care of the sales, customer service, equipment service, shipping, etc. themselves. They don’t handle the monitoring, but they do more than just market the service.

It is very important to find-out what type of medical alert company you are dealing with. The more services that are under one roof could mean higher customer satisfaction and better quality control.

If you can get a quality, full service, and highly rated company in the same price range as a marketing only or partial company, would you pick the full service company?