CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Pass the Chalice?

"Bishops defying swine flu advice" said the headlines recently.

Some bishops in England  have recently reinstated using a shared chalice to distribute communion wine. UK Dept of Health advice is to suspend this practice during the swine flu outbreak to prevent the spread of this disease. I can see why chalices were identified as potentially spreading infections but church goers should take heart because drinking wine from a shared  silver communal vessel may be safer than sharing a cup of water.

Why?

Flu - avoid the aspirin

I wouldn't usually visit a doctor for flu treatment I'd just suffer at home with the cold remedies and/or over-the-counter fever reducing drugs. I guess a lot of people will be doing that in the near future, but make sure you are using the right drugs....

Is Europe blind to H1N1 (swine) flu?

This blog is about an article I read in the New Scientist entitled ‘Europe may be blind to swine flu cases’. The article deals with a point I raised in my previous blog posted on 1^st May on H1N1 flu. Having flown back from a holiday in Canada, I started suffering flu symptoms the week swine flu hit the news headlines and I wasn’t tested for H1N1 because I didn’t fit the pattern of suspect cases, which is having been to Mexico in the past 7 days, or being in contact with a swine flu confirmed case. I mentioned then I thought this is a simplistic way of deciding who is suitable for screening. As a scientist, I would have included a control group, i.e. some of the people who don't fit the pattern, so that we would have a better idea of the extent of the spreading of the virus. My daughter who went to Canada with me also had flu a couple of days after I had.

H1N1 influenza research- free papers!

It is cheering to see that a growing list of publishers including CABI is making influenza related research papers and databases freely available to help the global anti-influenza effort. I'm gathering those I hear about on CABI's free H1N1 'dashboard'. Below is what I have found so far. The list will be growing I'm sure.....

Man Flu Really Exists, New Study Shows

Man flu is considered by large segments of society to be the psychological condition of men with colds. It is often said that when men have a cold they think it is a flu and as a consequence they moan more than women and stay longer in bed until they feel better.

Man flu is not to be confused with the current H1N1 pandemic flu which is affecting humans in some 40 countries. There has also been one swine case on a farm in Canada.

Pandemic influenza: the worst economic scenario

The threat of an influenza pandemic has disappeared from headlines again lately, at least in the UK where a political scandal around MPs expenses has driven everything else off the news. But that doesn't mean that the outbreak has died down yet. In fact, just over 1000 new cases have been confirmed worldwide in the last 24 hours. Similarly, although travel warnings that had been in place for Mexico have now been lifted by some countries (including the UK), and cruise lines are planning their return to Mexico's ports, the possible cost to the global travel economy of a full-blown pandemic has recently been released.

'Swine flu' travel response: pandering to stupidity?

We have been featuring H1N1 influenza heavily here on 'Hand picked' lately, in line with the worldwide headlines the virus has been making since the emergence of an outbreak in Mexico. From the daily travel news alerts which hit my inbox, the virus has not only hit tourism in Mexico severely, but has also raised worldwide fears for possible effects on travel and tourism should the outbreak worsen. But how real is the threat to travellers?

I have a flu – how do I know it isn’t swine flu (H1N1 virus flu)?

Well, I don’t! And I probably will never know. Read on to find out why…

 

Masks or Handwashing?

In Mexico and South East Asia, face mask wearing  to prevent spread of respiratory diseases SARS and swine flu is popular with the public and encouraged but the World Health Organisation and national health agencies seem to be recommending masks for healthcare settings only. Whats the evidence that they work?

Health systems: fuzzy or not?

Despite swine influenza calling world experts home to advise their governments, it was business as usual here on Tuesday April 28 at the World Congress for Public Health in Istanbul. Tuesday was the first full day with 9 concurrent sessions. I sought out those which addressed health systems, as this is an area finally recognised as vital if developing countries are to reach MDG targets by 2015, and equally relevant to the expanded EU. No longer does health have to follow economic growth: improved population health is seen as a driver for wealth, its an expectation & a human right. What exactly is a health system? To get a clear definition I had to wait for later talks. One speaker even described it as a fuzzy concept and actually thought this could prove to be an advantage! Meanwhile…

The Brazilian Minister for Health delivered a detailed description of the programmes and restructuring they have successfully delivered…and then dashed back home to deal with the swine fever threat. The Assistant Regional Director WHO Africa pointed out that though her region has benefited from increased resources for health (Global Forum, GAVI etc), they are focussed on a narrow range of diseases…HIV, TB, malaria…and in the past these programmes & donor governments have discouraged reallocation to build-up inadequate health systems.  Recently Global Forum and GAVI have changed their minds recognising that scale up of successful interventions is constrained by inadequate health systems. Apparently, WHO reports concentrated minds wonderfully.