Mutant flu research in the news

If you’ve paid attention to the news recently, you may have heard about researchers who created “mutant” bird flu in a lab. Sounds scary, right? Should you be worried about this human-made type of flu?

This so-called mutant flu was created from a combination of two strains of influenza, known as H5N1 and H1N1. The research was going on last year, but didn’t get major attention until December 2011, when the scientists tried to make their results public. Suddenly, the news was full of stories about a potentially dangerous form of flu. In the U.S., the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity stepped in and told the researchers that they were not allowed to share the details of their experiments. There were a lot of discussions, with health leaders such as the World Health Organization weighing in. In March, the science board decided to let the scientists publish their results. A team of researchers in Wisconsin published its study this week.

But why did these scientists want to make a mutant bird flu in the first place?

H5N1 is a type of influenza that has been very deadly to humans. It was discovered 15 years ago when a boy in Hong Kong died. Scientists found out that this new flu, H5N1, was carried by chickens. This flu is commonly called “avian” influenza in the news.

Although H5N1 is deadly to humans, it has mostly stayed in birds over the last decade and a half. And so far, H5N1 has not been able to spread from person to person. A few hundred people have died from H5N1 flu, but they are mostly people who come into close contact with chickens and other birds in countries like China, Indonesia, Egypt, India and Vietnam.

What scientists are afraid of is that H5N1 could someday mutate into a type of flu that could spread from person to person. Because humans have not been exposed to this kind of flu, we don’t have an immunity to H5N1, and our current flu vaccines wouldn’t protect us. Scientists fear that H5N1 could cause the next great flu pandemic.

So back to the mutant flu research. The scientists took wild H5N1, which can’t be spread person to person, and mixed it with parts of the H1N1 virus, which can spread to humans (and as we learned in 2009 during the global pandemic, it spreads quickly!) The researchers checked millions of viruses for mutations until they found a virus that could spread in mammals, and then they tested it. What they found was a little scary: It only took four small changes in the H5N1 virus to start spreading in the air. 

H5N1 viruses (colored gold) are grown in a lab.
Image courtesy CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki

Were these scientists trying to create a dangerous new flu and start a big pandemic? Definitely not. The research was done to help us understand how flu viruses mutate so that we can better understand how to look for new types of flu — and hopefully stop them from spreading across the globe.

Thanks to these new studies, we now know how easily a person-to-person type of H5N1 flu may develop. But instead of being scared, we should be hopeful, because we’re also one step closer to a better flu vaccine and better ways to monitor the flu.

To learn more about H5N1 flu, visit WHO’s website. You can also learn more about the different types of flu through our post, “So, what causes the flu?”

Flu Fridays: Flu vaccine safety

Not only is it our favorite day, Flu Friday — it’s also World Immunization Week.

In general, vaccines are one of the best tools in medicine: The World Health Organization reports that 2 million to 3 million lives are saved every year thanks to vaccines.  

Vaccines also have lower rates of complication than most medications. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there is about a one in 1 million chance that someone will have a severe reaction to common vaccines like MMR (aka, measles, mumps, rubella) or hepatitis B.  

What about flu vaccine safety? CDC recently released a video about the safety of the influenza vaccine that answers a lot of common questions, such as safety of the flu shot for young children, pregnant women and people with egg allergies.

(Spoiler alert: Yes, the flu shot is safe for almost everyone!)  

Check out the video below to find out more.

Are you heading to the Olympics this summer? Add one more thing to your packing list

Did you know that it’s National Public Health Week? There’s a different theme every day, and today’s theme is communicable diseases. We thought this would be a great time to talk to travelers headed to the upcoming Olympic Games in London about protecting yourself from infectious diseases.

What do sporting events and international travel have to do with infectious diseases? Plenty, say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last month, CDC asked travelers to help prevent a major measles outbreak in the U.S. by making sure their vaccines are up to date before they travel to the Olympics or any other major sporting event this summer.

CDC is worried because measles is more widespread in Europe. Officials believe that if Americans who aren’t vaccinated travel to the huge gatherings this summer, they could easily become infected and then bring measles back to the U.S., creating an outbreak here. “Disease knows no borders,” said Rebecca Martin director of CDC’s Global Immunization Division, in a recent USA Today article.

Image courtesy CDC/Judy Schmidt

This isn’t the first time that big sporting events caused concern about spreading disease. In February, two people with measles went to the Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis before Super Bowl XLVI. Fourteen people came down with measles afterwards — and only one of them was up to date on their MMR vaccination, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

The MMR vaccine is very effective, and it’s the best way to prevent you and your loved ones from getting the measles. The vaccine works best when two doses are given about a month apart. If you are traveling to Europe this summer for big gatherings such as the Olympic Games or the Euro 2012 soccer championship — or even if you’re going just for sightseeing — now is the time to get your shots!

CDC has information about the measles and the MMR vaccine and also general information about vaccines for travelers.

Flu Fridays: Looking back at the 1918 flu pandemic

It’s Flu Friday, and today we’re going to do a little time travel.

Ninety-four years ago this week, in March of 1918, more than 100 cases of flu were reported among soldiers at Fort Riley, Kan. These would be the first American cases of a flu outbreak that became the most deadly epidemic in world history.

[Image: Street car conductor
in Seattle not allowing passengers
aboard without a mask, 1918.
Courtesy National Archives at College Park, MD.]

At the time it was known as “Spanish flu,” or “la Grippe,” but despite the nickname, this flu wasn’t just in Spain — it was global. By the time the pandemic ended in 1919, one-third of the world’s population had gotten sick, and 50 million to 100 million people died. In the U.S., one out of every four Americans got the flu, and at least 675,000 people were killed.

Why was this flu virus so deadly? At the time, doctors didn’t know what caused the flu.  But experts now believe that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a type of influenza A virus that had never infected humans before. Because it was a new strain of the flu, no one had resistance to the virus, which allowed it to spread very quickly.

The virus was also dangerous because it killed primarily healthy, young people: Most people who died from the 1918 flu pandemic were between the ages of 20-40. If you’re a viewer of the show “Downton Abbey,”  you’ll have seen this play out this season, when several characters became ill and at least one died during the pandemic.

What was it like in real life during the flu pandemic? In a word, hard. Life came to a standstill in many cities across the U.S. Public gatherings were canceled and people were told to avoid trains and trolleys to prevent the flu from spreading. Hospitals around the country were overcrowded as more people became sick with the flu.

[Image: Nurse wearing a mask
as protection against influenza. Sept. 13, 1918.
Courtesy National Archives at College Park, MD.]

As one doctor at a military hospital near Boston wrote in 1918, “We have lost an outrageous number of nurses and doctors…It takes special trains to carry away the dead. For several days, there were no coffins and the bodies piled up something fierce.”

At this point, you might be thinking to yourself: “The 1918 flu was serious back then, but why should we care now?” The answer is that it could happen again. If a new virus emerged that was as deadly and quick-spreading as the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated it “would likely kill more than 100 million people worldwide.”

[Image: Chicago theatre poster, 1918,
courtesy National Library of Medicine.]

The great news is that we’re now better equipped to detect new strains of the flu, both at the doctor’s office and even from your home computer, thanks to tools like Flu Near You. We’re also doing a better job at teaching people how to prevent the flu, making new vaccines and treating people who become sick. By looking back in history, we can learn from the past and make changes so that we’re prepared for the future.

And to be sure, one piece of advice from 1918 still remains the same: If you’re sick with the flu, “go home and go to bed until you are well.” (And call the doctor, if necessary.)