Google Earth technology just added another use for their map – track bird flu around the globe.
How cool is that.

Researchers at Colorado University-Boulder and Ohio State University designed an interactive “super map” to reconstruct the mutations and spread of the avian flu, helping anticipate future outbreaks.
How did they do it?

Nathan Wolfe, UCLA biologist and NIH Health Pioneer awardee, has the most unusual way of studying viral plague-harbingers.
He goes hunting, deep in the African jungles of Cameroon, Yaound.
The Doctor, as villagers call him, investigates sudden die-offs of primates in the jungles, collects blood from hunters and their kills, tests wild and domestic birds for avian flu and a vast range of fiel research all in the quest to discover viruses originating in the wild with the potential to mutate into pandemic forms.
Animal-to-human invaders or zoonoses – malaria, HIV, smallpox, West Nile, Ebola, SARS, avian influenza – have plagued recent centuries …read more

Knowing if you have the colds, flu or sinusitis is important to receiving the right treatment. How do you know what you have? Here are seven ways, via Caroline’s Health Edge -
1. What your symptoms do include. Classic complaints of someone with a cold include a runny nose, difficulty breathing through your nose, sneezing, sore throat, cough and/or headache.
2. What your symptoms don’t include. Symptoms such as high fever, significantly swollen glands or severe sinus pain can signal a complication or more serious illness that should be evaluated by a healthcare provider.
3. Exposure lapse. You begin to feel ill 2 …read more

With the latest numbers coming in from Egypt today, so far, the number of humans dying from bird flu in 2006 totaled 79, higher than the two previous years combined (42 in 2005 and 32 in 2004). This year, cases were found in populated areas and neighborhoods with backyard poultry. The virus has also spread in areas where there have been no prior large outbreaks, and according to a Bloomberg report, “that may result in opportunities for humans to become infected, and in greater chances for a mutation-driven change”.
On the other hand, only 26 human cases were reported four countries …read more

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention awarded contracts worth $11.4 million to four biotech companies to develop tests that detect influenza more rapidly.
Currently, tests take anywhere from 24 hours to a week to process a test in the US (counting delivery of samples to lab). The CDC wants a “good way to quickly and easily distinguish at a patient’s bedside whether they suffer from H5N1 or a more common type of influenza,” said Director Julie Gerberding said in a prepared statement.
Cepheid (California) received $2.4 million; IQuum Inc. (Massachusetts) got $3.8 million; Meso Scale Diagnostics (Maryland) was awarded $706,241; …read more

A Fujian-like vaccine-resistant sublineage of H5N1 might be the pandemic flu virus we all fear would emerge.
First emerging in southern China and later spreading across southeast Asia in early 2004-2005, an uncharacterized strain of H5N1 has been discovered as responsible for recent human infections in China and Thailand and poultry outbreaks in Laos, Malasia and Thailand. The published report in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences also notes that the new strain is also taking hold because of poor immunization pratices in poultry against Fujian-like viruses.
Dr. Yi Guan and colleagues further report that human H5N1 outbreaks were found …read more

Having a test that rapidly identifies the specific virus, or rules out viral infections, is necessary to effective treatment of a patient, and especially critical in a flu pandemic situation.
Tm Bioscience Corporation, a leader in the commercial genetic testing market, has announced that their ID-Tag (TM Respiratory Viral Panel (RVP), received CE mark (”Conformité Européenne”) status and can now be marketed for diagnostic purposes in Europe and other countries where the CE mark is recognized.
ID-Tag is a proprietary, comprehensive test that simultaneously detects more than 95 percent of all circulating respiratory viruses. Viruses targeted by the ID-Tag™ RVP are important …read more

Scientists reveal that wild birds, including wood ducks and laughing gulls, commonly found on US waterways are highly susceptible to infection with H5N1 viruses.
Researchers from the University of Georgia inoculated five species of North American ducks (mallard, northern pintail, blue-winged teal, redhead, wood duck) and the laughing gulls with two asian H5N1 HPAI viruses. Both the wood ducks and laughing gulls either got sick or died within 7-10 day of inoculation, and the viruses shed longer with more severe symptoms.

Professor David Stallknecht, co-author of the study, said that in order to be able to quickly detect and fight the disease, …read more

A new software in your mobile phone can help track the spread of diseases.
In the near future, field workers and doctors may send information through a central database about an occuring outbreak, patient status, drug inventory levels and also receive information such as alerts, treatment guidelines or lab test results.
All through the cell phone. How cool is that?
The software program sends data through the general packet radio service (GPRS) network, and if this is unavailable, it can divert to an SMS data channel, normally used for text messages. It’s flexible enough to work across different handsets and operators because it …read more

Australia has just begun the country’s largest ever health simulation exercise in preparation of bird flu. Held from October 16-19, 2006, the $4 million-exercise focuses on the health responses set out in the Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza. All states and territories are involved, with around 1,000 people participating and 55 international observers viewing that the commonwealth calls its ‘Exercise Cumpston 06′.
Outlined in the Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza, Australia’s border control will be assessed, as well as it’s quarantine and disease management strategies, national and local disease surveillance and response policies, decision-making structures, coordination mechanisms …read more