An analysis of target recipient groups for monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccine and trivalent seasonal influenza vaccines in 2009-10 and 2010-11

Poster Presentation: SPA5 - How to Evaluate Vaccine Effectiveness and Efficacy?: abstract no. A513PINTRODUCTION: Vaccination is generally considered to be the best primary prevention measure against influenza virus infection. Many countries encourage specific target groups of people to undertake vaccination, often with financial subsidies or a list of priority. To understand differential patterns of national target groups for influenza vaccination before, during and after the 2009 influenza pandemic, we reviewed and identified changes in national target groups for trivalent seasonal influenza and the monovalent 2009 pandemic influenza vaccines dur...postprin

Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine

We randomized 115 children to trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) or placebo. Over the following 9 months, TIV recipients had an increased risk of virologically-confirmed non-influenza infections (relative risk: 4.40; 95 confidence interval: 1.31-14.8). Being protected against influenza, TIV recipients may lack temporary non-specific immunity that protected against other respiratory viruses. © 2012 The Author.postprin

Nonlinear Impurity Modes in Homogeneous and Periodic Media

We analyze the existence and stability of nonlinear localized waves described by the Kronig-Penney model with a nonlinear impurity. We study the properties of such waves in a homogeneous medium, and then analyze new effects introduced by periodicity of the medium parameters. In particular, we demonstrate the existence of a novel type of stable nonlinear band-gap localized states, and also reveal an important physical mechanism of the oscillatory wave instabilities associated with the band-gap wave resonances.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures; To be published in: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop "Nonlinearity and Disorder: Theory and Applications" (Tashkent, 2-6 Oct, 2000) Editors: P.L. Christiansen and F.K. Abdullaev (Kluwer, 2001

Wild type and mutant 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) viruses cause more severe disease and higher mortality in pregnant BALB/c mice

Background: Pregnant women infected by the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus had more severe disease and higher mortality but its pathogenesis is still unclear. Principal Findings: We showed that higher mortality, more severe pneumonitis, higher pulmonary viral load, lower peripheral blood T lymphocytes and antibody responses, higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and worse fetal development occurred in pregnant mice than non-pregnant controls infected by either wild type (clinical isolate) or mouse-adapted mutant virus with D222G substitution in hemagglutinin. These disease-associated changes and the lower respiratory tract involvement were worse in pregnant mice challenged by mutant virus. Though human placental origin JEG-3 cell line could be infected and proinflammatory cytokines or chemokines were elevated in amniotic fluid of some mice, no placental or fetal involvement by virus were detected by culture, real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or histopathological changes. Dual immunofluorescent staining of viral nucleoprotein and type II alveolar cell marker SP-C protein suggested that the majority of infected alveolar epithelial cells were type II pneumocytes. Conclusion: The adverse effect of this pandemic virus on maternal and fetal outcome is largely related to the severe pulmonary disease and the indirect effect of inflammatory cytokine spillover into the systemic circulation. © 2010 Chan et al.published_or_final_versio

Risk factors for hospital admission with RSV bronchiolitis in England: a population-based birth cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the timing and duration of RSV bronchiolitis hospital admission among term and preterm infants in England and to identify risk factors for bronchiolitis admission. DESIGN: A population-based birth cohort with follow-up to age 1 year, using the Hospital Episode Statistics database. SETTING: 71 hospitals across England. PARTICIPANTS: We identified 296618 individual birth records from 2007/08 and linked to subsequent hospital admission records during the first year of life. RESULTS: In our cohort there were 7189 hospital admissions with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis, 24.2 admissions per 1000 infants under 1 year (95%CI 23.7-24.8), of which 15% (1050/7189) were born preterm (47.3 bronchiolitis admissions per 1000 preterm infants (95% CI 44.4-50.2)). The peak age group for bronchiolitis admissions was infants aged 1 month and the median was age 120 days (IQR = 61-209 days). The median length of stay was 1 day (IQR = 0-3). The relative risk (RR) of a bronchiolitis admission was higher among infants with known risk factors for severe RSV infection, including those born preterm (RR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.8-2.0) compared with infants born at term. Other conditions also significantly increased risk of bronchiolitis admission, including Down's syndrome (RR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.7-3.7) and cerebral palsy (RR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.5-4.0). CONCLUSIONS: Most (85%) of the infants who are admitted to hospital with bronchiolitis in England are born at term, with no known predisposing risk factors for severe RSV infection, although risk of admission is higher in known risk groups. The early age of bronchiolitis admissions has important implications for the potential impact and timing of future active and passive immunisations. More research is needed to explain why babies born with Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy are also at higher risk of hospital admission with RSV bronchiolitis

Evidence of virus interference? Increased risk of non-influenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine

Oral Presentation: abstract no. VII-6BACKGROUND: Seasonal influenza vaccination is effective in preventing influenza infection and disease in healthy school-age children, while influenza vaccination is not generally thought to affect the risk of non-influenza respiratory virus infections (e.g. the common cold). Interference between respiratory virus epidemics has been reported in a series of ecologic studies, and it has been hypothesized that this phenomenon is associated with temporary non-specific immunity following a respiratory viral infection….postprintThe 14th International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections, Istanbul, Turkey, 23-26 March 2012

Identification of novel porcine and bovine parvoviruses closely related to human parvovirus 4

Human parvovirus 4 (PARV4), a recently discovered parvovirus found exclusively in human plasma and liver tissue, was considered phylogenetically distinct from other parvoviruses. Here, we report the discovery of two novel parvoviruses closely related to PARV4, porcine hokovirus (PHoV) and bovine hokovirus (BHoV), from porcine and bovine samples in Hong Kong. Their nearly full-length sequences were also analysed. PARV4-like viruses were detected by PCR among 44.4% (148/333) of porcine samples (including lymph nodes, liver, serum, nasopharyngeal and faecal samples), 13% (4/32) of bovine spleen samples and 2% (7/362) of human serum samples that were sent for human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus antibody tests. Three distinct parvoviruses were identified, including two novel parvoviruses, PHoV and BHoV, from porcine and bovine samples and PARV4 from humans, respectively. Analysis of genome pequences from seven PHoV strains, from three BHoV strains and from one PARV4 strain showed that the two animal parvoviruses were most similar to PARV4 with 61.5-63% nt identities and, together with PARV4 (HHoV), formed a distinct cluster within the family Parvoviridae. The three parvoviruses also differed from other parvoviruses by their relatively large predicted VP1 protein and the presence of a small unique conserved putative protein. Based on these results, we propose a separate genus, Hokovirus, to describe these three parvoviruses. The co-detection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, the agent associated with the recent 'high fever' disease outbreaks in pigs in China, from our porcine samples warrants further investigation. © 2008 SGM.published_or_final_versio

A double epidemic model for the SARS propagation

BACKGROUND: An epidemic of a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by a new coronavirus has spread from the Guangdong province to the rest of China and to the world, with a puzzling contagion behavior. It is important both for predicting the future of the present outbreak and for implementing effective prophylactic measures, to identify the causes of this behavior. RESULTS: In this report, we show first that the standard Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model cannot account for the patterns observed in various regions where the disease spread. We develop a model involving two superimposed epidemics to study the recent spread of the SARS in Hong Kong and in the region. We explore the situation where these epidemics may be caused either by a virus and one or several mutants that changed its tropism, or by two unrelated viruses. This has important consequences for the future: the innocuous epidemic might still be there and generate, from time to time, variants that would have properties similar to those of SARS. CONCLUSION: We find that, in order to reconcile the existing data and the spread of the disease, it is convenient to suggest that a first milder outbreak protected against the SARS. Regions that had not seen the first epidemic, or that were affected simultaneously with the SARS suffered much more, with a very high percentage of persons affected. We also find regions where the data appear to be inconsistent, suggesting that they are incomplete or do not reflect an appropriate identification of SARS patients. Finally, we could, within the framework of the model, fix limits to the future development of the epidemic, allowing us to identify landmarks that may be useful to set up a monitoring system to follow the evolution of the epidemic. The model also suggests that there might exist a SARS precursor in a large reservoir, prompting for implementation of precautionary measures when the weather cools down

A new mutant genetic resource for tomato crop improvement by TILLING technology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the last decade, the availability of gene sequences of many plant species, including tomato, has encouraged the development of strategies that do not rely on genetic transformation techniques (GMOs) for imparting desired traits in crops. One of these new emerging technology is TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes), a reverse genetics tool, which is proving to be very valuable in creating new traits in different crop species.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To apply TILLING to tomato, a new mutant collection was generated in the genetic background of the processing tomato cultivar Red Setter by treating seeds with two different ethylemethane sulfonate doses (0.7% and 1%). An associated phenotype database, LycoTILL, was developed and a TILLING platform was also established. The interactive and evolving database is available online to the community for phenotypic alteration inquiries. To validate the Red Setter TILLING platform, induced point mutations were searched in 7 tomato genes with the mismatch-specific ENDO1 nuclease. In total 9.5 kb of tomato genome were screened and 66 nucleotide substitutions were identified. The overall mutation density was estimated and it resulted to be 1/322 kb and 1/574 kb for the 1% EMS and 0.7% EMS treatment respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The mutation density estimated in our collection and its comparison with other TILLING populations demonstrate that the Red Setter genetic resource is suitable for use in high-throughput mutation discovery. The Red Setter TILLING platform is open to the research community and is publicly available via web for requesting mutation screening services.</p