(Press-News.org) The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games brought more than just athletes to B.C. It also left the province with a bad case of the measles.
In research outlined today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, scientists at the University of British Columbia and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control used genetic sequencing to trace the 2010 measles outbreak, linking it back to an influx of visitors during the Winter Olympics.
"In 2010, we had two visitors, probably from separate parts of the world, who each brought one genotype of measles with them," said lead author Jennifer Gardy, assistant professor with the UBC School of Population and Health and a senior scientist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. "With DNA sequencing, we were able to track how those genotypes spread around the province - something we couldn't easily do before."
In the largest measles genomics project to date, the scientists performed DNA sequencing for 27 different measles viruses. They discovered that two different strains of the virus, D8 and H1, were brought into the Vancouver area during the Olympics, sparking the first cases of measles in the province since 2007. In total, 82 cases of measles were recorded in March and April of 2010. The D8 strain remained confined to Vancouver while the H1 strain spread across the province.
"The genomic data revealed that all the measles cases in northern B.C. arose from a single introduction, likely along Highway 97," noted Gardy.
Gardy's team used whole-genome sequencing to track the outbreak, an approach they pioneered four years ago when analyzing TB outbreaks.
"With whole-genome sequencing we're looking at 100 per cent of the genome," said Gardy. "We can find mutations that appear in different people and use these mutations to figure out who infected whom. In the past we'd only look at about three per cent of the measles genome and we'd miss these mutations."
The province has continued to experience regular measles outbreaks since 2010, but the strains introduced during the Olympics have gone away. In 2014, there were more than 400 cases reported in the Fraser Valley.
"If we have access to more genomic DNA from samples in the future, we might be able to build better maps of how measles outbreaks start and spread," said Gardy. "Thankfully, we already know how to stop them, which is to get immunized."
INFORMATION:
NOTE: Jennifer Gardy is away from Vancouver and only available for print and radio interviews.
HOUSTON - (July 7, 2015) - Companies that want to increase customers' loyalty and get their repeat business would do well to understand the nuanced ways in which and reasons why a customer is committed to that company, according to a recent study by marketing experts at Rice University and Fordham University. The research provides a strategic blueprint for developing customer commitment.
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Using analytical techniques from ...
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Effectiveness shown in tests on ovarian and bowel cancer
Drug can shut down a cancer cell's metabolism
Developed by researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Cancer Research Centre
Tests conducted by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's Cancer Genome Project
New drug could be cheaper to produce and less harmful to healthy cells
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Based on a compound of the rare precious metal osmium and developed by researchers at the University of Warwick's ...
Professor Richard Lilford and Dr Yen-Fu Chen of the University's Warwick Medical School, raised the issue following a study that states hospital weekend death risk is common in several developed countries - not just England
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This news release is available in German.
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A yearlong study of first-time smartphone users by researchers at Rice University and the U.S. Air Force found that users felt smartphones were actually detrimental to their ability to learn.
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Today in Nature Communications, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) provide molecular details about Seckel Syndrome, a rare disease that causes microcephaly, or small brain, and growth delays. A joint study conducted by Travis Stracker and Jens Lüders indicates that the protein CEP63 plays a key role during brain development as it is involved in the correct division of stem cells in this organ. Furthermore, the researchers have discovered that CEP63 is associated with sperm production--an unknown function until now.
Rescuing microcephaly ...
