PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

2009 H1N1 pandemic -- what went right and what went wrong?

2010-10-06
(Press-News.org) In this week's PLoS Medicine, Gabriel Leung from the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and Angus Nicoll from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control offer their reflections on the international response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, including what went well and what changes need to be made on the part of global and national authorities in anticipation of future flu pandemics.

INFORMATION: Funding: No specific funding was received for this article.

Competing Interests: The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Food and Health Bureau, Government of the Hong Kong SAR, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Each of the authors declares no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise. AN is on long-term secondment to ECDC from the UK Health Protection Agency.

Citation: Leung GM, Nicoll A (2010) Reflections on Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and the International

Response. PLoS Med 7(10): e1000346. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000346

IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000346

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: www.plos.org/press/plme-07-10-leung.pdf

CONTACT:

Gabriel Leung
Food and Health Bureau,
Government of the Hong Kong SAR,
People's Republic of China,
gmleung@fhb.gov.hk


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New way to explain the leading cause of kidney failure

2010-10-06
Evidence reported in the October issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, offers a completely new explanation for why people with diabetes account for more than half of all patients requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. It appears that insulin has a significant influence on the structure and proper function of a particular group of very specialized cells, known as podocytes, that are integral to the kidney's ability to do its job filtering blood. "We've found that when you lose insulin signaling in the podocytes, the filter is not maintained," said ...

Amino acid supplement makes mice live longer

2010-10-06
When mice are given drinking water laced with a special concoction of amino acids, they live longer than your average mouse, according to a new report in the October issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. The key ingredients in the supplemental mixture are so-called branched-chain amino acids, which account for 3 of the 20 amino acids (specifically leucine, isoleucine, and valine) that are the building blocks of proteins. "This is the first demonstration that an amino acid mixture can increase survival in mice," said Enzo Nisoli of Milan University in Italy, ...

Evolutionary tinkering produced complex proteins with diverse functions

Evolutionary tinkering produced complex proteins with diverse functions
2010-10-06
By reconstructing an ancient protein and tracing how it subtly changed over vast periods of time to produce scores of modern-day descendants, scientists have shown how evolution tinkers with early forms and leaves the impression that complexity evolved many times. Human and other animal cells contain thousands of proteins with functions so diverse and complex that it is often difficult to see how they could have evolved from a few ancestral proteins, said biologist Joseph W. Thornton of the University of Oregon and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who led the research. ...

Researchers pool data to search for genetic risks in heart disease

2010-10-06
In an unprecedented international project, researchers have found multiple genetic mutations that play a role in heart attack or coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. The Coronary ARtery DIsease Genome-wide Replication And Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) — published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, an American Heart Association journal — consists of data from every published whole-genome study on genetic mutations in heart attack or CAD risk. Researchers are also pooling data from several unpublished genome-wide association studies to see if any new mutations can be uncovered. The ...

For cardiac arrest CPR performed by laypersons, chest compression-only may lead to better outcomes

2010-10-06
In a comparison of outcomes in Arizona for out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for cardiac arrest performed by bystanders, patients who received compression-only CPR were more likely to survive to hospital discharge than patients who received conventional CPR or no CPR, according to a study in the October 6 issue of JAMA. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a major public health problem, affecting approximately 300,000 individuals in the United States annually. Although survival rates vary considerably, outcomes can be improved with bystander CPR. In 2005, ...

Consistent evidence: Speed cameras do reduce injuries and deaths

2010-10-06
Placing speed cameras on roads reduces the number of road traffic injuries and deaths, concludes a team of researchers from The University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia. Their findings are published this month in The Cochrane Library. Preventing road traffic injuries is of global public health importance. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 road traffic crashes will have moved from ninth to third in the rank of causes of poor health. Speed cameras are one of the measures that authorities can use to reduce traffic speed in the hope of preventing ...

Use of advanced radiology for injury-related emergency department visits increases significantly

2010-10-06
From 1998 to 2007, the use of CT or MRI scans in emergency departments for injury-related conditions increased about 3-fold without a similar increase in the prevalence of the diagnosis of certain life-threatening trauma-related conditions, according to a study in the October 6 issue of JAMA. Injury-related conditions are among the most common reasons for visits to emergency departments in the United States. "The widespread availability of advanced radiology (computed tomography [CT] and magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]) and the associated diagnostic superiority in identifying ...

Early use of hypertonic fluids does not appear to improve outcomes for severe traumatic brain injury

2010-10-06
Patients with a severe traumatic brain injury (and not in shock because of blood loss) who received out-of-hospital administration of hypertonic fluids (a solution with increased concentration of certain electrolytes and thought to help reduce intracranial pressure) as initial resuscitation did not experience better 6-month neurologic outcomes or survival compared to patients who received a normal saline solution, according to a study in the October 6 issue of JAMA. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death following blunt trauma, and survivors often ...

Vitamin D supplements do not increase bone density in healthy children

2010-10-06
Giving vitamin D supplements to healthy children with normal vitamin D levels does not improve bone density at the hip, lumbar spine, forearm or in the body as a whole, according to a new Cochrane Systematic Review. Building bone density in children helps protect against osteoporosis in later life. Osteoporosis is a condition where bones are weak, brittle and break easily. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium from food, reduces losses of calcium from the body and encourages calcium deposition into bone. Bone density is a major measure of bone strength and measures ...

Finasteride reduces symptoms and disease progression associated with enlarged prostates

2010-10-06
When compared with placebo and other drugs, long-term use of finasteride improves urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia, and reduces disease progression. This conclusion comes from combining the findings of 23 randomized clinical trials that evaluated almost 21,000 men, and is published this month in The Cochrane Library. Finasteride is frequently given to men who have lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) such as frequent voiding at night (nocturia), incomplete emptying, hesitancy, weak stream, and frequent and urgent urination. The symptoms ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe makes history with closest pass to Sun

Are we ready for the ethical challenges of AI and robots?

Nanotechnology: Light enables an "impossibile" molecular fit

Estimated vaccine effectiveness for pediatric patients with severe influenza

Changes to the US preventive services task force screening guidelines and incidence of breast cancer

Urgent action needed to protect the Parma wallaby

Societal inequality linked to reduced brain health in aging and dementia

Singles differ in personality traits and life satisfaction compared to partnered people

President Biden signs bipartisan HEARTS Act into law

Advanced DNA storage: Cheng Zhang and Long Qian’s team introduce epi-bit method in Nature

New hope for male infertility: PKU researchers discover key mechanism in Klinefelter syndrome

Room-temperature non-volatile optical manipulation of polar order in a charge density wave

Coupled decline in ocean pH and carbonate saturation during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

Unlocking the Future of Superconductors in non-van-der Waals 2D Polymers

Starlight to sight: Breakthrough in short-wave infrared detection

Land use changes and China’s carbon sequestration potential

PKU scientists reveals phenological divergence between plants and animals under climate change

Aerobic exercise and weight loss in adults

Persistent short sleep duration from pregnancy to 2 to 7 years after delivery and metabolic health

Kidney function decline after COVID-19 infection

Investigation uncovers poor quality of dental coverage under Medicare Advantage

Cooking sulfur-containing vegetables can promote the formation of trans-fatty acids

How do monkeys recognize snakes so fast?

Revolutionizing stent surgery for cardiovascular diseases with laser patterning technology

Fish-friendly dentistry: New method makes oral research non-lethal

Call for papers: 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE 2025)

A novel disturbance rejection optimal guidance method for enhancing precision landing performance of reusable rockets

New scan method unveils lung function secrets

Searching for hidden medieval stories from the island of the Sagas

Breakthrough study reveals bumetanide treatment restores early social communication in fragile X syndrome mouse model

[Press-News.org] 2009 H1N1 pandemic -- what went right and what went wrong?