New Seal Flu Could Pose Threat to Humans

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A new influenza strain found in New England harbor seals could potentially threaten people as well as wildlife, new research suggests.

Scientists cautioned that viruses like the newly discovered seal flu must be monitored in order to predict new strains and prevent a pandemic flu emerging from animals.

The report was published online July 31 in mBio.

"There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissible virus to which humans haven't been exposed yet. It's a combination we haven't seen in disease before," report editor Dr. Anne Moscona, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, said in a journal news release.

Another expert agreed that the flu strain could someday pose a threat to people.

"Infections that threaten wildlife and human lives remind us how our health is intermingled on this dynamic planet," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, attending physician in infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He said that while transmission via direct contact between humans and harbor seals is unlikely, the virus could find other ways to get to people.

"A dangerous virus infecting mammals increases the risk to us -- not by direct infection -- but by evolutionary development of even more riskier strains," Hirsch explained. For example, he said, the strain might pass from seals to birds, expand its presence in the environment and mutate in ways that make it easily passed to or between humans.

Scientists from several organizations, including Columbia University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, co-wrote the new report. They said that flu viruses found in mammals, such as the H1N1 "swine flu" that emerged in 2009, can put people's health at risk. The new seal flu, they warned, presents a similar threat to humans.

The researchers analyzed the DNA of a virus linked to the death of 162 harbor seals in 2011 off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Five autopsies revealed that the seals died from infection with a type of flu known as H3N8.

The report pointed out that the seal flu is very similar to a flu strain found in North American birds since 2002. The virus, the researchers noted, adapted to living in mammals. It also has mutations that are known to make viruses easier to spread and more dangerous. They added the seal flu, which is able to target a protein found in the human respiratory tract, may have the potential to move between species.

The researchers warned that pandemic flu can originate in unexpected ways, so preparation is essential.

"Flu could emerge from anywhere and our readiness has to be much better than we previously realized. We need to be very nimble in our ability to identify and understand the potential risks posed by new viruses emerging from unexpected sources," said Moscona. "It's important to realize that viruses can emerge through routes that we haven't considered. We need to be alert to those risks and ready to act on them."

Still, viral strains typically must undergo several key mutations to become the source of a human pandemic, Hirsch said.

"Each time the flu virus infects a cell, it is a roll of the dice," he said. "There are eight separate segments of genes inside the virus -- simple viral versions of chromosomes -- which recombine at random, producing unique viruses. Cells can be infected with multiple viruses, so a dangerous gene from a bird can get mixed in with a gene that makes it easy to infect humans."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the spread of flu viruses from animals to people.

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New data strengthens view of HIV threat for gay black men

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Melanoma a Big Threat to Older Men

HealthDay – Fri, May 18, 2012 FRIDAY, May 18 (HealthDay News) -- Older men have an increased risk of developing melanoma, but most are careless about sun protection and do not know how to properly check themselves for signs of skin cancer, a new survey reveals.

This is particularly worrisome because nearly 132,000 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in 2012, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, which conducted the online poll.

"This survey demonstrates that many men do not protect themselves from the sun when outdoors and that some still believe that sun exposure is good for their health. This is a very troubling combination in light of the fact that the major risk factor for melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet light," dermatologist Dr. Thomas Rohrer, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at Brown University School of Medicine, said in an academy news release.

Just 29 percent of men report always protecting their skin outside, the national survey showed. Meanwhile, 43 percent of women take the necessary precautions.

Moreover, 39 percent of men said they preferred to simply enjoy the sun and not worry about how to protect themselves from its harmful rays, compared with 28 percent of women.

Although 59 percent of women said they know how to examine their own skin for signs of cancer, the study also showed that just 46 percent of the men surveyed knew how this should be done.

"Men need to examine their skin and see a dermatologist if they spot anything changing, bleeding or growing," Rohrer said.

Fortunately, the researchers noted, the five-year survival rate for people whose melanoma is diagnosed and treated before it spreads to the lymph nodes is 98 percent.

"The survey results should serve as a wake-up call to men to be vigilant about protecting their skin from sun exposure and examining their skin regularly for skin cancer," Rohrer concluded. "Loved ones can assist by examining their partners' skin and noting anything suspicious. These exams are vital since the early detection of skin cancer helps save lives."

The academy is distributing public service announcements to television, cable and radio stations nationwide to help raise awareness on how people can protect themselves from skin cancer.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about skin cancer.

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Once-Banned Bird Flu Study Suggests Pandemic Threat Is Real

HealthDay – 3 hrs ago WEDNESDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- Data in a formerly banned study detailing how the H5N1 avian (bird) flu virus can morph -- with the possibility that it could spread from person to person and cause a global pandemic -- may help nations prepare for the impending threat.

That's some of the motivation for lifting the ban and publishing the study in the May 2 online issue of Nature, experts say.

The initial ban applied to two studies slated to be published in two medical journals, Nature and Science. In December, the U.S. government intervened, requesting that both journals censor some of the data for national security purposes. The concern was that terrorists might use the information to create a lethal biological weapon.

The ban was lifted in April, after the U.S. government conducted a risk assessment in March. Nature also commissioned an independent assessment. Both showed that publication would confer more public benefit than risk.

In the Nature study, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues tweaked the H5N1 virus using genetic material borrowed from H1N1 'swine' flu to see if it would transmit easily between ferrets -- an animal model thought to be closely related to humans.

It did.

These genetic changes can make the virus easier to transmit, the study found. Knowing their footprints can help researchers know what to look out for and hopefully catch the virus early before it begins to spread.

"H5N1 viruses remain a significant threat for humans as a potential pandemic flu strain," Kawaoka said. "We have found that relatively few mutations enable this virus to transmit in mammals."

The information provided by this study is important as the virus could mutate on its own. Now "we can better prepare should a pandemic virus emerge in nature," Kawaoka said. Currently available vaccines and antivirals are effective treatments for this engineered virus.

"Stockpiling H5N1 vaccines and antivirals will be important for pandemic preparedness," he said, and flu trackers too can use this information when they develop vaccines in the future. "Just as for a seasonal flu vaccine, it will be important for an H5N1 vaccine to be made to a closely related virus, so knowing which mutations may confer transmissibility will help prioritize vaccine candidates," Kawaoka explained.

The new data also help advance science by increasing the understanding of the basic biology of flu transmission. "Sharing the data with other scientists will lead to important additional discoveries that may aid the development of improved vaccines and therapeutics," Kawaoka said.

There had been doubt that the bird flu could mutate and cause a pandemic, said microbiologist Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris, of the University of Hong Kong. He was a co-author of a journal editorial accompanying the new study. He said this research does suggest that bird flu can mutate. "It suggests that the H5N1 virus can potentially acquire transmissibility in humans. However, whether it will ever do so is another matter."

While there have been sporadic cases of bird flu in humans, these have been traced to people directly handling live birds, for instance while working in a poultry market.

Importantly, this research and its publication are not a threat to U.S. security, Peiris said. "This research only tells us that the mutated H5N1 transmits in ferrets. It also tells us that the mutated virus no longer kills ferrets," he said. "Why would anyone who wanted to 'create harm' put so much effort into generation of such a virus with so much uncertainty on how it would work in practice?"

But, Peiris noted, the study "is important for pandemic risk assessment because it gives indications of the mutations that we should be watching out for."

Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious diseases specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., agreed that publication is likely to do more good than harm. "We should be aware of the fact that this influenza can mutate," he said. "Publication makes us safer because we know what to look out for now. This can help facilitate preventive strategies and can eventually lead to more effective vaccine development and antiviral therapy."

He added, "We live in a much smaller world because of air travel and population density and certainly we are more vulnerable to viruses as a result."

This virus is not likely to be used by terrorists to cause a pandemic, Hirsch said. "It became less lethal in the animal model. I am reassured by the fact that the ability to make it a 'terror' virus has not really been demonstrated."

More information

Learn more about bird flu at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Obesity is a Bigger Threat to Health Care Than Obamacare

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