Font Size

SCREEN

Profile

Direction

Menu Style

 respiratory virus report opt 1

April 2015

 In this issue

  

Measles outbreak in US

Development of an RSV vaccine

Highly pathogenic avian influenza arrives in North America

Meet a Board Member

In the know

 Upcoming meetings

 

Workshop on Next Generation Sequencing of Viruses

Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

20 21 May 2015

 

 pasteur opt

(c) Institut Pasteur

 

This expert workshop, organised by the AVG in conjunction with GISAID and PREDEMICS, will focus on the analysis and interpretation of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data for influenza and other viruses, with a particular emphasis on the significance of minor variants within a virus population and their potential emergence. It will include discussions relating to sequencing technologies, data processing (quality control. Mapping), assembly and analysis of data, database format, interpretation and the significance and use of NGS data for public and animal health.

 

 

Submissions of abstracts for oral or poster presentations are welcome; deadline 20th April 2015.

 

 

For more information click here or visit the registration page

 

 

 

4th AVG-isirv Conference

 

 

avg meeting opt

 

Early bird registration extended till 10 April 2015.

For more information click here or visit the registration page

 

 

In the news

Measles outbreak originating in Disneyland, California, USA

Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a Paramyxovirus. Disease is characterized by fever, cough, runny nose, and a red, flat rash. Measles is extremely contagious, and symptoms generally last 7-10 days. However, severe complications can occur including pneumonia, blindness, and encephalitis. Most children in developed countries receive the MMR vaccine as a routine measure of protection. Because of this, measles has been mostly eradicated in the United States until a recent epidemic.

 

On 5 January 2015, an 11 year old patient with measles was reported in California. The patient had been to Disneyland in late December, and soon after other cases were reported, some of which were people who had been visiting Disneyland during the same time frame. As of 27 March 2015, a total of 146 cases have been reported. Of those people, almost half of them were unvaccinated due to extremely young age or personal beliefs.

Read more here and here.

 

 

measles map opt

cdc.gov

 

Spotlight on RSV: Towards an efficacious vaccine with Julia Hurwitz

 

julia opt

Julia Hurwitz

St Jude Children's Research Hospital

photo courtesy SJCRH

 

Young children can die from RSV infections. In fact RSV kills close to 200,000 children worldwide each year, and about 500 of these children are in the United States. There are more than 50,000 hospitalizations for RSV among young children each year in the US and about 2 million outpatient visits. Most children recover fully from RSV infections, but there can sometimes be dangerous lasting effects such as asthma. Few people know much about RSV, except for the children who suffer serious infections, along with their families and their health care providers.

The first exposure to RSV is the most serious. Subsequent infections are usually not so severe. This is because the child’s immune system is primed during his or her first RSV exposure. The immune system then helps protect the child when a second RSV exposure occurs. And the immune system can do a great job once it’s activated! Our goal is to activate the immune system by a safe method before a child is naturally exposed to RSV.

 

There is one product that is already available to protect children from RSV. This is Synagis (Palivizumab), a monoclonal antibody. It is used as prophylaxis for infants who are at high risk for serious RSV infections due to low birth weight or heart-lung problems. But monoclonal antibodies are expensive and are not available to many of the children who need them most. Whether or not Synagis can also serve as a beneficial treatment after a child is hospitalized with RSV is a topic of debate among clinicians. In any case, there is a clear need for better treatment options for children who are hospitalized with disease caused by RSV.

 

What about a vaccine? RSV vaccines have been studied for more than 50 years. A successful RSV vaccine should safely induce a strong neutralizing antibody response in children. Several strategies are being tried and are in various stages of pre-clinical and clinical development, but there is no product that has passed all clinical safety and efficacy tests as of yet.

 

Our RSV vaccine candidate has many attractive features. We use Sendai virus, because it induces a strong neutralizing antibody response, and also induces a CD8-positive T cell response that can act as a second line of defense against virus. We tested our vaccine for the induction of protective immune responses in laboratory experiments with success. We’ve now finished manufacturing the vaccine in the Children’s GMP LLC facility on the St. Jude campus and we are very excited about future clinical studies. We hope that our vaccine will be successful in the clinic so that it can then be licensed to protect children worldwide from the morbidity and mortality caused by RSV.

.

 

 

 

Highly Pathogenic avian influenza arrives in North America

 

    

From Dr Robert Webster: “It took a long time for H5 to get to the US. Millions of birds migrate from Siberia/China to the US every year – H5 never made it. Wild birds can transmit to chickens in China...but not in the US? The theory was that wild birds weren’t involved in continent to continent transmission. Now that theory is blown. It’s a bloody disaster for the poultry industry. Backyard flocks are vulnerable to infection too. I don’t know how they’ll keep this virus out of the poultry industry. Spread into Mexico is also a huge worry.

 

 

It’s really surprising that the press hasn’t given this a lot of attention. We need to alert the agricultural community. This is a missed opportunity to educate the public, protect the hugely valuable poultry industry. Chicken is the main cheap protein source. If chicken came off the market in the US there would be huge repercussions.”

 

 

As for his thoughts on the current H5 research moratorium, “It’s another bloody disaster. This needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. It inhibits necessary studies to sort out things like this!”

 

webster opt

Robert Webster, PhD

St Jude Children's Research Hospital

photo courtesy SJCRH

 

 

 

 

Meet an isirv board member

 lance jennings opt

Lance Jennings

QSO, PhD, FRCPath, FFSc (RCPA)

Chair of isirv

 

How did you get to where you are today?

 

        

I gained my education in Christchurch and Dunedin, New Zealand, completing a PhD at the University of Otago in 1976, on the epidemiology of respiratory viruses among families in the small community of Port Chalmers. Although this period in my life was a balance between the mountains; mountaineering and alpine guiding during the summer holidays and skiing during the winter, completion of my PhD became a priority, ahead of other international climbing opportunities.

 

Post-doctoral experience was gained both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Research within the Public Health Laboratory at Withington Hospital, Manchester and the Beatson Institute in Glasgow, involved the application of early DNA methods to the investigation of the association of common viruses with senile dementia. Following this, a period at the State Hygiene Lab, University of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison, USA, brought me back into respiratory virology. I joined Elliot Dick’s Antarctic Research Team and spent the “Winter-fly-in” periods of 1979 and 1980 at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, trialing iodine impregnated virucidal tissues for the interruption of transmission of respiratory virus infections. The “Antarctic Hut” model evolved out of this work and volunteer UW student were used to study the transmission of Rhinovirus 16 colds. This model clearly demonstrated the importance of aerosol transmission of rhinovirus 16 colds, and the limited role of hand to hand transmission. It is pleasing to see that these models are now, after some 30 years, being applied to understanding the transmission of influenza viruses.

 

 

Returning to Christchurch in 1979 to establish a diagnostic virology service, I became increasingly aware of the importance of influenza surveillance and the use of the information collected for public health purposes. This has lead in New Zealand to the introduction of Government funded influenza vaccine, along with pandemic preparedness planning and influenza awareness education, and in the Asia-Pacific region, the formation of the Asian-Pacific Alliance for the Control of Influenza (APACI).

 

 

What got you interested in studying influenza?

 

Serendipity! During the first year of my PhD study in Port Chalmers, an influenza epidemic occurred. The influenza A viruses isolated were forwarded to Mill Hill and shown to be representative the second significant antigenic drift occurring to the A/Hong Kong/68 (H3N2) virus and Influenza A/Port Chalmers/1/73(H3N2) was accepted as the prototype strain. This virus caused substantial mortality, especially in North America over 1973/74 influenza season and gained a lot of media attention. Then, while working in the UK, regular trips to the Common Cold Research Unit to attend the Salisbury Plains Virology Group meetings provided an opportunity to meet some of the fathers of influenza and respiratory virology in the UK, while Norman Grist in Glasgow instilled a passion for clinical virology.

 

What is your favorite part about being involved in isirv?

 

        

Participation in international professional organizations has a number of benefits ranging from the sharing of information and education to keeping in touch with colleagues. Isirv is a particularly special organization though. It was conceived out of a need for an independent, scientifically based organization in the face of significant epidemiologic events of the emergence of SARS and spread of Influenza (H5N1) and to provide a permanent home for the “Options” meeting. It is steadily establishing itself as the leading organization for those interested in influenza and other respiratory viruses globally. I am not sure if I have a “favorite part about being involved?” Perhaps it is just being able to play and active roll (albeit small) in isirv’s evolution and help chart a course which maintains the organization’s independence and transparency while ensuring it’s activities are sustainable. An organization that future young scientists will want to be a part of.

 

 

In the know

Publications of interest to isirv members

 

 

Karlsson, E, et al. Visualizing real-time influenza virus infection, transmission, and protection in ferrets. Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 6;6:6378.

 

 

Li, Q, et al. Epidemiology of human infections with avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in China. N Engl J Med. 2014 Feb 6;370(6):520-32.

 

 

Oshansky, CM, et al. Mucosal immune responses predict clinical outcomes during influenza infection independently of age and viral load. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2014 Feb 15;189(4):449-62.

 

 

Pflug, A, et al. Structure of influenza A polymerase bound to the viral RNA reporter. Nature. 2014 Dec 18;516(7531):355-60.

 

 

Reich, S, et al. Structural insight into cap-snatching and RNA synthesis by influenza polymerase. Nature. 2014 Dec 18;516(7531):360-66.

 

 

Spann, KM, et al. Viral and host factors determine innate immune responses in airway epithelial cells from children with wheeze and atopy. Thorax. 2014 Oct;69(10):918-25.

 

 

Wurzel, DF, et al. Adenovirus species C is associated with chronic suppurative lung diseases in children. Clin Infect Dis. 2014 Jul 1;59(1):34-40.

 

 

Zomer-Kooijker, K, et al. Decreased lung function precedes severe respiratory syncytial virus infection and post-respiratory syncytial virus wheeze in term infants. Eur Respir J. 2014 Sep;44(3):666-74.

 

 

 

Submissions welcome

 

The isirv board would like to broaden the society’s reach to be of greatest interest to current and/or potential isirv members, and we’d like your ideas for future events and newsletter articles. Is there an article you’d like to submit to the newsletter? Do you have an idea for a meeting or satellite symposium? What are the most pressing issues in respiratory viral diseases? Please send your thoughts to contact@isirv.org!