Archivo etiqueta «Epidemias»

By Wendy Orent, the author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 15/01/12):

If you were paying attention to the flap over two recent flu experiments involving ferrets, you may have come away with the impression that scientists all but waved a red flag in front of terrorists and said, “Here’s a perfect biological weapon — help yourselves.”

But there’s really not much cause for alarm.

Here’s the background. In December, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked the premier science journals Science and Nature to redact key … Seguir leyendo

By Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Gary Nabel, who works in the virology laboratory at the NIAID and Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (THE WASHINGTON POST, 31/12/11):

Adeadly influenza virus has circulated widely in birds in recent years, decimating flocks but rarely spreading to humans. Nonetheless, because of its persistence in bird flocks, this highly pathogenic virus has loomed as a major public health threat. Seasonal influenza kills less than 1 percent of the people it infects. In contrast, human infections with the H5N1 virus, … Seguir leyendo

By W. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology and a professor of neurology and pathology at Columbia University (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12/09/11):

I admit I was wary when I was approached, late in 2008, about working on a movie with the director Steven Soderbergh about a flulike pandemic. It seemed that every few years a filmmaker imagined a world in which a virus transformed humans into flesh-eating zombies, or scientists discovered and delivered the cure for a lethal infectious disease in an impossibly short period of time.

Moviegoers might find fantasies like these entertaining, but for a microbe … Seguir leyendo

By Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 26/04/11):

In a few weeks, member states of the World Health Organization will consider the destruction of the last known samples of smallpox virus, currently held in secure labs by the United States and Russia. Some have sought to publicly frame this issue as a contentious disagreement between our two countries and the rest of the world over whether the virus should be destroyed. This is misleading.

We fully agree that these samples should — and eventually will — be destroyed. However, we also recognize … Seguir leyendo

By Kenneth Bernard, special assistant to the president for homeland security in the George W. Bush administration and director for health and security at the National Security Council in the Clinton administration and Richard Danzig, chairman of the Center for a New American Security. He was secretary of the Navy in the Clinton administration (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 05/01/11):

Have you ever seen a person with smallpox? We rejoice that probably you haven’t. In 1977 the disease was eradicated. Only two known research collections of smallpox virus remain, in laboratories in Russia and the United States.

This month, … Seguir leyendo

Por Juan Gérvas, médico general en Madrid del Equipo CESCA (EL MUNDO, 18/08/10):

La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha declarado este mes el fin de la pandemia de gripe A. Ni en el propio texto de la declaración ni en ninguno de los anexos se hace un análisis de la respuesta a esa pandemia; sin más, se da por finalizado un periodo de alarma mundial que empezó en abril de 2009. Se deduce, pues, que todo lo hecho ha sido correcto. En la misma línea se han expresado el Ministerio y las Consejerías de Sanidad en España. «Volvería … Seguir leyendo

By Richard P. Wenzel, a professor of internal medicine and a specialist in infectious diseases at Virginia Commonwealth University (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/04/10):

One  year ago today, a government worker in Oaxaca, Mexico, became the first person to die of swine flu. At the bedsides of other men and women struggling to stay alive in Mexican critical care units, we clinicians noticed early on that this novel H1N1 flu virus diverged from influenza’s usual pattern of activity in striking ways. It began in the Northern Hemisphere, not in Asia, and in mid-spring, not late fall or winter. It … Seguir leyendo

By Jerome Groopman, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and Pamela Hartzband. Both are attending physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professors at Harvard Medical School (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27/11/09):

One of the profound mysteries of medicine is why in the midst of an epidemic some people become severely ill and die while others remain unscathed.

During the great plagues of past centuries, like the Black Death, smallpox and yellow fever, the answer was often cast in religious terms: survival was a miracle and succumbing was a punishment. During this influenza pandemic of H1N1, … Seguir leyendo