Experts believe the world is overdue
for influenza pandemic. However, unless effective action against pandemic
flu is taken now, we are in "dire straits," according to a paper published
in the November 10 issue of Science. The articled titled, "Next Flu
Pandemic: What to Do Until the Vaccine Arrives?," calls for research during
the regular season flu season to better understand the effectiveness of
non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand washing,
face masks, and the like.
"These are ironically similar to the measures used in 1918 to combat
the greatest of all known influenza pandemics, but there's a lot we don't
know about what may very well be our best defenses," says lead author
Stephen Morse, PhD, associate professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the
Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of
Public Health. According to Dr. Morse, unfortunately, there are no readily
accessible compendia of best practices or even comprehensive databases of
community epidemiologic data, which might help to design the most effective
interventions. "As the weather turns cold and the regular flu season is
upon us, there is an opportunity to prepare and move ahead with community
studies and clinical trials in humans."
How influenza is transmitted, from person to person, whether by large
droplets or by fine particles, may seem to be a specialist issue, observes
Dr. Morse, but "it has a direct bearing on how far apart people should
position themselves to prevent infection and on whether inexpensive face
masks might be useful."
Dr. Morse's coauthors are Richard L. Garwin, PhD, IBM Research
Laboratories and Paula J. Olsiewski, PhD, of the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. This spring, the authors organized a workshop on personal and
workplace protective measures for pandemic influenza held at the Mailman
School of Public Health and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
"There are many basic things we don't know about how influenza is
transmitted," said Dr. Garwin of IBM. "For example, it appears that a
relatively low number of people catch the flu from another person. Breaking
the transmission chain with non-pharmacological measures has proved
challenging, but the prize is enormous."
Often also neglected, according to the authors, are protective measures
that fall between individual protection and the whole population -- "the
excluded middle"-- such as buildings, facilities and smaller areas such as
work places and homes. Examples might include improved air-handling
systems, room-size fans, portable air-filtration systems, or physical
barriers such as room dividers and doors.
"We should systematically address knowledge gaps now during upcoming
flu seasons rather than wait to empirically test measures ad hoc when the
next pandemic is upon us," says Dr. Morse.
About the Mailman School of Public Health
The only accredited school of public health in New York City, and among
the first in the nation Columbia University's Mailman School of Public
Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 950
graduate students in pursuit of masters and doctoral degrees. Its students
and more than 270 multi-disciplinary faculty engage in research and service
in the city, nation, and around the world, concentrating on biostatistics,
environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management,
population and family health, and sociomedical sciences.
mailman.hslumbia.edu.
About IBM Pandemic Research
IBM scientists and technologies are increasingly at the crossroads of
pandemic research. In May 2006, the company formed the Global Pandemic
Initiative, a collaborative effort to help stem the spread of infectious
disease. Members of the Initiative include: U.S. Agency for International
Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World
Health Organization. IBM scientists from the U.S., China, India, Israel,
Japan and Switzerland are working with the global healthcare community to
find new ways to apply technology and computer science to study, model and
combat disease pandemics. research.ibm/
Mailman School of Public Health
mailman.hslumbia.edu