UCSF to Host Scientific Symposium on Pandemic Flu on Dec. 12
The UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics will present a scientific symposium on the pandemic flu threat, to take place in UCSF School of Nursing, room N 225 on the Parnassus campus, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 12.
Scientific experts from UCSF, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, the California Department of Health Services and the biotech industry will participate.
Influenza pandemics - such as the 1968 "Hong Kong" flu and the great 1918-1919 "Spanish" flu epidemic that killed perhaps 40 million globally -- seem to arise and travel around the world every two to three decades. A new avian influenza virus, H5N1, has emerged and recently become widespread in Southeast Asia and China. It has caused dozens of deaths via bird-to-human transmission. It is regarded as the latest candidate for possible evolution into a more infectious, still deadly pathogen that could be transmitted directly from human to human.
Human populations have not been exposed to this subtype of flu virus before and would not have acquired immunity from previous exposure to related influenza strains or seasonal flu shots. This lack of prior exposure, if coupled with high human-to-human transmissibility, would increase the risk of pandemic spread. Driven by the perceived risk posed by a possibly rapid evolution of the H5N1 virus, policymakers in the US and worldwide now are beginning to plan a response to the threat of pandemic influenza.
Symposium speakers will discuss pandemic influenza prevention and control, the biology of flu viruses, the current avian flu threat, and lessons learned from the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic and the 1976 Swine flu.
Symposium Agenda
The full agenda of topics for the Dec. 12
symposium is as follows:
Biology of influenza viruses
- • Virology of influenza viruses with emphasis on 1918-19 strain and A/H5N1 (includes discussion of efforts to recreate 1918-19 strain)
- • Epidemiology and epizoology of influenza viruses (include lessons learned from 1976 swine flu)
- • What happened in 1918-1919?
- • Theories of differential mortality
- • Clinical manifestations
- • Recent epidemiology and epizoology
- • Clinical manifestations in poultry and fowl
- • Clinical manifestations in humans and diagnostic issues
- • Mortality estimates and modeling
- • Antivirals - mechanisms of action, resistance, susceptibility and manufacturing issues
- • Vaccine manufacturing issues
- • Infection control
- • National and statewide preparedness
- • UCSF preparedness