The 1918 Flu - A virus that killed up to 50 million people is brought back to life to decipher its deadliness.
This will air on Tuesday the 21st and will be available to view here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3318/02.html
The episode will focus on the recent revival of the 1918 virus.
There is a link on the page that allows you to post questions for Dr. Tumpey.
Microbiologist Terrence Tumpey, whose team revived the virus, answers viewer questions about the 1918 flu, its recreation, and more…
Have questions about the 1918 flu or its reconstruction? From now until November 22, the day after the broadcast, we will collect reader questions about the 1918 flu, and on that day, we will send this list to Terrence Tumpey (see bio below left). His selected responses will be posted on November 27. Please note that questions may be edited for clarity.
More about Terrence Tumpey: Terrence Tumpey is a senior microbiologist with the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he and colleagues recreated the 1918 flu virus in order to study its virulence. Previously he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a microbiologist in the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia. Tumpey has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers in 20 years of research on pathogenesis and immunity. In 2006, the CDC presented him with the 2006 Shepard Award for Outstanding Research Paper, and the British medical journal Lancet gave him its Lancet Award for the top scientific paper of 2005.
His work was instrumental in the recent development of a vaccine that protects mice against the 1918 virus. Here’s a recent article about the development of the vaccine.
Experimental Vaccine Protects Mice Against Deadly 1918 Flu Virus Posted on: 10/19/2006
Federal scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against the killer 1918 influenza virus. They also have created a technique for identifying antibodies that neutralize this virus, a tool that could help contain future pandemic flu strains. These findings are important, the researchers say, to understanding and preventing the recurrence of the H1N1 influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic and to protecting against virulent flu strains in the future, including the H5N1 avian flu virus. Details of the research are available online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gary J. Nabel, MD, PhD, director of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), led the research team in developing the experimental vaccines and conducting the immunological studies in mice. Terrence Tumpey, PhD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted vaccine studies in mice involving the live, reconstructed 1918 flu virus in a biosafety level 3-enhanced laboratory at the CDC in Atlanta — one of four types of specialized biosafety labs where scientists study contagious and potentially deadly materials under high-level safety and contamination precautions designed to protect the researchers and prevent microorganisms from entering the environment.
[snip]
More here: http://tinyurl.com/yfb5gg
Time to put on the old thinking cap and come up with some good questions!
bump
My question for each of them,
How much have YOU prepped?