Salient features: It emphasizes that Tourettes is in more boys than girls (which makes it more significant and scientifically puzzling that it was 12 girls in LeRoy high school who have developed Tourettes like syndrome and around the same time after September 2011);
Basal ganglia models have made it easier to study this disease;
Genes have been found to be associated but none have been found in all Tourettes patients;
Treatment research is may hone in on D1 receptor antagonists.

Contact the authors and encourage them and let them know that you care about their work and their knowledge. They will truly appreciate it. You may support their work by fund raising for them. You may inspire them by inviting them to give talks on current status of world wide Tourettes research.

Rochester is not too far from LeRoy high school. It would be wise to have a scientific presentation in LeRoy by the author of this paper, who is based in Rochester.

Corresponding author is Jonathan Mink and his contact information:
Corresponding author: Mink, J.W. (jonathan_mink@urmc.rochester.edu).

Addresses of both authors, if you prefer to shower them with snail mail and one dollar bills:

Roger L. Albin1 and Jonathan W. Mink2
1
Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Ann Arbor VAMC, Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, MI 48109,
USA
2
Departments of Neurology, Ne\urobiology & Anatomy, and Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry,
601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 631, Rochester, NY 14642, USA

Heavy periods can be caused by other reasons too and they are covered by excellent sites in great detail:
1) Menstruation in adolescents - whats normal
2) Iron deficiency anemia – because heavy bleeding can be one cause of anemia and this would need both nutrition and medical attention.
3) Causes of iron deficiency anemia – because one form of anemia may be from iron deficiency from a range of specific causes. This a New York Times health article and is very thorough.

The articles list in detail many causes and details of heavy bleeding. One of them is pregnancy and miscarriage. So rule that out first before continuing to investigate a medical issue. These articles are amazing in their depth of coverage.

Nutrition is above all most important for a healthy iron level. Take good advice on nutrition, but remind the nutritionist that you could have low haemoglobin anemia and yet have a high iron overload. This may be true in cases of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Anemia can cause heavy bleeding: It is possible to have heavy bleeding from anemia. So, it is a vicious cycle – anemia causes heavy bleeding and this could cause anemia. So, it could be dangerous if nutrition is not monitored and managed to cure the anemia with iron rich foods and mineral rich fruits.

Iron Absorption: The articles cover the range of minerals that aid in iron absorption like Magnesium, Vit C and B 12. So, include this in your diet. Oranges and limes are a must with an iron rich diet of Spinach and meat. Include with stress release to help relax and rest. Anemia needs rest and relaxation and food.

Encourage your scientists in this field: Noah Schienfeld is a leader in this field of research of heavy bleeding and adalimumab. He would be encouraged and inspired by your words of encouragement and your specific questions. Scientists work in isolation and are often not rewarded directly by the people they reach. If you have been bleeding heavily after a treatment of MAbs that healed another serious inflammatory issue, and

Do shower him with accolades and gratefulness and encourage him and his colleagues to speak at your invited gathering and treat him like a celebrity. He will be surprised and happy. Trust me!
Correspondence: Noah Scheinfeld, St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, Department of Dermatology, New York, NY 10029, USA, NSS32@columbia.edu

Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09546630801955143

The girls are obviously still sick three months later and they are distraught, missing out on the best, albeit reasonably stressful, year of school life. Their parents simply want them cured.

The school community was concerned enough to call in the responsible authorities. The parents were informed the school is safe to attend. All was back to normal, except for the fact that the twelve girls are still sick and being told that “it is all in their heads”, “mass hysteria”, “get over it” and others have simply not taken them seriously. One Amherst Psychiatrist has labeled it the “consumption disease” or mass hysteria.

It is time to take these girls seriously. Tomorrow, this could happen to another cluster of children or adults and we would still have no scientific system to deal with the results. A country that can send a man to walk on the moon can surely figure out what will trigger such a cluster phenomenon.

Consider the following and get your voice head to get answers now:
1) Tics, and sudden involuntary movements as seen in these girls is usually found in 4:1 ratio in boys, and not girls; why girls and why 12 girls here? Did the hormone estrogen play a role?
2) We know all the 12 girls did not know each other as friends. Did they share a common home product? A new tampon which can give toxic shock syndrome leading to an infection trigger.
3) The group of triggers – it is time to demand mass large scale studies of a group of triggers. It is scientifically not allowed to study a group of triggers in relationship to each other. Only single triggers can be studied, one at a time. In the case of these girls, all known plausible single triggers have been ruled out. Hence, the next obvious step is to study a group of triggers in various combinations. Any maths student can figure out the various combinations to study for Tourettes. For eg:
a: Gardasil and toxic shock syndrome
b: Gardasil and strep throat infection
c: Gardasil and >>>>>
d: A household cleaner and >>>>
e: A soccer field pesticide and an energy drink and >>>>
The community should become more aggressive and demand thorough research. No doctor should be allowed to dismiss a real disease calling it “consumption”. Rise and fight for the health and safety of your communities. You have it inside you. Find your voice.

A registered nurse commenting on an article on PANS on Mailonline.com certainly has observed neurological adverse reactions following the Gardasil vaccine. Most of the other comments implicated gardasil.

A mother commented on my article on “LeRoy high school…Tourettes…” that her daughter has been chronically ill since she took her third gardasil shot in 2009. Most of the other comments implicated a vaccine, either gardasil or a swine flu vaccine.

An organization dedicated to gardasil’s adverse reaction lists the names of our young girls with their own or their mother’s version of the history of the development of their symptoms. One common theme in these stories is ‘brain fog’ and stomach pain so severe that doctors recommend operations which parents indicate were unwarranted. If you care and have noticed that adverse reaction reporting is not being done in a scientific manner, or surprised why doctors do not understand the vaccine are dangerous when improperly designed by non-dedicated scientists, then:

write to the people who have provided their emails and leave them messages of support and then use your own voice to be active to protect your own community from negligence.

Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer and donated unknowingly her cancer cells to research. She died at the age of thirty and was often infected with STDs by a philandering husband. Her HeLa cells have given so much help to our society. Cancer research progressed with HeLa cells at a fast pace because HeLa cells multiplied faster than any known and available cancer cells in culture. Before HeLa it was difficult to grow a cancer cell in culture.

The Gardasil vaccine’s goal is to prevent the early death from cervical cancer. The aim is commendable. However, the vaccine researchers may have simply taken the virus strains and decided to use standard procedures to create a bottled product.

They would have done well to have heeded the reaction to the Lyme Disease vaccine which was developed by non-dedicated Yale scientists. They had the literature which would have advised against developing a vaccine to OspA protein and could have gone with the OspB bacterial protein. But instead they rushed in their eagerness to fame and licensed the rights to big Pharma, whose regulators did not do their job and apply their expertise to check the literature and earnestly began marketing the drug. Fortunately, the public in Connecticut, where Lyme disease was originally recognised and a vaccine developed, rose against the vaccine in a large group and took the matter to the attention of the Attorney General. The Lyme vaccine was having side effects of rheumatoid arthritis and neurological issues and the vaccine had to be removed from the market. Read the articles published in 2002 by washington medical writer Lauren Neergaard and Dr Andrea Gateo’s comment on the side bar of the article by Lymeinfo.net an advocacy group urging caution with a new vaccine.
Glaxo Smith Kline, the marketer of this vaccine Limerix was miffed.

Is there a pattern emerging here?
1)It is obvious that Gardasil (or swine flu vaccine) alone is not the cause of neurological adverse reactions, otherwise all who receive the vaccine would have similar symptoms.
2) Also, a genetic basis has been ruled out because all who show adverse symptoms appear so far to lack an obvious common genetic profile.
3) Yet, when an online community of concerned parents are observing serious neurological issues following some vaccinations, then their collective observations can no longer be ignored.

What should a community do? As a responsible community, we must begin to ask:
What are the common factors when a cluster of people present with the same symptoms? Please, keep in mind that although logically a number of factors together cause a signal cascade presenting the said neurological symptoms, current scientific methodology allows for testing of only single factors at a time.

Our community should begin to demand large scale multi-factorial cause-effect studies. Trust me, we have the computer tools and the scientists capable of interpreting the results. For example, the New York Department of Health has collected data on some symptoms which have more than 80,000 students. Yet, they lack qualified or even unqualified personnel to simply add more columns with data points asking “Did you get a vaccine x,y or z when you had the common cold or strep throat infection?” They lack scientists to summarize the data collected and interpret it. They have a hiring freeze at a critical time when mass vaccinations are being enforced nationally and internationally.

What can you do? Are you a responsible adult who cares to ensure that we do not harm our children, adolescents and young adults? Then add your voice and begin to question. Just begin. The questions will form.

Early January 2012, the parents of LeRoy New York students were updated by Dr Gregory Young of the New York State Health Department, the state office of Mental Health and the LeRoy school authority. The parents were informed that although the symptoms presented were real, no cause could be pinpointed. Stress is one factor being blamed.

What factor or a group of factors could trigger a signal cascade to cause a cluster of Tourette like syndromes in one school district?

The parents of the twelve girls who came down around the same time in 2011 with Tourette like symptoms are quite concerned. These were twelve normal girls earlier. Not today. Jim Dupont, a parent interviewed is very upset and not optimistic about his 17 year old daughter’s future. His daughter was ready to drive and now cannot. Beth Miller found that her healthy daughter woke up one morning with twitches.

If you can help these families or help prevent future clusters please let us know by commenting here. We want to hear from you and know that you care. Please read Berkeley Brean’s article which has more from one of the young girls herself. You may also call Jim Dupont or Beth Miller at the numbers below and let them know that you care:
Dupont and Miller are starting a support group for all the parents. They think if they work together they can get somewhere.

Here is the contact information:

Jim Dupont: (585) 746-2001
Beth Miller: (585) 356-7508

We’ve posted the unedited interview with the commissioner from the health department here at www.whec.com. We encourage people to watch it. It may not answer all of your questions but it might answer a few.

Patent Several scientists have discovered mutations in a gene recently named SLC40A1. One recently awarded United States patent to an Italian scientist (patent number 7718785) awarded May 2010, describes higher iron load issues in general, the existing literature published in the field and the diagnostic tools available in the future should companies be interested in marketing them. Hopefully, this patient pool is taken care of by discerning family physicians.

Detailed description of Invention: The authors of the present invention have identified new mutations in the SLC40A1 gene (Solute Carrier Family) coding for ferroportin 1 (IREG1 or MTP1), previously also named SLC11A3, genetically linked to Hereditary Hemochromatosis or to an Impaired non-HFE iron homeostasis (Hereditary Hemochromatosis).

Mutations cause aminoacid substitutions in the corresponding protein whose expression as a mutated form causes abnormal iron overload in carrier subjects. From the functional point of view indeed ferroportin has a key role in at least two different but correlated aspects of iron homeostasis: in the enterocytes ferroportin causes the uptake of iron introduced by diet, whereas in the reticular endothelial cells particularly in macrophages, it causes the iron release from intracellular stores. Said new mutations are responsible for the Hemochromatosis and are characterized by clinical traits at least partially similar to those already described in Pietrangelo et al. New England Journal of Medicine 1999, 341 (10): 725-732, caused by the mutation of the aminoacid 77 in the ferroportin sequence (A77D mutation) described In WO 02/033119.

Therefore, a first aspect of the invention refers to polymorphic polynucleotides related to mutated SLC40A1 sequences, which encode for mutated forms of the wild type ferroportin 1 and in particular to at least one of the following polymorphisms: polymorphism of the nucleotide corresponding to the nucleotide 238 of the IDN 1 sequence, preferably related to the substitution of a Guanine with an Adenosine (G.fwdarw.A), which causes the replacement of aminoacid 80 with an aminoacid different from Glycine and preferably with Serine (G80S) in the coded protein: the cDNA derived from such polymorphic gene has preferably the IDN3 sequence; polymorphism of the nucleotide corresponding to the nucleotide 521 of the IDN 1 sequence, preferably related to the substitution of an Adenine with a Tymine (A.fwdarw.T), which causes the replacement of aminoacid 174 with an aminoacid different from Asparagine and preferably with Isoleucine (N174I) in the coded protein: the cDNA derived from such polymorphic gene has preferably the IDN5 sequence; polymorphism of the nucleotide corresponding to the nucleotide 744 of the IDN1 sequence, preferably related to the substitution of a Guanine with a Tymine (G.fwdarw.T), which causes the replacement of amino acid 248 with an amino acid different from Glutamine and preferably with Hystidine (Q248H) in the coded protein: the cDNA derived from such polymorphic gene has preferably the IDN7 sequence; or their oligonucleotide fragments comprising the polymorphic nucleotide of at least 10 base pairs.

Example 1

Identification of the Mutations in the Ferroportin Gene

Genomic DNA of index cases, of family members and of control subjects, was extracted from leucocytes obtained by blood samples using a blood DNA extraction kit (Quiagen).

Obtained DNA was then amplified by PCR using primers pair able to amply the whole coding region including exon/intron boundary regions of the ferroportin.

Primers pairs used herein are the following:

TABLE-US-00001 Exon 1: Fw.1: 5′-GGTGCTATCTCCAGTTCCTT-3′ (IDN 9) Rv.1: 5′-GTTCACAGCAGAGCCACATT-3′ (IDN 10) Exon 2: Fw.2: 5′-CAGCTCATTAAGTGACTACCATCGC-3′ (IDN 11) Rv.2: 5′-GGCTTAATACAACTGGCTAGAACG-3′ (IDN 12) Exon 3: Fw.3: 5′-CATAATGTAGCCAGGAAGTGCCC-3′ (IDN 13) Rv.3: 5′-TCCAGAGGTGGTGCCATCTAAG-3′ (IDN 14) Exon 4: Fw.4: 5′-GAGACATTTTGATGTAATGTACAC-3′ (IDN 15) Rv.4: 5′-CTACCAGATATTCAATTTTCTGCC-3′ (IDN 16) Exon 5: Fw.5: 5′-CCACCAAAGACTATTTTAAACTGC-3′ (IDN 17) Rv.5: 5′-TCACCACCGATTTAAAGTGAATCC-3′ (IDN 18) Exon 6: Fw.6: 5′-GTATTGTGTAAATGGGCAGTCTC-3′ (IDN 19) Rv.6: 5′-CCCCACTGGTAATAATAAAACCTG-3′ (IDN 20) Exon 7: Fw.7: 5′-GGCTTTTATTTCTACATGTCCTCC-3′ (IDN 21) Rv.7: 5′-ACATTTAGGGAACATTTCAGATC-3′ (IDN 22) Exon 8: Fw.8: 5′-AAGGTGACTTAAAGACAGTCAGGC-3′ (IDN 23) Rv.8: 5′-GCTGACTTAGGTTTCCTAAACAGC-3′ (IDN 24)

The amplification of the regions corresponding to each exon was performed as follows: 200 ng of genomic DNA were amplified in 50 .mu.l of reaction buffer 1.times. containing dNTPs 200 .mu.M, MgCl2 1.5 mM, 25 pmoles of each of the aforementioned oligonucleotides, 1 U of Taq polymerase (Applied Biosystems).

In the amplification reaction was used a program of 30 cycles, each characterized by the following thermal profile:

94.degree. C. for 1 minute,

58.degree. C. for 40 seconds,

75.degree. C. for 5 minutes.

Obtained fragments were purified and sequenced by automatic sequencing with the Backman Coulter Sequencer. The sequence analysis allowed the identification of the G80S mutation in the exon 3 and the N174I and Q248H mutations in the exon 6, as compared to the wild type sequence (GenBank accession number; AF231121) that was not detected in any of the control subjects.

A further evaluation of the mutations was performed by the digestion of an aliquote of the same first PCR product with endonucleases whose restriction site is modified by the nucleotide substitution.

In particular, the Q248H mutation was verified by digestion according to the Manufacturers Instructions (New England Biolabs), the first product of PCR with the PvuII enzyme, which cut into GC in the 5′CAGCTG 3′ sequence. The G.fwdarw.T base substitution in the mutated sequence removes the restriction site of the enzyme.

Please note: Did this article give you the information you were looking for? Please, leave a comment or hit the like button either on this page or the About page. This would assist me in serving your scientific needs better.

A young girl holding the pink breast cancer ribbon

Genes involved: There are 61 genes involved in regulation of iron and of them 49% appeared to be significantly associated with metastasis -free survival. This has a potential to affect therapeutic decision making.

Regulators of iron efflux: Dr. Nemeth and colleagues from California and Boston hospitals reported in an article in the journal Science in 2004 on how the liver regulates cellular iron levels. Hepcidin is a hormone secreted by the liver in response to iron loading and inflammation. Decreased hepcidin leads to tissue iron overload whereas increased hepcidin leads to hypoferremia and the anaemia of inflammation. (cancer research 71:6728)

The hormone hepcidin binds to a protein ferroportin on the surface of cells. This signals the cells to internalize the protein ferroportin and degrade it. This leads to decreased export of cellular iron. This is a loop. Iron regulates the secretion of hepcidin from the liver, which regulates internalization of the protein ferroportin on cell surfaces, which controls iron export from cells. Less export leads to overload of iron in cells.

Iron overload disorders: It is important to have a balanced amount of iron in the cells. Too much or too little iron is bad. The amount of iron differs during different stages in one’s life with a menstruating woman needing far more iron than a post menopausal woman. An excellent 2011 review in the journal, Internal Journal of Hematology by Dr  Kaplan and colleagues at Utah school of Medicine summarizes the current knowledge on levels of iron in cells, disorders and anaemia.

Special Diet for iron overload: Read the Hemochromatosis cookbook and this excellent blog from the Iron Disorders Institute:: Iron overload. Find a doctor immediately who will listen to you and is knowledgeable about this topic. Usually a gastroenterologist or hematologist. Blood donation is often the suggested therapy for iron overload and appears to help.

Scientist to encourage in this field: If research in this field is important to you then do write to the researchers involved in such research and encourage them. The value of Dr Miller’s work can be emphasized by emailing her colleague Dr Torti E-mail: ftorti@wakehealth.edu

Dr Kaplan to encourage and for questions on iron overload Email:  jerry.kaplan@path.utah.edu

Scientists work alone, often long hours in isolated settings. Letting them know that you consider their work important inspires them and spurs them to undertake often risky research. Help them find funding. Shower them with accolades.

If you found this article useful, please let me know by either hitting the like button here or in the “About” section (if you enjoyed more than one article here). It would help me to know which topics you would want me to research and write here.

A Flu Virus

The Story of The Flu Vaccine:
This year quite different from other years in the story of the Flu Vaccine and that is because Prof. Edwin Kilbourne passed away very quietly in 2011. He had devoted his entire life to the study of the flu virus and played a leadership role in the history of the development of the flu vaccine. I could tell you about Dr Kilbourne but to tell you why he is important, I would need to tell you about the 2018 flu pandemic.

Many have wondered why the Flu pandemic of 1918 is not mentioned as a turning point in American lifestyles in the History books. The fall of 2018 began just like another fall in the middle of a chaos of a country in the midst of the a world war. Stealthier than any human enemy, arrived a tiny microbe, the flu virus strain H1N1 on a crisp New England fall day in a Boston sea port. It must have arrived with some sailors. The September of 1918, the Boston Port was busy with war shipments of machinery. The war efforts allowed the virus to spread and diffuse. It was named the “Spanish Flu” or the “La Grippe”.

The flu pandemic of 1918 devastated many towns and military cantonments by acting very strangely. It wiped out America’s young and healthy, particularly those aged 20-35 years of age. There was no cure. The ill were advised to rest lying down, get fresh air, and to take plenty of fluids. The healthy were advised to avoid crowded, public places. Many wore masks to protect themselves or to prevent infecting others.

The Contagious First Wave of the 1918 Flu Pandemic
The best recorded first case was in Fort Riley, USA. On March 11, 1918, Private Albert Gitchell, a cook at Fort Riley, came down with a cold that required isolation. Within 5 weeks, 1,127 soldiers came down with the same symptoms and 46 of them died. Soldiers trained at Fort Riley before being deployed for the war effort in Europe and unintentionally spread the flu to Europe. When the flu began to ravage the people of Spain, the Spaniards publicly announced the disease. Spain was not in World War 1 and was not censoring its news and the world first heard of the deadly flu from Spain. Hence, the name, the “Spanish Flu”. By July 1918, the “Spanish Flu” had visited Russia, India, China and Africa and appeared to be dying out. Nobody guessed that this was only the first wave of the deadly flu pandemic about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world of humans by a microscopic, indestructible microbe.

The Contagious and Deadly Second Wave of the 1918 Flu Pandemic
Towards the end of August, a more deadly flu struck three world cities simultaneously. Boston, USA; Brest, France; and Freeport, Sierra Leone. The overwhelmed hospitals asked for volunteers to take care of their sick, who had to be housed in tents because of their sheer numbers.

Nurses care for the sick in tents

Some died within two days of first symptoms which included coughing violently, bleeding from their ears or turning blue in color and of course, extreme fatigue, fever and headache. The Spanish flu in its second wave struck suddenly and severely, killing some within several hours or a few days, while sparing others. Not surprisingly, panic ensued. Public events were canceled. Schools and theaters closed. Masks were required by many communities. Popular homemade remedies of the past did nothing to prevent or cure this disease. The dead piled up and mass graves had to deal with the bodies. There were not enough people to dig individual graves.

The Third Wave of the 1918 Pandemic
On November 11, 1918, an Armistice brought an end to World War 1. The hugging and kissing of the returning soldiers, some carrying the flu virus helped to create yet another epidemic wave, spreading a weaker version of the “Spanish Flu”. This wave was largely ignored because people had to concentrate on rebuilding their lives, while the pandemic lingered alongside and slowly petered away. Some say the flu lingered until next year but nothing as deadly as the early fall of 1918.

Preventing Another Deadly Pandemic
In an effort to prevent another deadly pandemic in the future, the USA government allocated 1 million dollars to learn more about the “Spanish Flu”. Among many recruited towards the laboratory war against the “Spanish Flu” was a young and eager Dr Edwin Kilbourne, a medical school graduate who was well-trained in virology laboratory research.

Dr Edwin D Kilbourne and Dr D E Rogers testing the Asian Flu virus

It was particularly hard for the Alaskan Indians for whom the death rate was elevated beyond that of the non-Indians. In one Inuit village in Alaska 72 of its 80 residents  died within 5 days in November 1918. Years later in 1997, a researcher dug up remains in the permafrost to isolate the flu virus and reconstructed the fatal strain H1N1. The Spanish Flu had traveled from Boston to Alaska in 2 months, killing many in it’s path.

In 1918 children would skip to the rhyme (Source: Crawford)
I had a little bird, Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza.

The “Spanish Flu” of 1918 killed over 40 million people worldwide that flu season, while the World War 1 claimed about 16 million. Archives of photos here describe how the public and the government reacted to a situation of panic in the midst of a world war. These archives will help guide future leaders when faced with a similar crisis in the future. The Flu virus mutates over the years and has a habit of returning every few decades to cause epidemics or pandemics, that kill many. A cryptic, well-researched PBS movie (click here to watch) entitled, “1918 Spanish Influenza”, follows the story of the 1918 flu virus pandemic.

Native American death rate from the flu

on
swine flu death rates elevated for alaska natives and american indians

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/10/AR2009121003937.html

The “Spanish flu” of 1918-19 devastated Inuit villages in Alaska. In one, Brevig Mission, 72 out of 80 residents died over five days in November 1918. A researcher extracted tissue samples in 1997 from a body buried there in a mass grave in the permafrost, allowing scientists to reconstruct that fatal strain of influenza.

CDC brochure advising that antibiotics will not work against the flu

http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/campaign-materials/print-materials/Brochure-NativeAmerican.html

Arkansas has confirmed the first case of seasonal flu for 2011 in America   http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news/?nxd_id=276457

First reported death from swine flu in 2009 was a 23 month old boy in Texas    http://www.chron.com/news/health/article/Swine-flu-s-spread-pushes-Texas-to-cut-high-1744879.php

Tracking swine flu worldwide   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/27/us/20090427-flu-update-graphic.html

The United States Department of Health and Human Services  - a one stop to flu   http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/

The flu season that should be in history books    http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/   http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

In 1918 children would skip to the rhyme (Crawford)  (source  http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/  )     I had a little bird,Its name was Enza.I opened the window,And in-flu-enza.     It first arrived in Boston in September of 1918 through the port busy with war shipments of machinery and supplies. The war also enabled the virus to spread and diffuse.  

Watch the PBS movie on the 1918 Spanish Influenza  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/

Watch an archive of photos of the 1918 flu that killed an estimated excess of 40 million people worldwide while the world war 1 during the same time claimed an estimated 16 million lives  http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/

For the federal government answers to frequent questions go to   http://www.flu.gov/general/

For a brief history of the Flu vaccine in The Times in 2008   http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1864920,00.html

The CBS documentary by Norman Gorin on the 1976 flu vaccine that caused 4000 people to claim damages, two thirds of them neurological   http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9nnh6_swine-flu-1976-propaganda_news#rel-page-1

Natural questions followed on how to deal with the 2009 flu pandemic heeding the lessons of the 1976 mass flu vaccination  http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1894129,00.html

Looking back it is not difficult to see why the 1976 flu vaccination decisions were taken.  http://www.haverford.edu/biology/edwards/disease/viral_essays/warnervirus.htm  but with the knowledge now, that the 1976 vaccine had the trigger that could make 8.3 per million people with most likely no prior illness sick from GBS versus 0.7 per million people with most likely a prior illness sick from GBS. Rationale for future vaccination programs.

Dr Edwin Kilbourne was the virologist who convinced the US Public Health Service to mass vaccinate. His was a stellar career, devoted to outwitting the Flu Virus. 1920 – 2011.  http://www.virology.ws/2011/02/25/edwin-d-kilbourne-md-1920-2011/    The New York Times only featured a miniscule portion of his career and his role in the 1976 flu vaccine fiasco and ignored his tremendous contribution to the modern flu vaccine.

Palese and Garcia-Sastra continue the search for a diagnostic, preventive and curative agent for all strains of Influenza. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2011/0027270.html  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Palese  and the team at Mt Sinai

Towards a broadly protective flu vaccine  http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37232  The team at St Judes Medical center  with the goal to define the role of cross reactive lymphocytes. Webster’s article on flu history with photo of little girls skip roping to the poem above  http://people.scs.carleton.ca/~soma/biosec/readings/influenza/influenza.html   Also has great related internet sources.

Egg free vaccine – my earlier article

Autism amomg the immigrants from Somalia:
The controversial Dr Andrew Wakefield is of the opinion that the answer may lie within the Somali community in Minnesota. He is trying to recruit Somali families for his self-financed study. You can see a video here of Fox news interviewing Dr Wakefield on January 6, 2011. You can see a videohere of CNN channel interviewing Dr Wakefield on January 5, 2011 and a photo of a severely autistic boy.

A Healthy Boy in Famine Stricken Somalia

An Autistic Boy born in USA

UNICEF photo of families in Famine Stricken Somalia

The Somali Autistic children in Minnesota:
Anne Harrington, the special education district coordinator of Minneapolis district noted that the Somali families sometimes have more than one autistic child and it is a more severe form of autism. The kindergarten classes are about 12% Somali but autism cases in the early childhood special education classes are about 17% Somali. Read more and get involved.

It has been observed that there is a cluster of Somali families who have autistic children in Minneapolis. Other immigrant Somali communities have not experienced increased autism rates. A search for a set of triggers should be sought asking two questions:
First, why a cluster of Somali families in Minneapolis has autism, while the other Somali families do not and also, why these families have no autism in Somalia?
The next question is why are Autism rates higher among Somali families than in non Somali families in Minneapolis?

The Somali Autistic children in Sweden
It was observed that many Somali families in Sweden had children with autism. All these families had never heard of autism or observed any symptoms defined as autism in their homeland of Somalia. Dr Barnevick-Olssen and colleagues, psychiatrists in Sweden, published a report of their observations in 2008. They noted that children from Somali backgrounds are over-represented in the total group of children with autism and suggest a search for triggering factors is warranted. Read more. The Somalis living in Sweden have named it the “Swedish disease”.

Researchers in Sweden have requested access to a confidential database for information on Somali and Swedish children to search for clues. Some researchers ask if Somalis need more Vitamin D, coming from sunny Somalia to dark, long, Swedish winters. Is it the lack of sunlight and excessive use of sun protection? However, there is autism being observed in sunny Australia. Read more.

Video: “True wisdom about Autism” – An Autistic Child’s wish by Matthew ward who is Autistic and the forum that made it possible for him to present his wish, his mother, Nancy Alar. If there is one video you must see, it is this one, November 6, 2011. It made me cry. You will see for yourself in this video that an autistic child is intelligent. We must find a cure to help Autistic children speak again.

So what causes Autism?  What cures Autism?                                                                                                                               Scientists still cannot answer these questions. However, they fear that Dr Wakefield’s controversial published paper (see below) may have diverted the study of autism, with too much emphasis on an incorrect hypothesis. The search for both the set of triggers and therapy continues.

What is Autism?                                                                                                                                          When you see a severely Autistic child, you will ask, “What is wrong with this child?” I am not discussing the autism spectrum here, but only severe Autism. To truly understand the Autistic child see video number 4 below, as narrated by an Autistic child, whose simple wish is that he could speak better and that the world was educated to be tolerant of Autistic kids.

Why should all of us be more aware of Autism? Because Autistic kids are here to stay unless we find a prevention or a cure. The CDC says that 1 in 100 kids born today in America will be autistic. They will grow to become adults with Autism who will need to be employed. One in every hundred adults seeking employment in 2030 will be Autistic. You may be the employer or the colleague who will have to adjust because the Autistic adult may be effective at the job skill. What should be society’s role? Knowledge, tolerance and acceptance. Tomorrow it could be someone in your family.

Autistic children are easy to identify even by a layman. They are simply children who are very uniquely different from other children, with a defined set of one or more of the following characteristics:

* Does not communicate or talk – even though they talked as toddlers;
* Smashing head against a wall repeatedly;
* Increasingly violent and aggressive;
* Special bowel, food, intestine issues and acute hearing, olfactory and sense of touch;
* The child may throw unusual tantrums, and needs to be calmed down and not punished; Special aids workers with special training on Autism are superbly able to calm down an Autistic child. They may appear far more anxious than the average child, in a new situation.

Autism – The New Disease: The uninformed and those who are ignorant are naturally unaware of Autism. It is, after all, a “new” disease, a “life style” effect of our modern society’s advanced choices. For those of you who have never witnessed or been in contact with an autistic child, I have selected a few videos here of how Autism in our children exists in our daily life in developed countries. As responsible community members, we have a role in ensuring the safety of all our children. The Autistic child is very healthy, but possesses a special neurologically and intestinally dictated condition. We have not discovered what this phenomenon or set of triggers that produce an autistic child is so far. We owe our Autistic children a decent, safe place in our community.

Videos of Autistic children and how our community responds:
1) An 11 year old Autistic child being beaten by untrained aids in a school bus;
2) A father of an Autistic child in Canada, shoots his 11 year old son and then himself, after learning his child would have to be housed in a facility that does not understand the special needs of an Autistic child;
3) Hopes of Autistic children graduating from a special school;
4) “True wisdom about Autism” – An Autistic Child’s wish by Matthew ward who is Autistic and the forum that made it possible for him to present his wish, his mother, Nancy Alar. If there is one video you must see, it is this one, November 6, 2011. It made me cry.

Who is Dr Andrew Wakefield?                                                                                                                 Dr Wakefield published a paper in The Lancet, saying that the MMR vaccine is linked to the rise of rates of autism in children. Subsequently, his medical license of revoked with concerns raised that his publication was an ‘opinion piece’ and not a scientific paper. Panicked parents avoided and some still continue to avoid the MMR vaccine which prevents measles, mumps and rubella. This avoidance of vaccine has raised concern among the health care community. His co-authors discovered much later that Dr Wakefield had been financed by a law firm, with an intention to sue vaccine manufacturers with the results of his study data. This is a serious conflict of interest which had not been disclosed prior to publication. The fraud allegations arose because of the twelve children in his study, five of the children were autistic before receiving the MMR vaccine and three of the children were not autistic. Dr Wakefield defends himself from the fraud allegations by saying that the claims of the link between the MMR vaccine and autism came from the parents.  Such parents remain Dr Wakefields core group of supporters and continue to believe autism is caused by the MMR vaccine. Dr Wakefield prefers to use the term “linked” rather than “cause” when discussing MMR vaccine and Autism today.

Impact on Health Care Resources:
 However, we are running out of time. Our burden to our future health care community is mind boggling. We have a large population of aging baby boomers presenting with Alzheimers. This is already draining the medical in house facility resources. What will happen when the Autistic children out live their parents? They are very healthy. Originating from different cultural, ethnic and immigrant backgrounds and yet, most presenting with the future task of requiring safe supervision. Civilized society has to begin preparation to face this unique care giver situation of looking after a healthy, aging population, unable to navigate the world on their own.

Lets begin to ask: How are we going to take care of Autistic adults as their baby boomer parents age with Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Multiple Sclerosis or simple frailty? These children will grow up to be adults who will need supervised living. Autism research funding: who is paying and how much?. The time to begin the dialogue in today. George Braddock, President of Creative Housing Solutions LLC is offering solutions for community living for adults with autism.

A Flu Virus

The Centers of Disease Control lists the following common reasons for feeling unwell after getting the flu vaccine:

1. People may be exposed to one of the influenza viruses in the vaccine shortly before getting vaccinated or during the two-week period that it takes the body to gain protection after getting vaccinated. This exposure may result in a person becoming ill with flu before protection from the vaccine takes effect.
2. People may become ill from non-flu viruses that circulate during the flu season, which can also cause flu-like symptoms (such as rhinovirus). Flu vaccine will not protect people from respiratory illness that is not caused by flu viruses.
3. A person may be exposed to an influenza virus that is very different from the viruses included in the vaccine. The ability of a flu vaccine to protect a person depends largely on the similarity or “match” between the viruses or virus in the vaccine and those in circulation. There are many different influenza viruses. For more information, see Influenza (Flu) Viruses.
4. Unfortunately, some people can remain unprotected from flu despite getting the vaccine. This is more likely to occur among people that have weakened immune systems or the elderly. However, even among these people, a flu vaccine can still help prevent complications.

Seasonal influenza vaccine provides the best protection available from seasonal flu—even when the vaccine does not exactly match circulating seasonal flu strains, and even when the person getting the vaccine has a weakened immune system. Vaccination can lessen illness severity and is particularly important for people at high risk for serious flu-related complications