Faculty Bibliography

As Thomas Rowe tested samples of the deadly ''bird flu'' strain of influenza virus in a high-security Federal laboratory here this week, a plastic shield protected his face, the air he breathed was filtered as it came through a hose from a battery-powered respirator, a blue gown shielded his body and booties covered his shoes. Mr. Rowe, a research biologist, wore two pairs of latex gloves as he handled samples containing infectious components of the ''bird flu'' virus, known as influenza A(H5N1), under a safety hood in the laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. The hood above the laboratory bench is designed to reduce the risk that workers like Mr. Rowe will become accidentally infected, and the laboratory building is under negative pressure so that if a door is opened inadvertently, air will rush in, not out, to prevent the escape of dangerous microbes. The laboratory work is vital to the swift public health response to the threat of ''bird flu.'' It is needed to understand the virus at its most basic level, to develop tests to help doctors and health officials detect cases and to make a vaccine in case it is needed to help prevent large outbreaks of illness caused by A(H5N1)

Yet as late as this month, neither the U.S. government nor WHO had approved final plans to counter a pandemic, even as they helped the government of Hong Kong deal with a worrisome outbreak of 'bird flu.' 'It is astounding and atrocious that we haven't had more resources made available to us to get this thing done,' said Peter Patriarca, a Food and Drug Administration official who was the principal author of a recently completed U.S. draft plan on how to battle a flu pandemic. The hope is that the avian strain, known as A(H5N1), will peter out. But one fear is that the strain will adapt to allow easy human-to-human transmission. Another is that it will mix with one of the several human influenza strains now circulating to create yet another strain, one with the potential for producing a pandemic -- the term used when the disease strikes large numbers of people in a number of countries in a short time

Yet, surprisingly, neither the United States Government nor W.H.O. has approved final plans to counter a pandemic, even as they help the Government of Hong Kong deal with a worrisome outbreak of ''bird flu.'' That strain of influenza virus is the first to jump from birds to humans without going through other animals. The Government created a panel in 1993 to come up with a plan to deal with an influenza pandemic, and the latest draft, written last week, is being sent to Donna E. Shalala, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Approval is expected quickly now that events in Hong Kong have heightened awareness, Government officials said. But they acknowledged that the Hong Kong outbreak had pointed up gaps in the draft, making further revisions likely. United States and W.H.O. officials interviewed expressed confidence in the thoroughness of their draft plans for a pandemic. But W.H.O. refused to release a copy of its draft. The American disease-control agency initially denied repeated requests for a copy of the nation's draft plan, but Dr. Peter A. Patriarca, an official of the Food and Drug Administration who is the principal author of the American drafts, released it over the weekend

A 'bird flu' strain of influenza virus has caused only 20 confirmed or suspected cases of human illness in Hong Kong, all since May, and has not been found elsewhere. Yet Hong Kong health officials are so worried about the virus that last Monday they began slaughtering all 1.2 million chickens in the territory. And virologists around the world have been burning the midnight oil for several weeks, studying the strain and attempting to make a vaccine for it

A 'bird flu' strain has caused only 20 confirmed or suspected cases of human illness in Hong Kong, all since May, and has not been found elsewhere. Yet Hong Kong health officials are so worried about the virus that they have slaughtered 1.3 million chickens in the territory. And virologists around the world have been burning the midnight oil for several weeks, studying the strain and attempting to make a vaccine for it. The main reason is the strain's novelty for humans. It has been seen only in poultry before, and the strain infecting humans is the same one that has killed thousands of chickens in Hong Kong. Scientists believe that the virus is transmitted when someone touches an infected person, not through the air - the usual way influenza spreads. But scientists are puzzled about exactly how the virus is transmitted. Whether the destruction of Hong Kong chickens will stop the transmission of the virus is an unanswered question. But as long as A(H5N1) infections continue to occur, no one can know where the Hong Kong outbreak will lead. For now, [Keiji Fukuda] said, 'there is clearly a great deal of concern that this virus could take hold and lead to a pandemic.'

The chronic constriction injury model of mononeuropathy is a direct, partial nerve injury yielding thermal hyperalgesia. The inflammation that results from this injury is believed to contribute importantly to both the neuropathological and behavioral sequelae. This study involved administering a single dose (250 ng) of interleukin-10 (IL-10), an endogenous anti-inflammatory peptide, at the site and time of a chronic constriction injury (CCI) lesion to determine if IL-10 administration could attenuate the inflammatory response of the nerve to CCI and resulting thermal hyperalgesia. In IL-10-treated animals, thermal hyperalgesia was significantly reduced following CCI (days 3, 5 and 9). Histological sections from the peripheral nerve injury site of those animals had decreased cell profiles immunoreactive for ED-1, a marker of recruited macrophages, at both times studied (2 and 5 days post-CCI). IL-10 treatment also decreased cell profiles immunoreactive for the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) at day 2, but not day 5. Qualitative light microscopic assessment of neuropathology at the lesion site did not suggest substantial differences between IL-10 and vehicle-treated sections. The authors propose that initial production of TNF-alpha and perhaps other proinflammatory cytokines at the peripheral nerve lesion site importantly influences the long-term behavioral outcome of nerve injury, and that IL-10 therapy may accomplish this by downregulating the inflammatory response of the nerve to injury.