Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
new to the flu
By Marian Uhlman(KBT)
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA —
Walter Gerhard labors far
from Southeast Asia, where a
virulent flu strain is killing
"birds and threatens to start a
flu pandemic.
But his work in an orderly
laboratory at the Wistar
Institute in Philadelphia still
puts him on influenza’s front
line.
Gerhard is testing a proto¬
type vaccine that could play a
critical role in protecting peo¬
ple from the flu — especially
against a lethal pandemic
strain. Some experts believe it
could lead to a long-lasting
shot that might make annual
flu clinics a thing of the past.
Though the research is still
in its earliest stages, “It has
the potential of providing
much broader protection,”
Gerhard said.
A typical flu season leads
to an estimated 35,000 deaths
in the United States alone. But
a new strain of flu could kill
hundreds of thousands more
because virtually no one
would have immunity against
it.
Drugs, medical equipment
and hospital beds would all be
in short supply, experts pre¬
dict. Many businesses likely
would grind to a halt because
so many workers would be ill
and products would be hard to
move. The existing vaccine
supply would protect only a
fraction of the population.
While his preliminary
research is confined to mice,
Gerhard’s prototype vaccine is
attracting attention. It mimics
a tiny but relatively stable
viral protein called matrix 2,
or M2. Rodents mount a
strong antibody response
when inoculated with the pro¬
totype M2 vaccine, and the
vaccine significantly curbed
the spread of the virus in the
infected animals.
Gerhard said the encourag¬
ing results might not be repli-
Experts: Thrill rides pose little danger
By Christopher Boyd
and Adrian G. Uribarri (KRT)
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. —
Amusement-park rides can be
terrifying. In fact, scores of
roller-coaster enthusiasts would
be sorely disappointed if they
weren’t.
But medical doctors
and researchers
dismiss allegations
that the physical
forces the rides
exert are danger¬
ous.
Though some
rides can go faster
than 100 mph, the
physical stress they
put on the body is
not very great —
less in some cases
than everyday experiences,
such as dropping into a chair.
The worst aftereffect for
most thrill seekers is a spinning
head and a racing heart not
nearly enough to keep them
away. Rides are designed to
produce the illusion of risk, and
customers say they love the
' sensation. “Anyone who gets
on a ride like that doesn’t feel
very safe,” said Jack Oleary, a
New Jersey tourist, as he
‘emerged from the Dueling
Dragons ride at Universal’s
1 Islands of Adventure last week.
“We always think about what
ifs. It’s the thrill of the ride that
makes you come back.”
And come back they have
; — by the millions. Since the
15th century when Russians
were enticed by the thrill of rid
’ ing blocks of ice down wooden
ramps to today when coaster
fans chase speeds that exceed
highway limits, the allure of
fear mixed with excitement
hasn’t waned.
1 Though amusement-park
rides seldom hurt anyone, ques
' dons about their safety persist.
Critics say that not enough is
known about the impact the
spitfire twists and turns, dives
'and accelerations have on peo¬
ple’s bodies, and especially
' their brains.
Amusement-park operators
and some doctors who have
closely studied thrill rides say
o there is little to fear. They say
just a tiny fraction of people
— FORSYTH COUNTY NEW8 -Thurwtoy, June 23,2009
cated in people.
“I hope what we see in
humans is better than in
mice,” said Gerhard, 63, a
Swiss-born immunology pro-’
fessor. “It is hard to predict. It
could go either way.”
With help from the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention, Gerhard said he
plans to test his vaccine in fer¬
rets. He said it might be ready
to test in people in two to five
years.
Gerhard runs one of sever¬
al research groups that see the
M2 protein as a tantalizing
target in the fight against the
flu. Merck & Co., for
instance, has data suggesting
that its vaccine sparked an
immune response in mice, fer¬
rets and rhesus monkeys.
Andrew Pekosz, a
Washington University assis¬
tant professor, said his team
also had positive results in
mice, and he hoped their vac¬
cine would be ready for
human trials in a year.
“All of us are at various
stages of development,” said
Pekosz, who collaborates with
the nonprofit Vaccine Re¬
search Institute in San Diego.
“It is not redundant. All of us
have our own take” on how to
do it.
“Clearly the animal data so
far suggests that this is so far
worthwhile,” said Robert
Belshe, who runs St. Louis
University School of Med¬
icine’s vaccine center.
While it is unlikely that the
M2 vaccine would be adminis¬
tered only once in a person’s
life, it may protect people for a
number of years, said Linda
Lambert, respiratory diseases
branch chief at the National
Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases.
Developing a long-lasting
flu vaccine would be a scientif¬
ic coup. As it is now inconven¬
ient and costly to get a yearly
shot, many people — even
those most vulnerable to the
disease — don’t
Lambert, whose agency
who take rides at theme and
amusement parks suffer prob¬
lems, which may or may not
have been caused by the rides
themselves.
“If everything is functioning
properly, there is no reason to
worry about taking a ride,” said
Dr. Douglas Smith, director of
the Center for Brain Injury and
If you are really worried about brain
injury, use the your seatbelt on the drive
to amusement park.
- Dr. Douglas for Smith, director of the
Center Brain Injury and Repair
"
Pennsylvania. “If you are really
worried about brain injury, use
your seat belt on the drive to
the amusement park.”
Smith, co-author of a 2002
article titled “G-Forces, Roller
Coasters, and Brain 5 Trauma:
On the Wrong Track?’ said that
more than 1.5 million
Americans suffer brain traiimas
each year, but roller coasters
don’t even make the long list of
causes. “We know a lot of pro
pie who have car accidents and
injure their brains,” Smith said.
“But how many people do you
know who have received a
brain injury on a roller-coaster
rider’
Amusement and theme-park
rides can alter gravitational
forces, commonly called G
forces. A roller coaster increas¬
es the pull of gravity on a body
as the ride races through its
course, but Smith said the
increases are short and the G
forces aren’t typically danger
ous.
In comparison, according to
Popular Mechanics magazine, a
1990s study by the medical
journal Spine found that every¬
day movements can subject the
body to more G’s — 10.4 G’s,
for instance, when you plop
down in a chair vs. 4 G’s from
riding some amusement-park
attractions.
Disney World’s Mission:
Space, which made headlines
last week because a 4-year-old
died after collapsing on the
helps fund Gerhard and Pekosz,
said that of the new experimen¬
tal approaches, the M2 strategy
holds the most promise for
lengthening the period of pro¬
tection. Other new vaccine
approaches also are being tried,
such as targeting a protein
inside the virus.
Paul Offit, chief of infec¬
tious diseases at Children’s
Hospital in Philadelphia, said
he doesn’t think the M2 effort
will pan out.
“The flu is too smart,” he
said.
He said the virus has “sur¬
vived for centuries” by trans¬
forming itself and will best be
cowed by a comprehensive vac¬
cination program.
Lambert said the National
Institutes of Health has
increased funding for flu vac¬
cine research since 1997, when
the first cases of avian flu —
caused by the H5N1 virus —
were reported to have spread
from birds to peopl^.
Since then, the strain has
become rife in bird populations
in Southeast Asia. In the last 18
months, about 100 human cases
have been reported, resulting in
about 50 deaths, according to
the Center for Disease
Research and Policy at the
University of Minnesota.
Some public-health officials
worry that the H5N1 flu could
develop into a pandemic if it
mutated into a strain that could
spread easily among people.
The protection afforded by
today’s flu vaccine largely
comes from antibodies generat¬
ed to a large and plentiful pro¬
tein situated on the viral coat:
hemagglutinin (HA) protein.
The vaccine also triggers a
response to another protein —
neuraminidase (NA) — that
also resides on the viral coat.
M2 resides there, too, but it
is much smaller and less plenti¬
ful, and the immune system by
itself doesn’t mount much of a
response against it
But M2 has a virtue that HA
lacks: It remains pretty much
the same from year to year. HA
attraction, spins riders in a giant
centrifuge that subjects them to
2 G’s for a brief period.
Harold Hudson, an amuse¬
ment-park consultant and a for¬
mer vice president for engi¬
neering with Six Rags Theme
Parks, said that even as new
rides move faster and rise taller
than earlier ones, they are
designed
with
greater
precision.
“The
reason we
are able to
build taller
and faster
rides that
aren’t
more dan
g e r o u s
than old
rides is the improved
gy,” Hudson said. “We can
design a roller coaster on a
computer and run its paces. We
know all the forces that will be
exerted at every second before
it is even built.”
Hudson said computer-
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FluMist vaccine applicators roll by on the assembly line at the Medlmmune Vaccines
plant in northeast Philadelphia. The nasal vaccine concentrate is made in Liverpool,
England, and comes to Philadelphia for assembly into nasal sprayers.
— and to a lesser extent NA —
slyly mutate, requiring the vac¬
cine to be tweaked some years
and overhauled others.
In developing a new vac¬
cine, researchers hope to
prompt the body to mount an
attack against the relatively sta¬
ble M2 viral protein.
Gerhard’s prototype is a
synthetic-engineered peptide
designed by Laszlo Otvos, an
associate professor in Wistar’s
immunology program. He said
assisted manufacturing tech¬
niques and improved materials
also add to safety and reliabili¬
ty. Rides differ. The ones at
Orlando’s theme parks, which
are designed for family vaca¬
tioners, are generally slower
and not as steep as ones at con¬
ventional amusement parks
where speeds can reach into the
80s, 90s and even exceed 100
mph. None of the 10 fastest
roller coasters is in Rorida.
But the amusement indus¬
try, which for the most part
opposes increased government
oversight, said that faster rides
don’t equate with less safe
rides. They say the industry fol¬
lows strict design standards that
consider the physiological
effects that rides will have on
passengers.
“As rides have evolved, the
sophistication of the safety sys¬
tems has developed,” said
Dennis Spiegel, president of
International Theme Park
Services in Ohio. “The evolu¬
tion won’t stop. It’s what the
people wank and it’s what the
theme parks want to deliver.”
it would be relatively easy to
make such a vaccine in large
quantities with high levels of
purity. Such a vaccine would
also be a major advance over
the current chicken-egg manu¬
facturing process.
If the M2 vaccine over¬
comes the hurdles ahead,
Gerhard said, it is possible that
it would provide enough pro¬
tection against disease symp¬
toms to be used instead of
existing vaccines.
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KRT photo/Joe Burbank
A mock up of the X-2 simulator capsule is located at the
entrance of the Mission: Space attraction at Epcot. A 4
year-old boy died while riding the Mission on June 13.
If it falls a step short, he
said, it still could be useful as a
complement. The added protec¬
tion “could prevent major dis¬
ease resulting from a new pan¬
demic virus.”
The take-home message for
Lambert is that the current vac¬
cines are not adequate, and M2
is a good avenue to pursue.
“Until the studies are done
in humans, the jury is still out
whether it will work?” she
said.