University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: November 10, 2005

By ARTHUR PAGE
Assistant Vice President

Whether or not it arrives on the wings of a bird, UB influenza experts are underscoring the importance of advancing research aimed at improving vaccine production and creating new ways to attack viruses if the United States is to be successful in combating the inevitable: a worldwide flu pandemic.

(From left) Bruce Holm, Rep. Thomas Reynolds and David Dunn participate in an "avian flu summit" on Saturday.
PHOTO: ARTHUR PAGE

The world is "due" for such a pandemic since they tend to occur several times each century and the last one was the 1968-69 global outbreak of the Hong Kong influenza, said Timothy Murphy, UB Distinguished Professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine.

"We can say with certainty that there will be another epidemic," he noted. "We just don't know when or what flu."

Murphy was among UB medical experts joining Erie County Health Department representatives in an "avian flu summit" held on Saturday by Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds to advise him on planning and preparation for a potential avian flu outbreak.

"The new national strategy for addressing pandemic influenza laid out three priorities: prevention, protection and preparation," Reynolds said. "It is vital that we maintain an open dialogue between local leaders, public health officials and researchers to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to meet these priorities."

Also representing UB were David L. Dunn, vice president for health sciences; Bruce A. Holm, senior vice provost and executive director of UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences; and Richard V. Lee, M.D., professor of medicine.

They voiced support of President Bush's plan to seek $7.1 billion in emergency funding from Congress to prevent and combat an influenza pandemic because of the resources it will bring to bear on advancing the nation's influenza preparedness. They said Congress and the public should not think the investment "wasn't worth it" if a bird flu pandemic fails to develop.

Questions were raised about scenarios, such as marshalling efforts to develop supplies of an effective vaccine only to be confronted by not having enough syringes or personnel to administer the doses. Another scenario discussed was the need in a pandemic to implement quarantine measures equivalent to military law. While such measures helped to quell the 2002 SARS outbreak in China, they likely would be problematic in America when citizens are told they can not go to church, the grocery store or an NFL game.

Dunn told Reynolds that UB is positioned—with its emphasis on multidisciplinary research and its strategic strength in mitigation and response to extreme events identified through the UB 2020 planning process—to provide a cross-disciplinary platform focusing on preparedness for such events, whether they are earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorist attacks or flu pandemics.

"It could be bird flu today," he noted. "Who knows what it will be tomorrow."

Lee has been predicting in recent years—and most recently as a guest on the nationally televised Montel Williams Show—that the stage has been set for a worldwide outbreak of bird flu.

While widespread media reports in recent weeks have chimed in, Lee said that to date, with bird flu affecting birds in several countries and more than 100 cases identified in humans in Asia, "this remains an avian problem, not a human pandemic." The potential for the latter will emerge when and if a case is identified in which the flu has been spread efficiently from human to human.

Lee said the avian flu likely is being spread around the globe by migrating birds and illicit traffic in exotic birds, noting that southern Africa is on the world's major bird migration routes and is the spot where the current bird flu virus was first recognized and is likely to be diagnosed next.

If avian flu arrives in Western New York, he added, it could be in a flock of geese landing in a swamp, not in airline passengers like those who carried SARS to Toronto.

Noting that only $500,000 has been allocated to date to the National Park Service for such purposes, Lee asked: "Who's doing animal surveillance?"

"There is no other way to deal with this other than paying attention and looking for it," he said. And while it's important to train and, if possible, protect first responders, Lee noted that in the case of avian flu, "the first responders will be the veterinarian or vet tech," not physicians and EMS personnel.

The UB experts stressed the importance of developing means to make adequate supplies of vaccines quickly for specific new human flu variations, develop vaccines against a range of viruses that have not yet surfaced and create all-purpose vaccines that would protect against many flu strains.

They discussed research using cell cultures, not chicken eggs, to produce vaccines and new approaches to anti-viral therapy that target not the mutating surface proteins, but virus components that do not change. Holm said research to that end is under way by researchers affiliated with the Center of Excellence.