More CDC absurdity

Today I recieved the following email from CDC - one of their weekly swine flu/H1N1 updates:

"CDC does not recommend "swine flu parties" as a way to protect against future infection with novel Influenza A (H1N1) Swine flu parties are gatherings where people have close contact with a person who has contracted the virus in the hopes of becoming infected themselves and, therefore, develop natural immunity to the novel H1N1 flu virus should it circulate later and cause more severe disease."

Just some things to keep in mind...

Also, to keep the mood light, I discovered that the Atlanta office is having an electric slide party at one of their campuses. Unfortunately, my travel funds don't cover the cost of attendence.

Important information about how to transport viruses

My boss told me this story a little while ago...some of you have heard it before but its definitely worth recording.

Some time ago, there was an outbreak of a virus in Malaysia. Little was known about the virus, and one researcher at the national public health laboratory asked if he could use CDC's facility in Fort Collins, Colorado* to study this virus in greater detail. The people in Ft. Collins said, yes, of course, and gave him the address so he could send a sample of the virus ahead of time to work with when he arrived.

The researcher arrived at the lab some days later - the virus had not arrived, but the Ft. Collins folks assumed it was being held up in customs. After welcoming the researcher to the lab, one of the CDC employees started showing him around the lab.

As soon as they entered the first lab, the visitor began unbuttoning his shirt. The somewhat taken-aback CDC employee tried to explain that she was married, they were in a lab, etc. etc...

...but then she saw that the researcher had two flasks to his chest chest. Knowing that the (potentially deadly, unresearched) virus could survive at body temperature, the researcher had decided to transport the live virus by taping it to himself on a trans-Pacific flight.

Luckily, no one was infected...but it kind of makes you wonder what else makes it through airport security.

*CDC has different sections - within the infectious disease branch is a sub-branch of the center for vector-borne infectious disease - basically, any disease carried by insects or other critters, and this branch is based out of Ft. Collins, CO. The dengue branch, where I work, is a subset of this branch. All of these branches have acronyms - so I work at the dengue branch, which is under DVBID, within the NCZVED as a part of CCID at CDC. A bit of a mouthful, no?

To swine or not to swine?

Working at CDC in the midst of an outbreak is an interesting experience - in some ways, reassuring, and in other ways completely baffling. The speed and magnitude of the response to the outbreak is impressive, especially given my experiences in the research world (repeated failure punctuated by brief, beautiful successes...as one coworker said, "It's called REsearch because you have to do it again and again and again").



On the other hand, the inboxes of CDC employees have been inundated with 1-2 email a day reminding us that influenza produces flu-like symptoms, and people suspecting that they have been infected should stay home. On a more local level, the person at the branch assigned to do testing on samples in Puerto Rico has a permanently runny nose - in the 8 months I've been here, I don't think he's stopped sniffling.


But as usual, Puerto Rico seems immune to the drama of the outside world. No fanatical antibacterial hand-soaping here - the most I've heard that's happened as a result of the outbreak was that my neighbr called in "sick" on Monday to go surfing. Go figure.