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Remember H1N1 flu in 2009 and SARS in 2003? Remember the concern about airports, and how plane travel could spread newly emerging viruses and bacteria around the world rapidly? Did you see the film Contagion, which demonstrates how a killer bat virus could mutate into a killer human virus and circle the globe (by plane) in a matter of days?

Of course science fiction is not real life, and SARS, though it did spread to 37 countries, ended up spreading a lot more panic than virus and killing less than one thousand. H1N1 killed almost 300,000 people around the world, but that is less than many yearly seasonal flu strains.

Still, the lesson of airports being hubs to spread contagions as well as the panic that accompanies it remains a great concern. A new mathematical model from MIT, just published in PLoS One, reveals that JFK in New York, LAX in Los Angeles, and Honolulu International Airport would be the top three airports in terms of potential spread of a new contagion. Though Atlanta's airport actually has more flights, it is lower down on the list.

The study is more sophisticated than most mathematical models of this sort because it includes waiting times, traffic at airports, as well as the countries the airports service. Honolulu and LAX are gateways not only to the west coast of the U.S. but to the far east, where many new viruses originate. JFK is a gateway to Europe, from where a new pathogen can easily spread around the globe.

But though there are certainly lessons to be learned here about potential patterns of contagion, at the same time, as we also learned from SARS, models do not make a pandemic.

It is too easy to read this study and become unduly afraid of infectious spread on planes. Keep in mind that studies from the Centers for Disease Control have demonstrated that tuberculosis is very rarely transmitted on planes, despite the close proximity of passengers. Major diseases like malaria and dengue have never spread effectively on planes, because they require a vector (mosquitoes). The big HEPA air filters effectively eliminate the vast majority of viruses and bacteria.

So the new study on airports as hubs for pandemics is both instructive as well as anxiety-provoking and easily exaggerated. It is important to remember that fear is even more viral than the worst virus.

Dr. Marc Siegel is a professor of medicine and Medical Director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center. He is a member of the Fox News Medical A Team and author of several books. His latest is "The Inner Pulse: Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health."

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Can plane travel spread deadly viruses?

Common house mosquito (Credit: Illinois Department of Public Health)

CHICAGO (CBS) The West Nile virus is back. State health officials have confirmed two human cases in the northwest suburbs.

Both cases are women in their 60s. One is from Des Plaines, the other from Rolling Meadows.

CBS 2s Mike Parker reports officials have been spraying pesticide to kill off West Nile-carrying mosquitoes in several areas.

The Chicago Department of Public Health sprayed in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood in the 18th Ward, as well as the neighboring 21st Ward.

Public Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair said, when our mosquito traps indicate that the West Nile virus may threaten human health, its time to take decisive action.

Tuesday and Wednesday night, city crews will spray a chemical called Zenivex, an EPA-approved killer of the northern house mosquito, which can carry West Nile.

For weeks now, scientists have been noticing that mosquitoes infected with the virus have been turning up in their traps, often bred in standing water.

Now, for the first time this year, there are people in the hospital being treated for the disease. Normally, the first human cases of West Nile arent seen in Illinois until August.

Dr. Linda Rae Murray, the chief medical officer for the Cook County Public Health Department said, The only reason to hospitalize them is if theyre feeling so ill, and if they have headaches, and theyre having trouble breathing, and we want to be supportive of them in the hospital.

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State Sees First Human Cases Of West Nile Virus

By Ros Krasny

BOSTON, July 17 (Reuters) - Massachusetts will launch an urgent campaign of aerial spraying after numerous mosquito samples collected in the southeast of the state tested positive for the killer Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus, health officials said on Tuesday.

A bite from an infected mosquito can transmit the EEE virus, triggering a potentially deadly inflammation of the brain that can also leave survivors with significant brain damage.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said the decision to spray parts of the southeast of the state with insecticide followed the discovery of numerous additional pools inhabited by EEE-positive mosquitoes in the town of Easton, where EEE-positive samples were found last week.

"Aerial spraying can only reduce but not eliminate the threat of mosquito-borne illness in the areas that are sprayed," said DPH Commissioner John Auerbach.

"That's why it's so important for individuals in these communities to continue to take personal precautions against mosquito bites - both before and after aerial spraying is conducted."

The communities where spraying is planned so far are Bridgewater, Carver, Easton, Halifax, Lakeville, Middleborough, Norton, Plympton, Raynham, Taunton, and West Bridgewater. Officials said the spraying would start as soon as possible.

Last week authorities raised the threat of mosquito-born illness in some of those towns to "high" from "moderate."

At that point, officials in Raynham, about 30 miles south of Boston, suggested that residents avoid all outdoor activities from dusk to dawn.

There have been no human cases of EEE in Massachusetts so far this year. There were two cases, one fatal, in the state in 2011.

Excerpt from:
Massachusetts Mosquito Spraying Targets Killer Bugs From The Air

(07-18 18:16)

Cambodia closed all its kindergartens and primary schools today to prevent the spread of a deadly virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease and has killed at least 55 children since April, a senior government official said. Sixty-one cases had been identified as the Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which has affected children between the ages of three months and 11 years, Reuters reports. The outbreak has raised concern in other parts of the region, such as Thailand and Philippines. Children have tested positive in both countries for strains of hand, foot and mouth disease, although no deaths have been reported. In Cambodia, 55 children are known to have died, according to the World Health Organization. Most were below three years and died within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital. After receiving report from some provinces about the rapid spread of hand, foot and mouth disease in schools, we don't have to wait two more weeks,'' Mak Van, Education Ministry Secretary of State, told Reuters. He said the closures would be in force for 10 weeks. Schools had been due to close for holidays at the end of August. The WHO, which has been helping Cambodia investigate the deaths, said it was concerned the closures could cause alarm. The authorities, it said, were able to contain the spread. We did not recommend the closing of nurseries and primary schools because that would create unnecessary public panic,'' WHO representative Sonny Krishnan said in an email. The HFMD caused by EV-71 is under control by the Ministry of Health and ...(it has) the capacity to contain it.'' He said the authorities were monitoring the situation and no new cases had been confirmed. Thailand has closed 18 schools in Bangkok to try to prevent a spread of various strains of hand, foot and mouth disease, of which there have been at least 12,500 cases nationwide since the start of the year. In Philippines, health officials said two children had tested positive for the enterovirus, but not necessarily the deadly EV-71. The two came from different regions and neither had travelled recently outside the country. We are still awaiting the [lab] results,'' said Eric Tayag of the Department of Health. They are not in the same neighbourhood. They are less than eight and are doing all right now.'' Chinese authorities on Sunday said hand, foot and mouth disease had killed 17 people and infected nearly 35,000 in central Hunan province since June, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

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Cambodia shuts schools to check killer virus

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2012) Helper cells traditionally thought to only assist killer white blood cells may be the frontline warriors when battling hepatitis A infection. These are the findings from a Nationwide Children's Hospital study appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus. Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, the virus infects millions of people worldwide each year and remains a global public health problem, especially in underdeveloped countries.

Unlike the hepatitis C virus, the hepatitis A virus does not establish a persistent infection. Yet, up to 20 percent of patients can relapse several weeks after virus growth and after symptoms have disappeared.

"Mechanisms of immunity that protect against relapse, and why they occasionally fail, are unknown," said the study's lead author Christopher M. Walker, PhD, director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Research has shown that white blood cells known as CD8+ killer T cells play a critical role in controlling hepatitis C and hepatitis B virus infections. These T cells act by killing infected liver cells, a process that damages the liver, but is necessary to effectively shut off production of new viruses.

A study published more than 20 years ago suggested that killer T cells also control hepatitis A virus infection in humans. However, Dr. Walker observed a very different pattern of immunity while studying acute hepatitis A virus infection in animals.

He found that the infection was controlled well before an effective killer T cell response was generated. Hepatitis A virus growth was instead controlled by CD4+ T helper cells, a different type of white blood cell that normally assists in the activation killer T cells but, is not thought to directly engage virus-infected cells. In the two infected animals infected with the hepatitis A virus, helper T cells secreted factors that suppressed virus growth without causing serious liver damage or inflammation that is an undesirable byproduct of a killer T cell response.

Moreover, the helper T cells responded to resurgence in hepatitis A virus growth after initial control of the infection, and remained strong until the virus was finally eliminated from the liver several months later. These findings suggested that CD8+ T cells are not necessarily required to control hepatitis A virus infection. Instead, it appears that CD4+ T cells have a more direct role in stopping replication of the hepatitis A virus by mechanisms that do not involve severe damage to the liver.

"This is quite an unusual discovery," said Dr. Walker, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "These findings document a previously unappreciated role for CD4+ T cells in resolving acute hepatitis A, and perhaps in surveillance against a relapse in virus growth and liver disease that sometimes occurs in those with weak immune systems, particularly the very young and old."

If CD4+ T cells are found to play a similar role in humans, they could serve as a new target for preventing relapse of hepatitis A virus infection. An inefficient helper T cell response might explain why some patients relapse after clearing the infection.

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Helper T cells, not killer T cells, might be responsible for clearing hepatitis A infection