How flu is spread

Pubblicato il 13/02/2013Read time: 1 min

Avoiding close contacts with infected people could not be enough as a defense against flu. This is the conclusion of a recent study by scientists at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, published on the Journal of Infectious Diseases. The swab specimens of 94 subjects, admitted to the hospital with influenza-like illness, have been analyzed and their medical history recorded, revealing that 61 of them were actually positive for flu. Researchers then collected air samples from each patient, looking for infectious particles. This allowed to discover that 26 of them released virus particles into the air, with 5 being highly infectious, emitting up to 32 times more virus than others. Patients who reported severe illness and major interference with daily life also emitted more influenza virus.
These results thus seem to question the conventional wisdom that flu is mainly spread through close contact with others and by touching contaminated surfaces.

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/29/infdis.jis773.abstract

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Influenza

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The Indi Gregory case: some questions for reflection

di Giovanni Boniolo

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"The 'Indi Gregory Case' encompasses various levels of reflection (medical, ethical, legal, and political) that are interconnected but often confused in media debates. The philosopher of science and bioethicist Giovanni Boniolo analyzes them through a series of questions, the answers to which may also help us in similar cases that may arise in the future. Image: Twilight, by Dilma Freddi.

Medicine

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There has been, and continues to be, much talk about the "Indi Gregory Case." Indi was an eight-month-old baby suffering from a severe, and so far fatal, rare disease. More specifically, Indi was affected by D,L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria: a genetic disease with autosomal recessive inheritance caused by defects in the SLC25A1 gene.