In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses how vaccination and vaccine hesitancy affects public health and disease spread in terms of mpox, the first human death from H5N1 in US, why one should not feed their pets raw pet food and the metapneumonia outbreak in China before reviewing the recent statistics on RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infections, the WasterwaterScan dashboard, where to find PEMGARDA, how nirmatrelvir-ritonavir/Paxlovid reduces adverse outcomes of COVID in patients with kidney disease, provides information for Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s long COVID treatment center, SARS-CoV-2 infection affects skin conditions including shingles and if long antiviral treatment affects long COVID.
Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 1182 (19 MB .mp3, 31 min)
Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV!
Links for this episode
- Mpox vaccination hesitancy, previous immunisation coverage, and vaccination readiness in the African region (eClincial Medicine)
- Global prevalence and correlates of mpox vaccine acceptance and uptake (Communications Medicine)
- First case of new mpox variant in France (Reuters)
- First “Bird flu” death in US (NY Times)
- Emerging threat of H5N1 to human health (NEJM)
- Don’t feed your pets raw food (County of Los Angeles Public Health)
- Oregon, nationwide raw pet food recall (CIRAP)
- Raw cat food avian flu, is this like raw milk? (CIDRAP)
- Human metapneumovirus surging in China (The Guardian)
- Viral video of viral chaos: human metapneumovirus in Chinese hospital (The Economic Times)
- Human metapneumovirus in China (NY Times)
- Acute respiratory infections including human metapneumovirus in northern hemisphere (WHO)
- Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan)
- US respiratory virus activity (CDC Respiratory Illnesses)
- Weekly surveillance report: clift notes (CDC FluView)
- RSV: Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan)
- RSV-Network (CDC Respiratory Syncytial virus Infection)
- US respiratory virus activity (CDC Respiratory Illnesses)
- Waste water scan for 11 pathogens (WastewaterSCan)
- COVID-19 deaths (CDC)
- COVID-19 national and regional trends (CDC)
- COVID-19 variant tracker (CDC)
- SARS-CoV-2 genomes galore (Nextstrain)
- Where to get pemgarda (Pemgarda)
- EUA for the pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 (INVIYD)
- Fusion center near you….if in NY (Prime Fusions)
- CDC Quarantine guidelines (CDC)
- NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines (NIH)
- Infectious Disease Society guidelines for treatment and management (ID Society)
- Drug interaction checker (University of Liverpool)
- The effect of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir on short- and long-term adverse outcomes from COVID-19 among patients with kidney disease (OFID)
- Paxlovid tied to lower risk of hospital stay, heart problems, death in adults with kidney disease and COVID (CIDRAP)
- Molnupiravir safety and efficacy (JMV)
- Convalescent plasma recommendation for immunocompromised (ID Society)
- What to do when sick with a respiratory virus (CDC)
- When your healthcare provider is infected/exposed with SARS-CoV-2 (CDC)
- Managing healthcare staffing shortages (CDC)
- Steroids, dexamethasone at the right time (OFID)
- Anticoagulation guidelines (hematology.org)
- Daniel Griffin’s evidence based medical practices for long COVID (OFID)
- Long COVID hotline (Columbia : Columbia University Irving Medical Center)
- Chronic urticaria, vitiligo, alopecia areata, and herpes zoster following COVID-19 infection (Journal of Dermatology)
- Impact of extended-course oral nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in established Long COVID:
- (Communications Medicine)
- Letters read on TWiV 1182
- Dr. Griffin’s COVID treatment summary (pdf)
- Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees
Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to daniel@microbe.tv
The post TWiV 1182: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin first appeared on This Week in Virology.
Reflecting on this episode, I regret not having included more about the function of individual Ebolavirus gene products in the introduction to these viruses, so this comment is an attempt to correct that omission. Follow along using the diagram of Ebolavirus on ViralZone: http://viralzone.expasy.org/viralzone/all_by_species/207.html
The G protein is the major external viral structural glycoprotein. (Kathy nicely describes glycoproteins later in the episode.) The filamentous virus particle that everyone is now probably familiar with (see episode image) is surrounded by a lipid membrane that is derived by virus budding through the cell membrane during virus assembly, and the G protein is anchored to and protrudes from the viral membrane thus coating the outer surface of the virus. G protein is responsible for attachment and uptake of the virus into cells so it is critical for the initial stages of infection. It is also the major protein that the immune system “sees” on the virus particle during infection. Antibodies neutralize the virus by binding to this protein, and the different serotypes of virus have subtle differences in the structure of this protein so that most antibodies that react with the G protein from one species of Ebolavirus do not react well with another species of Ebolavirus. It is for these reasons that so much attention is focused on the G protein, in particular in the construction of vaccines and therapeutics.
The nucleoprotein coats the RNA genome that resides within the virion membrane. I think it is reasonable to think of the RNA-nucleoprotein particle as a sort of virus chromosome within the particle. The nucleoprotein protects the RNA and also participates in transcription of the RNA into either mRNA or genomic RNA.
The matrix protein lies between the RNA-nucleoprotein particle and the membrane and contacts both; it is a key structural component of the virus.
The polymerase (called “L” for “large”) is responsible for copying the RNA genome into either mRNA, anti-genomic RNA, or ultimately more genomic RNA (see TWiV 60, “Making Viral RNA” (http://www.twiv.tv/2009/11/29/twiv-60-making-viral-rna/). It actually has two subunits; the other is VP35. Because cells don’t normally copy RNA into RNA, the viral polymerase is different than cellular polymerases and therefore potentially makes a good “druggable” target, as discussed later in the episode.
Thanks for sharing my article, TWiV docs! I really like the rest of the episode, too–I’m sharing it with my own fanbase.
I have shared this episode with friends and family in the hopes they will listen and any unwarranted fears will be assuaged. It was a long TWiV, however, it was one of the most interesting TWiVs ever. I worked in a county public health department in the communicable disease clinic and in epidemiology as a nurse. One of the key functions in public health is to do outreach and provide conduits to help inform our community about diseases, related risks and preventive measures. You provide ammunition for some of us who (although retired) continue to refer the public to the best resources. Thank you all for your expert efforts.
Thanks for sharing your timely thoughts on this issue! I’m curious, though: why the dismissal of Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone”? Does every science writer have to be a scientist? Isn’t it enough to have qualified sources and fact-checking? Yes, the book was luridly written and portrayed certain personalities in a less-than-flattering light, but I couldn’t find much mendacity in what he presented. If you could share any mistakes that stood out for you, it’d be appreciated, as this book still pulls a lot of social weight; not only because it was a best-seller 20 years ago — it’s required reading for countless secondary school curricula.
Dr. Racaniello, can you please post a link for the scientist for science organization? Thank you!
Never mind! I just missed it above.