Swine Flu Tied To U Of Minn Bioweapons Program?

http://www.rense.com/general88/bio.htm

Swine Flu Tied To U Of Minn Bioweapons Program?
Rense.com World Exclusive
10-17-9

Concerned about Swine Flu? Swine flu is actually an upper respiratory disease linked to pneumonia, which is why it is fatal. Just ask the University of Minnesota. They have a research department (with one Dr. Patrick Schlievert, PhD ) designed for 'bio-defense' and paid for by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

According to the WHO, ECDC, CPC, HPA (UK) map, the swine flu started April 21st right there.

Oddly enough, when one goes to the grant-awarding site dictated by the University of Minnesota, the webpage pulls up as "error". As does Dr. Schlievert's bio page which was retrieved elsewhere and appears at the bottom of this page.

Are Dr. Schlievert and the U of Minn bioweapons department tied to the A-H1N1 swine flu pandemic? The doctor's bio/background is remarkable reading.

Here is the map of the spread of swine flu
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8083179.stm

Did something go 'wrong' at the University of Minnesota's 'Bio-Defense' lab?

The following data is illuminating -

Local Biodefense Research To Begin

Biot Report #54: September 14, 2003
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Dear SEMP Colleagues:

The National Institutes of Health announced on September 4, 2003 that seven universities would receive large, multiyear grants to conduct defensive research on biological weapons and other infectious agents, and become Regional Centers of Excellence (RCEs) for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research. The awards, totaling $350,000,000 will go to Duke University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland at Baltimore, the University of Texas Medical Branch, the University of Washington at Seattle, and Washington University in St. Louis. Each institution will receive an average of about $9 million per year for five years, a significantly larger sum of money than the NIH typically awards to centers for biomedical research. Each of the centers will team up with several nearby academic institutions. An award for an eighth center will go to the New York State Department of Health. In addition, the NIH is giving "planning" grants to the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, to help these institutions build the capacity to compete later for full-fledged center award, according to Jeffrey Brainerd in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education story (September 5, 2003; www.chronicle.com).

From http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=54

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U awarded $1 million biodefense grant

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Brenda Hudson, Academic Health Center, 612.624.5680

BIODEFENSE AND EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
TARGET OF NIH GRANT TO U OF MN
$1 million planning grant award for Regional Center of Excellence

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (Sept. 4, 2003) -- The United States Department of Health and Human Services today announced the University of Minnesota has been awarded a $1 million Planning Grant for a Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (P-RCE). The grant will be funded and administered by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health.

The University of Minnesota will serve as co-lead institution with The Ohio State University in developing a multi-center collaboration to carry out biodefense research of Category A agents (the most likely serious causes of a biological terrorist attack), including anthrax and tularemia (rabbit fever).

"The planning grant will allow us to initiate research projects, train researchers, and build a team for emergency response,"said University of Minnesota microbiologist and co-lead investigator, Patrick Schlievert, Ph.D. "For instance, we hope to develop new approaches to blocking the action of anthrax and tularemia, both of which affect the respiratory system and can be highly fatal." The P-RCEs will support training, planning, research development, and resource acquisition that we hope will lead to the future establishment of a regional center, he explained.

The Planning Center brings together researchers, both basic and clinical, from the University of Minnesota, The Ohio State University, Indiana University, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Cincinnati, Rush University, Wright State University, the University of Michigan, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Ohio Department of Public Health, Battelle Memorial Institute, the Columbus Children's Research Institute, Cargill, and 3M.

Eight Regional Centers of Excellence were also established by NIAID today, with grants totaling approximately $350 million over five years, forming a nationwide group of multidisciplinary centers for biodefense research.

end

This page is located at: www.ahc.umn.edu/news/NewsFiles/biodefense_grant090403/

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News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003
Contact: NIAID Press Office
(301) 402-1663

HHS ANNOUNCES NEW REGIONAL CENTERS FOR BIODEFENSE RESEARCH

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced grants totaling approximately $350 million spread over five years to establish eight Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (RCE). This nationwide group of multidisciplinary centers is a key element in HHS' strategic plan for biodefense research.
"We have moved with unprecedented speed and determination to prepare for a bioterror attack or any other public health crisis since the terrorist attacks of 2001," Secretary Thompson said. "These new grants add to this effort and will not only better prepare us for a bioterrorism attack, but will also enhance our ability to deal with any public health crisis, such as SARS and West Nile virus."

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of HHS' National Institutes of Health, is providing the grants and will administer the RCE program.

"Since the terrorist attacks on American soil in 2001, NIAID has moved rapidly to bolster basic biomedical research and the development of countermeasures to defend the United States against deliberately released agents of bioterrorism as well as naturally occurring infectious diseases," said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID director. "The new RCE program provides a coordinated and comprehensive mechanism to support the interdisciplinary research that will lead to new and improved therapies, vaccines, diagnostics and other tools to protect the citizens of our country and the world against the threat of bioterrorism and other emerging and re-emerging diseases."

The RCE program's primary role is to foster the physical and intellectual environments in which wide-ranging research on infectious diseases can proceed productively and safely. All RCEs will:

Support investigator-directed research
Train researchers and other personnel for biodefense research activities
Create and maintain supporting resources, including scientific equipment and trained support personnel, for use by the RCEs and other researchers in the region
Emphasize research focused on development and testing of vaccine, therapeutic and diagnostic concepts
Make available core facilities to approved investigators from academia, government, biotech companies and the pharmaceutical industry
Provide facilities and scientific support to first responders in the event of a national biodefense emergency

Each center comprises a lead institution and affiliated institutions located primarily in the same geographical region. The eight institutions receiving an RCE grant and the principal investigator at each are:

Duke University, Barton Haynes, M.D.
Harvard Medical School, Dennis Kasper, M.D.
New York State Department of Health, Ian Lipkin, M.D.
University of Chicago, Olaf Schneewind, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Myron Levine, M.D.
University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston), David Walker, M.D.
University of Washington, Samuel Miller, M.D.
Washington University in St. Louis, Samuel Stanley, M.D.

Research to be conducted in the RCE program includes:

Developing new approaches to blocking the action of anthrax, botulinum and cholera toxins
Developing new vaccines against anthrax, plague, tularemia, smallpox and Ebola
Developing new antibiotics and other therapeutic strategies
Studying bacterial and viral disease processes
Designing new advanced diagnostic approaches for biodefense and for emerging diseases
Conducting immunological studies of diseases caused by potential agents of bioterrorism
Developing computational and genomic approaches to combating disease agents
Creating new immunization strategies and delivery systems

In addition to the eight RCEs, NIAID is funding two Planning Grants for Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (P-RCEs). The P-RCEs will support training, planning, research development and resource acquisition that could lead to the future establishment of a regional center. The lead institutions and principal investigators of the P-RCEs are:

University of Iowa, Bradley Britigan, M.D.
University of Minnesota, Patrick Schlievert, Ph.D.

Additional information on NIAID's biodefense program is available at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/biodefense/.
###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
Last Revised: September 4, 2003

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Here is Dr. Schlievert's bio...

Patrick Schlievert, PhD
Background

Dr. Patrick M. Schlievert is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota as a faculty member in 1980, he was a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlievert has over 350 manuscripts published in the area of microbial pathogenesis and management of microbial infections. He has served for many years as a member of numerous NIH Study Sections, most recently as chair of Immunity and Host Defense Study Section.He is a distinguished University of Minnesota Teaching Professor, which is the University's highest honor in teaching, for his teaching of microbiology and immunology to Medical Students. Dr. Schlievert is on the executive board of the Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. He is the recipient of numerous NIH funded grants and has numerous awarded and pending patents

Dr. Schlievert and his clinical colleagues have described 16 newly recognized and emerging bacterial diseases, including characterization of how these diseases occur and how to manage them clinically. For example, he identified the predominant exotoxin cause of staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome in 1980, and he and his colleagues were the first to describe streptococcal toxic shock syndrome in 1987, otherwise known as the flesh eating streptococcal disease that killed Muppeteer Jim Henson. Most recently, Dr. Schlievert has been working to develop topical microbicides that interfere with microbial infections originating at the vaginal mucosal surface. He has presented many of his findings over the years to news organizations, including national and international newspapers and magazines and television shows.

Affiliations
University of Minnesota Medical School

Here is his grant...

Pneumonia
NIAID
5R01AI074283-20

Cardiotoxicity of Streptococcal Pyrogenic Exotoxins
SCHLIEVERT, PATRICK
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TWIN CITIES
MN
$322,294

This information can be found at
http://report.nih.gov/rcdc/categories/ProjectSearch.aspx?FY=2008&DCat=Pneumonia

_________________________________

1: J Infect Dis. 2009 Sep 1;200(5):676-8. Links
Comment on:
J Infect Dis. 2009 Sep 1;200(5):715-23.
Cytolysins, superantigens, and pneumonia due to community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Schlievert PM.
PMID: 19653828 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Dig Dis Sci. 2009 Jul 16. [Epub ahead of print] Links
Staphylococcal Enterocolitis: Forgotten but Not Gone?
Lin Z, Kotler DP, Schlievert PM, Sordillo EM.

Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY, USA.

PURPOSE: Staphylococcus aureus may cause antibiotic-associated diarrhea and enterocolitis, with or without preceding antibiotic use, in immunocompromised adults or infants, or individuals with predisposing conditions, but there is little appreciation of this condition clinically. CLINICAL DISEASE: The main clinical feature that helps to differentiate staphylococcal enterocolitis (SEC) from Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea is large-volume, cholera-like diarrhea in the former case. A predominance of gram-positive cocci in clusters on gram stain of stool or biopsy specimens and the isolation of S. aureus as the dominant or sole flora support the diagnosis. PATHOGENESIS: The pathogenesis of SEC requires the interaction of staphylococcal enterotoxins, which function as superantigens, with interstitial epithelial lymphocytes and intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). MANAGEMENT: Most SEC represents recent S. aureus acquisition, so that improved infection prevention practices can reduce disease recurrence. Management should include aggressive fluid management and repletion and oral vancomycin.

PMID: 19609675 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher

_________________________________________________


1: Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Mar 1;48(5):612-4. Links
Comment in:
Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Aug 15;49(4):646-7.
Extreme pyrexia and rapid death due to Staphylococcus aureus infection: analysis of 2 cases.

Assimacopoulos AP, Strandberg KL, Rotschafer JH, Schlievert PM.
Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

We describe unusual Staphylococcus aureus infections in 2 patients. The infections were characterized by extreme pyrexia and rapid death. Both causative organisms produced a deletion mutant form of toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 and variant enterotoxin C, which may have caused pyrexia and death.

PMID: 19191649 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

___________________________________________________________


http://jb.asm.org/cgi/content/full/186/8/2430?view=long&pmid=15060046

and

http://web.mit.edu/ssp/bsl4/policy.html

and

1: Paediatr Drugs. 2008;10(6):367-78. doi: 10.2165/0148581-200810060-00004. Links
Treatment strategies for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in pediatrics.

Newland JG, Kearns GL.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. jnewland1@cmh.edu

Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen that frequently causes clinical disease in children. A wide array of illnesses can be caused by this common pathogen ranging from non-invasive skin infections to severe, life-threatening sepsis. Additionally, as antibacterials have been used to eradicate S. aureus, it has developed resistance to these important therapeutic agents. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) has become an increasing problem in pediatric patients over the past decade. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment options available in treating MRSA infections in children. Specifically, we address the importance of abscess drainage in the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections, the most common clinical manifestation of MRSA infections, and highlight the various agents that are available for treating this common infection. In severe, life-threatening invasive MRSA infections the primary therapeutic option is vancomycin. In cases of MRSA toxic shock syndrome the addition of clindamycin is necessary. In other invasive MRSA infections, such as pneumonia and musculoskeletal infections, the empiric treatment of choice is clindamycin. Finally, newer agents and additional treatment options are discussed.

PMID: 18998747 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

South Med J. 2009 Feb;102(2):135-8. Links

____________________________________________


Comment in:
South Med J. 2009 Feb;102(2):121-2.
Community-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infection in an inner city hospital pediatric inpatient population.

Tejeda-Ramirez E, Behani M, Leggiadro RJ.
Department of Pediatrics, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Bronx, NY 10451, USA.

BACKGROUND: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a serious problem in the community setting, primarily as a cause of skin and soft tissue infections. METHODS: A retrospective study based on the review of pediatric inpatients admitted to Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center from March 2006 to February 2007 was performed. RESULTS: Eighteen (55%) of the thirty-three patients identified were infected with community associated (CA) MRSA. All patients had skin and soft tissue infections. Seventeen (94%) of eighteen CA-MRSA isolates were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline, respectively, and eleven (61%) were susceptible to levofloxacin. CONCLUSIONS: Skin and soft tissue infections are the most common clinical manifestation of CA-MRSA in our population. The 55% prevalence of MRSA in our patients suggests reconsidering empirical antimicrobial choices. Surgical intervention is important in the management of these infections, and clindamycin resistance among CA-MRSA isolates should be monitored locally to determine if empiric therapy is appropriate.

PMID: 19139709 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]