Kaua`i FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2007 Gaylord's at Kilohana 3-2087 Kaumualii Highway Lihue

Preparing for Pandemic Influenza
Influenza is a potentially serious respiratory infection that exists throughout the world. Annual vaccination is the primary means to prevent infection, and each year the vaccine must be modified to account for the genetic evolution of the virus. Every so often an entirely new strain of influenza emerges to which the population has no immunity; this can lead to a pandemic. Three pandemics occurred in the 20th century: the “swine” or “Spanish” flu in 1918, “Asian” flu in 1957, and “Hong Kong” flu in 1968. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Americans die each year from influenza infection. During pandemics, the death rate rises substantially above this. The pandemic of 1918 was responsible for 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide—500,000 deaths in the United States—and a tenfold increase in mortality. It predominantly affected young, healthy people in their twenties, thirties, and forties. The current bird flu strain, H5N1, has killed more than 250 people and could evolve into the next pandemic influenza strain by becoming more easily transmissible from person to person. This lecture will cover how the influenza virus evolves, the current concerns about the virulence of the next pandemic influenza strain, and what Stanford is doing to prepare for this eventuality. We will definitely have a flu pandemic; it's only a matter of timing and genetics.

Faculty Speaker: Lucy Tompkins is the Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases and chief of the division of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also professor of microbiology and immunology, and pathology by courtesy. She received her MD from Dartmouth Medical School and her PhD from Georgetown University. Dr. Tompkins is the medical director of the Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control Program at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics and was formerly the medical director of the Clinical Microbiology/Virology Laboratory. She is a member of the emergency preparedness committee of the Society for Health Systems and the co-chair of the bioterrorism preparedness task force. She is a member of the Stanford University and the Stanford University Hospitals and Clinics pandemic influenza preparedness committees and is a co-author on a planning document prepared for the State of California.