Yukon Kuskokwim Nushagak science

This is a good general introduction. The scientific references (bibilography) are useful. He also mentions the important role of historical Alaska Native tissue samples from 1918.

Nicholls H (2006) Pandemic Influenza: The Inside Story. PLoS Biol 4(2): e50
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040050

The origin of the 1918 pandemic strain, by contrast, has been harder to crack. Nearly a decade ago, Taubenberger and his colleagues made a real breakthrough; they found isolates of the 1918 pandemic virus in the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lungs of an American serviceman [5] (Figure 4). They subsequently retrieved further samples of this deadly virus from a second soldier and also from a flu victim exhumed from a frosty mass grave in Alaska. Since then, they carefully sequenced one gene after another until they completed the task last year [6].

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Connotea is a free website to help researchers and clinicians manage and share information. http://www.connotea.org/

The information is primarily research papers, but also news. Anyone can search for keywords, such as “bird flu” or “H5N1″ or “immunity”. Similar keywords will also appear that you can also search. This is a good bibliographic research tool.

What are related tags?

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It is useful in evaluating information and strategic planning to compare and contrast with what others are doing. This is what Minnesota has done to alert people about being prepared. The format of the information is similar to that of WHO (posted previosuly) and might be a useful model for our local planning.
Pam

Talking points’ on bird flu brought up
Crookston Daily Times - Crookston,MN,USA
from Google Alert for: alaska bird flu

By Natalie J. Ostgaard, City Editor

With reports that the avian flu will soon be hitting birds in North America, Polk County Public Health Director Sheri Altepeter said her agency was updated earlier this week with a wealth of information on the topic. A list of “public health talking points” covers “pretty much everything we know about this at this time,” she said.

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