Epidemic, bioterrorism study in Las Vegas
A research project in Nevada looks to help hospitals and public health officials do a better job of quickly identifying the sources and pathways of influenza, E. coli, and other contagious pathogens that can quickly spread through a population; the project will also help in designing ways to cope with a bioterror attack
A multimillion-dollar research project involving UNLV is aimed primarily at better protecting U.S. troops, but it is also expected to shore up the Las Vegas Valley’s defenses against epidemics and bioterrorism
UNLV Associate Professor Chris Cochran is helping lead the effort and hopes it will help hospitals and public health officials do a better job of quickly identifying the sources and pathways of influenza, E. coli, and other contagious pathogens that can quickly spread through a population.
Las Vegas Sun’s By Steve Kanigher offers this example. Suppose Clark County health officials learned that a group of tourists who came down with the flu in Las Vegas arrived by plane the previous day from Anytown, USA. Because symptoms do not usually appear until two or three days after infection, it is likely the tourists contracted the virus back home. Health officials could then issue flu alerts to authorities in Anytown and to the airlines that brought the visitors to Las Vegas to help prevent a more widespread outbreak in Southern Nevada.
Or say the tourists who sought medical attention in Las Vegas had been in town a week before their flu symptoms appeared. It is then more likely they caught the virus in Las Vegas. If health officials knew that these patients were staying at particular hotels, the resorts could be contacted to locate potential sources of the virus so that it can be contained, thereby protecting other hotel guests and workers.
This is the kind of detailed information Southern Nevada health professionals would be able to obtain if Cochran, a member of UNLV’s School of Community Health Sciences, and Defense Department contractor QinetiQ North America, succeed in developing computer software that is being sought by the U.S. Army.
Kanigher writes that the 3-year-old project is expected to last at least two more years under the guidance of QinetiQ, a subsidiary of a London-based company with offices in Las Vegas. So far, $3.6 million in military spending has been appropriated for the project.
The Pentagon is involved because it has a stake in knowing the source of illness among its troops. It wants to know whether the source was on a particular ship, military base, battlefield location or somewhere else that needs to be addressed. The military also wants to guard against unwittingly spreading a disease when soldiers return home.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was first observed in the U.S. at
