Despite recent cases of swine flu at schools across the United States, including one case at UF, there were only about 10 students at a lecture about the virus Monday night.
About 75 people attended Dr. J. Glenn Morris lecture, "Emerging Pathogens and Pandemics: Swine Flu and Other Things That Go Bump in the Night." The event was held in Emerson Alumni Hall.
Morris, director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute, spoke Monday night about influenza, cholera, malaria and other epidemics as part of the UF Alumni Association Lecture Series.
The lecture quickly turned to the serious and often frightening topic of emerging pathogens, with an emphasis on the H1N1 influenza virus, initially known as swine flu.
While other pathogens are alarming to humans, the influenza virus is particularly destructive because of its ability to mutate. The virus's unusual gene structure makes mutation both easy and inevitable, Morris said.
"It's like pick-up sticks," he said of the genes within the flu virus. "You can toss them up in the air and pick them up and put them back together in new combinations."
The H1N1 virus gets its name from hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, two proteins that combine to create a flu strain. It was dubbed swine flu because six of the virus's eight genes are believed to be from pigs, he said.
Although H1N1 is similar to regular seasonal flu, which has a mortality rate of about 1 per 400 to 500 people, Morris said it is important to remember that the virus is potentially fatal and is continuing to spread.
"It's dropped out of the news, but we are indeed in the midst of an epidemic of influenza caused by this flu," he said.
As an effort to combat H1N1 and other influenzas, Morris said he hopes to vaccinate 70 percent of school children in the Alachua County school system this year.
Because data shows that children are more likely to spread flu, Morris predicts immunizing children in Alachua County could prevent 27,000 illnesses and 31 deaths.
Diane Pecora, an RN specialist at the Student Health Care Center, said that flu immunization is an important step that students don't take advantage of, even when it's free.
Students who don't like shots can request a mist treatment, which is painless and more effective in preventing various flu strains, she said.
Each year, the Center for Disease Control pick three flu strains to include in the flu vaccination.
The current flu vaccination does not offer protection against H1N1, but Morris is hopeful that the CDC will decide to include H1N1 in this year's mix. The decision will be made in the next two weeks, he said.
Even though H1N1 has proven to be mild so far, Morris said it is important to keep a watchful eye on developing pathogens across the world.
"Diseases don't recognize national boundaries. They don't get passports to come visit us," he said. "If we want to understand diseases, we need to have a global presence."
