Wisconsin's Pioneering Public Health and Zoonotic Disease Research Position World for Coronavirus Pandemic

 Dr. Christopher Olsen chats about Wisconsin's public
health surveillance system, Zoonotic disease
research and interdisciplinary approach to addressing
pandemics developed at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a public address
in 2009.

Zoonotic, animal-to-human diseases like the Coronavirus disease 2019, and public health were focus of pioneering research at University Madison, Wisconsin labs

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic this week.

As the world contends with this novel (new) Coronavirus, health surveillance programs alerting medical professionals and policymakers to disease threats are working as envisioned here 70 years ago, (Centers for Disease Control Control and Prevention, World Heath Organization, UW–Madison Current Zoonatic Disease Experts).

Wisconsin has the best statewide health surveillance, and it's no accident.

The state's public research and public health investments made over generations at UW-Madison laid the ground to establish a sophisticated public health system, notes Dr. Christopher Olsen, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, at a lecture in Madison in April 2009.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

As authorities are notified of health information and guidance today, the public can be confident scientists and public health professionals work in a high-minded, effective system built on the commitment to public research for the public that flowered here.

This state of affairs is an achievement of which Wisconsinites are proud.

UW-Madison Public Research

Scientists here also discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - a process in which animals act as intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings.

These virus-mixing hosts provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Dr. Olsen.

The emergence of new disease occurs as ecological, sociological  and environmental conditions change, notes Dr. Olsen, pointing to the insight and work of Robert Paul Hanson, an eminent UW-Madison research scientist, (1949-1987).

Write Thomas M Yuill and B. C. Easterday, cited by Olsen

Bob Hanson insisted that we should expect to see the emergence of new diseases as ecological and environmental conditions and host populations change. He operated on the basic premise that infectious agents must be viewed and attacked holistically because they are components of the ecosystems in which their hosts live. He recognized that no one person had all the expertise required to understand the natural history of diseases, and he was a champion of interdisciplinary team approaches. The problems on which he focused were always real ones that originated in nature, (Page 140, Robert Paul Hanson. National Academy of Sciences. 1996. Biographical Memoirs: V.70. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.)

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison and scientists like Dr. Hanson, Olsen and many other generous minds in Wisconsin history, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging disease like Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) than at any point in human history.

Below is video of lecture at University Place by Dr. Chris Olsen held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on April 17, 2009. Lecture is titled, "Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings."

Wisconsin Points Way for Public Health Research as Ebola Breeds Fear

Wisconsin is regarded as the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country.

Public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

Wisconsin's public health commitment was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis, according to health and research authorities.

The Unites States would benefit from the Wisconsin Idea.

The Wisconsin Idea is unlikely to replicated while Republicans run Congress. See NIH director: Budget cuts delayed Ebola vaccine, treatment.

For a dose of sanity regarding viruses and public health, see:
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Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Recorded April 17, 2009

Biosciences Scare Tea-Republican Party Shills like Tommy Thompson and Walker

Schematic drawing of an influenza A virus

The Republican Party and its subset, the Tea Party, have become so anti-rational that practically any phenomena—macroeconomics, climate science, epidemiology, public health, evolutionary science, one can go on—that are outside its tiny ideological sphere are off limits.

Ed Fallone asks today, Why Isn’t Scott Walker Touting the Biosciences in Wisconsin?, pointing to the promise of stem cells for example, and the biosciences industry generally, studiously ignored by Scott Walker and actively opposed by Tommy Thompson who thinks he ought to dictate the direction of stem-cell research to pioneering scientists like Alan I. Leshner and James A. Thomson.

Thanks to the work of an extraordinary group of scientists working in the great public research institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (in the tradition of the Wisconsin Idea), Wisconsin enjoys a model health surveillance program that alerts medical professionals to emerging disease threats.

Walker and Thompson are not cheerleaders for this achievement either.

Science and public health are anathema to Scott Walker and Tommy Thompson, though Wisconsin can boast that we literally lead the world in research and public health systems because of our public commitment to a rational-scientific worldview.

Wisconsin leads the world in the identification of birds carrying the avian flu and often it seems like there are more illnesses in Wisconsin than elsewhere -- but that is because of the excellence of our health surveillance program.

When H1N1 was first discovered it was tracked extensively by Wisconsin scientists, and now that there has been an outbreak of H3N2, a flu strain to which humans are also susceptible, Wisconsin is ground zero for information on this mutation.

As Wisconsin scientists trace and gather information on diseases, the world benefits from the knowledge gained and the vaccines developed. 

In a very real sense, we can say that the Republican defunding of research such as in stem cells, and ideological distaste are making the world physically sicker, as pathologies go untreated. [Recall the Republican debates in which the prospect of a person (without health insurance) dying was actually applauded by the Republican debate audience.]

Consider the State Lab Mission Statement of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH): "[S]hall develop and provide essential public health laboratory support to communities, agencies and private health providers consistent with the public health goals of the State."

Now, consider Tommy Thompson, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker and the GOP-Tea Party.

These two systems of political forces—one collaborative and scientific; the other ideological, feeding ignorance—do not enjoy a symbiotic relationship.

What drives the Tea Party's worldview onto its radical politics is fear:

Fear of being alive, fear of the other

versus

The joy of discovery and the sharing of our Earth

One hopes this dichotomy—Wisconsin is perfectly situated to use stem cells specifically—becomes a defining political issue.

Wisconsin's Top H1N1 Surveillance

Anecdotal news the last few weeks out of Milwaukee that the H1N1 virus is hitting professional families and today's report that the virus is now widespread in Milwaukee is cause for some alarm.

Below is an updated column on the Wisconsin influenza surveillance system that diagnoses such infections and is called the premier public health program of its kind in the nation, perhaps accounting for the large percentage of reported and confirmed cases here.

Wisconsin's H1N1 (Swine Flu) incidents reveal odd figures on the spread of the disease through the American population with 19 percent of all confirmed cases occurring in Wisconsin.

Of the 17,855 confirmed or probable cases in the United States (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), 3,407 are reported in Wisconsin, equal to some 19 percent of the U.S. population, though Wisconsin comprises only one percent of Americans.

One is thankful for all those public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

The public health commitment that has our A H1N1 (swine flu) numbers so high was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis, according to health and research authorities.

Said Dr. Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health at a lecture in Madison in April:

Pete (Shult), diagnostic virologist [Director, Wisconsin Communicable Disease Division & Emergency Lab Response] at the state lab of hygiene [Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene(WSLH)] did his undergraduate and PhD studies here at UW and then joined the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in 1988. Pete has created what I think is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country. Together with Jeff Davis, who is our chief medical officer for Wisconsin and our state epidemiologist, we are looked at as a state for having this wonderful model surveillance program.

UW Public Research

Scientists here discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - in pigs for example, and that pigs can act as an intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings like A H1N1 (swine flu).

These virus-mixing hosts (like swine that are uniquely susceptible to bird viruses and human viruses) provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Olsen.

Olsen and others had conducted a study with results that "strongly support the hypothesis that people associated with swine production are infected with swine influenza viruses more regularly than the small number of zoonotic infections in the literature would suggest," published in August 2002.

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, our state and the world are more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza than at any point in human history.

The current World Health Organization (WHO) phase of pandemic alert is 6, the peak phase of the pandemic.

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Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Recorded April 17, 2009

H1N1 Virus Still Unpredictable

News that a Wisconsin adolescent died from H1N1 has health authorities on edge, though the virus strain is not as lethal as the normal seasonal flu bugs that hit the world every flu season.

But read between the lines of public health announcements and one perceives worry that the strain could become worse.

The world, with Wisconsin being a model state, has never been as prepared for the surveillance and treatment of a pandemic, but if H1N1 mutates into a more lethal virus, lots of unknowns follow.

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. A Phase 6 designation indicates that a global pandemic is underway. ...

WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus.

This virus strain mutates of course and it evolves in unpredictable ways with unpredictable traits, and the fear is that it could mutate into a more deadly and aggressive strain that provokes the human immune system in a manner like the 1918 Spanish Flu.

Is this remotely possible? What are the odds? Reading the CDC and WHO sites, one won't find epidemiological odds makers on the capacity of a virus to become more lethal. Such is the nature of evolution.

No one serious is debating evolution now; instead watching how this strain evolves, and using science and rational public health messages to ward off a bad situation.

From the WHO - What You Can Do to Stay Healthy

Stay informed. This website will be updated regularly as information becomes available.
Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

Take everyday actions to stay healthy.

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

Find healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety.

Wisconsin's High H1N1 Cases Result of Top Surveillance

News last week of Wisconsin's first A H1N1 (Swine Flu) death reveals odd figures on the spread of the disease through the population.

Of the 11,054 confirmed cases in the United States (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), 2,071 are reported in Wisconsin, equal to some 18 percent of all confirmed American cases, though Wisconsin has only 1 percent of the American population.

Health authorities point out the influenza surveillance system in Wisconsin that diagnoses such infections is the premier public health program of its kind in the nation, and this may account for the large percentage of reported and confirmed cases in Wisconsin.

One is thankful for all those public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

The public health commitment that has our A H1N1 (swine flu) numbers so high was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis.

Said Dr. Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health at a lecture in Madison in April:

"Pete (Shult), diagnostic virologist [Director, Wisconsin Communicable Disease Division & Emergency Lab Response] at the state lab of hygiene [Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene(WSLH)] did his undergraduate and PhD studies here at UW and then joined the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in 1988. Pete has created what I think is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country. Together with Jeff Davis, who is our chief medical officer for Wisconsin and our state epidemiologist, we are looked at as a state for having this wonderful model surveillance program."

UW Public Research

Scientists here discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - in pigs for example, and that pigs can act as an intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings like A H1N1 (swine flu).

These virus-mixing hosts (like swine that are uniquely susceptible to bird viruses and human viruses) provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Olsen.

Olsen and others had conducted a study with results that "strongly support the hypothesis that people associated with swine production are infected with swine influenza viruses more regularly than the small number of zoonotic infections in the literature would suggest," published in August 2002.

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, our state and the world are more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza than at any point in human history.

The current World Health Organization (WHO) phase of pandemic alert is 5.











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Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Time: 47:03
- Recorded April 17, 2009

UW Virologist Puts Swine Flu in Perspective

"Let's not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world," said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

Karen Kaplan and Alan Zarembo of the LA Times offer a precise and less alarmist explanatory piece today, 'Genetic data indicate outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.'

U.W. Madison and Zoonotic Diseases

U.W. Madison has a tutorial website on Zoonotic Diseases, "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," copyrighted by Dr. Olsen, continuing its tradition as a leader in this research field, and a page on Swine Flu.

From University Place - Wisconsin Public Television, below (posted on YouTube) is a lecture by Olsen: "Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings," delivered on April 17, 2009, shortly before the first cases of this strain of Influenza A, (H1N1) virus [Swine Flu] were confirmed by CDC laboratories as occurring in the United States.

Olsen talks about the pioneering research on Zoonotic Diseases (of which Swine flu is a "classic Zoonotic infection") done at UW-Madison the last six decades [noting for example UW scientist Dr. Robert Hanson's research group that first isolated an influenza virus in pigs in 1949 and predicted the emergence of new Zoonotic diseases as ecological and environmental conditions in human and animal "host populations" change, describing perfectly present-day circumstances leading to the emergence of Ebola virus and Swine Flu for instance], 'genetic mixing" and how pigs for example act as an intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings.

A virus needs a host, like a human being or other animal, to successfully reproduce itself.

"Bob Hanson was way, way, way ahead of his time," said Olsen. Great stuff, and so is the Wisconsin Idea and University Place - Wisconsin Public Television!