Campus Researchers Fight to Stop Bird Flu
Responding to the growing threat of a bird flu pandemic, UCSD has begun studying the causes, risk factors and prevention of bird flu in humans. Collaborating closely with both national and international health organizations, researchers are developing ways to understand and contain the flu’s threat to both human and animal health and to provide new methods to control a potential outbreak.
Researchers from San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD are using a computational data grid to study the extent of bird flu virus resistance to the human immune system, providing an international “genetic library” for different strains of bird flu and identifying new leads for drug development and screening.
In addition, UCSD personnel from the California Office of Binational Border Health are currently working with the California Department of Health Services to address regional strategies and readiness for the spread of a possible bird flu pandemic to the California-Mexico border region.
Tijuana A.I.D.S. Cases Skyrocket
The number of Tijuana residents aged 15 to 49 with HIV or A.I.D.S. is increasing more rapidly than expected and may be as high as one case for every 125 people, approaching the United Nations definition of an epidemic, according to the results of a new UCSD-led study.
Located just across the U.S. border, directly south of San Diego, the city of Tijuana, with a population of about 1.2 million, has an A.I.D.S. ratio that is three times higher than the Mexican national average, according to Kimberly C. Brouwer, a UCSD family and preventative medicine professor and the leader of the team that conducted the study.
The model used in the study suggests that injection-drug use and the sex trade may be driving the increasing number of HIV and A.I.D.S. cases. Researchers also found the rate of infection in high-risk groups — men who have sex with men, injection-drug users who share needles, sex workers and pregnant women — were greatly increasing and that Tijuana’s status as a major drug trafficking center may be a contributing factor in the rise of HIV and A.I.D.S. cases.
Carlos Magis-Rodriguez, the director of Mexico’s federal HIV/A.I.D.S. agency and a co-author of the study, indicated that the country would fight the spread of the fatal disease by offering more free testing, advocating the proper use of condoms and increasing the availability of sterile syringes.
UCTV Available Free Online
The University of California has made more than 1,000 hours of UCTV programming available for free viewing on the Google Video service.
UCTV is a 24-hour satellite channel that broadcasts educational and enrichment programming from the university’s 10-campus system, the three national labs that the university manages for the federal government and associations affiliated with the university.
The extensive video library includes interviews, lectures, documentaries and musical performances about many subjects, including public affairs, science, health, medicine, humanities and the arts.
