Worm.com

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 5.5 for Check Point Firewall-1 offers protection from malicious programs, spyware, adware, joke programs and other current threats. The application benefits from a range of optimization technologies that enable it to meet the demands of large organizations that have heavy volumes of traffic. For instance, it employs: intelligent algorithms for delivering data to the end user; a system of event notifications and reports; advanced scalability; and support for the latest hardware platforms.

The product scans all incoming and outgoing traffic, and defines objects …

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Combine reactive and predictive solutions in a layered approach to keeping malware out

Viruses, Trojan horse programs, and spyware have all had a large, and, for too many, a devastating impact on business. Viruses attack both servers and end-user systems constantly. Unfortunately, most IT departments continue to lag behind when it comes to solutions that properly protect users against these attacks. To make matters worse, spyware is still a relatively new concern for most organizations, with products that can detect and remove spyware being introduced only in the past few years. Generally, …

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Europe Information

09-01-2006

The European Commission indicated on 31 August that the French authorities have confirmed an outbreak of bluetongue disease at a farm in the French Ardennes, near the border with Belgium. The virus was confirmed in cattle within the 150 kilometre restriction zone already set up in mid-August in response to outbreaks in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
In view of the rapid spread of the virus in Belgium (46 confirmed outbreaks and suspicions regarding a further 15 farms), the restriction zone was extended to France on 28 August. It now covers all of Belgium …

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We thank Schofield et al. for their interest in our article and for their comments. We would like to clarify that Peterson et al. (2006) is simply a screening-level (tier 1) risk assessment in which we separately and conservatively examined the residential human risks from exposure to West Nile virus (WNV) and mosquito adulticides. As with all screening-level risk assessments, our assessments were not refined, but they did reveal the magnitude of risk compared to relevant end points. As Schofield et al. point out, our article should not be misinterpreted to indicate that the health risks associated with adulticiding are offset by its potential for WNV reduction. This is because we did not conduct a risk-benefit assessment, which was beyond the scope of our study.

Our article (Peterson et al. 2006) represents an initial step in an ongoing multiyear analysis of risk issues associated with certain vectorborne diseases and vector management strategies. We plan to address some of the issues Schofield et al. raise in subsequent papers.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Robert K.D. Peterson

Paula A. Macedo

Ryan S. Davis

Montana State University Bozeman, Montana

E-mail: bpeterson@montana.edu

REFERENCE

Peterson RKD, Macedo PA, Davis RS. 2006. A human-health risk assessment for West Nile virus and insecticides used in mosquito management. Environ Health Perspect 114:366-372.

COPYRIGHT 2006 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a new research method that may help identify the types of genetic changes necessary for the avian influenza virus (H5N1) to be more easily transmitted among people. After developing the research method, CDC scientists used it to investigate the ability of a lab-engineered combination of the avian influenza virus and a more common human virus to spread in lab animals.

Efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission is the remaining property that H5N1 avian influenza viruses do not yet have that is needed to cause a pandemic. In this series of experiments, published in the July 31 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, genes from a human H3N2 influenza virus were added to genes from an H5N1 avian influenza virus to create new hybrid viruses. The new viruses were tested in ferrets because their susceptibility to flu viruses is similar to that of humans. The animals were then placed in close proximity, to see if infected ferrets passed the new virus to uninfected animals and whether they transmitted it more easily than the original H5N1 virus. In this model, human H3N2 viruses transmitted efficiently between the ferrets, but avian H5N1 viruses did not. When the hybrid viruses were tested it was found that these viruses also did not pass easily between ferrets. "This important science has established a new research method to help us learn more, in advance, about the genetic changes that enable new influenza viruses to spread efficiently and in a continuous manner among people," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "H5N1 viruses continue to spread among birds worldwide and their genetic properties are constantly changing. There is an urgent need to better understand how these viruses could acquire the ability to spread efficiently between people." The first characteristic that scientists believe is needed to cause a pandemic is being a new virus to which humans have little or no immunity. The second characteristic is the ability to infect people and cause illness. The CDC studies were designed to help researchers learn what genetic changes would be needed for the virus to gain the remaining trait necessary to cause a pandemic: the ability to spread easily from person to person in a sustained manner within the population. Dr. Taronna Maines and her CD C colleagues designed and tested a research method that involved three elements: ferrets; a caging system that enabled researchers to put healthy and infected animals in close proximity; and reverse genetics, a tool for combining the genes from human and avian influenza viruses. The studies showed that the H3N2 virus passed easily by droplets but the H5N1 virus did not, reflecting what is seen with these viruses in humans. Researchers then swapped genes from a 1997 H5N1 avian flu virus with genes from an H3N2 virus, in a process called reassortment. When tested using the ferret model, these "hybrid" viruses did not pass easily between ferrets and, in fact, caused less severe disease than the original H5N1 virus. The reassortment work was designed to mirror the phenomenon that occurs in nature when two flu viruses combine to form a new virus, a process that led to the 1957 and 1968 pandemics. It is still unknown whether the H5N1 virus could reassort with a human influenza virus in nature.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Healthcare Purchasing News
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII), Portland, Ore., announced today that it has entered patients to fill two new cohorts to extend the duration of treatment with AVI-4065 in its hepatitis C virus (HCV) clinical trial. One cohort will be treated twice daily for 28 days and the second will receive therapy twice daily for 56 days. This extension of the treatment duration from 14 days to 28 days and 56 days is the first of several variables that the company is considering.

This extension of duration of treatment is based on pharmacokinetic indications from previous cohorts, including …

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Fortinet — the pioneer and leading provider
of multi-threat security solutions — was recently featured as a security
industry expert in an evening ABC News broadcast recognizing the 20th
anniversary of the computer virus.

In the Aug. 24 news segment, hosted by reporter David Louie, Fortinet’s
Vice President of Marketing Chris Roeckl discusses the evolution of the
computer virus from the historical one-off attacks to the now predominant
sophisticated blended threats and malicious attacks. The broadcast can be
streamed online at:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=business&id=4494545 .

Fortinet provides comprehensive protection from network and content
security threats through its family of FortiGate multi-threat security
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latest viruses, worms, Trojans, and other threats — around the clock, and
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About Fortinet ( www.fortinet.com )

Fortinet is the pioneer and leading provider of ASIC-accelerated
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Fortinet solutions were built from the ground up to integrate multiple
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prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and antispam — providing customers a
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solutions with integrated management and reporting. Fortinet solutions have
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that are certified eight times over by the ICSA (firewall, antivirus,
IPSec, SSL, IDS, client antivirus detection, cleaning and antispyware).
Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.

Media Contacts:
Jennifer Leggio
Fortinet, Inc.
+1 408-486-7876
jleggio@fortinet.com

Michelle Spolver
Fortinet, Inc.
+1 408-486-7837
mspolver@fortinet.com

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Peterson et al. (2006) compared the risk of ground-based ultra-low-volume (ULV) adulticiding against the risk of West Nile virus (WNV). They concluded that

  [B]y virtually any current human-health measure, the risks from
  infection by WNV exceed the risks from exposure to mosquito
  insecticides. Therefore, perceptions that human-health risks from
  the insecticides used to control adult mosquitoes are greater than
  the risks from WNV currently cannot be supported by the current
  scientific evidence.

We appreciate their elegant analysis of health risks associated with residential exposure to ground-based ULV adulticides, and we concur that such risks are very low. However, we are concerned that their risk-risk comparison may be misinterpreted to indicate that the human health risk associated with adulticiding is more than offset by its potential for WNV disease reduction. Peterson et al. (2006) did not provide data to support this. Such a risk-benefit comparison requires at least two refinements.

First, it needs to take into account intervention effectiveness. Although it is not unreasonable to expect some benefit, it is unlikely that adulticiding is completely (or even mostly) effective. Hence, a risk-benefit comparison would need to address the likely situation of adulticiding being substantially < 100% effective, for example, by reducing estimates of adulticiding-based benefit by a factor of 1/x, where x represents the effectiveness of adulticiding.

Second, it needs to discount benefit based on upstream interventions. Adulticiding often takes place in the context of an integrated mosquito/WNV management program. In this situation, upstream approaches (e.g., larviciding, personal protection) discount the attributable benefit of downstream interventions (e.g., adulticiding). For example, use of larviciding and personal protection, respectively, providing y and z effectiveness, reduces the potential benefit of adulticiding by a factor of 1/[(1 - y) x (1 - z)].

Where upstream interventions are used and are fairly effective and adulticiding is not (or even if it is), adulticiding-attributable disease reduction may by substantially less than overall WNV risk. For example, if larviciding is 75% effective, personal protection 90% effective, and adulticiding 10% effective, the risk reduction achieved through adulticiding would be 1/400th of the overall risk of WNV-related disease; that is,

Overall risk/{1/[(x) x (1 - y) x (1 - z)]}.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Steve Schofield

Martin Tepper

Janick Lalonde

Directorate of Force Health Protection Canadian Forces Health Services Group Headquarters

Department of National Defence Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

E-mail: schofield.sw@forces.gc.ca

REFERENCE

Peterson RKD, Macedo PA, Davis RS. 2006. A human-health risk assessment for West Nile virus and insecticides used in mosquito management. Environ Health Perspect 114:366-372.

COPYRIGHT 2006 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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THE TABLE TURNED DRAMATICALLY on a trafficker on 21 August 2006–her arrest was brought about by a woman she had sold into prostitution over seven years earlier.

Passing through New Delhi station, Seelu recognized Rukmani and, feigning an interest in buying girls herself, kept her distracted long enough for Shakti Vahini social workers to arrive on the scene and summon the police. Rukmani was evidently minutes away from handing over a 22-year-old girl from Maharashtra and her two children to operators of a GB Road brothel. The case is currently under investigation and the net is closing on other figures implicated in Seelu’s enforced prostitution.*

On the eve of the festival of Ganesha, passionately celebrated in India for a god whose special power is in removing obstacles, Seelu may well sense a providential hand in this extraordinary chance encounter; but credit is due to her own presence of mind and to all those who have helped her quietly rebuild her life since her rescue two years ago. Ravi Kant of Shakti Vahini writes that the latest research in India indicates that fewer than 10 per cent of trafficked girls are rescued, with as many as two thirds of them re-trafficked.** Seelu is in a very rare category of rescued girls, who see a measure of justice finally done against traffickers and other people responsible for their subsequent exploitation.

Seelu’s action saved another woman and her children from the same horrible fate that had befallen her, but she may have achieved something with far wider ramifications. For years, Rukmani operated in a poor district of Maharashtra, from where many girls are trafficked. A diary was recovered giving details of her contacts in the red light areas of Mumbai and Delhi. It is a major intelligence find and the Union Government Home Minister, which has represented the district, has been approached to back a full inquiry into all missing girls.

Seelu may ultimately be instrumental in the rescue of many other girls, who will have the experience of seeing their traffickers brought to justice. This is her moment of achievement, so the last words belong to her: "I knew immediately what Rukmani was about to do with the young girl who was with her. Rukmani’s work destroys women’s lives, but purposeful work strengthens women. It’s my hope to do more such work and succeed in catching more such people. I want to fight against them." With a little wistful thinking about her two children, who now live in a boarding school, she adds: "The girl with Rukmani will now be able to bring up her own children. I hope that God grant me the same opportunity."

* This is a follow-up to Michael Parker’s article, "India’s Other Virus: Human Trafficking and the Spread of HIV", published in UN Chronicle, Issue 2, 2006.

** Trafficking in Women and Children in India (2006). Institute of Social Studies, National Human Rights Commission, United Nations Development Fund for Women.

COPYRIGHT 2006 United Nations Publications
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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