Influenza Virus Mashup

(Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:09:00 +0000)

 

 

 

# 5850

 

Although we tend to focus on communicable diseases in this blog, in truth, in a normal year about 60% of all deaths are due to NCDs; Non Communicable Diseases.

 

The four biggest contributors to NCDs around the world are:

• cardiovascular disease
• cancer
• chronic lung diseases
• diabetes

Last week the World Health Organization released a detailed profile of the burden of NCDs on 193 countries, stating that (in 2008) more than 9 million of all deaths attributed to NCDs occurred in those under the age of 60. And the overwhelming majority (90%) occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

 

Individual country NCD Profiles may be downloaded and viewed at NCD country profiles: A-Z list of country profiles.

 

Each country’s profile is summarized on a single page as depicted below:

 

The entire global report is available at:

Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011

 

This week (Sept. 19th & 20th) the World Health Organization will convene an international meeting in New York City to consider the prevention and control noncommunicable diseases. 

 

Details on that meeting can be found at:

 

United Nations high-level meeting on noncommunicable disease prevention and control

Date: 19-20 September 2011
Place: New York, USA

Facts about NCDs

• 36 million people die annually from NCDs.
• 63% of all global deaths are due to NCDs.
• 9 million people die too young from NCDs, before the age of 60.

10 facts on NCDs

Fact sheets on chronic diseases

 

 

In an attempt to reduce the global burden of NCDs, the WHO has released a couple of studies to coincide with this meeting.

 

New WHO study details low-cost solutions to help curb the tide on noncommunicable diseases

Strategies to prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for just US$ 1.20 per person per year

News release

18 September 2011 | New York | Geneva - A new WHO study reveals that low-income countries could introduce a core set of strategies to prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for just US$ 1.20 per person per year.

 

"Noncommunicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, killing ever more people each year. Nearly 80 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries," says Dr Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health at WHO. "The challenge to these countries is tremendous, but this study proves that there are affordable steps all governments can take to address noncommunicable diseases."

(Continue . . .)

 

• Scaling up action against noncommunicable diseases: How much will it cost?
• From burden to "best buys": Reducing the economic impact of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries

 

 

The `Best Buys’ report above, prepared by the WHO, the World Economic Forum, and the Harvard School of Public Health states:

 

Under a “business as usual” scenario where intervention efforts remain static and rates of NCDs continue to increase as populations grow and age, cumulative economic losses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from the four diseases are estimated to surpass US$ 7 trillion over the period 2011-2025 (an average of nearly US$ 500 billion per year).

 

This yearly loss is equivalent to approximately 4% of these countries’ current annual output. On a per-person basis, the annual losses amount to an average of US $25 in low-income countries, US$ 50 in lower middle-income countries and US$ 139 in upper middle-income countries.

 

By contrast, findings from the second study by the WHO indicate that the price tag for scaled-up implementation of a core set of NCD “best buy” intervention strategies is comparatively low.

 

Population-based measures for reducing tobacco and harmful alcohol use, as well as unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, are estimated to cost US$ 2 billion per year for all LMICs – less than US$ 0.40 per person. Individual-based NCD “best buy” interventions – which range from counselling and drug therapy for cardiovascular disease to measures to prevent cervical cancer – bring the total annual cost to US$ 11.4 billion.

 

On a per-person basis, the annual investment ranges from under US$ 1 in low-income countries to US$ 3 in upper middle-income countries.

 

To learn more about NCDs, and what can be done to reduce their impacts, the WHO provides the following links.

 

ABOUT NCDs

Four diseases

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Diabetes

Four risk factors

• Tobacco use
• Unhealthy diet
• Harmful use of alcohol
• Physical inactivity

 

Aside from the humanitarian aspects, as with most health issues, prevention and early intervention are far more cost effective than ignoring the problem.

Dhaka, Sep 18 – Bangladesh will share a new strain of bird flu virus, identified as a possible pandemic threat, with US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) to develop ‘seed virus,’ key ingredient to make a vaccine in emergency. “We will share the vaccine for scientific use,”

(Snip)

he confirmed about the sharing of the H9N2 strain of bird flu-A/Bangladesh/0994/2011 (H9N2). The strain was found in humans in March and recently confirmed by US CDC after its sequencing.

The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has detected the virus, mild in nature, through its countrywide surveillance.
“But it has the potential to be a pandemic threat,” (Snip) the alarm, as the virus can reassort with H5N1-also ‘widespread’ in the country-with its changing strains.

“If clades 2.2; 3.2 of H5N1 and new H9N2 mutate, it can be devastating,” he said, “but nothing can be predicted about virus.”

http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=206410&cid=13

(The fact that we are hearing about this 6 months later greatly concerns me. And people wonder why we always think information is being with held from us (the public)!-cottontop

(Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:14:00 +0000)

 

 

# 5849

 

 

To go along with my blog earlier today (see Dr. Robert Webster’s bird flu concerns), we’ve a report from Bangladesh on an agreement to share samples of the H9N2 bird flu virus with the U.S. CDC for development of a seed vaccine.

 

As has been mentioned here before, H9N2 – while generally producing mild symptoms in humans and poultry – is considered to have pandemic potential.

 

The concern is that it could reassort (swap genes) with other influenza viruses (including H5N1), producing a more virulent and easily transmissible strain.

 

First today’s report from bdnews24.com  (h/t Treyfish on FluTrackers), and then I’ll return with more.

 

 

B’desh to help make bird flu vaccine

Sun, Sep 18th, 2011 9:24 pm BdST

 

Nurul Islam Hasib bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent

Dhaka, Sep 18 (bdnews24.com) – Bangladesh will share a new strain of bird flu virus, identified as a possible pandemic threat, with US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) to develop ’seed virus,’ key ingredient to make a vaccine in emergency.

"We will share the vaccine for scientific use," health secretary Muhammad Humayun Kabir told bdnews24.com on Sunday as he confirmed about the sharing of the H9N2 strain of bird flu—A/Bangladesh/0994/2011 (H9N2).

(Continue . . . )

 

 

This article mentions human infections from H9N2 were detected in Bangladesh last March, although no details are provided.  FluTrackers did pick up an FAO/EMPRES report on a human case during that time period which you can read here.

 

Since H9N2 circulates in regions of the world where influenza testing is rarely done, we don’t really know how often this virus infects humans. Over the past dozen years a small handful of cases have been identified – mostly in Hong Kong (see CIDRAP Avian Influenza (Bird Flu): Implications for Human Disease).

 

Adding to the concern, just last week a study was published that looked at level of antibodies to H5N1 and H9N2 flu viruses among rural villagers in Thailand.

 

Evidence for Subclinical Avian Influenza Virus Infections Among Rural Thai Villagers

Clinical Infectious Diseases Volume53, Issue8 Pp. e107-e116

Benjawan P. Khuntirat1, In-Kyu Yoon1, Patrick J. Blair2, Whitney S. Krueger3,4, Malinee Chittaganpitch5, Shannon D. Putnam2, Krongkaew Supawat5, Robert V. Gibbons1, Sirima Pattamadilok5, Pathom Sawanpanyalert5, Gary L. Heil3,4, John A. Friary3,4, Ana W. Capuano6, and Gregory C. Gray3,4

 

 

In testing 800 villagers they found 38 (4.7%) who were seropositive for the Hong Kong H9N2 flu strain, 45 (5.6%) had antibodies to A/Thailand/676/2005 H5N1, and 28 (3.5%) were shown to be seropositive to A/Thailand/384/2006 H5N1.

 

Interestingly, direct exposure to poultry was not found to be associated with positive serologic findings for any of these avian strains.

 

This study – while limited – suggests that mild (or possibly subclinical) infections by these avian viruses may be occurring in parts of Asia.  

 

Despite causing rare human infection, these avian viruses need to acquire genetic changes before they could spark a pandemic. Which is why we concern ourselves with their ability to reassort with other flu strains.

 

Reassortment (or Shift), happens when two different influenza viruses co-infect the same host and swap genetic material.

 

 

Influenza A viruses have 8 gene segments (PB2, PB1, PA, HA, NP, NA, M1, M2, NS1, NS2).

 

Which means that any two compatible influenza viruses could conceivably – and under the right conditions – generate 256 different combinations by swapping one or more of their 8 (potentially) interchangeable gene segments.

 

 

Last February in PNAS: Reassortment Of H1N1 And H9N2 Avian viruses we saw research from Chinese scientists that created – using reverse genetics – 128 reassorted viruses from the avian H9N2 virus and the (formerly pandemic) H1N1 virus.

 

In mouse testing, they found half of the hybrid viruses were biologically `fit’ as far as replication goes, and 8 hybrids were significantly more pathogenic than either of their parental viruses.

 

Research such as this shows the potential for the H9N2 virus to move towards a more `humanized’ pathogen. And with H1N1 and H9N2 both known to be circulating in pigs in Asia, there are ample opportunities for them to co-infect the same host.

 

A few notable H9N2 stories from the past include:

• In December 2008 Revisiting A Malik Peiris Interview On H9N2

• In January of 2010, in H9N2: The Other Bird Flu Threat

• And just this past November Study: The Continuing Evolution Of Avian H9N2

 

Unlike the H7 and H5 avian flu strains, poultry (and swine) infections by the H9N2 virus are not required to be reported to the OIE.  So we have far less data on how widespread H9N2 might be.

 

As we saw in 2009, sometimes a pandemic virus will emerge from an unexpected source, and with a surprising lineage. While the world was waiting for an H5 bird flu to emerge from Asia, we were blindsided by a H1N1 swine flu from North America.

 

All of which highlights the importance of establishing better global surveillance of humans, and farm animals, for the next emerging influenza virus. 

 

Regardless of its strain.

Laidback Al at FluTrackers has an important and disturbing post: West Jarkarta H5N1 family cluster in 2009 finally reported. Excerpt:

During the calendar year of 2009, Indonesia failed to report human H5N1 cases to WHO as required by International Health Regulations. Finally, on December 28, 2009 the Ministry of Health in Indonesia, DEPKES, announced a total 20 human cases for 2009 with 19 deaths. See: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho…d.php?t=137869 

No information was ever released on any of these cases, and even now, two years later, WHO simply notes these case in its summary table as “Indonesia numbers indicate cumulative total of sporadic cases and deaths which occurred during 2009.” 

The translation in paragraph 2 below sheds light on two or perhaps three of these 20 cases from Indonesia in 2009. The translation indicates that there was a family cluster of H5N1 infections in early June (?) 2009 in West Jakarta where a mother, her child, and a nephew were infected. The mother died and the two children apparently survived. 

Obviously, this cluster did not result in a human outbreak of H5N1 in Jakarta, but the lack of timely reporting of H5N1 cases by the Indonesian government is disturbing. Also, the fact that two individuals in this cluster survived, yet the official DEPKES report only identified one survivor in 2009, calls into question the official reporting policies for H5N1 cases by the government of Indonesia.

Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary has an excellent post: Robert Webster on The Bird Flu Threat. As he does so well, Mike has taken the basic news item and then related it to other reports and the back story. I always finish his posts better informed than when I began them.

(Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:53:00 +0000)

 

 

# 5848

 

 

I know Crof already posted excerpts last night, but the interview and bird flu backgrounder with Dr. Robert G. Webster that appeared yesterday in The Guardian is certainly worthy of further mention. 

 

Webster, as most of you know, is one of the world’s most acclaimed virologists, and is the head of the virology department of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

 

 

Robert Webster: ‘We ignore bird flu at our peril’

With the UN issuing renewed warnings and a Hollywood disaster movie stoking our fears, bird flu is back in the news. We meet the man who first warned of a pandemic 50 years ago – and who is worried again now

 

Like many flu observers, Webster finds the evolution of the H5N1 virus in Egypt of particular concern.

 

Egypt has reported the greatest number of human infections over the past couple of years, and the virus has shown signs it may be slowly adapting more towards human physiology (see PLoS: Human-Type H5N1 Receptor Binding In Egypt).

 

While Webster’s greatest concern is with the H5N1 bird flu virus – mostly due to its high lethality - he acknowledges that other pandemic flu threats exist, and mentions the H9N2 avian virus which is widespread across much of Asia.

 

Earlier this summer (see PNAS: Reassortment Potential Of Avian H9N2) we looked at some of the ways that this avian virus could reassort into a more easily transmitted pathogen.

 

Last week, another virologist with impeccable credentials – Professor John Oxford, Scientific Director of Retroscreen Virology Ltd. and a Professor of Virology at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital – expressed his own pandemic concerns in a online webinar (see Webinar: John Oxford On Pandemic Preparedness).

 

And 3 weeks ago, in Professor Peter Doherty On Bird Flu, we looked at his worries on the possibility that the H5N1 virus might one day swap genes (reassort) with the H1N1 virus and produce an easily transmitted, highly virulent flu strain.

 

And indeed, just last Friday we saw research (see Study: Reassorted H1N1-H5N1 Produced Virulent Strain) where a laboratory-created reassortant virus with genes taken from the H5N1 and H1N1 virus produced a highly transmissible and virulent strain.

 

Of course, while the world was waiting for bird flu, in 2009 a Swine flu virus unexpectedly sparked a global pandemic. We were fortunate that it wasn’t any more severe than it was, but it illustrates that there are many ways a pandemic can evolve.

 

 

 

Detections of  trH3N2 swine flu viruses in Pennsylvania and Indiana over the past month are a fresh reminder of the need for establishing better global surveillance of humans, and of farm animals, in order to detect the next emerging influenza virus before it can spread widely.

 

There is a chance, albeit it small, that a limited outbreak could be stopped if detected early enough. 

 

That was done successfully in Hong Kong in 1997 when the H5N1 virus first emerged.

 

While it is always possible that the next pandemic will spring directly from the wild, the odds favor that it will come from a farm – where large numbers of animals intermingle, swap viruses, and come in daily contact with humans.

 

For more on the reassortment potential of avian, swine, and human flu viruses, you can’t do better than  Helen Branswell’s excellent Scientific American article from last December called Flu Factories, or her SciAm Podcast interview.

 

And for good measure, a sampling of a few of my earlier blogs on reassortment:

 

Review: Evolution & Adaptation Of The 2009 pdmH1N1 Virus

You Say You Want An Evolution?

EID Journal: Co-Infection By Influenza Strains

EID Journal: Swine Flu Reassortants In Pigs

If You’ve Seen One Triple Reassortant Swine Flu Virus . . .

 

 

Although we could get lucky and go years - or even decades - before the next pandemic emerges, another one could just as easily start tomorrow.

 

As Dr. Webster points out, we ignore these risks at our own peril.

Robert Webster: ‘We ignore bird flu at our peril’
With the UN issuing renewed warnings and a Hollywood disaster movie stoking our fears, bird flu is back in the news. We meet the man who first warned of a pandemic 50 years ago – and who is worried again now.
(Snip)
“I haven’t seen the film yet but bird flu is the real killer lurking in the shadows,” says Robert Webster, the world’s pre-eminent expert on bird flu, when I catch up with him en route from Oxford to Malta where he has back-to-back influenza conferences. “Nature has already shown us that there is a virus out there that kills 50% of the people it infects. We ignore it at our peril.”

It is a warning that Webster, a virologist known as the “pope of bird flu”, has been sounding for more than 50 years, initially to the scepticism of his peers but to growing respect more recently. The virus that keeps Webster awake at night is H5N1.
(Snip)
it was the resurgence of human infections in Thailand and Vietnam in 2003, followed by outbreaks on chicken farms across Asia, the Middle East and eastern Europe in 2005 that made H5N1 a household name, while the H1N1 swine-flu outbreak of 2009 prompted the World Health Organisation to declare a pandemic. “We were extremely lucky in 2009,” he says.

“Nature didn’t put in the killer genes, that’s all.”

At the same time, Webster insists, the threat from H5N1 has not gone away. On the contrary, if the latest the scientific data are to be believed, a new “mutant” strain of the virus, codenamed 2.3.2., has already moved from China and Vietnam to central Asia and eastern Europe, spread by migratory waterfowl.

Meanwhile, in H5N1 “hotspots” such as Egypt, where another variant is endemic in the poultry industry, the virus continues to kill people in significant numbers.

As Webster told an international gathering of flu experts at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, earlier this month: “Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza appears to be spreading into Eurasia again, most likely carried by wild bird migrations. It’s only a matter of time before it comes to the Americas.”
Webster, who is 79 and was raised on a farm in New Zealand, has spent half his life on the trail of bird flu. Based at the Department of Infectious Diseases at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where he presides over the world’s only laboratory studying the human-animal interface in flu, Webster has incubated thousands of chicken’s eggs in search of life-saving vaccines and has fostered the careers of scores of researchers.
(Large Snip)

“What people don’t appreciate is that H5N1 has already been the cause of a chicken apocalypse. Once it learns to go human to human there’ll be no stopping the damn thing.”

Full article is well worth reading:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/17/bird-flu-swine-flu-warning

Via The Observer, a long, fascinating article: Robert Webster: 'We ignore bird flu at our peril'. Excerpt:

"I haven't seen the film [Contagion] yet but bird flu is the real killer lurking in the shadows," says Robert Webster, the world's pre-eminent expert on bird flu, when I catch up with him en route from Oxford to Malta where he has back-to-back influenza conferences. 

"Nature has already shown us that there is a virus out there that kills 50% of the people it infects. We ignore it at our peril." 

It is a warning that Webster, a virologist known as the "pope of bird flu", has been sounding for more than 50 years, initially to the scepticism of his peers but to growing respect more recently. The virus that keeps Webster awake at night is H5N1. 

The bird flu virus first emerged as a public health risk in 1997 when it caused 16 human infections and six fatalities in Hong Kong, prompting Margaret Chan, Hong Kong's then director of public health and now director-general of the World Health Organisation, to close the territory's wet markets and initiate a mass poultry cull. 

However, it was the resurgence of human infections in Thailand and Vietnam in 2003, followed by outbreaks on chicken farms across Asia, the Middle East and eastern Europe in 2005 that made H5N1 a household name, while the H1N1 swine-flu outbreak of 2009 prompted the World Health Organisation to declare a pandemic. 

"We were extremely lucky in 2009," he says. "Nature didn't put in the killer genes, that's all."  

At the same time, Webster insists, the threat from H5N1 has not gone away. On the contrary, if the latest the scientific data are to be believed, a new "mutant" strain of the virus, codenamed 2.3.2., has already moved from China and Vietnam to central Asia and eastern Europe, spread by migratory waterfowl. 

Meanwhile, in H5N1 "hotspots" such as Egypt, where another variant is endemic in the poultry industry, the virus continues to kill people in significant numbers. 

As Webster told an international gathering of flu experts at St Hilda's College, Oxford, earlier this month: "Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza appears to be spreading into Eurasia again, most likely carried by wild bird migrations. It's only a matter of time before it comes to the Americas."

(Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:31:24 GMT)

Reminder: Please do not post whole articles, just snippets and links, and do not post articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thanks!

Australia

?  New theory on why CSL’s flu vaccine caused febrile convulsions in children (Link)

Canada

?  Serious outcomes in pregnant Canadians with H1N1 lower than in other groups (Link)

Kuwait

?  No orders for closure of poultry shops over bird flu concerns (Link)

Thailand

?  Thai villagers show seroprevalence to 3 avian flu strains (Link)

United States

?  MO: Zoo will study connections between animal, human health (Link)

Commentary

?  Robert Webster: ‘We ignore bird flu at our peril’ (Link)

?  Recombinomics: Absence of Influenza A Subtyping Increases Pandemic Concerns (Link)

?  H (Link)

News for September 17, 2011 is here.

Thanks to all of the newshounds! Special thanks to the newshound volunteers who translate international stories - thanks for keeping us all informed!

Other useful links:

WHO A(H1N1) Site

WHO H5N1 human case totals, last updated August 19, 2011
Charts and Graphs on H5N1 from WHO
Google Flu Trends
CDC Weekly Influenza Summary
Map of seasonal influenza in the U.S.
CIDPC (Canada) Weekly FluWatch
UK RCGP Weekly Data on Communicable and Respiratory Diseases
Flu Wiki Main Page

(Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:59:00 +0000)

 

Note: This is day 17 of National Preparedness Month.  Follow this year’s campaign on Twitter by searching for the #NPM11 hash tag.

This month, as part of NPM11, I’ll be rerunning some edited and updated older preparedness essays, along with some new ones.

 

# 5847

 

During a disaster, telephone service - whether via landline or cell phone - may be compromised. Even if the phone system remains intact, the service may overwhelmed by excessive traffic.

 

Note: Text messaging will sometimes work even when voice communications are down. 

 

Even if voice comms are available, during a crisis texting whenever possible is still preferable, because it places a lower burden on the phone system.

 

It can be advantageous, therefore, to have a backup form of short-range communications for when phones are either unavailable or are simply not the best solution.

 

As a liveaboard sailor, I spent several years without a telephone (or A/C, refrigeration, & running water for that matter). When we weren’t staying in a marina, cruising aboard a sailboat could be the ultimate in social isolation.

 

Sure, some days we’d gather on larger boats, or dockside, or on some isolated beach and kill some beers and tell some lies. But often we went days without direct human contact.

 

Of course, boaters just about all have a VHF radio aboard, and that was our link to one another.

 

Usually twice each day, in an anchorage of any size, we’d have a `radio roundup’, where each boater would check in via the radio. If anyone needed anything, whether it was a recipe, a doctor, or a spare part, they could put out the call on the radio net.

 

Once `business’ was taken care of, chit-chat ensued.

 

With multiple channels available, Boater A would often call upon Boater B to `meet me on Channel X’, and they could depart and talk without cluttering main channel.

 

If a boater failed to check in, someone would usually row over and knock on their boat and make sure they were alright.

 

During an emergency - like an earthquake, flood, hurricane (or even a pandemic) - these same procedures could prove invaluable for just about any neighborhood or community.

 

While VHF radios are expensive, and overkill for most neighborhood settings, there is an easy alternative; FRS radio or Family Radio Service.

 

These are not your father’s walkie-talkies.

 

They operate on a UHF band and are more reliable, and are less prone to static, than the old CB radio. And they are surprisingly inexpensive.

 

As regular readers are aware, I am a big proponent of the `disaster buddy’ concept - working with your friends and neighbors during an emergency (see In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?).

 

Whether you live in a suburban neighborhood or an apartment complex, or a trailer park, these little radios can provide a ready way to communicate with your `disaster buddies’, even if your phone lines or cellular service are down.

 

For those walking a neighborhood watch patrol, they give an easy way to communicate with others patrolling the neighborhood, or with a home base.

 

For home security, they are hard to beat. One person can be watching a back door, while you monitor the front door, and you can communicate without shouting.

 

Or someone can go outside to check out a perceived threat, bring in supplies, or assist a neighbor and still remain in communications with the folks in the main house.

 

During a pandemic, earthquake, severe storm, search & rescue operation, or any other local or national emergency, they would be a valuable tool.

 

I own the Motorola T5000, and paid $28 for a pair. Other models are available from as little as $20 a pair. For $100, you could equip yourself, and 6 - 8 neighbors with transceivers. Not a bad bang for the buck.

 

These units can be purchased at WalMart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Kmart, or practically any major department store. You can also order them online.

 

During a crisis, If you set up your own radio net meeting schedule (say 8am and 8pm), you can make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.

 

If power is available, and you elect to go with the rechargeable units, you can leave them on standby and in the charger 24/7, and anyone can holler if they have a problem.

 

While the claims of a 5 mile or 8 mile range should be taken with a large grain of salt (think boulder-sized), depending on terrain and man-made obstacles, they can be pretty effective for up to 1 mile.

 

As with most things, the more you pay, the more you get.

 

Tech Details (United States)

FRS radios do not require a license.

You may operate on up to 14 channels with an output of 1/2 watt. Some FRS radios (like mine) also give you an additional 8 channels of GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) which may utilize up to 5 watts of power.

 

YOU DO NEED A LICENSE to operate on the GMRS bands. But the range of communication will be several time farther than FRS.

 

If you buy a hybrid unit, you do not need a license to use the lower 14 channels.

While 14 channels may not seem like a lot, each channel can incorporate up to 38 different `privacy codes’, which can block the reception of others on your channel.

 

These CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System) codes effectively give you 532 channels of operation, if you desire. Just set up a common code for your radio net, and you won’t hear other’s and it is likely that other’s won’t hear you.

 

NOTE: This is not `secure-comms’, because anyone with an FRS radio can turn off this feature and hear all traffic on any channel.

 

Most units also provide a channel scan feature, which will pick up traffic on all 14 channels. Other features (dependant on price) include built in GPS, battery indicators, backlighting of dial, VOX support, ear buds, and even vibrating alert.

 

You other big decision will be the power source. Most units come with rechargeable batteries and a a duel charging stand. You will need 110 volt power, or a battery/inverter setup to keep these charged.

 

You can also buy units that run off of AAA batteries, in which case you will need lots of replacement batteries. Talk time on disposable batteries is reportedly between 20 and 30 hours. Use the higher output GMRS bands, and that will go down.

 

As I have a solar panel/battery/inverter setup I elected to go with the charging stand. You can read about my system, and how you can make one for yourself at Preparedness: Solar Power On A Budget.

 

 

If you have neighbors you’d like to remain in contact with, or need a way for a family member to remain in contact while outside or on the other side of the house, these little gems will likely to the job.