Dr. Stephen Kuster-Ambassadorial Scholar-Epidemiology

Gene introduced our speaker Stephen with an extensive list of great qualities and experiences. Stephen travels, hikes, and bikes and is from the land of Switzerland who is already an M.D. He is studying infectious diseases including swine flu which he will tell us about. He is presently studying here in Toronto, has a Doctoral thesis, a Research Fellowship, has worked with Cardio diseases, studied hypnosis and is a member of the Swiss Science Foundation. Stephen’s wife Daniella is also an M.D. and their four month old daughter Luanna, travelled from Switzerland to be with Stephen during his time here.

Stephen began his talk by telling us he is at U of T studying Clinical Epidemiology. He showed us a beautiful picture of himself less than 2 years old wielding an axe almost as tall as he was. He was born on July 11, 1977 in Altstatten and lives in Diepoldsau. His mother Zita is a commercial clerk and his father Alfred is a master carpenter. His sister’s name is Anny. Stephen was married to Daniela on September 3, 2005 - I sent him an email wishing them both a Happy Anniversary. The supporting Rotary Club in Switzerland, is Winterthur.

He projected a map of Europe and one of Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, and told of four official languages, the north east German, next to France French, south near Italy Italian, palm trees there and the fourth Romanic. Stephen lives in the north east corner of Switzerland bordering on Austria. Displays of watches, chocolate, cheese, the Alps, insurance, cows, and such are notions reflecting Switzerland. He showed pictures of his home area with a flooding river and his father’s shop.

In 2004 he received his degree as a MD and had a residency in Internal Medicine from 2003-2006. There he focused on pulmonary research and was part of an antibiotic stewardship. Finding that pneumonia is no longer affected by penicillin is part of the type of work done in antibiotic stewardship and making recommendations to lessen resistance to use of antibiotics is a natural outcome of that work. In 2007 Stephen had Research Fellowship in Infectious Diseases and in 2008-2009 a Clinical Fellowship in the same. Now he is studying Clinical Epidemiology and design research at U of T. This was all part of his Hindsight section.

His Insight section gave an illustrated graph of antibiotic use/misuse in major countries and his publications and wanting to do other than write publications, he searched and found the M Sc course at U of T - Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research and thus will be able to teach and influence health care professionals. The details are shown at http://www.hpme.utoronto.ca/about/gradprograms/mscphd-ce.htm

In Foresight, Stephen projected the image of an influenza virus anatomy. There are two proteins on the surface of the cell. One is H and one is N. The combination of these two proteins is the flu virus and in the strain of the H1N1, such is the identifying letter and digit use. Other strains have another digit use. These surface proteins have different arrangements as did the H3N2. The antigenic shift occurred in 6 weeks across the world whereas WHO expected it to take 6 months. The H5N1 will need a focus on health care workers so that there are healthy people to care for those that become ill.

Each year’s flu vaccine contains three flu strains, 2 of A and one of B. After vaccination, your body produces antibodies against the three strains. If you are exposed to any of the 3 strains, the antibodies will latch onto the virus’s HA antigens, preventing the virus from attaching to healthy cells. Influenza genes made of RNA are more prone to mutations than those of DNA. If the HA gene changes, the new antigen changes shape and newly mutated virus can infect the body’s cells. The genetic change that enables a flu strain to jump from one species to another is called an antigenic shift. A bird strain of influenza A can jump directly from a duck to humans. It could also go to an intermediate animal host before going to a human. When different viruses infect the same cell (from a human and from an intermediary), the genes mix to yield a new strain. The new strain can spread from the intermediate host to humans. The new virus then becomes a pandemic.

Many questions followed Stephen’s talk. Has the virus mutated? Yes Is the vaccine ready yet? In Canada mid Nov. How do we protect yourself? Wash your hands and get the flu shot. Is a particular age more prone? H1N1 more often in the young. H3N2 more so the elderly. How easy is the flu to diagnose against more common colds etc? Know your body - if a high fever, whole body aches and muscle pain, that’s flu. Should we be vaccinated against normal flu and H1N1? Yes, be vaccinated for the two. How long will you be here? One more year, planned 18 months but it may be 2 years until research is finished. Who will experience the most with the flu? Those with low resistance, intensive care and burn units. Does overusing antibiotics have any relation to SARS? No, just another respiratory inflection, it is a real threat because it jumps one to one. Which population will WHO recommend be inoculated first? Those at high risk.

Stephen thanked Rotary for his opportunity to study.

Attendance

There were 38 in attendance today with two visiting Rotarians, Viresh Mathur, the President of the Scarborough Bluffs Club and Sadrudin Nanji, President of the Rotary Club of Limete Kinshasa visiting from the Democratic Republic of Congo (District 9510). Several wives/sweethearts of Scarborough Rotarians attended today including Lillian, Sandra and Marion. We welcomed again our fourth and a returning guest Diana Wilson.

Announcements

Mike C. reminded us on their fireside meeting at his home and asked us to use the classifications of Rotary membership to twig onto possible new prospects. He told us of a September 8 meeting re the Foundation at the Ramada if we are interested in learning about the Foundation.

Mike and Sandra’s son Matthew has a job at Big Al’s Fish Wrangler. Mike is looking forward to saving money on his allowance.

Norm told us of the Foundation Walk September 27. Mike C. will send out sign up pledge sheets for us and will bring copies next week. Our President will walk on the 27th.

.Woods Cunningham Wheel

Sandra spun the wheel and Chris thanked her for picking her number. There is presently $750 in the pot. Chris spun the wheel and landed on the King. Oops!

Sergeant-at-Arms

Gus shared good news telling us that his doctor said he can go back to work now after his surgery.

Nevine corrected the spelling of her mother’s name as being Yolande.

Denny expressed in the sense that he woke, he got up, he is 80, it’s his wife’s birthday and a nice travel agent has arranged a cruise for them - someone had to ask if it was a one way ticket.

Chris wanted to tell us that she missed Audrey and was glad to have her back.

Audrey found a seamstress and now has clothes to wear after the chewed pockets on all of Audrey’s slacks were repaired. Chewed probably swallowed by none else than Mulligan.

Gene expressed pleasure in complimenting the board with their good leaders this year.

Gerard said that Judy’s parents and he were celebrating her mother’s 90th birthday.

Celebrations

Compliments of Gerard Baribeau

WIFE FROM HELL (With apologies to all of the wives)

A police officer pulls over a speeding car. The officer says,
' I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.'

The driver says, 'Gee, officer, I had it on cruise control at 60; perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating. ‘

Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: 'Now don't be silly, dear -- you know that this car doesn't have cruise control.'

As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, 'Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once!! ?'

The wife smiles demurely and says, 'Well dear you should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did or your speed would have been even higher.'

As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, 'Woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?'

The officer frowns and says, 'And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine.'

The driver says, 'Yeah, well, you see, officer, I had it on, but I took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.'

The wife says, 'Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving.'

And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket, the driver turns to his wife and barks, 'WHY DON'T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??'

The officer looks over at the woman and asks, 'Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?'

(I love this part)

'Only when he's been drinking.!!

Upcoming Meetings- to update your information, e-mail Gary at garymac@clarkehenning.com

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