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Wendy Harris

Publications and source records attributed to Wendy Harris.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Playing the game on the World Wide Web.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: 'Celebrate - do it Safely' is a project aimed at reducing youth alcohol-related harm on the Central Coast, New South Wales (NSW). The primary focus for 2003 was to use the world wide web and the website www.celebratesafely.com.au to raise awareness and reinforce the message of how to party safely to young people. METHODS: A creative, interactive website was set up to be a local and reliable source of information regarding the risks associated with alcohol misuse. It was supported by a steering committee with diverse representation from key organisations. Content pages and links were developed to ensure access to information and contact details were simple and comprehensive. Topics such as a safe party checklist, safe driving, safe sex and protection from violence were included. Games and competitions emphasised the safe party message with clever actions and graphics created within a virtual party environment. The website was promoted by distribution of postcards throughout the school network. Radio campaigning, plus display of posters and banners throughout the area, raised the profile in the wider community. Key rings were given to young people along with free 'mocktails' to reinforce the message of safe partying. RESULTS: There has been an increase in website hits from 758 in 2002 to more than 65,000 in 2003. Written feedback from young people suggests the content and format is well designed for the target group. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting the message of safe celebration on the world wide web is an effective way of raising awareness in a local community about safe partying.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Bottleshops and 'ready-to-drink' alcoholic beverages.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: To assess whether the strategies used to sell the 'ready-to-drink' (RTD) category of alcoholic beverages is contributing to alcohol-related harm among adolescents. METHODS: An initial investigation of bottleshops, which included an observational study designed to analyse methods employed by the liquor industry to market RTDs in bottleshops, on the central coast of New South Wales. We measured the number of glass-door display refrigerators to determine refrigerated space allocated to display RTDs compared with other alcoholic products. This measure was used to establish a quantitative baseline as an indicator for the in-store marketing of these products. We then randomly selected a dozen bottleshops from those previously visited and conducted semi-structured interviews with the staff. RESULTS: The display of colourful, youth-oriented products and packaging in glass-door display refrigerators appears to be the primary in-store method for marketing RTD products. More than 40% of all glass-door display refrigerators in bottleshops on the central coast are dedicated to the storage and display of RTDs. More than half of the staff interviewed at bottleshops reported they believed that RTD products were marketed to under 18s, particularly girls. CONCLUSION: There is already a high level of consumption of RTDs by under 18s. There is very strong marketing of these products by the liquor industry. This trend will further compound the already high-risk level of consumption of these products by young people.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of clinical isolates of herpes simplex virus resistant to aciclovir.

A panel of 10 clinical isolates of herpes simplex virus (HSV) deficient in the expression of thymidine kinase (TK) and phenotypically resistant to aciclovir was characterized. Sequence analysis revealed a variety of mutations in TK (nucleotide substitutions, insertions and deletions), most of which resulted in truncated TK polypeptides. In line with previous reports, the most common mutation was a single G insertion in the 'G-string' motif. One HSV-1 isolate and two HSV-2 isolates appeared to encode full-length polypeptides and, in each case, an amino acid substitution likely to be responsible for the phenotype was identified. Pathogenicity was determined using a zosteriform model of HSV infection in BALB/c mice. The majority of isolates appeared to show impaired growth at the inoculation site compared with wild-type virus. They also showed poor replication in the peripheral nervous system and little evidence of zosteriform spread. One exception was isolate 4, which had a double G insertion in the G-string but, nevertheless, exhibited zosteriform spread. These studies confirmed that TK-deficient viruses display a range of neurovirulence with respect to latency and zosteriform spread. These results are discussed in the light of previous experience with TK-deficient viruses.

Acyclovir↗
PubMed2003

Characterization of a neurovirulent aciclovir-resistant variant of herpes simplex virus.

A clinical isolate of herpes simplex virus type 1 that is aciclovir resistant but neurovirulent in mice was described previously. The mutation in this virus is a double G insertion in a run of seven G residues that has been shown previously to be a mutational hotspot. Using a sensitive assay, it has been demonstrated that preparations of this virus are able to induce low but consistent levels of thymidine kinase (TK) activity. However, this activity results from a high frequency mutational event that inserts a further G into the 'G-string' motif and thus restores the TK open reading frame. Passage of this virus through the nervous system of mice results in the rapid selection of the TK-positive variant. Thus, this variant is the major component in virus reactivated from latently infected ganglia. Mutation frequency appears to be influenced by the genetic background of the virus.

Acyclovir↗
PubMed2002

Emergence of resistance to protease inhibitor amprenavir in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients: selection of four alternative viral protease genotypes and influence of viral susceptibility to coadministered reverse transcriptase nucleoside inhibitors.

Previous data have indicated that the development of resistance to amprenavir, an inhibitor of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease, is associated with the substitution of valine for isoleucine at residue 50 (I50V) in the viral protease. We present further findings from retrospective genotypic and phenotypic analyses of plasma samples from protease inhibitor-naïve and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI)-experienced patients who experienced virological failure while participating in a clinical trial where they had been randomized to receive either amprenavir or indinavir in combination with NRTIs. Paired baseline and on-therapy isolates from 31 of 48 (65%) amprenavir-treated patients analyzed demonstrated the selection of protease mutations. These mutations fell into four distinct categories, characterized by the presence of either I50V, I54L/I54M, I84V, or V32I+I47V and often included accessory mutations, commonly M46I/L. The I50V and I84V genotypes displayed the greatest reductions in susceptibility to amprenavir, although each of the amprenavir-selected genotypes conferred little or no cross-resistance to other protease inhibitors. There was a significant association, for both amprenavir and indinavir, between preexisting baseline resistance to NRTIs subsequently received during the study and development of protease mutations (P = 0.014 and P = 0.031, respectively). Our data provide a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms by which amprenavir resistance develops during clinical use and present evidence that resistance to concomitant agents in the treatment regimen predisposes to the development of mutations associated with protease inhibitor resistance and treatment failure.

Carbamates↗