News Reports for May 11, 2012

B.C. Leads Canada With Flu Vaccine Rates

A new "flu report card" says B.C. tops the country when it comes to influenza vaccination, but experts say the results still show more people should be getting the vaccine countrywide.
(Snip)
B.C. got an A for its 52 per cent rate of vaccination - the highest in the country - and its 10 per cent flu rate.

But Quebec got an F for both the lowest rate of vaccination in the country at 27 per cent and the highest rate of flu at 25 per cent. Dominique Massie, Executive Director of the Quebec Lung Association said it should be a wake call from his province. "Clearly Quebeckers are not ready for a severe flu season," said Massie in a statement released on Thursday. (Snip) http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 01:43:42 AM UTC

Norway: In Norwegian study, 40% had antibodies to H3N2 variant

Seroprevalence to variant H3N2 flu (H3N2v) was 40% overall in Norwegians but much lower in young children and those 45 to 54 years old (Snip)

(Snip) 13 US cases of H3N2v have been confirmed, primarily in children who had contact with pigs, but the strain has not been identified in Europe.

To assess the risk of H3N2v in Norway, researchers analyzed 253 serum samples taken last August in three different areas of the country. They found the overall seroprevalence (based on a hemagglutinin inhibition titer of 40 or higher) to be 40%, but it ranged from 0% in children 12 and younger to 71% in adults 18 to 34. The breakdown by age-group was: 0-12, 0%; 13-17, 16%; 18-24, 71%; 25-34, 71%; 35-44, 28%; 45-54, 14%; 55-64, 41%; 65-74, 50%; 75-97, 53%. The size of the subgroups varied from 17 to 47 samples. The investigators said their findings are similar to those reported by a Canadian team (Snip) and by US researchers (Snip) last month. They write, "More research is needed to explain the poor immunity in 45 to 54 year olds." http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

May 10 Eurosurveillance study http://www.eurosurveillance.or...

Jan 26 Eurosurveillance Canadian report http://www.eurosurveillance.or...

Apr 12 CIDRAP News story on MMWR report http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 06:18:27 AM UTC

Study profiles 2009 H1N1 neurologic complications

An analysis of neurologic complications in California patients who had severe or fatal 2009 H1N1 infections found that the conditions were more common in children and Asian/Pacific Islanders than in the state's general population (Snip) The study team included researchers from the California Department of Public Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of 2,069 severe or fatal cases reported in California from April through December 2009, 3.7% were classified as having one of four primary influenza-related neurologic complications: encephalopathy/encephalitis, seizures, meningitis, and other, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. (Snip) However, no California children with 2009 H1N1 died from encephalopathy, which was the leading cause of death in Japanese children with the disease.

Most patients who had encephalopathy recovered (Snip) The group noted that (Snip) factors such as genetic predisposition should be explored. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

May 9 Clin Infect Dis abstract http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 06:27:38 AM UTC

H5N2 strikes another South African ostrich farm

Agriculture officials in South Africa today reported that highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza has turned up on another commercial ostrich farm. (Snip) 98 cases with no deaths were detected among 310 susceptible birds. Culling operations at the farm, located in Western Cape province, are under way. Yearlong culling activities prompted by H5N2 outbreaks have decimated South Africa's ostrich flocks over the past year, according to a report today in Business Day (Snip) The area where the outbreaks have occurred supplies about 70% of the world's ostrich meat (Snip) http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

May 9 OIE report http://web.oie.int/wahis/publi...

May 10 Business Day story http://www.businessday.co.za/a...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 06:33:56 AM UTC

South Africa: Year-long ostrich culling ends this week

THE Western Cape agriculture department will cull another 360 ostriches in theOudtshoorn area by the end of this week. Spokesman Wouter Kriel yesterday said this would end the department's year-long culling programme in an effort to eradicate the bird flu outbreak that has all but decimated the once lucrative industry.

More than 40000 ostriches have been culled since the H5N2 virus was first detected in Klein Karoo flocks in March last year, including 3000 female breeders, which will affect breeding for the next three years - the time it takes to reach reproductive maturity.

While affected farmers received R50m in compensation from the government, the export ban imposed 14 months ago by the European Union (EU) has resulted in revenue losses of more than R800m.

Ostrich farmers who lost their flocks have had no income for over a year, and some have also lost their farms. In addition, the jobs of thousands of farm workers and employees in associated industries have been put on hold pending the lifting of the export ban. Continued: http://www.businessday.co.za/a...

(Note: The culling will not be over as planned because of a new outbreak. See the article above about it.)

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 06:53:50 AM UTC

Taiwan: COA confirms bird flu cause of chicken deaths

The Council of Agriculture yesterday confirmed that the more than 3,000 chickens that died in Yunlin County in the past four days were infected with highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza, making this the sixth such outbreak in the country this year.

About 15,000 more chickens were culled yesterday to eliminate all 18,000 birds at the chicken farm in Beigang Township (Snip) and prevent the disease from spreading (Snip)

The highly pathogenic case was confirmed by the council's Animal Health Research Institute through sequence analysis of the virus yesterday, Huang said, adding that the council took emergency prevention measures of clinical examination and epidemiological investigation within a 3km radius of the farm.

(Snip) none of the potentially infected chickens had entered the market because movement in and out of the farm has been restricted since the unusually high number of deaths was first noticed.

The department has requested the military dispatch soldiers to help disinfect the area within 3km of the farm. No similar infection has been detected in other chicken farms in the county (Snip) http://www.taipeitimes.com/New...  

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 18:21:51 PM UTC

Taiwan reports 12th outbreak of N5N2 bird flu this year

Taipei, May 11 (CNA) A recent H5N2 avian influenza outbreak in Yunlin County has brought the number of farms in Taiwan attacked by the virus this year to 12, the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture announced Friday. The latest outbreak, which was discovered on May 7, was also the sixth case involving a highly pathogenic strain of the virus this year, (Snip)

The outbreaks have forced more than 100,000 chickens to be culled and caused losses of over NT$8 million (US$272,000) (Snip)

The first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu was recorded on Jan. 9 at a farm in the central county of Changhua. Since then, two other egg and chicken farms in Changhua, and one each in Tainan and Pingtung County in southern Taiwan have all been hit by a similar virus.

Six other farms, in Nantou, Changhua, New Taipei, Yilan and Taichung, were reported to have been hit by non-highly pathogenic H5N2 outbreaks. (Snip) http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews...  

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 19:00:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ireland: Report into flu deaths published

The Donegal nursing home where seven residents died due to a flu outbreak in March and April appeared to have "no established procedure" to enable early detection of flu, a report has found.

A report of inspections conducted by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) published today finds that while the residents of Nazareth House home in Buncrana were well cared for, there were a number of deficiencies in areas such as staffing arrangements, reporting procedures and cleanliness.

Two inspections at the home by Hiqa on April 2nd, 3rd and 4th were triggered by a report of a significant number of resident deaths in March and April, the report said.

In all, nine residents died between March 22nd and April 8th. Seven were classified as possibly consequent to an A (H3N2) influenza-related illness. The other two residents died of unrelated causes. Continued: http://www.irishtimes.com/news...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown

     

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by: Carol@SC @ Fri May 11, 2012 at 18:26:57 PM UTC

Please post new news stories to...

News Reports for May 12, 2012

Thank you!

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by: AlohaOR @ Sat May 12, 2012 at 05:03:06 AM UTC