Not Influenza but Close News - Sept 2012 to ...

Declan Butler in Nature: SARS veterans tackle coronavirus

Is this of interest? And is this the right place?

SARS veterans tackle coronavirus

Scientists who helped to fight the 2003 epidemic of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) have sprung into action again to investigate the latest threat: a new SARS-related virus that has killed one man and left another seriously ill. Last week, the researchers reported the genome sequence of the new coronavirus and the first diagnostic tests to screen for it - two major advances that will help in efforts to control the pathogen if it turns into a wider menace.

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by: pogge @ Wed Oct 03, 2012 at 14:32:08 PM UTC

Yes, and yes

Definitely of interest, and this is a fine place to post it (or on the daily news diary).  Thanks for posting, Pogge.

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by: AlohaOR @ Thu Oct 04, 2012 at 04:32:20 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Expert teams are in Saudi Arabia looking for source of new coronavirus

Helen Branswell at CP via Winnipeg Free Press:

A couple of teams of disease experts have converged on Saudi Arabia, hoping to find the source of a new virus from the SARS family.

Experts from the World Health Organization and the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University in New York are in Riyadh on the invitation of the Saudi government, a senior health ministry official confirmed Wednesday.

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by: pogge @ Thu Oct 04, 2012 at 12:29:44 PM UTC

NPR: Arabian Coronavirus: Plot Thickens But Virus Lies Low

Here.

It now appears that the new coronavirus found on the Arabian Peninsula is more widespread than initially thought, even though only two people are known to have gotten sick from it.

At first it seemed likely that the two known cases of illness from the new cousin-of-SARS virus may have been exposed in or near the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.

But now it's pretty certain that a 49-year-old Qatari man who had traveled to Jeddah last month didn't pick up the virus there. Investigators say he probably got infected after he returned home to Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf kingdom 825 miles to the east.

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by: pogge @ Fri Oct 05, 2012 at 23:49:01 PM UTC

Egypt: Number of mump infections increase

Number of students infected with mumps climbs to 583

The number of mumps cases in schools across Egypt reached 583 on Monday. Education Ministry media advisor Mohamed al-Sorogy stated that no schools have yet been closed due to the outbreak, however.

Sorogy claimed that, according to doctors, the mumps do not cause death, unlike illness like the avian or swine flu.

Giza Governorate has so far reported the most number of cases, with 240. Minya has reported 95, Beni Suef 48 and Fayoum 38, with Cairo reporting only 12. The rest of the 17 governorates hit by the outbreak have each reported between seven and nine mumps cases.

Mohsen George, head of the Executive Directorate of Education in Alexandria, stated that there have been 52 reported cases in Alexandria schools, according to a memo sent by the Health Department Directorate of in Alexandria.

Dozens of schools in Minya and Qena began reporting cases of the mumps in late September. At that time human rights organizations expressed fears that the virus would spread due to the lack of preventative vaccines, and general neglect from the Healthy Ministry.

http://www.egyptindependent.co...

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by: cottontop @ Tue Oct 09, 2012 at 21:56:54 PM UTC

WHO: Novel coronavirus infection - update

Novel coronavirus infection - update

9 October 2012 - No new cases of infection with the novel coronavirus have been reported since 22 September 2012. So far, after careful follow-up of close contacts of the two confirmed cases, and a heightened state of global surveillance , there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Kingdom, are continuing their work to gain a better understanding of the disease and the likely source of infection. WHO is supporting the national authorities in their ongoing investigation, and has deployed experts to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as part of an international team. These and future epidemiological and scientific studies will lead to a better understanding of the novel coronavirus.

A bit more at the link.

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by: pogge @ Wed Oct 10, 2012 at 13:54:14 PM UTC

Study of new coronavirus suggests it comes from animals, possibly bats

Branswell:

The novel coronavirus found in the Middle East earlier this year probably came to humans from bats, though whether it travelled through another species before infecting people is unclear, a new report suggests.

The scientists who first identified the new virus - which comes from the same family as SARS - reported Wednesday on the case that brought the virus to light, the fatal infection of a 60-year-old man from Saudi Arabia.

In their report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they predict pipistrellus bats may be the source of the virus.

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by: pogge @ Thu Oct 18, 2012 at 03:06:25 AM UTC

New SARS-like virus discovered before it causes outbreak

Toronto Star:

How a vigilant international scientific community caught the next SARS virus - before it became the next SARS disease.

Four months ago, a mucus sample arrived in Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki's laboratory in Saudi Arabia.

The mucus had been coughed up by a 60-year-old Saudi Arabian man with a strange case of pneumonia. He had been admitted to the Dr. Soliman Fakeeh hospital in Jeddah on June 13; soon after, his kidneys began to fail. Eleven days after being hospitalized, the man was dead.

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by: pogge @ Sun Oct 21, 2012 at 16:21:11 PM UTC

Ebola virus found in Borneo, Indonesia

English.news.cn 2012-11-03

JAKARTA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian researchers have found evidence of presence of Ebola virus in several Orangutan in Kalimantan island known as Borneo, paper said here on Saturday

snip

Researcher Chairil Anwar Nidom said that 65 serum samples collected from 353 healthy orangutans between December 2005 and December 2006 tested positive for Ebola virus.
"The result should be an early warning for us," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

Chairil also said that six of 353 samples tested positive for Marburg virus, the similar virus to Ebola that causes Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever.

full article

http://news.xinhuanet.com/engl...

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by: cottontop @ Sat Nov 03, 2012 at 17:55:26 PM UTC

Saudis report third case of new coronavirus, but release few details Read it on Global News: Global Toronto | Saudis report third case of new coronavirus, but release few details

Canadian Press via Global News Toronto:

Saudi Arabia has reported another human infection with the new coronavirus that emerged earlier this year. The case is the third confirmed infection caused by the newly identified virus, which is from the same family as SARS.

The report of the new case comes at a sensitive time. The Hajj, the annual pilgrimage made by Muslims to the holy city of Mecca, concluded last week. The Hajj brings over two million Muslims from around the world to Saudi Arabia.

Those pilgrims will now be making their way back to their home countries. The Saudi Ministry of the Hajj website says the final day for Hajj pilgrims to depart Saudi Arabia is Nov. 29.

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by: pogge @ Mon Nov 05, 2012 at 00:32:07 AM UTC

CDC issues travel notice for Uganda due to Marburg outbreak

November 4, 2012

With the Marburg hemorrhagic fever (HF) outbreak spreading in Uganda, now being reported from 5 districts in the African country, federal health officials have issued an advisory for travelers to Uganda, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) travel notice Nov.2

The Uganda Ministry of Health officially declared an outbreak on Oct. 19.

There is no vaccine to prevent Marburg HF and no specific treatment for people who become ill, only supportive care.

full story
http://www.examiner.com/articl...

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by: cottontop @ Mon Nov 05, 2012 at 11:22:18 AM UTC

Doctors fear West Nile virus has mutated into more damaging form

The West Nile virus epidemic of 2012, the worst in a decade, may be notorious for yet another reason: The virus, in some cases, is attacking the brain more aggressively than in the past, raising the specter that it may have mutated into a nastier form, say two neurologists who have extensive experience dealing with the illness.

One doctor, Art Leis in Jackson, Miss., has seen the virus damaging the speech, language and thinking centers of the brain -- something he has never observed before. The other, Elizabeth Angus in Detroit, has noticed brain damage in young, previously healthy patients, not just in older, sicker ones -- another change from past years.

Leis said it's crucial to know whether the virus is mutating. "Otherwise," he said, "we might be unprepared to deal with it in the future."

But a scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the federal agency has not seen any evidence that the virus is causing a different type of brain damage. He said doctors may be seeing more serious cases this year because there are more cases overall. But he acknowledged that the CDC does not collect the granular data needed to quickly determine whether the virus is causing more severe brain damage.

Still, Angus, who has treated West Nile patients for a decade, and Leis, who has more experience treating severe West Nile illness than perhaps any doctor in the country, both suspect the virus has changed.

"I've been struck this year that I'm seeing more patients where the brain dysfunction has been very much worse," said Angus, of Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital. "It makes you wonder if something's different, if something's changed."

And while the virus in the past has typically invaded the brain and spinal cord only of people who have weakened immune systems, such as the elderly and transplant or cancer patients, Angus this summer treated a severely affected woman in her 20s and a man in his 40s.

Leis said he is seeing much more severe encephalitis -- inflammation of the brain -- than he has in the past. "It is clearly much more neuroinvasive, neurovirulent," he said.

Four patients Leis treated this summer had lost their ability to talk or write. Another was paralyzed on one side, as often seen in strokes, not West Nile infections. Others experienced recurring seizures.

In all, 11 of the first 12 patients Leis saw this year at the Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson had more severe brain damage than he had seen previously. The outlook for such patients varies, but most will face years or a lifetime of disability.

"For the first time, we have radiographic evidence, clinical evidence of the virus attacking the higher cortical areas," said Leis, who has published 15 scientific papers describing previous West Nile patients.

North Texas cases

North Texas was the hardest-hit area in the nation with 275 cases and 11 deaths in Tarrant County, and 388 cases and 18 deaths in Dallas County.

Neurologists also witnessed devastating encephalitis but in different areas of the brain than Leis described. Steven Vernino, a neurologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said he saw damage to the lower brain stem in several patients but not to the higher language and thinking centers.

Virologist Alan Barrett said samples of the virus taken from mosquitoes and birds in the Houston area show signs of genetic changes.

"This year's virus looks more like the virus from 2002 and 2003" than the virus seen more recently, said Barrett, of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Given that the Houston-Galveston area is a major flyway for birds, Barrett speculated that a different virus arrived in the area this year.

But it is too early to say whether this possible new strain is more virulent than those seen in years past, Barrett said. It will also take a while to study the genetics of viruses from other parts of the country. His laboratory, one of the few studying West Nile genetics, is backlogged.

"We're overwhelmed," he said.

Barrett will look at the genetics of viruses from North Texas as soon he gets samples, which he expects any day. "Everybody wants to know what's going on in Dallas," he said.

Last month, Leis asked a Food and Drug Administration scientist who studies the genetics of the virus whether a new, more virulent strain was circulating. "You are absolutely right ... that new genetic variants of WNV might have appeared this year," the scientist replied in an Oct. 23 e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. The scientist continued that "it is not easy to correlate" the new mutations with any specific type of brain damage.

Thirty minutes after Leis received the message, another e-mail from the same scientist arrived. It said the previous message had been "recalled."

When contacted by phone, the FDA scientist, who works at the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, declined to discuss the messages, saying that his superiors had instructed him not to talk to reporters. Continued: http://www.star-telegram.com/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 Nov 30, 2012 at 07:13:14 AM UTC

Sudan: 'new' disease emerges

SARAF OMRA
21 Dec
Residents from Saraf Omra have revealed the emergence of new cases of a deadly disease causing vomiting and diarrhea. It was reported on Thursday, 20 December, that in case patients are not treated as soon as the disease is discovered, the disease could lead to death.

A witness from Saraf Omra told Radio Dabanga on Thursday that the number of people infected with the disease is about 500. He added that the disease causes the skin tone to turn yellow and the eyes green. The witness said that Saraf Omra hospital is overloaded with patients; malaria, yellow fever and the 'new' disease.

Moreover, the witness stated that serious cases are referred to Zalingei and El Geneina hospitals for treatment. Residents of Saraf Omra have appealed to the Ministry of Health in North Darfur to urgently send a medical team to investigate the disease in Saraf Omra and neighboring villages.

http://www.radiodabanga.org/no...

http://www.promedmail.org/

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by: cottontop @ Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 21:12:58 PM UTC

Uganda: Ebola Suspected in Mubende District

11 January 2013

Mubende - Health state minister Sarah Opendi and other senior ministry officials dashed to Mubende hospital Friday morning following suspicions of an Ebola outbreak in the area.

Mubende district health officer (DHO), Dr. Wilson Mubiru said two five-year-old children were admitted on Thursday night while vomiting blood - a symptom that was hurriedly linked to Ebola.

The children were from different families.

Earlier rumours had put the number of patients admitted at the hospital to four and that three had died on spot.

However, Mubiru and the hospital director Dr. Edward Nkrunziza told New Vision online that there were only two patients.

Besides, the doctors have since called for calm, saying that it was unlikely for the patients to be Ebola cases.

"We have forwarded blood tests to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe. Although we are yet to get the results, we highly doubt whether this is Ebola," said Dr. Mubiru.

Save for vomiting, Mubiru said the patients showed no other Ebola-like symptoms.

Dr. Nkrunziza also explained that the patients' condition had "significantly improved" at around 10am on Friday.

The development comes as the health ministry is preparing to declare Luweero district Ebola-free on January 16, if no new cases are registered in the area.

About five people died of Ebola in Luweero late last year.

continued
http://allafrica.com/stories/2...

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by: cottontop @ Fri Jan 11, 2013 at 21:09:19 PM UTC

Evidence Of Ebola Virus Found In Asia For The First Time

Wed, 01/16/2013

The terrifying hemorrhagic fever known as Ebola virus, or one of its relatives, seems to have made its way into Asia, specifically Bangladesh, a new report indicates.

snip

The new study, published in the February 2013 issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases and conduced by the EcoHealth Alliance, indicates that bats in Bangladesh could be an animal reservoir for the disease. There haven't been any reported cases of Ebola in the country, but this means there is potential.  Between April 2012 and March 2011, researchers tested several species of bats for antibodies to Ebola-related viruses (evidence the virus had infected the bats and caused an immune reaction). They found anti-Ebola antibodies in 5 of the 276 bats (3.5 percent) they tested from the region. This is the first time they've seen antibodies to Ebola in the area, but it's also the first screen for them.

continued
http://www.bullfax.com/?q=node...

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by: cottontop @ Thu Jan 17, 2013 at 03:25:38 AM UTC

New 'Stomach Bug' Strain

CDC Researchers Spot Increase in New 'Stomach Bug' Strain

A norovirus from Australia caused majority of U.S. outbreaks at the end of 2012.

THURSDAY, Jan. 24, 2013 (HealthDay News) - A new norovirus strain caused most of the outbreaks of the contagious intestinal illness in the United States between September and December last year, but it is not known if this strain will lead to an overall increase in outbreaks, U.S. researchers report.

Norovirus is highly infectious and is the leading cause of what is commonly called "stomach flu," a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, headache, fever and chills.

For the study, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers analyzed data collected through CaliciNet on norovirus strains linked to U.S. outbreaks and found that 141 of the 266 outbreaks reported during the last four months of 2012 were caused by the GII.4 Sydney strain.

This strain was first detected in Australia in March 2012 and caused outbreaks in that country and several other nations.

"The new strain spread rapidly across the United States from September to December 2012," Dr. Aron Hall, an epidemiologist in the CDC's viral diseases division, said in a CDC news release.

chttp://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/0124/cdc-researchers-spot-increase-in-new-stomach-bug-strain.aspx?xid=aol_eh-news_22_20130121_&aolcat=HLT&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D261869ontinued

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by: cottontop @ Sat Jan 26, 2013 at 10:21:41 AM UTC

Death From Mystery Disease - Radford, Virginia

 Family hopes autopsy explains Radford man's mysterious death

Dustin Hayth, 19, died after returning to Radford from a vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

by
Matt Chittum | 981-3331

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The family of a young Radford man who died this week of a sudden, mysterious illness is hoping the results of an autopsy will tell them what killed their son.

But it likely will be weeks before the results are known.

Dustin Hayth, an apparently healthy 19-year-old, died about 6 a.m. Tuesday at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital of an unidentified respiratory disease he first complained about less than two days earlier.

(snip)

There, Dustin was in intensive care briefly before he was airlifted to Roanoke Memorial about 9 p.m. John Hayth said the prevailing theory was his son had pneumonia. At one point, his fever reached 106 degrees.

But, his father said, staff at the Roanoke hospital found the fluid on his lungs was blood.

(snip)

http://www.roanoke.com/news/18...

Comment:  This is not too far from Richmond, VA and Washington, DC.  A very fast and scary progression of disease.

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by: Okieman @ Fri Apr 19, 2013 at 03:22:53 AM UTC

some causes for bleeding in the lungs

Possibly one of these two, snipped from article (except that fever and sudden death is not mentioned):

[snip]
Bacterial Infection

According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, a bacterial lung infection, found in people with pneumococcal pneumonia, releases toxins that cause severe bleeding in the lungs. This condition, known for short as pneumococcus, infects the upper respiratory tracts, and antibiotics may not help prevent progression of the toxins. Internally the condition may cause fluid buildup in the lungs, leading to breathing difficulty and coughing up blood.
[snip]

Other Causes

The National Lung Health Education Program indicates that other causes for bleeding lungs may include pneumonia and lung abscesses. Pneumonia causes infection and inflammation in the lungs. Bleeding in the lungs from pneumonia is rare, but medical consultation is often necessary to treat any symptoms of pneumonia to prevent complications. Lung abscesses may develop as a result of infections or appear as symptoms of other medical conditions.
http://www.livestrong.com/arti...

One poster here said he worked with chickens and coughed up blood because of mycobacterium.  http://www.medhelp.org/posts/R...    (Don't read these if your stomach is queasy, though.)

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."  Flannery O'Connor

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by: Jane @ Sat Apr 20, 2013 at 19:33:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]