News Reports for June 22, 2012

Thailand: Nurse's two daughters 'spread swine flu'

Two daughters of a nurse at Nakhon Ratchasima's Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital caused an outbreak of H1N1 swine flu among 41 medical staff and patients, an investigation has revealed.

Public health officials have not established how and where the siblings (Snip) contacted the virus, but found they spread it to their mother who works at the hospital in Muang district (Snip)

The girls, who are studying at Matthayom 3 and 5 (Grade 9 and 11) (Snip) had a high fever on June 8. On June 19, 22 more people at the hospital, including their mother, were found infected with the virus. The following day, the number of infections rose sharply to 41. Thirty-five are patients and six are medical staff.

The Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital and public health officials yesterday conducted medical check-ups for 1,200 Matthayom 3 and 5 students at the school, but did not find anybody with a high fever.

"There is no need to suspend classes because the situation is under control," said Chukiat Wisetsena, director of the education zone 31 in Nakhon Ratchasima. However, he has told all 50 schools under his supervision to be on full alert and to monitor students with unusually high fevers. The conditions of two students and other infected people are improving after being given the antiviral drug Oseltamivir.

Dr Lalitaya suspects the two girls might have contacted the virus from a community outside the school.

There have been reports of three other H1N1 swine flu cases in Nakhon Ratchasima Municipality, but all have been already treated and are under the care of doctors at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima hospital (Snip) http://www.bangkokpost.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 Jun 22, 2012 at 06:08:21 AM UTC

Doctors, Researchers on Lookout for New Flu Outbreak

Within the past 10 years, two serious pandemics have raised public health alarms around the world. The first was a respiratory infection known as SARS; the second, a virulent swine flu virus known as H1N1. Isolated cases of H1N1 continue to crop up.  And as concerns grow about other potential threats, including the H5N1 or avian flu virus, international health officials are taking precautions to prevent any new pandemics.
(Snip)
H1N1 -- also known as swine flu -- claimed about 18,000 lives worldwide.  What began in April 2009 in North America quickly spread around the world. Seven years earlier, it was an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which originated in Southeast Asia.

"There were about 8,000 cases of SARS in 2002-3, although it was severe but not extensive.  And H1N1 wasn't severe but very widespread around the world," said Dr. Kevin De Cock (Snip) director of the Center for Global Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

"We can't always depend on severity and extent of spread being separated like that. We are prepared, but there is still a lot of work to be done," De Cock stated. "We cannot take anything for granted."

Dr. Isabelle Nuttall is a top World Health Organization official in Geneva. She says a lot of progress has been made... in preparing for another epidemic, but not nearly enough, despite commitments to be ready for a serious outbreak by 2012.

"Countries committed to work to implement surveillance systems, to be able to have good laboratories in place, to be able to report and inform their population, containment measures if need be, to be able to stop the spread of diseases," said Nuttall. "I do realize it's a lot of work but we are not there yet." Continued: http://www.voanews.com/content...
 

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 06:19:20 AM UTC

India: 26-year-old tests H1N1+ve; son, doctors show symtoms (Maharashtra)

MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman tested positive for H1N1 on Thursday and her son has been admitted to Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) Hospital. Sheetal Raut (26) is receiving treatment at a hospital in Thane. "Though Raut is in the ICU, her condition is improving. Her son, Soham, is under observation," (Snip)

Two doctors, Hira Jain (26) and Pramod Kushwa (32), who were treating Raut and Soham at TAPS hospital have been diagnosed with H1N1 symptoms (Snip) Health officials claim that this is the first recorded case of H1N1 in Palghar taluka since 2009. Raut and Soham (Snip) visited Mumbai on June 18 and then seemed to develop H1N1 symptoms.

Government doctors have started screening around 150 families residing in the colony and collected blood samples. "A special ward has been created at TAPS Hospital for the purpose," (Snip) http://timesofindia.indiatimes...

(Note: I have no idea what the "+ve" stands for.)

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 06:31:12 AM UTC

China: "Serious" influenza response stands down (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The Government today (June 22) lowered the influenza response level under the Framework of Government's Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic from "Serious" to "Alert".

The influenza response level was raised from "Alert" to "Serious" upon detection of a human case of influenza A (H5) involving a 2-year-old boy on June 1.

(Snip) the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (Snip) had stepped up surveillance and epidemiological investigation since then. Close contacts of the patient have been traced and placed under quarantine.

Three weeks of strengthened surveillance has passed and no secondary spread or further case of avian influenza was detected during the period.

"The case was classified as an imported sporadic infection. The patient is now in serious condition under the management of Princess Margaret Hospital," (Snip)

The spokesman said the "Alert" response level was activated in view of the on-going activities of highly pathogenic avian influenza among poultry outside Hong Kong.

(Snip)

The public are advised to stay vigilant...... Continued: http://7thspace.com/headlines/...

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 06:53:22 AM UTC

Just 3 more mutations in humans can make bird flu a pandemic

Washington, June 22 (ANI): A new research has suggested that it might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature.
(Snip)
two recent papers by Herfst, Fouchier and colleagues in Science and Imai, Kawaoka and colleagues in Nature reveal that potentially with as few as five mutations (amino acid substitutions), or four mutations plus reassortment, avian H5N1 can become airborne transmissible between mammals, and thus potentially among humans. However, until now, it was not known whether these mutations might evolve in nature.

The new study led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge first analysed all of the surveillance data available on avian H5N1 influenza viruses from the last 15 years, focusing on birds and humans. They discovered that two of the five mutations seen in the experimental viruses (from the Fouchier and Kawaoka labs) had occurred in numerous existing avian flu strains. Additionally, they found that a number of the viruses had both of the mutations.

"Viruses that have two of these mutations are already common in birds, meaning that there are viruses that might have to acquire only three additional mutations in a human to become airborne transmissible. The next key question is 'is three a lot, or a little?'" (Snip)

The scientists explored this key question using a mathematical model of how viruses replicate and evolve within a mammalian host and assessed the influence of various factors on whether the remaining three mutations could evolve in a single host or in a short chain of transmission between hosts.

"With the information we have, it is impossible to say what the exact risk is of the virus becoming airborne transmissible among humans. (Snip) the results suggest that the remaining three mutations could evolve in a single human host, making a virus evolving in nature a potentially serious threat," (Snip)

"We now know that it is in the realm of possibility that these viruses can evolve in nature, and what needs to be done to assess the risk more accurately of these mutations evolving in nature," he stated. (Snip) http://www.newstrackindia.com/...

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 07:18:00 AM UTC

Pandemic Flu Risk Raised by Lax Hog-Farm Surveillance

The great lesson of the 2009 influenza pandemic was that new, deadly flu strains wouldn't necessarily emerge from the pathogenic hotbox of an Asian animal market. They could start in the western world's own backyard, percolating from the incubators of modern farms.

Yet despite the fact that pig farms hosted, and arguably fueled, the evolution of the last pandemic strain, pigs are largely overlooked in influenza surveillance. Researchers who track flu's evolution - in people, poultry, and even camels and whales - in order to understand its behavior lack reliable data on a vast, teeming viral reservoir. It's a hog-sized blind spot.

"If we want to know what's coming in the flu world, it's important to know what's out there," said Stephen Morse, a Columbia University epidemiologist and co-director of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats program. "By the time you see human cases, it's really too late."

A striking example of swine surveillance shortcomings comes from the most recent pandemic, which emerged in April 2009 and had global infection rates of about 15 percent before vaccines were available. Though 2009 H1N1, the strain that became globally known as swine flu, may not have jumped directly from pigs to humans - it could have spent some time in another species, such as chickens - the likelihood is high, and there's no question its ancestors spent years on North American pig farms.

If virologists had samples of that pandemic flu's most recent ancestors, collected from pigs near the time it started infecting humans, they could compare it to gene sequences from the human strain. From that comparison they might learn which mutations made it so contagious, thus helping predict when other, not-yet-pandemic strains could break out.

That can't be learned simply by looking at 2009 H1N1 alone: Flu mutates rapidly, and the number of changes its genes accumulate in just a few months makes it nearly impossible to say which mutations were key. The only other way to gain comparable insight is for researchers to genetically engineer more-pathogenic flu strains, a highly controversial approach that might not produce realistic mutants.

"It was the first time in history that we could get the ancestor of a pandemic and see what animal changes were needed for it to become a human pandemic," said Raul Rabadan, a Columbia University biomedical informaticist who helped identify the pandemic strain's origins. "Getting data from the experiments that nature does for us is essential."

But when Rabadan's team looked for swine flu samples gathered from Mexican pigs in 2009, just before or right after the human pandemic, at a time when near-relatives would be expected to circulate on local farms, they found just a single sequence from one pig. It was a strangely low number. Though it's theoretically possible that H1N1 was nowhere to be found in Mexico's swine herds, it's much more plausible that almost nobody was looking, or that they didn't report what they found.

Smithfield Farms, the world's largest pork producer and the owner of a factory farm near the flu outbreak's epicenter, claimed to have privately tested its herd and found no flu, but the testing wasn't independently confirmed and conflicts of interest were blatant.

The Pan American Health Organzation, the international health agency responsible for sampling swine after the outbreak, doesn't appear to have done so. Sheer post-outbreak confusion and personnel shortages are a possible reason, but there was also political pressure to dissociate the flu from swine farming. (Neither Smithfield nor PAHO replied to repeated requests for comment.)

"All we have is that one isolate from the beginning of the pandemic. It seems to give more information about the pandemic's origin, but it's only one isolate. It's only one datapoint," said Rabadan. With that sequence his team puzzled out a pandemic family tree that dated a last swine ancestor of the human pandemic strain to October 2008, but it was a low-resolution finding. More specific insights into the pandemic flu's crucial genetic jump were lost.

"In this day and age, with such incredible advances in sequencing and surveillance technology, you'd think that a question like this, we'd be able to answer it quickly," said National Institutes of Health epidemiologist Martha Nelson. "The fact that it remains outstanding is tremendously frustrating." Continued: http://www.wired.com/wiredscie...  

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 19:50:34 PM UTC

Event summary: Low pathogenic avian influenza (poultry), Mexico

An epidemiological investigation is being conducted. The event includes 3 commercial layer farms. The birds showed: gasping, depression, lethargy, drooping wings, prostration, fever and death. (Snip) Isolates are being tested by intravenous pathogenicity test to determine their pathogenicity and by gene sequencing. Epidemiological investigation is on-going to establish the extent of the problem and the source of infection in order to implement additional measures to rapidly resolve the problem. Additional sampling is underway to identify the possible presence of other pathogens involved in the outbreaks.

Note by the OIE Animal Health Information Department: H5 and H7 avian influenza in its low pathogenic form in poultry is a notifiable disease as per Chapter 10.4. on avian influenza of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (2011). (Snip) http://web.oie.int/wahis/publi...

OIE Report: http://web.oie.int/wahis/publi...

(Note: The title says "low pathogenic avian influenza" but if the chickens are showing those kind of sever symptoms and dying then it must be a high pathogenic form. JMO)

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 20:06:34 PM UTC

Yes; the "apparent" CFR is 35.98%; pretty high! n/t

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

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by: Jane @ Sat Jun 23, 2012 at 17:59:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

US: Unusual rise in flu cases hits Treasure Coast (Florida)

Just as the flu season officially ended in Florida, dozens of Treasure Coast residents developed coughs, body aches and fevers that unmistakably pointed to the seasonal malady. "It is unusual to see flu at this point," said Karlette Peck, administrator for the Martin County Health Department.

Yet she did, along with health officials in St. Lucie and Indian River counties. The first three weeks in June, 23 patients treated at Martin Medical Center's emergency department tested positive for influenza. In Indian River County, 19 cases were diagnosed the first two weeks of June. St. Lucie health officials also reported a rise, but don't have numbers.

"We noticed an increase in patients presenting at emergency departments with influenza," said Dr. Ruth Kim, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the St. Lucie County Health Department.

Dr. Kenneth Palestrant, medical director of Physicians Immediate Care, said he's recently treated up to four flu patients per day at one of the four St. Lucie County walk-in clinics he oversees. Though the number of cases is higher than in recent months, health officials consider the climb a minor blip at the end of a light flu season. Continued: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/201...

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 Jun 22, 2012 at 20:15:37 PM UTC

Bronco Bill, it's Friday joke time!

Your giggles are here: http://www.newfluwiki2.com/dia...

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 @ Sat Jun 23, 2012 at 01:16:42 AM UTC

Please post new news stories to...

News Reports for June 23, 2012

Thank you!

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by: AlohaOR @ Sat Jun 23, 2012 at 04:03:21 AM UTC