News Reports for September 21, 2012

Positive Bird Flu Flourishing in Poultry

September 21, 2012
http://e-wonosobo.com/index.ph...
Wonosobo, Indonesia:  Since last week sudden death cases continue to occur in the Village District Plobangan Selomerto.  Even until yesterday (19/9) the number of birds that died suddenly reached 290 tails.  Laboratory test results of these mass poultry deaths are due to bird flu or avian influenza (AI).  According to Mahuri Ahmad, 45, a resident of Plobangan and a chicken farmer, he claimed that about two days ago 30 of his chickens died suddenly and simultaneously.  He claimed he then threw the chickens into the pond behind the house.  After his birds died suddenly, a number of people were also exposed to the same case.

"The dead birds were not only mine, but my neighbors are also experiencing the same thing," he said.

The village head of Plobangan, Ismail, said that initially the villagers had dozens of birds dying suddenly from 9 September until Wednesday (19/9) when the total of dead birds had reached 290 tails.  The details, in the hamlet of Wonosobo, is that there are 43 heads and 247 tails in Plobangan Wetan.

"People knew these cases were a symptom of bird flu since last week," he said.

Head of Wonosobo Animal Health and Husbandry Department of Fish and Fisheries, drh. Sutomo, said that the sudden deaths of mass poultry in the Village District Plobangan Selomerto started since 11 September.  By the next day it  amounted to 112 dead birds.  Afterwards laboratory tests confirmed the chicken deaths were due to symptoms of bird flu.

"We've done lab tests and confirmed the death of the poultry is due to bird flu," he said.

After that, he said, the number of poultry, including chicken and ducks that died, continues to grow.  Until yesterday it amounted to 290 birds.  To attempt to suppress the spread of bird flu virus, they have conducted spraying at homes and residential areas.

"Once we have done spraying, we will continue to monitor, because the number of birds that die continues to grow," he said.

Head of Wonosobo District Health Office dr. Okie Hapsoro said that with the detection of bird flu cases, they had lowered the medical team to do counseling and check directly with the citizens.  In addition, immediate treatment  was also carried out for 70 Plobangan residents who had symptoms of regular flu without fever.

"There are no serious symptoms of bird flu affected.  The results of our medical team are that people just have the flu," he says.


"I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man."  Thomas Jefferson

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by: History Lover @ Fri Sep 21, 2012 at 06:40:07 AM UTC

Omitted portion.

Even so, said Okie, health officials revealed that every day in the Plobangan village they will do counseling and direct examination.  This is to anticipate the people infected with bird flu.

"To this day there have been no positive victims of bird flu.  Transmission is only among birds," he concluded.

"I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man."  Thomas Jefferson

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by: History Lover @ Fri Sep 21, 2012 at 07:40:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

India: Early reporting, surveillance to curb H1N1 spread (Madhya Pradesh)

BHOPAL: Swine flu, which spreads from human contact, is now considered endemic in state and health officials insist that early reporting and proactive surveillance are needed to control swine flu from spreading. In last fortnight, swine flu cases have risen in the state and the disease has claimed 16 lives in the state so this year.

(Snip) over 300 suspected cases of swine flu have been reported so far this year. Of these, swab samples of 65 persons have tested positive for H1N1 infection (Snip). "We have observed that if patient is not referred in time, delay leads to more complication in fighting the H1N1 infection," (Snip)

While Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur division have reported an equal number of positive H1N1 infections, but proactive surveillance in Jabalpur has led to no deaths so far, whereas 10 swine flu deaths have been reported from Indore and the state capital.

District health officials in Indore and Bhopal division point out that majority of the H1N1 infections being reported are from neighbouring districts. However, compared with Jabalpur, delayed response and increase in death is making health officials rethink their strategy.

"We are looking at cancelling of accreditation of some private hospitals for treatment of H1N1 cases. (Snip) A private hospital in Bhopal is being investigated which has reported 3 swine flu deaths. http://timesofindia.indiatimes...

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 Sep 21, 2012 at 06:51:39 AM UTC

Researchers map molecular details that encourage H1N1 transmission to humans

The 2009 influenza pandemic was caused by a swine influenza virus that mutated in a way that made it transmissible among humans. The researchers, led by Hualan Chen of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Harbin, China, have determined the probable details of the mutations that led to human transmission.

In this study, Chen, who is director of the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory at the Institute, and her collaborators have shown that two specific mutations in each of two proteins appear to be critical to transmission to, and among humans. One of those mutations, of a single amino acid in the virus' hemagglutinin protein, gives the virus the ability to bind to human receptors, and enables transmission in mammals via droplets of respiratory fluids.

That amino acid, in the 226th slot in the protein, is glutamine. The researchers showed its importance by causing a mutation from glutamine, the amino acid in that position seen in viruses from infected humans, to argenine, as seen in swine. Working in cell cultures, the researchers showed that the switch dampened the virus' ability to bind the human receptor, while boosting its ability to bind to the avian receptor. They showed further that the change rendered the virus non-transmissible via respiratory droplets in guinea pig models, and unable to replicate in the lungs of ferrets-results that suggest, but do not prove that the same may happen in humans.

Continued with much more on this:   http://medicalxpress.com/news/...

Journal reference: Journal of Virology http://medicalxpress.com/journ...  

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 Sep 21, 2012 at 07:12:28 AM UTC

New tools aim to improve infection tracking in long-term care

Sep 19, 2012 (CIDRAP News) - A national medical organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released a pair of new tools designed to set a national standard for the tracking of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in long-term care settings.

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) released updated infection definitions and guidance that provide uniform criteria for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities (LTCFs). The information was published this week as a position paper in the SHEA journal, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

In addition, the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) recently launched a new online tool, based on the SHEA guidance, to help LTCFs track infections. The tool covers drug-resistant infections such as Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, urinary tract infections, and healthcare worker compliance with infection prevention measures.

"The unsettling truth is that our best estimates of healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, most likely understate the true problem," Nimalie Stone, MD, a CDC medical epidemiologist and lead author of the guidance, said in a SHEA press release that was e-mailed to journalists. Continued: 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 Sep 21, 2012 at 07:24:26 AM UTC

ECDC studies shed new light on narcolepsy and H1N1 vaccine

Sep 20, 2012 (CIDRAP News) - The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today confirmed a link between narcolepsy and pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccination in children in Finland and Sweden, the two countries that originally reported a problem with the vaccine.

The agency summed up an extensive epidemiologic investigation in a technical report. The investigation combined two different studies conducted by the ECDC and the Vaccine Adverse Event Surveillance and Communication (VAESCO) Consortium and includes a group of countries that reported possible pandemic vaccine-linked narcolepsy cases and ones that have not: Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

One study looked at the background rates of narcolepsy, and the other was a case-control study conducted to tease out risk factors.

The full 159-page report and a summary of the findings are available on the ECDC's Web page. Only one vaccine has been linked to the narcolepsy cases, Pandemrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, which contains the company's proprietary AS03 adjuvant.

ECDC's probe follows a preliminary report that confirmed the narcolepsy link to the pandemic vaccine in Finland. The link first came to light in August 2010 when a Finnish pediatric neurologist noted a slight rise in narcolepsy cases. Around the same time, Swedish experts noticed a similar pattern in kids who had received Pandemrix.

Continued with links and much more on this:  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 Sep 21, 2012 at 07:42:26 AM UTC

Narcolepsy is a chronic condition, according to the detailed summary here:

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, March 20, 2012
Health Authorities Now Admit Severe Side Effects of Vaccination
Swine Flu, Pandemrix and Narcolepsy

by Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D.

[snip]

On 11 June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the swine flu had developed into a full scale world epidemic - a pandemic alert to Phase 6. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO, commented on the situation in a somewhat ambiguous way. While stressing that the swine flu had reached a serious pandemic level, she declared later in the same statement that the illness seemed to be mild and that most of the patients would recover without medical intervention. http://www.who.int/mediacentre...

The world chose to listen to the first part of her message.

Two pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis had, under considerable time pressure, developed a vaccine against the swine flu. Since the cultivation of an adequate amount of virus to generate the vaccine requires time, GSK and Novartis decided to formulate a weaker vaccine but strenghten it with an adjuvant that contains squalene. Immunologic adjuvants are substances, administered in conjunction with a vaccine, that stimulate the immune system and increase the response to the vaccine http://www.who.int/vaccine_saf... Although squalene is a natural substance found in methabolic pathways of the body, its inclusion in a vaccine is controversial and it is not in use in the USA.

On 25 September 2009, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) approved Pandemrix, the swine flu vaccine produced by GSK and Focetria produced by Novartis. http://justthevax.blogspot.com... The vaccine would be ready for use that October.

In Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland, the authorities explicitly set the goal of vaccinating the entire population http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inri... In this respect, it is of interest that the governments of these countries, already before the outbreak of the swine flu, had concluded an agreement with GSK, according to which they were assured the delivery of pandemic vaccines, if needed. In addition, the contract stipulated that, in a situation characterized as a pandemic by the WHO, the same Nordic countries would have ten days to decide whether or not to accept delivery of the vaccine in question. Hence, the purpose of the agreement was to assure that the entire populations of these countries would receive vaccinations. Finally, the contract protected GSK from any claim for financial compensation in case the delivered vaccine would have any side effects.

When WHO declared the swine flu to be a Phase 6 pandemic, the agreement referred to above was automatically activated. [snip]

Narcolepsy is a severe chronic neurologic disease that not only results in a disabling fatigue, which typically results in the patient falling asleep anywhere and at any time. It might also lead to panic attacks and a state of exhaustion. For many, the worst consequences are the symptoms of cataplexy. This condition causes the narcolepsy patient, when expressing strong feelings such as laughter or crying, to suddenly lose muscular control. The legs give way, speech gets slurred, the gaze goes unfocused and the person gives the impression of being drunk. In some patients, frightening hallucinations appear when falling asleep or waking up.
[snip]

http://orthomolecular.org/reso...

Comment:  Entire article is recommended. Bolding is mine.

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

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by: Jane @ Fri Sep 21, 2012 at 16:09:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

India: Rise in swine flu deaths alarms Indore admin (Madhya Pradesh)

It took lives of six persons to make the district administration wake to the seriousness of swine flu disease in the city.

With the death of two more persons from the dreaded disease on Wednesday the total death toll on account of swine flue in the city has reached to six, while the number of persons in the city who have been tested positive and diagonsed as suffering from swine flue has reached 24.

On Wednesday, two more persons who were undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city died of swine flue. The deceased included a two-year-old kid and a 12-year-old girl. Out of the total 79 samples sent for testing, 24 samples have been tested positive. Five more samples had been sent to Jabalpur lab for the clinical test.

Meanwhile, the district administration alarmed by the growing cases of swine flu (Snip) held an emergency meeting of the senior district and health officials in the city on Thursday to review the measures being taken in the city to checkmate the disease as well as the availability of facilities to treat this disease. Continued: http://www.dailypioneer.com/st...

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 Sep 21, 2012 at 17:27:48 PM UTC

Please post new news stories to...

News Reports for September 22, 2012

Thank you!

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by: AlohaOR @ Sat Sep 22, 2012 at 04:30:32 AM UTC