News Reports for February 19, 2013

Patient Suspect Bird Flu Treated in Hospital Elisabeth

http://kabar17.com/2012/12/pas...
February 19, 2013
Semarang, Indonesia:  After appearing in Yogyakarta, the bird flu virus that infects humans has occurred also in the Semarang District.  One person who is still in the status of the suspect, is now being treated at the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Semarang.  The bird flu suspect patient bird flu is being treated in isolation at St. Elisabeth Hospital Semarang.  The patient is a 54-year-old male, a citizen of Sambiroto Semarang, who lives in Sub Bergas, Semarang regency.

PR Elisabeth Hospital in Semarang, Probowati Condronegoro, said the patient went to the hospital since December 17 last year. Before the illness, the patient is known to raise poultry at home. Although he is still suspected to have symptoms similar to bird flu, the patient has been treated in accordance with governance bird flu.  Treatment is given according to the standard as antiflu, intact and oxygen delivery in the intensive care.

"The patient did have a poultry house. However, when cold, he felt scared and immediately we treated him at the hospital," said the Probo.


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

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by: History Lover @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 01:58:29 AM UTC

India: 12 districts on swine flu alert in UP

As Delhi's swine flu cases crossed the 400 mark, with nine deaths, the UP health department has sounded an alert in districts bordering the National Capital Region to be fully prepared to fight the disease. The instructions, along with swine flu protection kits, have been sent to 12 districts in the Agra and Meerut divisions (Snip).

The districts include Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Panchsheel Nagar, Bulandshahr, Baghpat, Agra, Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Allahabad and Varanasi. The official said the state had sufficient stock of medicines and masks and other disposable items (Snip). http://www.indianexpress.com/n...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 07:17:25 AM UTC

India: Rajasthan tops in swine flu deaths this year

JAIPUR: Rajasthan has become India's swine flu 'capital' this year. The state emerged among top three states with highest number of deaths due to swine flu this year, with more than 70 deaths so far in 2013.

Maharashtra reported 1,084 deaths, Gujarat 538 and Rajasthan 442 so far (February 10) since 2009, the ministry of health figures show.

In 2012, Rajasthan reported second highest number of swine flu deaths in the country. Maharashtra reported 135 deaths in 1,551 swine flu cases while 60 persons died of swine flu in Rajasthan. Even though swine flu cases reported in South India - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka- were higher than Rajasthan, the number of deaths in Rajasthan in higher.

In Karnataka, 878 persons tested positive for swine flu with 48 deaths. Tamil Nadu reported 750 cases and 40 deaths. In Kerala 623 persons tested positive with 14 deaths. Rajasthan (343) and Andhra Pradesh (326) reported more or less the same number of cases but the difference in number of deaths was 26. Rajasthan reported 60 while AP saw 34 dying of the flu. In terms of swine flu cases Rajasthan was at 5th place but stood second in deaths due to it in 2012 (Snip).

Rajasthan is at number one position so far with 70 deaths in 2013 till February 10th. Haryana is at second position with 24 deaths and Maharashtra reported 7 deaths. From February 10 to February 15, nine more deaths were reported due to swine flu in the state.

The state officials said that they have already informed the Centre about the rising number of swine flu cases and deaths. They have also written to the National Institute of Virology to find out if the H1N1 virus can mutate. Continued:  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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 07:26:08 AM UTC

India: Swine flu scare: Medical teams from New Delhi rush to Rajasthan

Jaipur: A medical team from New Delhi will visit Rajasthan to check people who assess the swine flu infection in the state.

The decision to send a team of doctors from New Delhi was taken after a request by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Gehlot had written a letter to Union Health minister (Snip) requesting the latter to take necessary steps to control the virus.

Gehlot's request came after several people succumbed to the viral infection recently (Snip).

(Snip) The team comprising five doctors will take stock of the situation and recommend necessary measures to check the spread of H1NI influenza (Snip). http://daily.bhaskar.com/artic...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 07:38:10 AM UTC

India: Swine flu - 3 more deaths in Tricity (Punjab & Haryana)

Three more deaths due to swine flu were reported in the Tricity on Monday, taking the toll to seven.

(Snip) two patients were from Chandigarh and one from Panchkula. However, the Health Department continued to maintain that these were not fresh cases but were old cases.

(Snip) two male chronic patients (Snip) in their early 70s, died at PGI and a hospital in Mohali respectively.

According to health officials, they received the report confirming the deaths and medical history of both the patients. They were suffering from some chronic diseases and during the course were infected with swine flu influenza. Both of them were admitted to the hospitals in the last week of January.

(Snip) a 46-year-old woman reportedly died (Snip) in Panchkula. She had also been undergoing treatment for swine flu for the past two weeks. (Snip).

On Sunday, two deaths were reported from the Tricity. http://www.indianexpress.com/n...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 07:47:16 AM UTC

CIDRAP: Low-path H5N1 outbreak hits German duck farm

Feb 18, 2013 - Veterinary officials in Germany today reported a low-pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza outbreak at a poultry farm in Brandenburg state (Snip).

(Snip) ducks were housed at the farm, which is located in the town of Seelow, about 40 miles east of Berlin near the border with Poland. The virus sickened 22 of the ducks, and authorities culled the remaining 14,500(Snip). The source of the virus is unknown (Snip).

Confirmation tests on samples from the ducks were done at the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute. Germany's last low-pathogenic H5 outbreak was in late December when the virus struck a farm in Schleswig-Holstein state (Snip). http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidr...

Feb 18 OIE report http://www.oie.int/wahis_2/pub...

Feb 16 AP story http://www.washingtonpost.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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 08:27:15 AM UTC

Mexico: Guanajuato installed AI patrols with veterinary

Translated

In three days the virus spread to other five farms in two municipalities, and reached one million 80 thousand the number of diseased birds (Snip).

The state government installed eight animal health patrols on roads upstate to stop moving birds and poultry products (Snip).

(Snip)

The affected farms are established influenza in Dolores Hidalgo, San Felipe, Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas and Dolores Hidalgo, all company property Bachoco, ten broiler and two commercial laying, for the sale of eggs.

Usabiaga said neighboring states, Michoacan, San Luis Potosi and Queretaro-implemented security mechanisms to prevent influenza virus reaches them, caring for the transit of poultry products and live animals.

Given the urgency of the expansion of the outbreak, on Monday placed eight patrols to strengthen monitoring and mobilization of birds standing and by-products that come out of the rooks poultry, the official said.

The health fence remains from Friday which confirmed the outbreak, but as the flu problem has accelerated further expanded surveillance operation on various roads (Snip).

(Snip).

The patrols work in a circle on the stretches of Juventino Rosas, Comonfort, San Miguel Allende, San Luis de la Paz and on sections of the municipalities that recorded farms with the problem, said Usabiaga.

Bird flu was detected on Wednesday night in Dolores Hidalgo farms and San Felipe and by Friday had 486,000 sick birds.

Agriculture Secretary admitted that in the coming weeks could resent the deficit in the chicken and egg shortages resulting from destruction of more than a million sick animals. He estimated that stop producing one million to two million eggs and birds were sacrificed. Continued: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 08:44:28 AM UTC

New York: Flu cases slowing down

Feb 18, 2013

snip

At the height of the epidemic, in early January, she estimated 20 patients were coming in daily with flu or flu-like symptoms. Now that number is down to about 10 daily, Wasserman said.

The trend appears to be true for much of the nation.

"It's likely that influenza-like-illness has peaked in the United States at this time, though activity may continue for some time, with additional hospitalizations and deaths being reported," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its most recent update covering the week of Feb.3-Feb. 8.

In New York, influenza remained widespread statewide, including in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, the state Department of Health said.

But the number of cases reported during the week that ended Feb. 9 decreased 26 percent over the year before.

This year's flu season started with a vengeance in mid-December, more than a month earlier than usual.

Flu normally peaks in February, but it appears that the height of this year's season was in January.

full article

http://www.lohud.com/article/2...

United we stand: Divided we fall
www.flunewsnetwork.com

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by: cottontop @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 13:03:01 PM UTC

Coronavirus: Sars-like virus death reported in UK

A patient infected with a new respiratory illness similar to the deadly Sars virus has died in the UK.

He was being treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and died on Sunday morning, the hospital has confirmed.

Of the 12 people known to have been infected with the virus around the world, six have died.

(Snip)

It is thought one family member picked up the virus while travelling to the Middle East and Pakistan and then the virus spread to his son and another family member.

The son, who died, had a weakened immune system, which would have left him more vulnerable to the infection.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/heal...

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by: Ruby Murray @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 14:22:50 PM UTC

Thank you for posting, Ruby (n/t)

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by: AlohaOR @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 14:35:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

New coronavirus as adept at infecting human lung cells as common cold: study

TORONTO - A study has shown that the new coronavirus is adept at infecting the cells of the airways of the human lung and can do it as well as a virus that is one of the causes of the common cold.

A senior author of the research says the findings suggest this new virus is already well-adapted to being a human pathogen.

Volker Thiel and colleagues tested the new virus in human bronchial cells in a system that mimics the environment of the lining of the airways of the upper lung.

They compared the new EMC virus with the virus that caused SARS and one called 229E that causes colds in people.

All three are members of the coronavirus family.

The cells were as susceptible to the EMC virus as to the other two and in fact, the new virus multiplied at a faster rate than the SARS virus did in the human cells.

The study was published Tuesday in the journal mBio.

More:http://www.vancouversun.com/health/coronavirus+adept+infecting+human+lung+cells+common+cold+study/7984354/story.html#ixzz2LM5mqZFM

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by: Ruby Murray @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 14:29:52 PM UTC

Link to paper

The Coronavirus paper has been published as an open-access article: http://mbio.asm.org/content/4/...

Ron Fouchier (of mutated H5N1 flu virus fame) is one of the authors.

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by: Ruby Murray @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 15:04:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Good finds on the articles, Ruby!

Thanks!

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 15:46:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Coronavirus: (UK) Health Protection Agency issue statement after man dies of rare virus

"One person has sadly died. This patient had an underlying condition that may have made them more susceptible to respiratory infections.

"The first patient in this cluster, who had recent travel history to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, is still receiving treatment.

"The third case, who had a mild illness, has recovered."

(snip)

"The three recent cases in the UK represent an important opportunity to obtain more information about the characteristics of this infection in humans and risk factors for its acquisition, particularly in the light of the first ever recorded instance of apparently lower severity of illness in one of the cases.

http://www.itv.com/news/granad...

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by: Ruby Murray @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 16:04:02 PM UTC

UK patient dies after contracting new SARS-like virus

http://www.reuters.com/article...

LONDON | Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:49am EST
(Reuters) - A British man infected with a new virus from the same family as SARS has died, health officials said on Tuesday, bringing the worldwide death toll from the previously unknown disease to six.

The virus, called novel coronavirus or NCoV, was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. There have been 12 confirmed cases worldwide - including in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain - and so far six patients have died.

"This patient had an underlying condition that may have made them more susceptible to respiratory infections," the Health Protection Agency said in a statement announcing the death of one of four people in Britain with the NCoV infection.

[snip]

The HPA said it had identified and followed up more than 100 people who had close contact with the cases in this family cluster.

"Besides the identified secondary cases, all tests carried out on contacts to date have been negative for the novel coronavirus infection," it said.

[snip]

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 16:41:14 PM UTC

UK - Novel coronavirus 2012 in the UK: situation at 19 February 2013

http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/infe...

COMMENT Details about the UK cases. I won't post a snip because it's all worth reading. Note, all but one ended up on ECMO and the two surviving are still on it.

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by: UK - Bird @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 16:55:29 PM UTC

Excellent article. Don't miss it.

Thanks, UK-Bird!

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 17:18:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Deadly new virus is well adapted to infect humans, study finds

http://www.reuters.com/article...

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent
LONDON | Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:09am EST

[snip]
In one of the first published studies about NCoV, which was unknown in humans until it was identified in September 2012, researchers said it could penetrate the lining of passageways in the lungs and evade the immune system as easily as a cold virus can.

This shows it "grows very efficiently" in human cells and suggests it is well-equipped for infecting humans, said Volker Thiel of the Institute of Immunobiology at Kantonal Hospital in Switzerland, who led the study.

[snip]

Symptoms of both NCoV and SARS include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

[snip

POSSIBLE TREATMENT

[snip]

What is also unclear is what the true prevalence of the virus is - since it is possible that the 12 cases seen so far are the most severe, and there may be more people who have contracted the virus with milder symptoms so are not picked up.
"
[snip]

Thiel said that although the virus may have jumped from animals to humans very recently, his research showed it was just as well adapted to infecting the human respiratory tract as other coronaviruses like SARS and the common cold viruses.

The study, published in mBio, an online journal of the American Society for Microbiology, also found that NCoV was susceptible to treatment with interferons, medicines that boost the immune system and which are also successfully used to treat other viral diseases like Hepatitis C. This opens up a possible mode of treatment in the event of a large-scale outbreak, the scientists said.

Thiel said that with the future of the virus uncertain, it was vital for laboratories and specialists around the world to cooperate swiftly to find out more about where it came from, how widespread it was, and how infectious it might be.

"So far it looks like the virus is well contained, so in that sense I don't see any reason for increased fear," he said.

(Editing by Pravin Char)

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 17:03:21 PM UTC

BIRD FLU: 19 districts in Wonogiri Endemic

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

WONOGIRI- Sebanyak 19 subdistricts from 25 subdistricts in the Wonogiri Regency were stated endemic the incident of alias bird flu avian influenza (AI). The determination was based on the data of the bird flu incident for the last three years.

Nineteen kecataman was meant to be Selogiri, Wonogiri, Wuryantoro, Eromoko, Pracimantoro, Manyaran, Giritontro, Baturetno, Batuwarno, Tirtomoyo, Nguntoronadi, Ngadirojo, Jatipurno, Jatisrono, Kismantoro, Sidoharjo, Slogohimo, Bulukerto and Puhpelem. The head of the Field (the Head of Sector) the Health of the Animal, Surip Surono, represented Section Head Peternakan Perikanan and Marine (Disnakperla) Wonogiri, Rully Pramono Retno, explained 19 endemic subdistricts the bird flu received the tight supervision. These subdistricts became the main location of the livestock traffic from outside the area.

"Supervised tight." Every time had our direct incident asked to report. Disinfektan also it was confirmed always must be available, because of being based on the experience of years that was previous in the subdistrict always had the poultry findings died because of AI, said Surip, to Solopos.com, on Tuesday (19/2/2013).

The Mengancam virus Surip continued the rain season that still was continuing to take place to the threat because of supporting the development of the bird flu virus. That apparently from beginning the entry of the report on the death of the poultry in two last weeks. Was based on the report from several officials of livestock breeding in the subdistrict, the death of the poultry, especially the chicken, began to be bright happened in the Nguntotonadi Subdistrict, Ngadirojo, Selogiri and Wonogiri. Four subdistricts including the endemic subdistrict bird flu. Unfortunately, he said the official did not report details of the number of deaths of the poultry.

According to him, the owner of the poultry that died suddenly indeed tended to cover the incident and just reported the hose incident one or two week after the incident to ask for disinfectant. "Most poultries died was buried just was reported because needed disinfektan." That like this in fact was regretted by us. Ought to have the incident, direct lapor, stressed Surip.

translated

http://www.solopos.com/2013/02...

United we stand: Divided we fall
www.flunewsnetwork.com

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by: cottontop @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 17:56:01 PM UTC

SARS-like disease claims life of British man

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

A 39-year-old man has died from a SARS-like disease, becoming the first British fatality from the illness.

Agency/AP
By Hayley Dixon11:19AM GMT 19 Feb 2013

[snip]

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) said the patient died in its critical care unit on Sunday morning.
In a statement they said: "'The patient was already an outpatient at QEHB, undergoing treatment for a long-term, complex unrelated health condition.
''The patient was immuno-compromised and is believed to have contracted the virus from a relative who is being treated for the condition in a Manchester hospital.''

The QEHB said that the coronavirus patient's admission had been subject to stringent infection controls. The hospital is now working closely with the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which is making follow-up checks on other household members and trying to trace contacts of the victim.
100 people who have had close contact with the infected "family cluster" have already been tested and shown no signs of the disease.

[snip]

Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA, said that it is unclear how humans are catching the disease, but the family infection would seem to prove it can be passed from human to human.

[snip]

In Saudi Arabia last year, four members of the same family fell ill and two died. And in a cluster of about a dozen people in Jordan, the virus may have spread at a hospital's intensive care unit.

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 18:08:38 PM UTC

Novel Coronavirus Infection Death Reported In UK

http://www.medicalnewstoday.co...

Editor's Choice

Note: SARI = (severe acute respiratory infections)
Article Date: 19 Feb 2013 - 5:00 PST

[Big snip]

WHO says it is encouraging "All Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns. Testing for the new coronavirus should be considered in patients with unexplained pneumonias, or in patients with unexplained severe, progressive or complicated respiratory illness not responding to treatment."

No matter where in the world they occur, any cases of SARI in healthcare workers should be thoroughly investigated, as should clusters of SARI, WHO added, with new cases being reported immediately to both national health authorities and to WHO.

Health authorities have been asked by WHO to report cases as NCoV or the Novel Coronavirus, and not as SARS-like to avoid confusion.

Screening people at points of entry, travel or trade restrictions are not advised.
Are these novel coronavirus cases the tip of the iceberg?

The novel coronavirus (NCoV) replicates faster than the SARS (SARS-CoV) and is able to penetrate the lining of passageways in the lungs and evade the immune system as easily as the common cold virus can. Scientists have expressed concern and say that the four British cases might be the tip of the iceberg.

[snip]

Thiel said that scientists worldwide need to cooperate rapidly to find out where this novel coronavirus came from, how widespread it is, and how contagious it might be.

Health Departments around the world are definitely starting to issue alerts, memos and bulletins regarding NCoV at a much higher rate now than a month ago.

[snip]

Written by Christian Nordqvist  

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by: bgw in MT @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 18:44:58 PM UTC

UK Beta Coronavirus Cluster Media Myths

Recombinomics Commentary

Earlier this week Prof John Oxford, a virology expert at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "In a family things can spread far more easily than they would spread outside, people share towels and toothbrushes etc.

"If it was somebody who was not related or a nurse or a doctor - that would be a lot more serious."

The above comments, in response to the lab confirmation of a familial cluster in the UK involving the novel beta coronavirus, signal the start of the silly season for comments on the human to human (H2H) transmission of the virus.  The latest cluster is the fourth cluster involving at least one confirmed case, and the third cluster involving two or more confirmed cases.  Two of the prior clusters did involve health care workers and one of the clusters included the death of two health care workers who were lab confirmed.  Moreover, 9 of the 12 confirmed cases were linked to clusters, as were a dozen probable cases, as well as a dozen suspect cases.  Thus, of the three dozen confirmed, probable, or suspect cases, only three were not linked to clusters of symptomatic case.

The most recent cluster involved three family members, but that cluster addressed three important aspects of novel coronavirus infections which had not been lab confirmed previously.  The index case (60M) developed symptoms while performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia.  When he returned to the UK his condition deteriorated and he was lab confirmed of being co-infected with the novel coronavirus, as well as pandemic H1N1 (H1N1pdm09), which have never been reported previously.

His son (39M) then became symptomatic and was also lab confirmed for infection by the novel coronavirus.  Since the son had no recent travel history outside of the UK, the confirmation signaled the first confirmed export/transmission of the novel virus (from the father infected in Saudi Arabia to the son infected in the UK).  The son has now died.

In addition to the infection of the son in the UK, another family member developed symptoms in the UK and was lab confirmed.  The absence of travel defined an additional example of human transmission in the UK, and the third case did not require hospitalization or medical attention.  Thus, the third family member represented the first confirmation of the novel coronavirus in a mild case.

However, cases with mild symptoms were also observed in the first cluster which also involved transport of the virus to the UK.  The index case (49M) was a Qatari who also developed symptoms while performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia in August, 2012. Initial symptoms were mild and resolved three days after his return to Qatar.  However, his symptoms re-appeared two weeks later on September 3 and his condition deteriorated over the next 8 days,  He was transported to the UK on September 11, but the etiology was unknown.  A ProMED publication of a letter from a physician in Jeddah (which is adjacent to Mecca) described a fatal case (60M) with SARS-like symptoms which matched the Qatari case.  Initial testing had been negative for SARS and other coronaviruses, but testing using a universal set of PCR primers identified a novel group 2c coronavirus, which had never been reported in humans.  A sample from the Qatari case was then tested with the same universal primer set and was positive.  The sequence of the 206 BP insert matched at 205 position (<99.5% identity) confirming that both patients had been infected with the same novel coronavirus.

This confirmation raised considerable concern in the UK hospital, since the Saudi patient had died and the Qatari case was in critical condition.  Moreover, and the initial impact of the SARS CoV on health care workers was well known.  Therefore, health care workers with contact with the confirmed case wore personal protective equipment and family and healthcare workers with contact with the patient in the UK were identified. 64 healthcare workers were identified, and 13 were symptomatic.  However, all cases had mild symptoms and recovered without hospitalization. Samples from 10 of the cases were tested with the universal primer set and were negative.  All recovered and additional infections were not found.

However, the detection of a novel coronavirus in the two confirmed cases raised concerns for a serious cluster involving health care workers in Jordan in April.  The ECDC described the cluster of 11 symptomatic cases linked directly or indirectly to an ICU.  Seven were nurses and an additional case was a doctor.  The ECDC summary was based on a Jordan Ministry of Health report issued on April 19, the date of death for one of the nurses (45F).  Media reports noted that the cases had a wide range of symptoms.  One was not hospitalized, while several were briefly hospitalized.  Others, however, had severe pneumonia similar to SARS cases.  Moreover, an intern (25M) died a week after the death of the nurse.  Jordan sent samples to labs in France and Egypt, but testing for known respiratory viruses, including SARS CoV were negative.  

However, samples were sent to Egypt for retesting by NAMRU-3 using probes targeting the novel coronavirus.  The two fatal cases were confirmed.  Details on the failure to detect the virus in the surviving symptomatic cases were not released, but WHO classified these cases as probable, based on symptoms and an epidemiological study. Continued: http://www.recombinomics.com/N...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 21:07:02 PM UTC

Variations within influenza strain may explain varying patient response

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Just the mention of H1N1 can conjure up images of long lines of people waiting to be vaccinated, news reports of the severity of the pandemic and the count of the number of people who perished from the 2009-10 outbreak. However, some positives are coming forward.

Researchers at the University of Louisville have found variations within H1N1 patients who were hospitalized and identified those that most impacted patients. Their findings were published today (Feb. 18, 2013) on the PLOS ONE website.

"While all of the variants that we uncovered hijacked the body's usual system for fighting off foreign objects in the lungs, namely the white blood cells, their ability to fight appears to differ," said Colleen Jonsson, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology at UofL and the director of the university's Center for Predictive Medicine. "We were able to take the strain variants from patients who were hospitalized during the pandemic, isolate those variants and determine how they functioned using a mouse model. Future studies will determine the impact of various treatment options.

"These results are very limited and preliminary," Jonsson warned. "This year's influenza outbreak is an opportunity for us to verify much of what we originally learned and to extend our understanding of the mechanisms involved." Continued: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

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 @ Tue Feb 19, 2013 at 21:14:00 PM UTC

Novel coronavirus infection - from SARS to SARI

http://english.pravda.ru/healt...

19.02.2013

Twelve cases, six deaths, no cure, a new deadly viral infection, fifty per cent mortality rate. It is lethal, it is unknown in humans, it can be transmitted from human to human, the mechanism is a mystery and it is spreading. On Sunday a patient admitted to hospital in the United Kingdom died of NCoV - Novel Coronavirus.

The scientific community is facing its worst nightmare: a pathogenic virus with the capacity to make a species jump and then become transmissible from human to human. It is called NCoV, or Novel coronavirus.

Are there more cases?

[Snipped:a summary of the cases that have tested positive world-wide.]

But what about, in the WHO's own report, "the number of health care workers with pneumonia associated with the cases...now considered probable case(s)"?They don't count either. And those in Norway? Why have they "disappeared" from the media?

The WHO admits that the appearance of pneumonia among healthcare workers and family members "increases the suspicion that person-to-person transmission may have occurred". In the WHO's own reaction to the recent cases in the UK, this is more than confirmed: "The United Kingdom (UK) has informed WHO of another confirmed case of infection with the novel coronavirus (NCoV). This is the third case confirmed in the country this month and is in the same family cluster as the two recently confirmed cases.  The latest confirmed case does not have recent travel history outside the UK".

The Novel Coronavirus is sufficiently serious to have the WHO instructing the affected countries to test for new cases and have enhanced surveillance measures and communication with neighbouring countries. With significant numbers of people travelling to the area for different reasons, watch out for the next pandemic.

Sources: WHO

Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response, Global Influenza Programme

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

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by: bgw in MT @ Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 00:25:11 AM UTC

I think that there are probably more cases with mild symptoms

but of the cases we know about the CFR is actually higher than 50% Anyone on ECMO would in any normal circumstance die. In fact in a pandemic, anyone who needs much more than oxygen, fluids and antibiotics would be in deep trouble.

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by: UK - Bird @ Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 00:45:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I agree, UK-Bird!

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by: bgw in MT @ Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 17:33:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Please post new news stories to...

News Reports for February 20, 2013

Thank you!

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 @ Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 06:28:13 AM UTC