(If you want any of the links to open in a new window, hold down the shift key and then click on the link)
Summary from Indonesia Outbreak - no change since 2 November 2006
| Cases Discussed | Jun-06 | Jul-06 | Aug-06 | Sep-06 | Oct-06 | Nov-06 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Died, no tests | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 17 |
| Died, tested positive | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 15 |
| Other tested positive | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Suspected symptoms | 4 | 2 | 46 | 38 | 34 | 0 | 124 |
| Tested negative | 0 | 6 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 0 | 58 |
| Totals | 10 | 14 | 81 | 64 | 50 | 0 | 219 |
Please visit these threads for latest information from these regions or to add news
| No | Region Name | No | Region Name | No | Region Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USA | 8 | East Africa | 15 | Arab Peninsula |
| 2 | Canada, Greenland and the Arctic Circle | 9 | Southern Africa and Madagascar | 16 | Central Asia |
| 3 | Central America and Caribbean | 10 | Northwest Europe and British Isles | 17 | Southern Asia |
| 4 | South America and Surrounding Islands | 11 | West and Southwest Europe | 18 | Mainland East Asia and Japan |
| 5 | Northern Africa | 12 | Central and Southeast Europe | 19 | Southeast Asia |
| 6 | West Africa | 13 | Eastern Europe and Baltic Region | 20 | Australasia Melanesia and Micronesia |
| 7 | Central Africa | 14 | Middle East and Caucasus Region | 21 | Pacific Islands and Antarctic |
(Please see the thread Volunteers Needed as Lookouts Worldwide if you want to help)
Separate threads for India, Indonesia and Nepal – see links below
(From WHO as at 31 Oct - latest update) Total human cases worldwide 256, deaths 152 (2006 – 109 with 74 deaths)
Canada
China
India
Indonesia
Nepal
United States of America
General
Link to news thread for 4 November (link News Reports for November 4 )
(Usual disclaimer about may not have captured everything. Feel free to add your own where omissions have occurred.)
Please note that I copy the links directly from the thread so if they don’t work you may need to re-visit the Thread.
(UK) All fall down (Horizon documentary, BBC2, Tuesday 9pm)
ILONA AMOS (reported in TV and Radio section, Scotsman)
SOMETHING that doesn’t yet exist poses a deadly threat to the entire world, possessing the potential to exterminate millions and devastate the economy. The culprit is not visible to the naked eye, you can’t taste it and it’s undetectable by scent, sound or touch, yet scientists predict that it will kill around 85% of its prey. It’s a virus, and there’s little we can do to thwart its attack.
According to experts, these predictions of natural bioterrorism are not scientific theory, they’re global fact. Just when it seemed like the perceived threat from a human strain of bird flu had diminished, the Horizon team brings us a film, part documentary, part dramatisation, that creates a possible scenario showing how a pandemic might break out and be dealt with - or not. It doesn’t make comforting viewing.
Apparently, the current H5N1 avian flu, which has managed to jump species from birds to humans in 224 known cases, is only one to two mutations away from becoming a strain that passes easily between humans. This is terrifying news. Research shows that the terrible influenza outbreak in 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people in 14 months at the end of the First World War, was an avian virus that had spread to humans. It was transmitted by coughs and sneezes and resulted in organ failure, massive haemorrhaging and a horrible death. Another disturbing factor was the virus’s unusual habit of sparing the usual flu victims, the very young and the old and infirm; this disease’s victims were mostly aged 25 to 35.
South-east Asia is considered to be the most likely spawning ground for a human strain of H5N1 and therefore the origin of any pandemic. In response to this, the World Health Organisation is keeping a close eye on remote communities that could harbour a mutant virus, ready to instigate strict quarantine measures and a massive programme of anti-viral drug treatment.
As winter is upon us once more, Horizon’s docu-drama could just spark a stampede for flu jabs. But remember, we can run but we can’t hide. We’re all doomed, doomed. And if the dreaded lurgy passes us by, I’m sure there will be a new film along soon to tell us what to be afraid of next.
What is the new srain that has emerged in Chin;a, per the above news link?
That’s the ‘Fujian-like’ virus, which has rapidly become the dominant strain, replacing the multiple sublineages that existed there before. I’ve intended to write up that paper, haven’t had time yet, probably today or tomorrow, so hang on to your questions. :-)
Thanks a-22, I’ll be patient.
More details:
Horizon
Tue 7 Nov, 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm 90mins
Pandemic: Horizon tells the story of what will happen when the next flu pandemic hits. And this isn’t common or garden bird flu, this is much much worse. It’s the next strain.
the next strain
Comment on the above link:
South-east Asia is considered to be the most likely spawning ground for a human strain of H5N1 and therefore the origin of any pandemic. In response to this, the World Health Organisation is keeping a close eye on remote communities that could harbour a mutant virus, ready to instigate strict quarantine measures and a massive programme of anti-viral drug treatment.
As winter is upon us once more, Horizon’s docu-drama could just spark a stampede for flu jabs. But remember, we can run but we can’t hide.
We’re all doomed, doomed. And if the dreaded lurgy passes us by, I’m sure there will be a new film along soon to tell us what to be afraid of next.
Commenter full in the “no more scares please” type of denial, it seems; not even in the “there’s a problem but nothing we can do” situation.
We need to shift public focus from the problem to the solution (TLC) and to the solutions for the second order problems and so on.
The full account about the BBC programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/pandemic/
And their main link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2005/bird_flu/default.stm
The BBC is a powerful voice.
There might be web discussions/comments on message boards on the BBC after this programme. It might be useful for some of us to chip in.
They’ll probably allow links to this site.
Horizon’s trend towards dramatisations appeals to the less scientifically minded but contains a lot less science.
Good Morning All, Here is an article from the Toronto Sun. (Ask your Dr. for a prescription for an anti-viral)
Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mt.Sinai hospital in Toronto, is quoted in the article as saying, “ With drug companies ramping up their production of these drugs, the supply problem is less an issue than before. “I think it is now very hard to say to people you should not be doing it at all,” said McGeer, though she cautioned that people need to know how to store these drugs and how to use them properly”.
Just wondering if the medical profession is now changing or has changed their opinion on supplying anti-virals, in advance, to the public. If so, what has made them change their minds?
I’m also posting this on Canadian Preppers 3 thread.
http://www.torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2006/11/05/2242129-sun.html
And now for something completely different…
Hong Kong testing anti-bacterial nano-coating in subways
Hong Kong is now testing an anti-bacterial silver-titanium dioxide nanoparticle coating on surfaces in its subway cars, says ABC News. Expect to see the same in London’s tube in the near future.
With news of powerful flu strains like the avian flu and hand-transmissible diseases such as colds, public transportation operators in Asia and Europe have considered using a new disinfectant in their undergrounds. Many surfaces that people touch every day in the tube, as the London subway system is called, also carry thousands of bacteria and germs, according to experts.
“Public transportation is a very common way, we know, of how diseases … spread,” says Ben Mascall, spokesman with MTR Corp., which operates the railway in Hong Kong and has bid for two new rail franchises in the United Kingdom.
“Some viruses can stay on a surface for 24 hours,” says Dr. John Trainer, at the University of Rochester in New York.
Hong Kong is among the first cities to test one of the latest anti-flu products, nano silver-titianium dioxide coating, or NSTDC. It is applied to all surfaces inside a subway car. The preliminary tests conducted in Hong Kong show that the disinfectant reduces the amount of bacteria by 60 percent, says Mascall.
Ironically, titanium dioxide nanoparticles are also found in sunscreens, which the ETC Group wants banned pending further studies of their potential toxicity.
And yet more nanotechnology in the news:
Imagine If Killing Flu Viruses And Other Microbes Were As Simple As Turning On A Light
Exposing a unique surface coating to light may in fact hold the key to protecting you from virtually all viruses and bacteria, including the feared avian flu.
Laboratory testing of a novel, permanent nano-coating, developed in collaboration by researchers at North Carolina State University College of Textiles and Emory University School of Medicine, has been shown to kill or inactivate most viruses and bacteria when exposed to visible light. Early tests have shown that the coating kills 99.9 percent of influenza viruses and 99.99 percent of vaccinia virus, which causes rash, fever, head and body aches.
The coating technology was developed by Dr. Stephen Michielsen, associate professor in NC State’s College of Textiles, and Drs. Igor Stojiljkovic and Gordon Churchward, associate professors at Emory University’s School of Medicine in Atlanta.
NC State has applied for a patent on the invention, which has been licensed to Research Triangle Park-based start-up LaamScience, Inc. The company - whose name stands for Light Activated Anti Microbials - has raised more than $400,000 in seed financing from North Carolina angel investors that will enable it to optimize the coating and begin developing product prototypes.
Prototypes will be used in performance trials targeting hospital areas including waiting rooms. The company is also developing a room air purifier that incorporates its nano-coated filter technology. Other potential application areas include anti-viral filter systems for airplanes and businesses, as well as for a variety of uses for first responders and the military, including anti-viral masks. Perhaps equally important, the invention may be used to make everyday objects resistant to viruses and bacteria in the presence of light.
“We have many exciting opportunities to use these proprietary coatings to stop infection before it causes disease and death,” says Tom Roberg, chief executive officer of LaamScience. “The technology developed at NC State and Emory University provides a huge opportunity to impact the health and welfare of people throughout the world.”
The invention grew out of Michielsen’s research into nanotechnology and its use to modify the surface of polymers and fibers. The thin coating is a type of dye that can be applied to the surface of all types of fabrics and materials. When exposed to light, the coating acts as a photo catalyst, sparking a chemical reaction with air and killing most viral and bacterial microbes.
“In the presence of light, a specific reaction takes place on the surface that makes the air poisonous to the microbes, yet harmless to people,” Michielsen says. “The coating doesn’t wear out and continually regenerates so it’s able to continue killing viruses again and again.”
<snip>
I couldn’t resist-----Norovirus cancels flu pandemic meeting at Isle of Capri Oct. 31----Just google title if you would like more info
COMMENT:
I would venture to say that most microbes are harmless to humans and many are beneficial. Science must proceed with caution despite the hopes for an H5N1 preventative. The road to Hell and all that… Don’t expect to see this technology available for quite awhile unless a pandemic is seen as imminent by TPTB, at which point all bets are off. Meantime, let’s not make things worse with unintended consequences.
SORTA NEWS
In today’s Sunday newspaper comics in the US, there is a syndicated comic strip called “Luann”, about the angst and wonder of a teenage girl. In today’s strip, one of the things that caught my eye is that the writer of the comic strip listed, along with fires, tidal waves, nuclear holocaust and her ex-boyfriend dating someone else, bird flu as something that a 16-year-old would worry about.
Just thought it was interesting that a comic strip writer might come up with that.
On the web here. Click on the calendar for 11/05.
Saudi Arabia A 2-year-old boy has died, and his family is infected with a hemorrhagic fever. They are waiting for test results.
<snip>medical sources at the laboratory of Al Qasimi Hospital said that viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a group of illnesses that are caused by several distinct families of viruses — Arena virus, Filoviridae, Bunyaviridae and Flavivirus.
Some of these cause relatively mild illnesses, whilst others could cause severe, life threatening disease. Examples include Lassa fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Bolivian haemorrhagic fever, Korean haemorrhagic fever, and Dengue haemorrhagic fever.<snip>
They take pains to say they are trying to be transparent about this illness.
http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=8240&cat=dis&lang=eng
RSOE hazard site is amazing. How do they collect all this information?
In Austria there’s a biohazard situation, but the article is in Hungarian. Slovenia has a cow with Mad Cow disease. There is anthrax “confirmed (?)” in India, Andhra Pradesh state, Kothapeta (city). There is typhoid fever in the Philippines, Barang in Agusan del Sur Province, 478 dead since 10/31, contaminated water from a particular well is blamed. There’s a “technological disaster” in China, Inner Mongolia, which destroyed or damaged 100+ houses in what China called a 4.2 earthquake but which didn’t register on equipment at USGS or another monitoring site. whew. (It’s so busy today that while I’m reading the list, the page goes blank and the map comes back with an update. At least there’s only one blinking chicken now, at Niagra Falls.)
Jane – at 17:13 Hungarian.
Yes it is a Hungarian site. The problem (for us English speakers) is that not all the alerts are translated. They also have occational “down times” and mixed up format.
The only free Hungarian translater I have found is:
http://www.humanitas-international.org/newstran/more-trans.htm
THe second one on the left. It is not a good translater but it does help a little.
Jane at 17:13, if you go to the “event report” icon and click on it you will get this (pasted below). We can all enter any information we find in newspapers and give the link and also the toggletext (or whatever translation site we used). We here at the Wiki get information quicker than this site does. Here’s the paste:
Dear Visitor,
Our organization, the National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE), is located in Budapest, Hungary. As a national non-profit prominent public organization we operate information systems on the River Danube, River Tisza and the Storm-Warning System for Lake Balaton. Furthermore our association serves as the official Infocommunication Service of the National Disaster Management of Hungarian Republic.
We also operate the HAVARIA Information Service. The main aim of this service is to gather seismical, meterological, epidemic and all other datas around the world related to natural and human disasters and calamities, and to forward these datas to the co-operational governmental organisations (Hungarian Ministry of Interior - National General-Directorate of Disaster Management, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.) as well as to inform the citizens.
The HAVARIA Information Service is monitoring and processing data of approximately 600–700 news sources, many researching institutes and realtime data of forecasting services. Even so we do not have information about many events. Our association operates this service without any subsidy so we can not process the information, which are not in English (or in Hungarian) language (e.g.:Spanish, French, Italian, etc.).
Please help our task. After a registration and a short verification you can enter to the protected area. Here you can fill out a data format. With this filled data sheet you can report us events (emergency situations or disaster forecasting). You can also make reports in the Havaria database.
We will not serve the name and email, which was given at registration to third parties.
Thank you:
RSOE HAVARIA Emergency Information Service
http://tinyurl.com/yb5yjb Mysterious Illness Effects South Valley Camp California, USA (?)
11/04/06 - Dozens of kids are sickened after spending the week at a sixth grade camp in the hills above Springville. The problem is a mystery, but health officials are comparing it to a virus that has sickened hundreds of cruise ship passengers.
Camp officials say the kids were suffering from stomach flu like symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Officials from the health department were called in and say the kids may have been sickened by a norovirus, which causes stomach flu.
One childhood illness is apparently making a comeback. An outbreak of whooping cough has hit at least 16 people at Boston’s Children’s Hospital. Similar outbreaks have been reported in North Carolina, Chicago, Indiana, and Texas.
The symptoms of whooping cough are similar to those reported at Sci-Con, but they usually take longer to develop.
Experts refute emerging of new strain of bird flu in S. China: China Daily
BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — China Daily, the only English Language national newspaper in the country, is to publish a report about Chinese experts who have denied the emerging of a new strain of bird flu in some part of the country.
The full text of the report is as follows:
The nation’s leading bird flu experts Saturday refuted a report that a new strain of bird flu had emerged in southern China, published by a foreign publication and widely cited by foreign media recently.
Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States said in a report released last week that a new strain of bird flu called the “Fujian-like virus”, first isolated in the southern Chinese province of Fujian last year, had become prevalent in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Chen Hualan, director of the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, rebuked the report, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences saying its claims “lack scientific proof”.
“The so-called ‘Fujian-like virus’ is not a new variant of the virus,” she said, “Gene sequence analysis of the virus shows that it shares high conformity with the H5N1 virus that was isolated in Hunan when bird flu broke out in early 2004.”
Samples from every domestic bird flu outbreak are sent for isolation and gene sequence analysis at Chen’s lab.
Chen said that in 2005 and 2006, the lab had isolated some viruses in waterfowl in southern China which was reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
“These viruses all remain steady in gene type and there is no marked change in their biological characteristics,” she said.
Chen said there was only one new variant of the virus, which was isolated to north China’s Shanxi Province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region at the beginning of this year and has been reported to the FAO and OIE.
Experimental results show that the variant is weak in triggering disease in mammals and a new vaccine, which has been put into use in these areas, has effectively brought it under control.
Chen also defended the effectiveness of China’s bird flu vaccine, saying that it had a good effect, in response to the report’s surmise that the current vaccine was less effective for the “Fujian-like virus”.
The report claimed that through the analysis of serum samples from 76 chickens for signs of antibodies against three H5N1 variants, including the Fujian-like strain, they found almost all of the samples displayed two to four times more antibodies to the other two variants than to the Fujian virus, suggesting that the vaccine given to the chickens was less effective against that strain.
Chen said that the evaluation of the vaccine was “not scientific” as where the chickens were from and whether they had been vaccinated was unknown.
Chen said that since the country launched a strategy of culling and vaccination to curb bird flu in the later half of 2005, the number of bird flu cases has plummeted.
Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that more than 95 percent of domestic poultry had been vaccinated from January to October. Ten cases of bird flu broke out in poultry populations from January to October this year, there were 50 cases in 2004 and 31 last year.
Shu Yuelong, director of the National Influenza Centre at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, also refuted the report’s allegation that five people in southern China were actually infected by the new “Fujian-like virus”.
Shu said that altogether 16 variants of bird flu viruses have been found in the 20 confirmed cases of human infections in the Chinese mainland since October 2005, seven in 2005 and 13 in 2006.
“Fifteen out of the 16 variants were isolated from cases in southern China and they belong to the same gene type,” Shu said, “There is no proof that five of them were infected by a new mutated virus.”
Shu said that the viruses isolated in South China and northern China were very different and also differed a lot with the virus isolated in Vietnam and Thailand.
Chen Hualan also attacked the report’s allegations that the “Fujian-like virus” was causing a third wave of prevalence of bird flu in Southeast Asia.
“Judging from the actual situation, these allegations are all subjective and arbitrary surmises,” she said.
COMMENT - whooping cough symptoms are nothing like stomach flu.
Whooping cough is frequently diagnosed as “a virus”, bronchitis, or general respiratory infection. Clinicians usually diagnose based on “clinical history” and most of the time it is NOT confirmed with lab tests, unless there’s a compelling reason: a hospitalization or contact with a confirmed outbreak.
What are the symptoms of whooping cough? 7 to 10 day incubation period, first stage symptoms typically lasting one to two weeks, an infected person has symptoms characteristic of an upper respiratory infection, including runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever, mild, occasional cough, similar to the common cold.
Because the symptoms are nonspecific, pertussis is usually not diagnosed until the appearance of the characteristic cough of the paroxysmal stage. Complications include pneumonia, encephalitis, pulmonary hypertension, and secondary bacterial superinfection.
Methods used in laboratory diagnosis include culturing of nasopharyngeal swabs on Bordet-Gengou medium, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunofluorescence (DFA), and serological methods. The bacteria can be recovered from the patient only during the first three weeks of illness, rendering culturing, PCR, and DFA useless after this period.
Whooping cough on the rise in California - The California Health Department announced in the fall of 2005 that the number of people developing whooping cough is increasing in California. For the first eight months of the year, the number of cases reported in California (1,276) was almost triple the number of cases reported during the same period in 2004 (450). The number of deaths and illnesses from whooping cough reported through August, 2005, had already surpassed the totals for the entire year of 2004. Other areas of the United States are experiencing the same trend.
The Boston Globe - Boston, US More whooping cough cases confirmed at Boston hospital
November 4, 2006,-Boston health authorities say 10 more staff members at Children’s Hospital have been diagnosed with whooping cough, and they are investigating whether a 3-year-old caught the disease outside the hospital or after coming for treatment.
A total of 25 workers, most from the emergency and intensive care departments, have been confirmed to have whooping cough since a 19-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital with the disease in September.
Another 200 staffers are being tested after showing cold-like symptoms and are off duty until they complete a five-day course of antibiotics.
“It’s putting pressure on the system, in terms of having the staff we require to care for the patients, but we’ve been able to manage,” Children’s Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Davis told The Boston Globe.
The outbreak is the second at a Massachusetts hospital this fall. About 30 workers at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester were infected in September, likely after a surgeon unknowingly got the disease on military reserve duty, health officials said.
SANTA FE, N.M. — An outbreak of whooping cough in Santa Fe County is causing the state Department of Health to investigate what’s going on.
Two dozen cases of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, were reported between August and October in the county. And these victims range in age from babies to adults with classic symptoms. In the 1970′s about 1,000 cases of whooping cough were reported, and in the last couple of years that number has jumped to 25,000.
Gwinnett County, Georgia, 11/05/2006, Whooping cough suspected at local elementary school.
LAWRENCEVILLE - A Dacula Elementary School student has a suspected case of whooping cough and the school’s principal has asked parents to be on the lookout for the disease.
Dacula Elementary Principal Karen Bryant sent a letter to parents Friday advising them of the suspected case and asking them to look for symptoms in their own children. The letter tells parents to keep an eye out for cold symptoms and a cough that worsens over a one- to two-week period and says that people who are infected my have long series of coughs or coughing fits, vomiting or difficulty breathing. The school system is working with the county health department…
Chicago, November 5, 2006 - Whooping cough outbreak hits New Trier High School. Parents warned of 13 cases at Winnetka campus.
The Cook County Department of Public Health stepped in Friday to warn parents that New Trier Township High School has been hit by a whooping cough outbreak, with 13 cases detected since the beginning of the school year. Public Health officials said “sustained transmission” of pertussis, or whooping cough, had been documented at the school’s Winnetka campus, where sophomores through seniors attend classes.
School officials also were calling and e-mailing parents, warning them not to send a child with repeated coughs to school, said New Trier health services coordinator Colleen Kahler.
Dallas, TX, November 4, 2006 - 4 have whooping cough. Centennial cases lead Collin County officials to advise caution.
Collin County health officials are trying to quash a whooping cough outbreak that’s infected at least four children at one Plano school. “Having this many children in one location [infected] would be considered an outbreak.”
In 2005, more than 75 whooping cough cases were diagnosed in Collin County. In 2006, there have been just 13.
Last year was unusual because whole families in Collin County came down with whooping cough. Health officials are asking parents of young babies to shield them from anyone exhibiting a cough – even a mild one. The four children from Centennial who were infected were not hospitalized, and they had all been vaccinated.
Leigh Hornsby, spokeswoman for the county, said no one has died of whooping cough this year or last in Collin County. Last year, eight people in Texas died of whooping cough, Ms. Glowicz said.
Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said about 7,900 cases of whooping cough were diagnosed in Americans in 2000. As of 2005, that figure spiked to 26,000. “We’re not 100 percent sure why that is,” Mr. Allen said, “but it could be attributed to better surveillance and better reporting of the disease.”
“It’s all over the United States. Some areas have greater outbreaks than others,” Mr. Allen said.
http://tinyurl.com/ymj5kd [Don’t know what state or town] Washington Daily, November 5 - There are at least 24 “symptomatic” children in the Grassy Ridge community of western Hyde County who have shown signs of whooping cough, and a handful of people in Beaufort and Washington counties are potential contacts of the cases.
Gibbs would not release exact figures regarding the number of diagnosed cases, probable cases and potential cases. She would say, however, that most of the cases affected children. Gibbs she “felt sure” the scope of potential cases included Beaufort and Washington counties. “It may even go beyond there,” she said.
The Hope Mennonite School in Grassy Ridge was closed last week after 24 of 27 students were deemed “symptomatic,” meaning they showed signs of the communicable disease, Gibbs said. “But the health department did not close the school. We didn’t make that decision,” she said.
Health-department workers believe that whooping cough has been affecting the western Hyde County community for at least a month. “We think the case originated from out of state,” Gibbs said.
Purdue Student News, Sunday, October 26, 2006 - Whooping cough case concerns health officials. An adult at Purdue’s child care center was diagnosed with pertussis, a highly contagious infection of the respiratory system identified by a “whooping” sound at the end of severe coughs.
Sarah Sayger, clinical director at the Student Health Center, said the center is on the lookout for more cases of pertussis, especially because there has been an increase in cases nationwide since 2004.
“In the last year, 2006, I don’t think we’ve had any confirmed cases (besides this one), but we always try to keep an index of suspicion,” she said. “The year before, we did have at least two clinical cases; it acted as if it was whooping cough by the symptoms.”
Pertussis, which has symptoms similar to a cold, can be spread when infected people cough and others come into contact with the germ. Sayger said surfaces such as doorknobs and desks in classrooms get contaminated easily, but that Purdue has a population of “thoroughly immunized” students.
http://tinyurl.com/yhjdug - Papau, New Guinea. Whooping cough, flu threatens Bukawa
AN outbreak of influenza and whooping cough is spreading through Nawae district, Morobe province, leaving scores of afflicted children in its wake, according to reports reaching Lae. Health workers in the district yesterday reported the outbreak was putting intense pressure on the Bukawa aid post, the only health facility in the stricken area. Community health workers Linson Agi and his wife, Christine, who are based there, said six villages with a population of about 12,000 people are being threatened by the outbreak. “The problem was now getting worse so the two of us, the aid post committee, our church leader and the councillors of ward 7 and 8 are calling for urgent help from the relevant health authorities,” Mr Agi said in a letter to The National. The villages affected are Bukawa, Awadec, Mundala, Bocgapung, Ukilum and Yambo. Mr Agi said the aid post was treating six cases every day and this rate was certain to rise. “Before it gets worse, we request full medical supplies for the Bukawa Aid Post. This is the first time we have experienced such an outbreak,” Mr Agi said. He wrote that urgent assistance was needed to reign in the outbreak. Provincial programme advisor for Health Dr Likei Theo said his office had not received any reports of the outbreak. “When we do, we will dispatch a medical team into the area to investigate. “I am going to check this out,” Dr Theo said when the National informed him of the letter from the community health workers in the area. Early this year, the same area suffered an outbreak of measles, prompting a health team to visit the area and bring the situation under control.
There are so many gaping holes in this report, I am leaving it to the great minds here to pick it apart at the seams I first posted this a few days ago and Jane posted it again today at 16:53
“Toddlers death due to adverse drug reaction”---This is about the death of the 2 year old--- His father and sister were also admitted to the hospital with symptoms.-----
Two nurses that took care of him are now sick
‘They have been hospitalized
Could someone please post the entire article. It makes no sense whatsoever.Please look at gulfnews.com or google title
I would like to thank Jane @16:53 for posting the alert map website. I passed this along to commonground, (I think it was commonground), last month, and lost my address for it. I spent all Saturday night going back through the threads from Oct, where I thought I might have posted it, and did not find it. So, I’m happy to see someone else has it. It really is an awsome site. Although it didn’t look like that last month, and it’s scarey to see it so active. The biohazard signs get me. Thanks Jane!
As per Witness at 19:49, I found this article in the Gulf News - hmmmm - bolding is mine.
Toddler’s death “due to adverse drug reaction” By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter
Dubai: An adverse drug reaction is suspected to have caused the death of a two-year-old boy in Sharjah instead of a “mystery illness”, said the Health Ministry official in charge of investigating the case.
The toddler, a Syrian, died two days after he was admitted to Al Qasimi Hospital on October 29 with high fever and bleeding from the nose. His father and 8-year old sister, who have been discharged, were also admitted to the hospital with high fever.
Dr Abdul Gaffar Al Hawi, who is in charge of investigating the case, told Gulf News that pathologists and experts from the ministry and Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) were “98 per cent” sure that the boy’s death was due to an adverse drug reaction.
“We believe, 98 per cent, that his death was due to drug sensitivity” based on tests done on the baby’s liver biopsy, he said.
“There is some necrosis and fatty tissue in the liver, which usually indicate drug interaction. The child [probably] died from the adverse drug event, not from the illness,” he said, adding that the adverse drug reaction would account for the bleeding.
He said the baby’s mother, who is an X-ray specialist at the hospital, most likely gave him medicine when he first took ill. When the child started bleeding, she took him to the hospital.
Doctors are warning the public on the dangers of self-medication, following the death of the boy. Dr Mohammad Abu Al Khair, drug consultant with Abu Dhabi General Authority for Health Services, told Gulf News that people should always seek advice from doctors, who need to run tests before prescribing any medication to anybody, especially children.
“They should avoid acting like a doctor and making decisions on behalf of kids and sharing medicine between one child and another as infants’ organs may not be developed enough to metabolise the medicine,” he said.
“We had a 5-year-old boy today who took 19 tablets of asthma medication. He had to be admitted to hospital and is under observation.”
Dr Al Hawi, who is also assistant undersecretary for curative medicine, told Gulf News that doctors have not determined which drug was responsible. The mother is too distraught to answer questions, he said. He said they still did not know what the viral infection was, which sickened the Syrian family, as results of the blood samples sent to German laboratories were delayed.
Nurses’ fever may be due to worries
Dubai Two nurses who were taken ill while caring for the sick toddler and admitted for observation at Al Qasimi Hospital have been discharged, and their illness ruled “unrelated”. A 2-year-old boy, was hospitalised for high fever and bleeding from his nose last Sunday. He died on Tuesday of a suspected adverse drug reaction.
Dr Abdul Gaffar Al Hawi, assistant undersecretary of curative medicine at the Ministry of Health, told Gulf News that the two nurses developed low-grade fevers while taking care of the toddler and were admitted to the hospital, where they remained until Friday, as a precautionary measure.
He said the doctors later ruled the nurses’ fever as unrelated to the Syrian family’s illness.
Dr Juma Bilal Fairuz, federal director of preventive medicine, told Gulf News that the nurses’ fever was most likely a “psychosomatic response” to the intense scrutiny surrounding the family and their “mystery illness”.
“They heard all the fuss about the illness, got so worried that they started showing symptoms and thought they had it too,” he said.
UK
“Three million body bags may be stockpiled in disaster plans”
“Secret plans to stockpile millions of body bags to be used in the event of a flu pandemic, terrorist attack or other disaster are being considered by the Government and health experts, according to a senior minister.
The proposals reflect mounting concern at the lack of space to store bodies in morgues and bury them in the event of mass deaths…
Whooping cough/pertussis has such a characteristic cough that after you hear it once, you’d probably be able to diagnosis it again without tests. It’s like the worse case of croup you’ve ever heard, very “whooop….whooooop”…
Dubai: Mystery illness could be herpes encephalitis Date: Sun 5 Nov 2006
Health authorities are investigating the death of a 2-year-old boy who died 2 days after he was admitted for high fever, unconsciousness and bleeding from the nose. The toddler died on Tue 31 Oct 2006 after he was admitted to Al Qasimi Hospital on Sun [29 Oct 2006], according to his distressed father, who was later admitted to hospital along with his 8-year old daughter with similar symptoms.
Dr. Ali Shakar, undersecretary at the Health Ministry, told Gulf News that the father and sister were recovering from their illness. [snip] He also said that ministry officials suspected that the boy died of herpes encephalitis, a viral infection characterized by high fever, seizures and depressed level of consciousness. He added that the Ministry could not confirm the diagnosis until they received the results of blood tests sent to laboratories in Germany and the UK, expected today [Sun 5 Nov 2006].
Interesting comments from ProMed mods at the end. I seem to remember seeing this earlier, though. Was this before or after drug interaction article?
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006–11–06 07:19
“”“The nation’s leading bird flu experts Sunday refuted a report that a new strain of bird flu had emerged in southern China, published by a foreign publication and widely cited by foreign media recently.
Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States said in a report released last week that a new strain of bird flu called the “Fujian-like virus,” first isolated in the southern Chinese province of Fujian last year, had become prevalent in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Chen Hualan, director of the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, rebuked the report, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, saying its claims “lack scientific proof.” ‘’‘
“The so-called ‘Fujian-like virus’ is not a new variant of the virus,” she said “Gene sequence analysis of the virus shows that it shares high conformity with the H5N1 virus that was isolated in Hunan when bird flu broke out in early 2004.”
Samples from every domestic bird flu outbreak are sent for isolation and gene sequence analysis at Chen’s lab. Chen said that in 2005 and 2006, the lab had isolated some viruses in waterfowl in southern China which was reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
“These viruses all remain steady in gene type and there is no marked change in their biological characteristics,” she said.
Chen said there was only one new variant of the virus, which was isolated in North China’s Shanxi Province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region at the beginning of this year and has been reported to FAO and OIE.
Experimental results show that the variant is weak in triggering disease in mammals and a new vaccine, which has been put into use in these areas, has effectively brought it under control.
Chen also defended the effectiveness of China’s bird flu vaccine, saying that it had a “good effect,” in response to the report’s surmise that the current vaccine was less effective for the “Fujian-like virus.”
The report claimed that through the analysis of serum samples from 76 chickens for signs of antibodies against three H5N1 variants, including the Fujian-like strain, they found almost all of the samples displayed two to four times more antibodies to the other two variants than to the Fujian virus, suggesting that the vaccine given to the chickens was less effective against that strain.
Chen said that the evaluation of the vaccine was “not scientific” as where the chickens were from and whether they had been vaccinated were unknown. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that more than 95 per cent of domestic poultry had been vaccinated between January and October.
Shu Yuelong, director of the National Influenza Centre at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, also refuted the report’s allegation that five people in southern China were actually infected by the new “Fujian-like virus.”
Shu said that altogether 16 variants of bird flu viruses have been found in the 20 confirmed cases of human infections on the Chinese mainland since October 2005 seven in 2005 and 13 in 2006. “Fifteen out of the 16 variants were isolated from cases in southern China and they belong to the same gene type,” Shu said. “There is no proof that five of them were infected by a new mutated virus.”
Just looked again - the drug reaction is the more current story on the child in Dubai. Too quick to post..
witness – at 12:04 “I couldn’t resist-----Norovirus cancels flu pandemic meeting at Isle of Capri Oct. 31----Just google title if you would like more info “
Yup, I saw it in the news. I work near there.
UAE
3 November 2006 / http://tinyurl.com/ummdp
Haemorrhagic fever not confirmed: MoH
SHARJAH — Responding to reports of the death of a two-year-old boy due to haemorrhagic fever and his family being infected, the Ministry of Health has said there was no confirmation of such a case and there was no need for panic.
In a Press statement issued yesterday, the MoH said a medical team of specialists was formed and all needed measures such as quarantine, prevention and diagnosis were taken since the time the family was admitted to Al Qasimi Hospital.
“The team eliminated 98 per cent of threats and ensured that other patients remained unaffected.” <snip>
Commenting on the case in Al Qasimi Hospital, the sources said the hospital could not specify the kind of the virus and the illness until the results arrived. <snip>
“Shu said that altogether 16 variants of bird flu viruses have been found in the 20 confirmed cases of human infection” and “There is no proof that five of them were infected by a new mutated virus.”
She is claiming that the “variants” are only small changes that don’t constitute mutations, right? How many changes must there be before we call it a mutation?
The UK has a population of about 60,000,000 and ordered 3,000,000 body bags. That’s 5% of their population.
K from Mi – at 22:41 3M body bags
yes and notice that that was for their over flow if there is a “lack of space to store bodies in morgues “
Do you think they know something we don’t?
That’s a scary read, K from MI. To hear of a country stockpiling body bags, sounds like they know something we don’t. Of course it’s just precaution. Not trying to read more into it.
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/major_global_bird_migration_routes_to_the_arctic
Sorry, could not get it to come up as a link…but someone asked for a good migration map & this is a nice site.
Thank you ‘link fairy’
Australian Laboratory to Work With Indonesia’s Bird Flu Teams
By Vesna Poljak (Link http://tinyurl.com/yj4fpg)
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — Veterinarians at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory will work with authorities and researchers to diagnose and monitor bird flu in Indonesia, the country most affected by the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus.
Australia’s AusAID international development agency contributed A$1.6 million ($1.2 million) for the two-year project, which aims to ensure that Indonesia’s lab network can rapidly diagnose the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the government said in an e-mailed statement today.
More than a third of the 152 human H5N1 fatalities recorded globally the past three years have occurred in Indonesia, where the virus has been found in fowl in 30 out of 33 provinces. Millions could die if H5N1 becomes easily transmissible between people, sparking a lethal pandemic.
“The number of human cases is increasing and there is a small but real possibility that the virus could mutate allowing human-to-human transmission, thereby potentially leading to the world’s next major influenza pandemic,” Peter Daniels, assistant director at the government laboratory, said in the statement.
The laboratory, at Geelong, near Melbourne, is run by the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization and is one of about seven facilities globally used by the World Organization for Animal Health as a reference center for highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Researchers of both nations will visit each other’s labs for training and guidance in disease surveillance, the statement said.
AnnieB- Just out of curosity, do you happen to know how much the U.S. has donated to this research, if any?
Cottontop - I vaguely remember a story a few months ago mentioning specific funds for this project with several countries involved. I think this story comes up because of the sharing of lab facilities.
With reference the story regarding the 2 yr old boy and his family in Dubai - when Jane first posted this at 16:53 it was shown as Saudi Arabia but these cases are in the United Arab Emirates. (Thanks for the story Jane - it got us all curious)
Note from the ProMed posting that herpes encephalitis in a family cluster is rarer than rare …
They say they have 100% ruled out any mosquito-borne illness.
Also, why are samples being sent to 2 different labs in 2 different countries ?? … The results are due 5 Nov (today)
AnnieB-
It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. If it was a toss up between Asia and India, where would you think a pandemic would be emerging at this point in time?
cottontop - we can see what is going on in these countries so they don’t ‘scare’ me so much - we will ‘know’ when it goes belly-up in these locations. The greatest concern is still China - by the time we get to know what is happening there it will be all too late ..
Anywhere that human infection is taking place is also the place that a pandemic could start - it takes just one go of the virus to get it ‘right’ and it is all on. So, any country reporting cases in humans must continue to be watched carefully.
So, to answer your question - 42 (the meaning of life - although my son insists that with inflation and other environmental changes, that number should now be 43.684)
Thanks for your insight. Sometimes it’s just rather difficult to get a handle on all of this, from reading so much. I loose sight of which way is up and which way is down.
I am just getting the NEws Summary done then I will start a new thread - give me about 15–20 minutes
Cheers
Annie at 23:33-The article was first posted Nov 1 at 20:33 and I did post Dubai.The hospital is the same in all articles—Al-Qasimi Hospital--- You did correctly post United Arab Emirates in the news summary for Nov. 1. Thankyou for posting the article and your followup.