Category Archives: environment

H5N1: Trying to track Ebola

This morning, March 22, Guinea’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene announces that the disease is confirmed to be Ebola. The case count is now 49 cases with 34 deaths: 5 new deaths overnight.

Early this afternoon, a Reuters report said there might be a case in Sierra Leone. A little later, Le Monde reports 80 cases and “at least 59 dead.”

About an hour ago, just after 3:00 p.m. PST, another Reuters report says Sierra Leone authorities are investigating the death of a 14-year-old boy in the town of Buedu, very close to the Guinea border and the town of Guéckédu.

And just half an hour ago, a reader named Henrik leaves a comment saying his daughter, a doctor in Foya, Liberia, reports one confirmed Ebola deaths and has heard that Ebola is in Monrovia, the capital.

It’s now 11:15 p.m. in Conakry, and I don’t know if we’ll get any more reports from Guinea or its neighbours until Sunday morning, their time. But this has certainly been an eventful day.

via H5N1: Trying to track Ebola.

H5N1: Guinea declares viral hemorrhagic fever epidemic

Twenty-nine deaths out of 49 cases is a case fatality rate of 59%. Evidently the minister does not yet have laboratory reports that would tell him what he’s fighting. And the disease is now in Conakry, the capital on the coast, as well as in the southeastern towns of Guéckédou, Macenta, and Kissidougou. It sounds as if people have been moving out of Guéckédou and Macenta while carrying the diseases.

via H5N1: Guinea declares viral hemorrhagic fever epidemic.

Corrupt officials allow untested poultry to be sold in Vietnam | Society | Thanh Nien Daily

The lethal threat of bird flu is apparently not serious enough for some corrupt officials who help slaughterhouses evade checks in Ho Chi Minh City and allow a market to openly sell untested chicken in Hanoi.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported about two animal-health officials in District 12, HCMC, offering protection to a proposed slaughterhouse in exchange for VND4 million (US$190) a month for them and VND1 million a month to some ward officials also on the take.

via Corrupt officials allow untested poultry to be sold in Vietnam | Society | Thanh Nien Daily.

H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea

“Symptoms appear as diarrhea and vomiting, with a very high fever. Some cases showed relatively heavy bleeding,” Keita said.

“We thought it was Lassa fever or another form of cholera but this disease seems to strike like lightning. We are looking at all possibilities, including Ebola, because bushmeat is consumed in that region and Guinea is in the Ebola belt,” he said. No cases of the highly contagious Ebola fever have ever been recorded in the country.

Keita said most of the victims had been in contact with the deceased or had handled the bodies. He said those infected had been isolated and samples had been sent to Senegal and France for further tests.

via H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea.

Study fingers chickens, quail, in spread of H7N9 influenza virus

“This work supports the field epidemiology studies that had identified live poultry markets as the likely source of the outbreak,” says Suarez. “The Chinese correctly closed the live bird markets where they had human infections, and that reduced the number of cases for a while. However, their efforts did not eradicate the virus and it has returned for a second wave.”

via Study fingers chickens, quail, in spread of H7N9 influenza virus.

H5N1: Mexico: Dengue incidence has grown thirtyfold in 50 years

Starting around 1980, with globalization, the fast-food culture that substantially increased garbage, construction in urban zones, and international travel have all been factors in the spread of dengue, and our country has not been an exception.

via H5N1: Mexico: Dengue incidence has grown thirtyfold in 50 years.

VDU’s blog: H7N9: the dotted lines that make sense of things…

The latest H7N9 case-per-day chart shows that the trickle of human cases of confirmed avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection is becoming a drip. The tap? My money is still mostly with the market closures. What precisely in the markets? Dunno, but the consensus seems to be poultry; songbirds loo pretty god to though. It doesn’t have to be, and is unlikely to be, just 1 thing of course. We know that this virus, as with other avian influenza viruses, can be shared around among bird species. It can even go into a human and that isolate be used to infect a bird again.

via VDU’s blog: H7N9: the dotted lines that make sense of things….

Me: Live markets are incubators and major transmission points for all old flu and new ones as well – ties to Lunar New Year preparations is also clear. Next year? H7N9 exported to Vietnam, Korea, India, Cambodia, Thailand?