Category Archives: pandemic

Malaysia facing dengue endemic with over 48,000 cases – Channel NewsAsia

Malaysia is facing a dengue endemic with more than 48,000 people falling victim to the mosquito-borne disease this year alone.

With at least 92 deaths so far, the government has now set up a national task force to tackle the problem before it spreads even further throughout the country.

Mr Tan Chee Hong and his family were looking forward to their annual Lunar New Year celebrations in January. But one by one, they fell ill with dengue fever.

Mr Tan said: “It was very depressing. You do not even want to call friends or relatives because you don’t want anybody to see you in the hospital during times like that, especially during Chinese New Year.”

He and his family are just four of the more than 48,000 Malaysians who have fallen victim to dengue since January — an almost 250 per cent increase in cases compared to the same period last year.

via Malaysia facing dengue endemic with over 48,000 cases – Channel NewsAsia.

Eurosurveillance – Chik V in Caribbean

Chikungunya fever (CHIKV), a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes, is currently affecting several areas in the Caribbean. The vector is found in the Americas from southern Florida to Brazil, and the Caribbean is a highly connected region in terms of population movements. There is therefore a significant risk for the epidemic to quickly expand to a wide area in the Americas. Here, we describe the spread of CHIKV in the first three areas to report cases and between areas in the region. Local transmission of CHIKV in the Caribbean is very effective, the mean number of cases generated by a human case ranging from two to four. There is a strong spatial signature in the regional epidemic, with the risk of transmission between areas estimated to be inversely proportional to the distance rather than driven by air transportation. So far, this simple distance-based model has successfully predicted observed patterns of spread. The spatial structure allows ranking areas according to their risk of invasion. This characterisation may help national and international agencies to optimise resource allocation for monitoring and control and encourage areas with elevated risks to act.

via Eurosurveillance – View Article.

Eurosurveillance – chikungunya virus and dengue in France

During the summer of 2014, all the pre-requisites for autochthonous transmission of chikungunya virus are present in southern France: a competent vector, Aedes albopictus, and a large number of travellers returning from the French Caribbean islands where an outbreak is occurring. We describe the system implemented for the surveillance of chikungunya and dengue in mainland France. From 2 May to 4 July 2014, there were 126 were laboratory-confirmed imported chikungunya cases in mainland France.

via Eurosurveillance – View Article.

Ebola virus outbreak in Techiman, Ghana is imminent | Health News 2014-07-14

Many people show unconcerned when it comes to the discussion of disease outbreaks in Ghana; thinking that the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service owe the responsibility to curb the disease. This attitude has precipitated the cause of disease outbreaks in Africa and particularly in Ghana. The earlier we change this attitude, the better we can control diseases to the extent of not even causing outbreaks.

Currently, Ghana due to her international territories is imminent for the Ebola disease outbreak and cities including Techiman where there is African market that serves the whole West Africa. Due to the influx of people from all walks of life to the Techiman market, Ebola virus disease is likely to occur in Techiman if preventative measures are not taken. It would be important that all meaningful Ghanaians join the advocacy against the Ebola virus.

via Ebola virus outbreak in Techiman is imminent | Health News 2014-07-14.

Nyaho Clinic suspected Ebola virus patient dies | General News 2014-07-08

The initial tests run on the American, now deceased, according to the source, was inconclusive because the officials used the wrong reagent.

The sources, who are medical practitioners, told Joy News “the test should have taken Noguchi not more than five hours.”

via Nyaho Clinic suspected Ebola virus patient dies | General News 2014-07-08.

Ebola outbreak not right for testing experimental vaccines, drugs: experts – Squamish Chief

The largest Ebola outbreak in history is defying the containment efforts of affected countries and international response teams, leading to calls from some quarters to use experimental drugs or vaccines to try to stop the deadly virus.

But a number of experts — including the scientist who led the work on a Canadian-made Ebola vaccine — say deploying untested tools in the current West African outbreak could be disastrous.

They say taking such a risky gamble could further erode local trust in the response teams, undermine their efforts and even endanger them. And if anyone were to have a bad reaction to one of the experimental therapies, it could jeopardize years of expensive and painstaking work spent developing tools with which to fight Ebola and its cousin, the Marburg virus.

“I get emails basically every second day from someone either asking ‘Is there something that you’re planning?’ or ‘Shouldn’t you?’ And I know I’m not the only one getting those emails,” says Dr. Heinz Feldmann, an Ebola expert who heads the laboratory of virology at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont.

via Ebola outbreak not right for testing experimental vaccines, drugs: experts – Squamish Chief.

UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading

The U.N. health agency says there have been 50 new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Liberia since last week as the disease, among the deadliest in the world, keeps spreading in West Africa.

The World Health Organization says 34 new cases were reported by Sierra Leone and 16 by Liberia since July 3.

WHO officials said in a statement Tuesday the outbreak in those two countries and Guinea shows “a mixed picture” because of a reduction in the number of new cases in Guinea, where no new cases have been reported during the past week.

The agency says as of Sunday, there have been 844 cases of Ebola in the three countries, including 518 deaths.

via UN: 50 new Ebola cases in 2 African countries since last week, deadly virus still spreading.

We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse By Cutting Down Forests | Mother Jones

Human activity is driving bats to find new habitats amongst human populations. More than half of Liberia’s forests—home to 40 endangered species, including the western chimpanzee—have been sold off to industrial loggers during President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s post-war government, according to figures released by Global Witness. Logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and chopping down trees for an increased demand for fire wood, are all driving deforestation in Sierra Leone, where total forest cover has now dropped to just 4 percent, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which says if deforestation continues at current levels, Sierra Leone’s forests could disappear altogether by 2018.

“We see deforestation or incursion into forests, whether it’s through hunting or just alteration of landscape, causing people and wildlife to have more contact,” says Epstein.

Mining

The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold mining camps deep in the rain forest.

The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold mining camps deep in the rain forest. Mining also appears to be a feature of this latest outbreak: Its epicenter is in the south east of Guinea, close to iron ore reserves, according to Reuters.

Mining “has become a big livelihood activity across the regions, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, as of the last couple of decades,” says Leach. And that means more mines in the forest, but also “immense movement: people going seasonally in and out of mines, coming in and out, young people coming from all over the country.” Guinea is the world’s top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminum production, according to Reuters.

“That whole sense of movement is something that means that a disease, an outbreak, once established in a place, is very likely not to stay in that place; it tends to move quite quickly,” Leach says.

via We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse By Cutting Down Forests | Mother Jones.

 

(And it is not just Ebola that breaks out as a result of deforestation – malaria’s, and denge’s expansion is facilitated by deforestation which creates the perfect breed grounds for the mosquito that carries the deadly and more common diseases)

Avian Flu Diary: Despite Crackdown, `Wild Flavor’ Trade Continues In China

A similar concern has been raised in the Middle East, where the consumption of camel products (meat, milk, etc.) has been suggested as being a possible route of MERS-CoV infection in humans (see WHO Update On MERS-CoV Transmission Risks From Animals To Humans).

 

And just last Friday, Reuters reported on an illegal slaughtering operation with tragic results (see Five people hospitalized for suspected anthrax infection in Hungary).

 

Last month, in `Carrion’ Luggage & Other Ways To Import Exotic Diseases, we looked at the extensive international smuggling of bushmeat, and exotic animals, which are also potential routes of zoonotic disease introduction and spread.

 

Beyond SARS, and Ebola, and MERS, a few other zoonotic diseases of concern include Hendra, Nipah, Monkeypox, a variety of avian influenzas, other coronaviruses, various hemorrhagic fevers, many variations of SIV (Simian immunodeficiency virus), and of course . . .  Virus X.

 

The one we don’t know about.  Yet.

via Avian Flu Diary: Despite Crackdown, `Wild Flavor’ Trade Continues In China.