Category Archives: pandemic

Avian Flu Diary: Chikungunya Update & CDC Webinar Online

Although we’ve seen imported cases of Chikungunya into the United States, thus far onward transmission via local mosquito vectors has not been documented.  Of course, the same could have been said about the West Nile Virus prior to the late 1990s, and Dengue before 2009.

 

The most competent vector for the virus is the Aedes Albopictus mosquito (followed by the Aedes aegypti), which arrived in the United States in the 1980s, and can now be found across a wide swath of the country.

via Avian Flu Diary: Chikungunya Update & CDC Webinar Online.

Chinese Strawberries and 11,000 sick kids in Germany

Eurosurveillance – View Article.

The dishes had been prepared in different regional kitchens of the catering company and were served in the schools two days before the peaks of the respective outbreaks. All affected institutions had received strawberries of one lot, imported frozen from China. The outbreak vehicle was identified within a week, which led to a timely recall and prevented more than half of the lot from reaching the consumer. This outbreak exemplifies the risk of large outbreaks in the era of global food trade. It underlines the importance of timely surveillance and epidemiological outbreak investigations for food safety.

Eurosurveillance – View Article – Import-Export of Dengue Fever

Imported dengue via travellers to currently non-endemic countries has increased steadily in recent decades, as reported by GeoSentinel, a worldwide network of travel medicine providers [8,9]. Dengue is the top cause of febrile illnesses in international travellers returning from south-east Asia [10]. Australia has seen a dramatic rise in the number of dengue cases caused by returning travellers, particularly from south-east Asia, with an increase of approximately 350% between 2004–2007 and 2008–2011 [11,12]. In Europe, various countries have also reported increased numbers of dengue in returning travellers to Europe [13-16].

via Eurosurveillance – View Article.

3 cities to try poultry-safety plan – Headlines, features, photo and videos from ecns.cn|china|news|chinanews|ecns|cns

South China’s Guangdong province, where a number of H7N9 virus bird flu cases have been reported since this winter, has selected Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan as pilot cities to allow only frozen poultry to be sold at markets, Guangzhou Daily reported.

This means all poultry will be slaughtered at appointed slaughterhouses before being transported to markets for sale.

The move aims to prevent people from being infected with the bird flu from the live poultry.

The report said that Foshan, where the policy is expected to be implemented beginning in May, has started a feasibility study.

via 3 cities to try poultry-safety plan – Headlines, features, photo and videos from ecns.cn|china|news|chinanews|ecns|cns.

Not Satire – really did this… Vice governor of Zhejiang steps up for his people, eats chicken amid H7N9 fears: Shanghaiist

Here’s your weekly bird flu update: The vice governor and now hero of Zhejiang province stepped up to fulfill his civic duty by eating a meal cooked with chicken on Thursday to prove to everyone that the province’s poultry amid the H7N9 bird flu scare is okay and nine people in Guangdong province were detained for spreading rumors about the bird flu on the internet.

ECNS relays the news from local media that Zheng Jiwei and other officials from the provincial agriculture department and health department inspected a poultry processing plant in Fuying city and celebrated shortly after with a delicious chicken dish.

via Vice governor of Zhejiang steps up for his people, eats chicken amid H7N9 fears: Shanghaiist.

Park attends tasting event to boost chicken, duck sales after AI outbreak | GlobalPost

Will this raise flagging popularity of President with student’s and progressives? Doubt it…

 

President Park Geun-hye ate chicken and duck before cameras Monday in a tasting event aimed at boosting slumping sales of poultry following last month’s outbreak of avian influenza.

Sales of chicken and duck meat fell sharply in South Korea after last month’s AI outbreak, the first since 2011.

via Park attends tasting event to boost chicken, duck sales after AI outbreak | GlobalPost.

H5N1: US: A polio-like illness in California children

A polio-like illness in California children

This Los Angeles Times report gives me the creeps—not just because I had polio in LA 65 years ago, but because in a mercifully unfinished SF novel, I had a throwaway line about a disease called “Polio II”: Mysterious polio-like illnesses reported in some California children. Excerpt:

A small number of children in California have come down with polio-like illnesses since 2012 — suffering paralysis in one or more limbs and other symptoms — and physicians and public health officials do not yet know why.

via H5N1: US: A polio-like illness in California children.

VDU’s blog: Live bird market closures continue…

Aside : Poultry eggs are mainly produced by >1-billion birds in Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, Heilongjiang and Jilin (7,8) whereas >4-billion broiler chickens (bred for meat) are more concetrated in Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Liaoning, Guangdong, Anhui, Sichuan and Henan provinces  (2,6,8,9,10,11,12,13).

Aside : An interesting to read (5,9) that the volume of chicken consumed per capita has risen by 9-fold or more in recent years – it has not always been the staple but is part of the tradition.

via VDU’s blog: Live bird market closures continue….

H5N1: OCHA: An overview of plague in Madagascar

Every year, between 300 to 1,200 suspected cases of plague are reported mainly in areas of the central highlands of the country. The country has experienced since October 2013 a rougher plague season. The beginning of the season has been plague especially marked by the outbreak of deadly pneumonic plague in two districts ( Mandritsara and Ikongo ). These two districts were little affected these recent years, but they are characterized by a large landlocked and by poor health coverage , which explains the appearance of the form pulmonary highly contagious.

via H5N1: OCHA: An overview of plague in Madagascar.

An avian outbreak associated with panzootic equine influenza in 1872: An early example of highly pathogenic avian influenza?

An explosive fatal epizootic in poultry, prairie chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, occurred over much of the populated United States between 15 November and 15 December 1872. To our knowledge the scientific literature contains no mention of the nationwide 1872 poultry outbreak. The epizootic progressed in temporal-geographic association with a well-reported panzootic of equine influenza that had begun in Canada during the last few days of September 1872. The 1872 avian epizootic was universally attributed at the time to equine influenza, a disease then of unknown etiology but widely believed to be caused by the same transmissible respiratory agent that caused human influenza. Another microbial agent could have caused the avian outbreak; however, its strong temporal and geographic association with the equine panzootic, and its clinical and epidemiologic features, are most consistent with highly pathogenic avian influenza.

via An avian outbreak associated with panzootic equine influenza in 1872: An early example of highly pathogenic avian influenza?.