Category Archives: pandemic

USDA Allows Foster Farms Plants to Stay Open

Shut them down until entire plants get cleaned and new training of employees takes place – or 100% inspection at their cost until assured safe – The CDC says the outbreak is ongoing and some illnesses began as recently as two weeks ago. The majority of illnesses have been in California but people in 17 states have been infected, from Texas to Michigan to North Carolina.

Salmonella can contaminate meat during slaughter and processing and is especially common in raw chicken. The infections can be avoided by proper handling and cooking of raw poultry.

The pathogen causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product and can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems.

via USDA Allows Foster Farms Plants to Stay Open.

Fecal transplant pill may stop recurrent C. difficile infection | Vaccine News Daily

Taking pills containing a concentration of fecal bacteria may knock out recurrent bouts of Clostridium difficile infection by rebalancing gut bacteria, according to a study presented on Friday at IDWeek 2013.

Fecal transplantation uses the feces from healthy donors to treat patients with an imbalance of bacteria in their gastrointestinal system, such as in patients infected with C. difficile. According to published reports, fecal transplantation is effective in nine out of 10 patients.

via Fecal transplant pill may stop recurrent C. difficile infection | Vaccine News Daily.

Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily

All six new patients are from the Riyadh region and five of them were hospitalized with severe symptoms. The dates of onset of the patients, which include three women and three men, range between September 15 and September 26. Three of the patients were contacts of previously confirmed MERS-CoV patients.

via Six more cases of MERS-CoV reported in Saudi Arabia | Vaccine News Daily.

Hand, foot and mouth infections rising ‘dramatically’ in Hong Kong : Shanghaiist

Don’t touch anything, Hong Kongers. Over 4,200 cases of the viral hand, foot and mouth disease have been reported in the city so far this year, more than the total number of cases of the two previous years combined, according to SCMP.

Doctors are also seeing more and more adult cases of the infection, which usually affects children:

Academy of Medicine president Dr Donald Li Kwok-tung said the large number of outbreaks might be related to humid weather and a low overall immunity in the population.

“In the past, we hardly ever saw cases in adults, but recently we have been seeing more,” said the family medicine specialist. “It may be due to a generally lower resistance against infections in the population, especially when people are tired and stressed.”

Chinese University pediatrics professor Ellis Hon Kam-lun says that the virus is mainly being transmitted through the touching of infected people’s saliva or feces. So stop doing that.

The usual peak season for the disease falls from May to July, however, this year, the number of cases climbed in May, fell in July and rose again in September.

via Hand, foot and mouth infections rising ‘dramatically’ in Hong Kong : Shanghaiist.

WHO | Wild poliovirus in the Horn of Africa – update

Three suspected cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) from South Sudan are currently being investigated. All three patients are girls, two of whom are approximately two-years-old and one is eight-years-old. All had previously been immunized with oral polio vaccine (OPV).

Two of the patients are from North Bahr El Gazal state (close to the border with Sudan), and one is from Eastern Equatoria state (close to the border with Kenya and Uganda). They developed paralysis between 15-24 August 2013. Genetic sequencing is ongoing to provide final confirmation of the laboratory results to determine the origin of the isolated viruses.

via WHO | Wild poliovirus in the Horn of Africa – update.

Bats Blamed for Deadly Middle East MERS Respiratory Virus | Green Prophet

The deadly coronavirus behind Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) has been isolated in a bat in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The virus was found in a the feces of an Egyptian tomb bat, or Taphozous perforatus, a creature known to roost in abandoned buildings.

MERS-CoV has sickened 135 people, 58 fatally, since its emergence in June 2012.  Those statistics, current as of September 19 according to FluTrackers, exclude retrospectively positive cases from the first known MERS-CoV outbreak in Jordan.

All primary cases have been traced to the Arabian Peninsula.

Dr. Jonathan H. Epstein, a veterinarian with the EcoHealth Alliance, said that since these insect-eating bats do not normally bite people, infection likely occurs when victims are exposed to dried bat guano. It’s also probable that the virus spreads from bats to other animals before it reaches humans.

Research published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases suggested that the linking animal could be the dromedary camel (camels in Oman, Egypt and the Canary Islands possess antibodies to a similar virus). Tests on sheep, goats and cows are ongoing.

University of Nottingham virologist Jonathan Ball told the BBC, “We have long suspected that bats are the original source. Bats are a source of lots of human virus infections, like Ebola, henipahvirus, rabies and SARS.”

“Bats are unlikely to be the cause of continuing outbreaks. Humans and bats don’t interact very much. It’s much more likely that an intermediate animal is involved – and finding out what this animal is key if we are to eradicate this virus before it becomes a bigger problem,” continued Ball, “But there are still some crucial unknowns.”

The infected bat was discovered in an abandoned house on a date palm orchard in the small Saudi city of Bisha. The first known MERS-CoV victim was a local paint salesman whose Bisha warehouse was surrounded by a large garden with fruit trees and insects that attract bats. The victim, a 60-year-old man, got sick in mid-June and died two weeks later.

via Bats Blamed for Deadly Middle East MERS Respiratory Virus | Green Prophet.

High-Path Bird Flu Outbreaks in Nepal Affect Broilers and Layers – The Poultry Site

The Nepalese veterinary authorities have reported 43 new outbreaks of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza at various poultry farms across Bagmati, Lumbini and Janakpur and starting within just two weeks between 26 July and 9 August.

The World Organisation for Animal Health received follow-up report no. 12 on Saturday, 21 September 2013. According to the report, the affected population comprises broilers and layers, and the causal agent was found to be the HPAI virus, serotype H5N1.

The report states that a total of 349,839 birds showed signs of susceptibility, out of which 55,628 cases and deaths were reported. The remaining 294,211 birds were destroyed.

via High-Path Bird Flu Outbreaks in Nepal Affect Broilers and Layers – The Poultry Site.

Ohio Senator Wants USDA’s Poultry Inspectors Assigned to China; Charges ‘Labeling Gap’ | Food Safety News

??? Export chicken to China, have them “cook” it and send back to US to be sold as Buffalo wings or nuggets???

American consumers need USDA “on station” to inspect chicken processing as it occurs in China, and a “labeling gap” is putting U.S. food safety at risk, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) suggests in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Brown also raised numerous questions with Vilsack about Chinese chicken processors being approved to process chicken raised in the U.S., Canada or Chile and then export the cooked chicken back here.

Since the news leaked (just before USDA announced it on Aug. 30) that four Chinese chicken processors are being green-lighted for exporting cooked chicken to the U.S., it’s become one of this nation’s hotter discussion topics.

“Given the well-documented shortcomings of the Chinese food safety system, we shouldn’t allow unmarked meat into our markets that is processed in Chinese facilities that are not subject to food safety inspections,” Brown stated in a press release accompanying his letter to Vilsack. “This action could endanger the health and safety of American consumers and potentially undermines confidence in our nation’s food safety standards.”

Meat and poultry imported to the U.S. is subject to inspection by the foreign country, which must maintain a food-safety inspection system that is equivalent to USDA’s. “Equivalence” was originally established in 2006 for the People’s Republic of China’s food-safety inspection system for processed poultry after a two-year review by a USDA audit team.

via Ohio Senator Wants USDA’s Poultry Inspectors Assigned to China; Charges ‘Labeling Gap’ | Food Safety News.

Avian Flu Diary: Eurosurveillance: Environmental Stability Of MERS-CoV

Avian Flu Diary: Eurosurveillance: Environmental Stability Of MERS-CoV.

The bottom line, under favorable temperature and humidity conditions (such as you might find in an air conditioned hospital), the MERS virus survives quite well on surfaces, and in the air. This may help explain the high rate of nosocomial outbreaks we’ve seen in the Middle East.

WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update

(Beginning to look like H7N1 outbreak in China and as if natural system is “probing” the human system for a path to re-balance the system to the state before so much of agriculture had become industrialized)

WHO has been informed of an additional 18 new laboratory-confirmed cases including three deaths with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia.

The patients are reported from Hafar Al-Batin, Medina and Riyadh. Their ages ranging from three to 75 years old. These cases were announced by the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia on 1, 5, 8, 10 and 11 September 2013.

Additionally, in Qatar, a previously laboratory-confirmed patient with MERS-CoV died on 6 September 2013.

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 132 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 58 deaths.

via WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update.