David Hayman of Massey University notes, “The model allows us to move beyond our own biases and find patterns in the data that only a machine can. Instead of predicting where Ebola and other filovirus outbreaks will occur by looking at the last spillover event, it forecasts risk based on the intrinsic traits of filovirus-positive bat species.”Those traits include: early maturity, having more than one pup per year (most bats only have one), offspring that are large at birth, and a tendency to live in large groups. Compared to other bats, filovirus-positive species also have broader geographic ranges that overlap with a higher diversity of mammal species per square kilometer.When data on the world’s 1116 bat species were searched using this filovirus-positive bat profile, machine learning identified new potential hosts based on their traits. Once mapped, these bats were more widely distributed than the team expected. While many potential bat hosts are found in sub-Saharan Africa, they also range across Southeast Asia and Central and South America.Han explains, “Our results corroborate studies in Africa that have predicted the environmental niche of Ebola spans the primary tropical rainforest. But in a departure from past research, we identified several hotspots in Southeast Asia where up to 26 potential reservoir species overlap, notably in Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, and northeast India.”John Drake of the University of Georgia concludes, “Maps generated by the algorithm can help guide targeted surveillance and virus discovery projects. We suspect there may be other filoviruses waiting to be found. An outstanding question for future work is to investigate why there are so few filovirus spillover events reported for humans and wildlife in Southeast Asia compared to equatorial Africa.”
Category Archives: pandemic
Over 20 countries environmentally suitable for Ebola transmission by bats: New study expands on previous Ebola findings, launches new interactive data tool
Though the West African Ebola outbreak that began in 2013 is now under control, 23 countries remain environmentally suitable for animal-to-human transmission of the Ebola virus. Only seven of these countries have experienced cases of Ebola, leaving the remaining 16 countries potentially unaware of regions of suitability, and therefore underprepared for future outbreaks. A new study reports these findings and more in the journal eLife.
Senate impasse postpones Zika funding talks till fall | CIDRAP
Richard Hamburg, interim president and chief executive officer of Trust for America’s Health, a Washington-based public health advocacy group, said in a statement, “By the time Congress returns in a couple of months, the damage to our nation from Zika will likely be irreversible. This failure to act severely hampers the full response that is greatly needed.”He said without additional funding, state and community health departments are on their own and will need to shift money earmarked for other efforts to cover mosquito testing, disease surveillance, and other actions.At the scientific level, the funding gap will also slow work on vaccines, treatment, and new tests, Hamburg said. “While this will undoubtedly have short-term consequences, this failure has the potential to cause drastic future problems as researchers find government an unreliable partner in supporting innovation.”
Source: Senate impasse postpones Zika funding talks till fall | CIDRAP
Texas reports Zika microcephaly; CDC says Olympic risk low | CIDRAP
Texas’s first Zika-linked microcephaly caseThe Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) said in a news release that it received lab confirmation of a past Zika infection in a baby who was recently born with microcephaly in Harris County. Neither the mother nor baby is infectious, and the case poses no risk to Texas residents, the agency said.In a separate statement from Harris County Public Health (HCPH), officials said Zika test results for the mother were inconclusive, but the infant’s results were definitive, suggesting that the mother was probably infected while she was pregnant, presumably in Latin America.Umair Shah, MD, MPH, HCPH’s executive director, said in the statement, “Microcephaly is one of the worst tragedies related to Zika virus infection. We are sad to report that we now have our first case of Zika-associated microcephaly and our hearts go out to the family.”
Source: Texas reports Zika microcephaly; CDC says Olympic risk low | CIDRAP
Alarming Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Discovered In NYer’s Bacteria Sample: Gothamist
The authors of this most recent report say that “it’s not an immediate threat,” but rather a warning sign. But experts told the Huffington Post that it’s likely the bug is “already in the guts of people throughout the United States and will continue to spread” (through fecal contact and poor hygiene, in case you were wondering), and that “within the next two to three years, it’s going to be fairly routine for infections to occur in the United States for which we have no (effective) drugs available.”As for the NYC patient? Not too much is known, other than the fact that the sample with the Colistin-resistant bacteria was gastrointestinal. One of the laboratory’s research directors told National Geographic that the hospital where it was collected is investigating the patient’s clinical history. The city Department of Health didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but we’ll update if they do.In a fact sheet put out last fall, the World Health Organization called antibiotic resistance “one of the biggest threats to global health today,” and noted that it’s “putting the achievements of modern medicine at risk. Without effective antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of infections, organ transplantations, chemotherapy and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more dangerous.”
Source: Alarming Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Discovered In NYer’s Bacteria Sample: Gothamist
#AToZJamaicaChallenge: Z is for Zika (Finally, Inevitably) — Petchary’s Blog
Well, this is the final chapter in the wanderings through the alphabet that my colleagues Dennis Jones, Susan Goffe and I embarked on at the beginning of the month. Sadly and ironically perhaps, it must end with a topic that we have become pretty obsessed with in the last few months. Ms. Goffe should have […]
via #AToZJamaicaChallenge: Z is for Zika (Finally, Inevitably) — Petchary’s Blog
Fifty Stockholm heart patients hit by superbug – The Local
Four of the 52 patients affected have died, and the hospital believes an antibiotic-resistant strain of the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria was the cause of death in at least one case. The outbreak was discovered this spring but is believed to have begun in the autumn. All of the patients affected had undergone open heart surgery at the Thorax Clinic in Solna. “We have put in place a range of measures and hope now to have stopped the spread, since we haven’t seen any new cases for two to three weeks,” chief physician Elda Sparrelid told news agency TT. The hospital has not yet fully ascertained whether the patients died as a result of the outbreak. “It’s not so easy to conclude as these are patients who were very sick for different reasons, but we do have strong suspicions in at least one case,” she said. The strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae at Karolinska contains ESBL, an enzyme that can break down antibiotics. Most of the patients affected have carried the bacteria without suffering unduly, since the bacteria itself does not generally make people sick. If however they need any treatment requiring antibiotics doctors could find that these no longer work.
Source: Fifty Stockholm heart patients hit by superbug – The Local
Avian Flu Diary: Upcoming COCA Call: Identification and Care of Patients with Hantavirus Disease
Hantavirus infection in the United States can cause severe and life-threatening illness, requiring rapid assessment, presumptive diagnosis, and high-level supportive care of respiratory and cardiac functions. Hantavirus infection causes a cardiopulmonary syndrome, which includes rapid accumulation of pulmonary edema following a flu-like prodrome. Approximately 37% of cases end in death. Although hantavirus disease is rare, clinicians should be aware of the risk factors, clinical picture, and essential care elements. During this COCA call, clinicians will learn about the epidemiology, diagnosis, and clinical care of patients with hantavirus disease in the United States.
Source: Avian Flu Diary: Upcoming COCA Call: Identification and Care of Patients with Hantavirus Disease
CDC issues warning on multidrug-resistant yeast infection | CIDRAP – err… really not good news
cause for concern is that the testing of the C auris isolates demonstrated that nearly all exhibited varying levels of resistance to multiple classes of antifungal drugs—including azoles, echinocandins, and polyenes. That finding indicates that treatment options for C auris infections could be limited.A fungus that is resistant to the three major classes of antifungal drugs “could be a real management challenge,” Chiller noted.The other challenge is that C auris is difficult to identify. The CDC said biochemical-based tests cannot differentiate between C auris and other invasive Candida infections, so the pathogen can be misidentified and potentially treated inappropriately. Originally, Chiller said, many of the infections were identified as C haemulonii before being correctly identified as C auris. Chiller said hospitals need molecular techniques to correctly identify C auris infections.Chiller also noted that the fungal infection is emerging simultaneously on different continents. While the isolates appear to be highly related within the countries reporting infections, they are highly distinct between continents.
Source: CDC issues warning on multidrug-resistant yeast infection | CIDRAP
North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats
Elsie Herring stays indoors on the days the industrial hog farm next door sprays manure from a lagoon-like holding pit across the field that ends eight feet from her kitchen window. Because a filthy mist coats her property if the wind is blowing from the west, Herring has learned to avoid activities like sitting on her porch, grilling outside, hanging laundry on the line, opening windows, and drinking water from the well. Herring lives in Duplin County, North Carolina, on a plot of land her family has owned for more than a century. Located in the eastern part of the state, Duplin contains more than 18.5 million confined animals, including 2.3 million hogs. In Herring’s part of the state, pigs outnumber people almost 40 to one. “You can smell the odor inside,” 67-year-old Herring says. “The feces, the ammonia—all that stuff—we have to breathe it in, because we have to breathe.” On top of physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, excessive coughing, watery eyes, and the urge to vomit, area residents often experience anxiety and depression from the sense of helplessness they feel and the lack of relief from the stench, Herring says. Last week, environmental groups including the Waterkeeper Alliance, Environmental Working Group, and North Carolina Riverkeeper organizations addressed what they see as “yawning gaps in the North Carolina state agricultural regulatory system” by releasing a collection of maps and data on the 6,500 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—and their accompanying waste lagoons—in the Tarheel State.
Source: North Carolina’s Factory Farms Produce 15,000 Olympic Pools Worth of Waste Each Year | Civil Eats









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