Category Archives: pandemic

WHO | Chikungunya – Argentina

Public health response Health authorities in Argentina are taking the following measures: enhancing epidemiological surveillance, including syndromic surveillance and surveillance of severe cases as well as disseminating diagnostic and notification algorithms for dengue, chikungunya and Zika; conducting vector control activities in the affected areas; communicating with health professionals and the public. WHO risk assessment This is the first time that autochthonous transmission of chikungunya is reported in Argentina. The affected area is situated next to the border with Bolivia where the virus has been known to circulate for a number of years. In Argentina, there is the potential of geographical extension to other areas where the vector Aedes is present. Furthermore, there is also possibility of extension to other countries in the region of the Americas where the competent vectors are also present. WHO continues to monitor the epidemiological situation and conduct risk assessment based on the latest available information. WHO advice The proximity of mosquito vector breeding sites to human habitation is a significant risk factor for dengue virus infection. Prevention and control relies on reducing the breeding of mosquitoes through source reduction (removal and modification of breeding sites) and reducing contact between mosquitoes and people. This can be achieved by reducing the number of natural and artificial water-filled habitats that support mosquito larvae, reducing the adult mosquito populations around at-risk communities and by using barriers such as insect screens, closed doors and windows, long clothing and repellents. Since the Aedes mosquitoes (the primary vector for transmission) are day-biting mosquitoes, it is recommended that those who sleep during the daytime, particularly young children, the sick or elderly, should rest under mosquito nets (bed nets), treated with or without insecticide to provide protection.

Source: WHO | Chikungunya – Argentina

Avian Flu Diary: FDA On Proposed Oxitec Mosquito Trials In The Florida Keys – Que  this is the end, my friends?

{Mosquitoes are not pests! They are one of nature’s vectors for passing on diseases whose purposes are to rebalance unbalanced ecologies or ecologies that have been dramatically disturbed. Most of the imbalances are caused by human expansion into new areas, deforestation, and industrialized monocultures of grains, fruits, vegetables. The really bad news? If we zap this vector rather than adjust how we disrupt the environment, another vector will take its place with perhaps a more deadly disease.}

Now, with the spread of Dengue, CHIKV and Zika in the Americas – along with the growing degree of insectacide resistance around the world – suddenly GM mosquitoes, Wolbachia, and other novel control methods are getting a lot of attention again.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: FDA On Proposed Oxitec Mosquito Trials In The Florida Keys

VDU’s blog: Tread carefully when MERS-CoV stirs in hospitals as it can spiral out of control quickly..

There have been no viral gene or genome sequences from 2016 arriving on the interwebs yet, so we are left with a few of the old questions…again is this all normal or is something different this time around? has this season’s MERS-CoV undergone a significant genetic change(s), affecting stability, tropism or transmission? has infection control and prevention slipped again? is there more contact with infected camels this year? are increased camel descriptions an indication of better surveillance and questioning about camel contact? Time to start watching and plotting MERS-CoV again.

Source: VDU’s blog: Tread carefully when MERS-CoV stirs in hospitals as it can spiral out of control quickly..

Johns Hopkins researchers identify TB’s natural resistance to antibiotics

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine biophysicists recently found that the bacteria causing tuberculosis (TB) may be naturally resistant to antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones, which could help researchers strengthen TB drugs that have weakened over time. The biophysicists made this discovery using maps that showed 3-D details of the structure of the drugs while the medicines interacted with TB’s essential enzyme. “Front-line treatments for TB are eroding rapidly as more cases of multidrug-resistant TB arise worldwide,” Dr. James Berger, professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry, said. “Our work helps show that we need not — and indeed should not — give up on fluoroquinolones, a longtime weapon in the fight against disease-causing bacteria in general. We’ve helped to identify several promising possibilities for developing new versions of these drugs that might even work against extensively drug-resistant TB.” The maps also showed the reason that some of the TB drugs are stronger while others are weaker. This could help scientists develop fluoroquinolones that are more efficient against the mutating disease “This result means the fluoroquinolones aren’t working in the most straightforward way, and that’s a challenge for drug developers,” Berger said. “We have to rethink the chemistry of these drugs, but doing so will likely open up new avenues for improvements.” The study is available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Johns Hopkins researchers identify TB’s natural resistance to antibiotics

Avian Flu Diary: Not Without Warning – The Return Of Mosquito Disease Threats

Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya – at least outside of Africa and Asia – have no known non-human animal reservoirs, which means they have a harder time becoming endemic. But when enough people become infected, these viruses are  able to sustain themselves in an Urban Cycle, where transmission is strictly human-to-mosquito-to human. In the middle of the last decade we saw Chikungunya made a break from Africa, and jump to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean where it reportedly infected about 1/3rd of that island’s population (266,000 case out of  pop.770,000) in a matter of a few months, before moving on to Southeast Asia. About the same time, Dengue began to turn up again in the United States after decades of absence. In January of 2009, in Outnumbered By A Competent Vector, we looked at reports of Dengue’s incursions into Texas and Queensland, Australia. In 2009, Dengue Resurfaced In Key West  after a 70 year absence, but even months before that, we saw a cautionary report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (see NRDC Report: Climate Change and Health Threats) warning that Dengue and other vector borne diseases could one day reestablish themselves in the United States.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Not Without Warning – The Return Of Mosquito Disease Threats

Second Case Of Zika Virus Confirmed In L.A. County: LAist

A pregnant woman from Los Angeles County is infected with Zika virus after traveling abroad, according to a release from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. She’s the second Angeleno to be infected with the virus. The first case was reported in November: a young girl who traveled to El Salvador in November who has since recovered, according the L.A. Times. Though the virus usually presents only minor symptoms, Zika seems to be linked to a surge of microcephaly cases in Brazil. Microcephaly is a birth defect that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads, leading to brain damage. L.A. County’s Public Health department has issued a travel warning for Angelenos headed to several Latin American and Caribbean countries where Zika infections are more widespread. So far, no one has actually picked up the disease in L.A. However, the Aedes mosquito, the species known to carry the virus, is found throughout the San Gabriel Valley. A total of 14 Californians have been infected with the virus since 2014, including six this year. Like other mosquito transmitted viruses like West Nile, the easiest way to keep risk to a minimum is to eliminate standing water.

Source: Second Case Of Zika Virus Confirmed In L.A. County: LAist

FAO – News Article: Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat

A growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures, many of them human-made, threatening millions of livelihoods and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of food supplies, according to the first global assessment of pollinators. However, the assessment, a two-year study conducted and released today by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), also highlights a number of ways to effectively safeguard pollinator populations. The assessment, titled Thematic Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production and the first ever issued by IPBES, is a groundbreaking effort to better understand and manage a critical element of the global ecosystem.  It is also the first assessment of its kind that is based on the available knowledge from science and indigenous and local knowledge systems.

Source: FAO – News Article: Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat

Death of homeless man from bacterial infection sparks vaccination drive – The Boston Globe

Boston health officials are vaccinating hundreds of homeless people against a severe bacterial infection that can kill within hours, after a homeless man died Monday from the disease. The victim was among three homeless men who recently came down with meningococcemia, which occurs when certain bacteria get into the bloodstream. The fatal case appears to be unrelated to the other two, which occurred in late January and involved a different strain of the bacteria, said Dr. Denise De Las Nueces, medical director of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, a nonprofit agency managing the response. “It’s not a disease that’s seen frequently in homeless people,” De Las Nueces said. “The recent cluster of three cases has been unusual. That has sparked our response. . . . Our population lives in crowded conditions in the shelters. That puts them at increased risk.”

Source: Death of homeless man from bacterial infection sparks vaccination drive – The Boston Globe

Avian Flu Diary: WHO: Zika Risk Assessment In The African Region – What goes around may be worse the second time around!

Although the Zika virus was first detected in Uganda nearly 70 years ago (see WHO Timeline) it was never considered a serious problem in Africa because human infection was rare and the illness it produced was extremely mild.  The virus maintained these attributes as it slowly spread from Africa into equatorial Asia (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan) during the 1970s and 1980s. Sporadic human infections – but no outbreaks – were reported. It wasn’t until the virus arrived in 2007 to the South Pacific island of Yap that a large human outbreak of Zika was recorded. Over the next three years, more than 70% of the island’s population was estimated to have been infected, although no serious illness or deaths were reported.

It wasn’t until the virus arrived in 2007 to the South Pacific island of Yap that a large human outbreak of Zika was recorded. Over the next three years, more than 70% of the island’s population was estimated to have been infected, although no serious illness or deaths were reported.

In 2012 researchers determined that a new `Asian strain’ of Zika had emerged, similar to – but genetically distinct from – the African strain.  It was this new Asian strain that sparked the first large outbreak on Yap Island, and a variant of that strain that would arrive in the Americas 7 years later in 2014.

In 2013-2014 Zika began to show some teeth in the South Pacific, where for the first time we saw in Zika, Dengue & Unusual Rates Of Guillain-Barre Syndrome  In French Polynesia, outcomes that challenged the notion that Zika only produces mild illness.

In 2014 Zika landed in Brazil, likely brought in by a viremic international traveler, and found nearly perfect conditions to proliferate and thrive; a competent vector (Aedes mosquitoes), a year-round climate suitable for mosquito transmission, and an immunologically naive population.  Within a year, well over a million infections had occurred, and while most were mild, we began to see reports suggesting that maternal infection with Zika could cause serious congenital birth defects, and some small percentage of those infected might be affected by Guillain-Barré Syndrome.  In its multi-decade trek across Asia and the Pacific, the Zika virus

Within a year, well over a million infections had occurred, and while most were mild, we began to see reports suggesting that maternal infection with Zika could cause serious congenital birth defects, and some small percentage of those infected might be affected by Guillain-Barré Syndrome.  In its multi-decade trek across Asia and the Pacific, the Zika virus

In its multi-decade trek across Asia and the Pacific, the Zika virus changed, and was no longer the same innocuous strain that has caused so little trouble over the years in Africa.   Which means that Africa – which shares the same sort of mosquito vectors and climate as much of South and Central America – could conceivably see a more robust, more `worldly’  Zika virus find its way back to where it began.

Source: Avian Flu Diary: WHO: Zika Risk Assessment In The African Region