Category Archives: pandemic

Anglo-Saxon cow bile and garlic potion kills MRSA – Telegraph

A thousand-year-old medieval remedy for eye infections which was discovered in a manuscript in the British Library has been found to kill the superbug MRSA.

Anglo-Saxon expert Dr Christina Lee, from the School of English, at Nottingham University, recreated the 10th century potion to see if it really worked as an antibacterial remedy.

The ‘eyesalve’ recipe calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and oxgall (bile from a cow’s stomach).

It describes a very specific method of making the topical solution including the use of a brass vessel to brew it, a strainer to purify it and an instruction to leave the mixture for nine days before use.

None of the experts really expected the concoction to work. But when it was tested, microbiologists were amazed to find that not only did the salve clear up styes, but it also tackled the deadly superbug MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics.

via Anglo-Saxon cow bile and garlic potion kills MRSA – Telegraph.

USDA to test avian flu vaccine; wild birds nixed as Minnesota H5N2 source | CIDRAP

No H5N2 in Minnesota wild birds

In Minnesota, no evidence of the H5N2 strain has been found in samples from wild birds that were near the affected farm at the time of the outbreak earlier this month, according to Lou Cornicelli, PhD, wildlife research manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

DNR officials said earlier that samples from two mallards were positive for influenza A viruses in preliminary tests. But further testing of those samples by the USDA has ruled out any H5 or H7 strain, Cornicelli told CIDRAP News today.

via USDA to test avian flu vaccine; wild birds nixed as Minnesota H5N2 source | CIDRAP.

World Health Organisation ‘intentionally delayed declaring Ebola emergency’ | World news | The Guardian

{Even newspapers have short memories. The governments of the impacted countries pushed back hard internally within the UN and in the press to not declare an emergency for fear of losing trade and tourist business. WHO gave in to the pressure and that’s their bad but governments who think of money before people in situations like this one and this one, share much of the blame.}

Dr Sylvie Briand, head of the pandemic and epidemic diseases department at WHO, acknowledged that her agency made wrong decisions, but said postponing the alert made sense at the time because it could have had catastrophic economic consequences. “What I’ve seen in general is that for developing countries, it’s sort of a death warrant you’re signing,” she told AP.

On 10 June, Briand, her boss, Dr Keiji Fukuda, and others sent a memo to WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan, noting that cases might soon pop up in Mali, Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau. But the memo went on to say that declaring an international emergency or even convening an emergency committee to discuss the issue “could be seen as a hostile act”.

But others argue that although declaring an international emergency is no guarantee of ending an outbreak, it functions as a kind of a global distress call.

“It’s important because it gives a clear signal that nobody can ignore the epidemic any more,” said Dr Joanne Liu, MSF’s international president.

In a meeting at WHO headquarters on 30 July, Liu said she told Chan: “You have the legitimacy and the authority to label it an emergency … You need to step up to the plate.”

After WHO declared an international emergency on 8 August, Barack Obama sent 3,000 troops to west Africa and promised to build more than a dozen 100-bed field hospitals. Britain and France also pledged to build Ebola clinics, China sent a 59-person lab team, and Cuba sent more than 400 health workers.

Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO’s top Ebola official, maintains however that labelling the Ebola outbreak a global emergency would have been no magic bullet. “What you would expect is the whole world wakes up and goes: ‘Oh my gosh, this is a terrible problem, we have to deploy additional people and send money,’” he said. “Instead what happened is people thought: ‘Oh my goodness, there’s something really dangerous happening there and we need to restrict travel and the movement of people.’”

via World Health Organisation ‘intentionally delayed declaring Ebola emergency’ | World news | The Guardian.

Role of wild birds in US H5N2 outbreaks questioned | CIDRAP

Wild bird chase? {Lots of people would like to deflect  blame from industrialized poultry farming and role of people – about time someone said – whoa – how about some science?}

But not so fast, say experts like David Stallknecht, PhD, of the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and Michele Carstensen, PhD, wildlife health program supervisor in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). They point out, among other things, that migratory birds don’t migrate from west to east or from north to south in late winter.

“This could all have been from wild birds—nobody can say it’s impossible,” said Stallknecht. “But we do need some proof. . . . People seem to be willing to accept things without a whole lot of proof.”

He said it is unknown how the H5N8 strain that gave rise to H5N2 reached North America. Noting that the H5N2 outbreaks in British Columbia marked the “index case” or first appearance of the virus, he said, “How much proof do we have of wild bird involvement with that virus in North America? None.”

Referring to the mixing of H5N8 with North American viruses, he said, “Why do we make the jump to wild ducks to explain this? Reassortment could also occur in a backyard flock of domestic ducks after a more direct introduction [of H5N8] via people.” He suggested that travelers could possibly have brought the virus to Canada from Asia.

He cautioned that this is “pure speculation,” but added that the idea that wild birds introduced the parental H5N8 virus to North America is also speculative. “It is based on circumstantial evidence that is rapidly becoming accepted dogma.”

Carstensen said the notion that wild birds could have brought the H5N2 virus from Minnesota to Missouri is “beyond me. . . . They [migratory birds] go from south to north this time of year.” Arkansas and Kansas, on the other hand, are close enough to migratory-bird wintering grounds to make a connection with wild birds more plausible, she added.

There could be “totally different causes” for the outbreaks in Minnesota and the more southerly states, Carstensen suggested.

via Role of wild birds in US H5N2 outbreaks questioned | CIDRAP.

Guinea’s Ebola cases rise sharply, as cases ebb elsewhere | CIDRAP

Overall, 150 new confirmed Ebola cases were reported in the outbreak region last week, up from 116 the week before. The number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in the three countries has risen to 24,666, with death total increasing to 10,179.

The 12 districts in Guinea and Sierra Leone that reported cases are part of an arc that extends from Conakry to the north and Freetown to the south. The WHO warned that although Ebola’s footprint is now limited to a narrow area, the population is mobile, posing the risk or reseeding the disease to other districts and countries.

A spate of health worker infections—11 of them— were reported in those two countries, 4 in Guinea and 7 in Sierra Leone. The new infections boost the cases in healthcare workers to 852, including 492 deaths.

via Guinea’s Ebola cases rise sharply, as cases ebb elsewhere | CIDRAP.

Health agencies say drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis remain a killer in Europe | News | DW.DE | 17.03.2015

As many as 1,000 people a day contract tuberculosis and newer, more drug-resistant strains mean the disease is becoming more difficult to treat.

“MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant TB) is still ravaging the European region, making it the most affected area of the entire world,” Zsuzsanna Jakab, the World Health Organization’s regional director, said Tuesday.

Globally, TB in different strains killed around 1.5 million people in 2013 and the WHO warned last year of “crisis levels” of MDR-TB.

The latest report – a collaboration between the WHO and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control – found infection rates falling in some high-priority countries, while the disease is fighting back in other low-incidence countries.

via Health agencies say drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis remain a killer in Europe | News | DW.DE | 17.03.2015.

Avian Flu Diary: APHIS: H5N2 Detected In Backyard Flock In Kansas

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in a backyard chicken and duck flock in Leavenworth County, Kansas. This is the first finding of HPAI in the Central flyway. CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low. No human infections with the virus have been detected at this time.

via Avian Flu Diary: APHIS: H5N2 Detected In Backyard Flock In Kansas.

Bird flu mutating in southern China, pandemic threatens: Shanghaiist

The deadly strain of the bird flu virus H7N9, which first infected humans in Shanghai during 2013, is entrenched in flocks of chickens and ducks in the south of China and mutating, posing an even greater threat to humanity, according to the largest-ever genomic survey of the virus.

In an article for Nature, author Guan Yi and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong warn that unless drastic measures are taken to eradicate the virus, it will continue to mutate. “H7N9 viruses have spread from eastern to southern China and become persistent in chickens,” they wrote. Given that the virus can infect humans, it “should be considered as a major candidate to emerge as a pandemic strain.”

via Bird flu mutating in southern China, pandemic threatens: Shanghaiist.

Suspected case of bird flu in Arkansas | MEAT+POULTRY

For example, all live poultry, hatching eggs, domesticated waterfowl, waterfowl being transported into Arkansas or other avian species must be accompanied by an official veterinary certificate stating the birds were examined and declared free of any signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza strains H5 and H7. Also, any personnel from a foreign country or an area known or suspected of having a bird-flu outbreak must be quarantined for three days from live poultry or other avian species. Individual companies are responsible for enforcing the quarantine protocol.

via Suspected case of bird flu in Arkansas | MEAT+POULTRY.

Avian Flu Diary: Study: Recombinant H5N2 Avian Influenza Virus Strains In Vaccinated Chickens

The `elephant in the room’ is that 10 years ago, when most of these countries elected to rely primarily on poultry vaccinations to control H5N1, there was only one HPAI H5 virus of concern; H5N1.   Now we now have at least a half dozen subtypes (H5N1, H5N2, H5N3, H5N6, H5N5,  H5N8) and literally dozens of clades between them.

This rapid growth is likely due in no small part to the continued use of outdated, poorly matched poultry vaccines which only hid symptoms in birds, and allowed viruses to continue to circulate and reassort.

via Avian Flu Diary: Study: Recombinant H5N2 Avian Influenza Virus Strains In Vaccinated Chickens.