Avian Flu Scan for Feb 11, 2014

News brief

More Vietnamese poultry farms affected by H5N1

Two provinces in Vietnam have reported outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu in poultry, an article from Xinhua, China's news agency, reported today. One of the outbreaks follows one in the same province late last month, raising alarm over the infection's spread to other areas and to humans.

On a farm in the Tinh Gia district of Thanh Hoa, a central province, 186 chickens testing positive for H5N1 died Feb 8, says the story. That farm as well as neighboring ones was asked by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to cull and safely dispose of all their chickens to contain the outbreak.

The other outbreak occurred in the central highlands province of Kon Tum, where 600 chickens displayed symptoms of H5N1 and 470 died Feb 8. The story says the remaining 130 chickens on the farm were culled after "the official conclusion was reached" that they had H5N1. VNA, Vietnam's state-run news agency, reported an outbreak Jan 28 in Kon Tum that involved 1,000 ill or dead chickens, the Xinhua story says.

In a related development, a veterinarian who had contact with the birds in the Kon Tum outbreak is reportedly hospitalized and isolated with suspected H5N1 avian flu, says Xinhua. Vietnam has among the most human H5N1 cases in the world.
Feb 11 Xinhua article

11 South Korean H5N8 outbreaks lead to 150,000 poultry deaths

Eleven outbreaks of H5N8 avian flu in South Korea this month and last led to the death of more than 150,000 poultry, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reported yesterday.

The outbreaks, 7 in January and 4 this month, affected farms ranging in size from 5,000 to 27,000 birds in six separate western and southern provinces. Outbreak-onset dates range from Jan 19 to Feb 6.

All told, 11,080 poultry died from the virus and 140,620 were culled to prevent disease spread, accounting for 151,700 poultry deaths. Disinfection and other measures have begun, according to the OIE report, and the Veterinary Authority is implementing an epidemiologic survey.
Feb 10 OIE report

News Scan for Feb 11, 2014

News brief

Study provides evidence of four early doses of pertussis vaccine

Protection from three doses of pertussis vaccine against disease requiring hospitalization waned significantly even by 4 years of age, Australian researchers reported yesterday in Pediatrics, a finding that supports current US recommendations of four early doses.

The investigators matched all 1,446 pertussis patients aged 2 to 47 months reported from January 2005 through December 2009 in Australia with 28,828 controls to analyze vaccine effectiveness (VE) for the diphtheria-tetanus–acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine.

They found that VE against pertussis hospitalization dropped from 83.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 79.1%-87.8%) between 6 and 11 months of age to 70.7% (95% CI, 64.5%-75.8%) between 2 and 3 years of age. VE dropped even further, to 59.2% (95% CI, 51.0%–66.0%), between 3 and 4 years of age.

The team also found that VE against hospitalization increased from 55.3% (95% CI, 42.7%-65.1%) for one dose before 4 months of age to 83.0% (95% CI, 70.2%-90.3%) for two doses before 6 months.

Children in Australia receive a fourth "booster" dose at 4 years. US kids are recommended to receive four doses by age 18 months, with a fifth dose from 4 to 6 years of age.

The authors conclude, "Without a booster dose, the effectiveness of 3 doses waned more rapidly from 2 to 4 years of age than previously documented for children >6 years of age who had received 5 doses."
Feb 10 Pediatrics abstract

First polio case in 13 years reported in Kabul

A 3-year-old girl in Kabul, Afghanistan, has been diagnosed as having polio, the first case in that nation's capital in 13 years, CNN reported today.

An Afghan Health Ministry spokesperson said the girl's case is the first in Kabul since 2001, and he added that officials have started an immunization campaign in the city. The case is Afghanistan's second this year, compared with 14 in all of last year.
Feb 11 CNN report

In other polio news, one policeman was killed today and another critically wounded when gunmen opened fire on a vaccination team in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the rugged northwest part of Pakistan, according to Pakistan Today.

The officers were providing security to health workers administering polio vaccine in the area when the assailants fired on them. No health workers were injured.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the extremist Muslim group Tehreek-e-Taliban has been repeatedly involved in previous attacks on polio immunization workers, the story said. The region has been targeted by militants who perceive the campaigns as Western subterfuge.
Feb 11 Pakistan Today story