News Scan for Jun 11, 2015

News brief

Congressmen seek review of DHS bioterror contract halt

Two high-ranking members of Congress have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acted properly in scrapping a multimillion-dollar contract for developing new technology for detecting bioterror agents, the Washington Post reported today.

In a Jun 9 letter to the GAO, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) asked the GAO to assess the status of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device being developed by NVS Technologies of Menlo Park, Calif. NVS's PCR technology is said to make PCR testing much cheaper, faster, and easier than is possible with other devices, according to the story.

The DHS's Science and Technology Directorate canceled the NVS's $30 million contract last year, just 6 months before the company was to deliver its first prototype. According to a Feb 27 audit report by the DHS's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and "government scientists familiar with the project," the decision was improperly made by a single DHS official, without supporting evidence and over the objections of experts. The directorate's own review cited "substantial data" showing that the new technology worked and was needed to help detect bioterror threats, according to the OIG audit.

Johnson and Upton said in their letter that the contract's cancellation "is just one example that raises questions about DHS investments and progress in developing" the technology. Charles Young, a GAO spokesman, said the agency is reviewing the request and will decide within a few weeks whether to undertake the work.

Johnson chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Upton chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Jun 11 Washington Post story

Ghana parliament cancels Ebola vaccine trials

Ghana's parliament has halted trials of two Ebola vaccines in an eastern town after protests, Reuters and other news agencies reported yesterday.

The country's Food and Drugs Authority said it had started enlisting volunteers in Hohoe in trials of vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and Bavarian Nordic.

But authorities halted plans for the trials after legislators backed local protests sparked by fears of contamination, officials said yesterday. Youth leaders, for example, threatened to boycott the effort. "We don't want to be guinea pigs," one local leader told Reuters.

"The [health] minister has suspended the trials indefinitely because the people said they don't want it," Health Ministry spokesman Tony Goodman said.
Jun 10 Reuters report

Officials deny report of first Zika virus case in Dominican Republic

A media report last week of the first Zika virus infection in the Dominican Republic was a false alarm, according to a more recent media report quoting local health officials.

A Jun 3 story in the newspaper El Nuevo Diario said the case involved a 12-year-old girl who was hospitalized in Puerta Plata. But in a Jun 9 story that ran in the same paper and another Dominican news outlet, El Veedor Digital, the provincial health director in the city, Wadi Musa Valeria, said the report was "a false alarm by a young mother."

The story also quoted an epidemiologist, Eliza Polanco, who said no one in the girl's neighborhood had traveled to countries where the mosquito-borne virus circulates. Polanco also said the girl was sent home fully healthy and never had symptoms of the infection.

An English translation of part of the story was posted by ProMED-mail, the disease monitoring service of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Zika virus, spread by Aedes mosquitoes, causes an illness similar to dengue virus, but generally milder. In May, Brazilian authorities confirmed 16 Zika infections, marking the first documented cases in the Americas.
Jun 9 El Veedor story
Jun 10 ProMED-mail post
Related Jun 5 CIDRAP News item

Avian Flu Scan for Jun 11, 2015

News brief

China confirms 9 recent H7N9 cases, 1 death

Chinese health officials yesterday and today reported nine new H7N9 avian flu cases, including one fatality, according to translations of reports posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.

The newest case is in Shanghai, according to a FluTrackers post yesterday. The Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission, at a briefing yesterday, said that a 61-year-old male resident of the city has contracted the disease. He tested positive yesterday for H7N9 and is undergoing treatment.

The other eight cases were included in a national health ministry update on notifiable diseases. The report, a translation of which was posted today by FluTrackers, notes 15 H7N9 cases in May. Seven of them, however, were already reported in provincial monthly updates. No details were provided about the eight new cases, but one of them proved fatal.

The report also notes a death in May from "bird flu" separate from the H7N9 cases. It might refer to an H5N1 avian flu death that has not been reported, FluTrackers said.

The reports raise the H7N9 global total to 681 cases, according to a list maintained by FluTrackers.
Jun 10 FluTrackers thread on Shanghai case
Jun 11 FluTrackers thread on 8 new cases in May
FluTrackers H7N9 case list

H5N1 strikes 1,400 chickens in another outbreak in Ghana

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu has hit a farm with 1,397 egg-laying chickens in Ghana, the fourth to be reported in about a week, according to a report posted yesterday by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

A total of 246 birds died from infection, and the rest were destroyed to prevent disease spread. The farm is located in Greater Accra region, in southeastern Ghana along the coast. The outbreak began Apr 13 and was confirmed May 12, but not reported to the OIE till yesterday.

Officials in Ghana reported three separate H5N1 outbreaks on Jun 2 that began in April and May, also in Greater Accra. Before that, the country had not reported the disease in birds since 2007.
Jun 10 OIE report