News Scan for Dec 18, 2013

News brief

CDC issues travel advisory over chikungunya in Caribbean

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel health notice because of recent cases of chikungunya on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, the agency said today in a news release.

Those traveling to St. Martin should protect themselves against mosquito bites by using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, and using air conditioning and screens on windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out, the CDC said. It added that travelers returning from the Caribbean who experience fever, joint pains, headache, muscle pains, rash, or other symptoms of chikungunya should seek medical care.

The CDC also cautioned healthcare providers to be alert for the disease.

"Microbes know no boundaries, and the appearance of chikungunya virus in the Western hemisphere represents another threat to health security," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, in the release. "CDC experts have predicted and prepared for its arrival for several years and there are surveillance systems in place to help us track it."

The World Health Organization has confirmed 10 cases of chikungunya on St. Martin, and testing is under way on further suspected case-patients.
Dec 18 CDC news release

Gates Foundation grants target CDC meningitis, rotavirus projects

A foundation that raises funds to support the CDC's work has received three grants worth a total of $13.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support meningitis and rotavirus vaccination, according to a statement yesterday from grant recipient the CDC Foundation.

The grants are targeted to the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases projects. One, worth $10 million, will help support a 5-year project to improve the quality of meningitis surveillance across the African meningitis belt. The efforts will allow the CDC and its global health partners to gauge the impact of a meningococcal vaccine targeted to the area.

Two other grants targeting rotavirus vaccination include a 4-year project to establish intussusception surveillance, which will help experts weigh the risks and benefits of the rotavirus vaccine. The other project is a 2-year grant that will evaluate new diagnostic tools for identifying pathogens that cause diarrhea and analyzing different strains of rotavirus.
Dec 17 CDC Foundation statement

Police prevent attack on Pakistan polio workers

Police thwarted a militant attack on a polio vaccination team in Karachi, Pakistan, yesterday, killing one militant and arresting another, Agence France-Press (AFP) reported today.

The two attackers belong to a Taliban group and tried to harm a polio team in the city's northern outskirts. Police escorting the vaccination workers retaliated, but the vaccination effort was then called off, the story said.

The country has witnessed scores of attacks on polio workers, many by Muslim extremists who view the campaigns as a Western plot to spy on the population or sterilize children.
Dec 18 AFP story

In related news, Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party, today announced the start of his own polio campaign in Pakistan and deplored violence against polio workers, according to the country's Express Tribune newspaper.

Khan said his visibility would boost the morale of polio workers who face constant threats. He said leaders owe polio vaccine to the country's children, and that the disease is entirely preventable.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria are the only nations in which polio is still endemic.
Dec 18 Express Tribune story

Flu Scan for Dec 18, 2013

News brief

Chinese man hospitalized with H7N9 infection

Chinese health authorities today announced another H7N9 avian flu infection in Guangdong province, the area's third reported case in the past week, according to a statement from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP).

The latest case is in a 63-year-old man who is hospitalized in critical condition. He is from Yangjiang, a city in the southeastern province that is home to another recently reported H7N9 patient, a 65-year-old woman. The statement did not report any poultry exposures the man may have had.

A report from Xinhua, China's state news agency, said the provincial government has sent five inspection teams to 21 cities and a district to boost H7N9 prevention and control efforts.

Though H7N9 cases have subsided in most of the mainland areas that were part of the outbreak in the spring, five cases have been reported from Guangdong province since early August. And two patients who were recently hospitalized with H7N9 infections in Hong Kong were thought to have been exposed to the virus in the nearby Guangdong city of Shenzhen.
Dec 18 Hong Kong CHP statement
Dec 18 Xinhua story

In other developments, the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday confirmed the other two H7N9 cases reported over the past week. One is in a 39-year-old man who got sick on Dec 6 and was hospitalized on Dec 11, where he remains in critical condition.

The other patient is the 65-year-old woman noted above, who was exposed to live poultry and became ill on Dec 11. She was hospitalized on Dec 15 and is listed in critical condition.

The WHO said so far there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. The newly reported case from China pushes the global H7N9 total to 146 cases, which includes 45 deaths.
Dec 17 WHO statement

Study says RSV milder than flu in older adults

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes milder illness than influenza does in adults 50 and older, according to a recent study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Researchers from the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin collected data on nasopharyngeal swabs from 2004 through 2010. They tested 2,225 samples for RSV and other respiratory viruses using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. One or more viruses were detected in 1,202 (54%) of participants.

The team found that hospital admission within 30 days after illness onset was less common among RSV patients than flu patients (odds ratio, 0.54). They also found that RSV was more common in 65- to 70-year-olds compared with those 50 to 64.

"Knowing that adults' susceptibility to RSV increases as they age is important for health care providers and public health officials to note as they treat and monitor respiratory illnesses this season," said study co-author Edward Belongia, MD, director of Marshfield's Epidemiology Research Center, in a Marshfield press release yesterday.

"Although this study showed RSV may lead to fewer complications than flu, it still has the potential to cause serious respiratory illness, especially in older adults with weakened immune systems or other pre-existing conditions," added Marshfield epidemiologist and co-author Maria Sundaram, MSPH.
Dec 18 Marshfield Clinic press release
Nov 21 Clin Infect Dis abstract