News Scan for Apr 06, 2016

News brief

Guinea Ebola cluster death toll rises to 8

A woman infected in Guinea's recent Ebola cluster died from her illness at a treatment center in Nzerekore, lifting the death total to eight, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported yesterday.

Ibrahima Sylla, spokesman for Guinea's Ebola response team, told AFP that the woman died on Apr 3 and that one more confirmed case-patient is still being treated at the center. The case total in the cluster remains at nine.

Earlier this week the World Health Organization (WHO) said it and its partners were investigation a possible cross-border connection in a two-person Ebola cluster that emerged more recently in Liberia than the one in Guinea.
Apr 5 AFP story

In other Ebola developments, scientists at the National Institutes of Health Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont., in an effort to help guide policies for decontaminating and removing specimens from high-containment labs, recently tested the effectiveness of different chemical inactivation methods. They reported their findings today in an early edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The researchers used the Ebola Zaire strain as model for a range of similar pathogens, using in vitro and in vivo approaches for their comparisons. They said their results spelled out the inactivation procedures that can be used for specific specimen types and research purposes, which could help streamline inactivation procedures without safety testing each individual sample.

They noted that safety testing for inactivation in Ebola can rely on cell culture, because sensitivity seemed to match in vivo testing.
Apr 6 Emerg Infect Dis report

WHO details imported yellow fever cases in China and Kenya

In developments reflecting the continuing global impact of Angola's yellow fever outbreak, the WHO today reported eight more imported cases in China and the first two imported cases in Kenya.

At the end of March China reported its first imported case from Angola, and today's WHO report notes eight more from three provinces: Fujian, Jiangsu, and Sichuan. Ages range from 36 to 53, and five of the patients are men. Of five people with known immunization status, none had been vaccinated against yellow fever before traveling to Angola. One was vaccinated while in Angola but was probably infected before developing protection, the agency said.

In a separate report, the WHO said Kenya notified it of two imported cases between Mar 15 and Mar 18. Both involve men in their 30s who had been working in Luanda, Angola. Both traveled back to Kenya while they were sick, and neither had been vaccinated against yellow fever before arriving in Angola.

One of the patients died from multi-organ failure, and the other has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital, the WHO said.
Apr 6 WHO report on yellow fever in China
Apr 6 WHO report on yellow fever in Kenya

Saudi officials report new MERS case, note common misconceptions

The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) today confirmed a new MERS-CoV case in Najran, and yesterday it noted that Saudis have high rates of misconceptions about the disease, according to an MOH survey.

The new case involves a 53-year-old Saudi man in Najran. He is hospitalized in critical condition, and his possible exposure to MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) is under investigation, the MOH said today. He is not a healthcare worker.

His case brings the Saudi total since the outbreak began in 2012 to 1,368, including 584 deaths.

The MOH survey included 1,373 respondents who were interviewed in February and March. About 82% of them were from urban areas, 69% were women, and 45% were 20 to 29 years old. They expressed the following rates of belief in these untruths about MERS: infected camels are culled by authorities (82.7%), risk is higher in kids (79.8%), infected camel meat is not a MERS-CoV source (64.8%), and there is no such thing as asymptomatic cases (53.5%).

Participants listed the Internet as their top source of MERS-CoV information, followed by TV/radio and newspapers.
Apr 6 MOH update
Apr 5 MOH survey results

Flu Scan for Apr 06, 2016

News brief

Northern Hemisphere flu activity remains high but appears past peak

Flu activity in the Northern Hemisphere remains high but has likely peaked, with several regions detecting increases in flu B, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an Apr 4 update.

Flu levels in North America remain elevated because of H1N1 circulation, and Canada reported increasing proportions of flu B.

Europe continues to experience increases in flu B detections, especially in northern countries, though flu levels appear to have peaked in most regions, the WHO said.

Activity is elevated in northern temperate Asia, with rising detections of flu B, particularly in China and South Korea, the WHO said. Mongolia reported elevated flu B detections and high numbers of flu-related deaths. Flu levels remained low elsewhere in Asia, with flu B predominating, the WHO said.

Flu levels in the tropical Americas were low, with the exception of elevated severe illness associated with H1N1 in Jamaica and with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in Ecuador. Brazil and Guatemala reported high H1N1 circulation.

Activity in northern Africa appears to have peaked, although Tunisia reported increased detections of flulike illness. Ghana and Kenya saw mild rises in H1N1 and flu B, respectively, the WHO said.

Globally, influenza A made up 61.7% of 40,448 flu detections in recent weeks, and of the subtyped samples, 87.5% were the 2009 H1N1 virus and 12.5% were H3N2. Of the 15,475 subtyped flu B samples, only 18.3% were from the Yamagata lineage, the B strain used in this season's trivalent Northern Hemisphere flu vaccines.
Apr 4 WHO update

More H5N1 poultry outbreaks reported in central Nigeria

Nigeria continues to battle highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in poultry, with the country's government yesterday reporting three new outbreaks to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Two outbreaks, beginning on Mar 31 and Apr 1, occurred on farms in Nigeria's central Plateau province. The first outbreak involved 13,536 pullets and layers in the town of Ranya Lowcost, of which 200 birds became infected and died; the remaining poultry were culled to prevent the spread of the virus. The second outbreak, in the town of Bamkap, killed 76 layers out of a flock of 4,878, and the rest were destroyed.

A third outbreak involving a backyard flock of 204 pullets, also in Plateau province, began on Mar 31. Two birds died, and the remainder of the flock was culled.

"Poor farm biosecurity" is listed as a contributor to all three outbreaks. A resurgence of H5N1 has occurred in several parts of Africa over the past year, with Nigerian farms and flocks particularly affected.
Apr 5 OIE report