News Scan for Jun 07, 2013

News brief

Multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to chicks grows to 224 cases

An outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium cases linked to live baby poultry has grown to 224 cases in 34 states, up by 78 cases and 8 states since May 10, the US Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) said in an update yesterday.

Among 141 patients with available data, 37 (26%) have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported. Illness-onset dates range from Mar 4 to May 20. Patients' ages range from 1 to 81 years, with 62% being 10 years old or younger.

Investigations have traced the outbreak to multiple mail-order hatcheries, the CDC said.
Jun 6 CDC update

 

Meningitis epidemics in Africa drop to 10-year low

Meningitis cases in Africa's "meningitis belt" have hit a decade low, a development that is likely due to the introduction of a new meningococcal A conjugate vaccine in the region since 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

Since Jan 1 the WHO has received reports of 9,249 suspected meningitis cases, including 857 deaths, with a case-fatality rate of 9.3% reported from 18 of 19 countries conducting enhanced surveillance for the disease.

Outbreaks have been confirmed in Guinea and South Sudan, where governments responded with vaccination campaigns. Short outbreaks were reported in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria, though the presence of Neisseria meningitides was not confirmed.

So far 100 million people from 10 countries have been immunized against the disease in the past 3 years, and the drop in epidemic activity this year adds to the evidence that immunization is having an impact, the WHO said. However, close surveillance is essential, because large-scale epidemics in the region seem to occur in waves over 4 to 10 years, the agency added.
Jun 6 WHO statement

 

Polio in Indian infant

A 10-month-old boy in western India has vaccine-derived polio virus type 2 infection, says a story today from Press Trust of India (PTI).

The child is from Kanhapur village, which is in the Beed district of Maharashtra state. He has been transported to the city of Latur for treatment of the rare type of polio and may not have gotten his vaccination doses on the proper schedule, the story said.

India has not had a case of wild-type polio—as opposed to vaccine derives—since early 2011.
Jun 7 PTI story

 

Pakistan reports 3 polio cases as Muslim polio meeting winds up

Poliovirus has infected three young Pakistani children in the past day, according to a story in The Express Tribune.

Two cases, one in a 23-month-old child and one in a 4-month-old, occurred in the Bara tehsil of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and the other is in a 22-month-old child from the Frontier Region Bannu.

Both of these areas are in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a site of increasing militancy against the central government and thus of inaccessibility for ongoing vaccination campaigns. The total number of polio cases this year in the country stands at 13, the story said.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in which polio remains endemic, the others being Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Jun 7 Express Tribune article

Another Express Tribune article reported on the second day of a conference of Muslim scholars at International Islamic University in Islamabad. The meeting concluded with condemnations of the killing of polio workers and declarations of support for the violence-plagued vaccination program there.

Among goals from the conference is dissemination of accurate information to Pakistani parents on the safety and advisability of having their children vaccinated against polio.

Establishment of a National Advisory Board for Polio Eradication at the university was announced, with a first meeting scheduled this month.
Jun 7 Express Tribune article
Jun 6 CIDRAP News item on polio meeting

Flu Scan for Jun 07, 2013

News brief

H5N1 death in Egypt raises global total to 630 cases

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) latest monthly update on human H5N1 avian flu infections reported cases in a Cambodian girl whose illness was already reported by the WHO's Western Pacific regional office on May 17 and in an Egyptian woman who died from her illness.

The 25-year-old woman was from Egypt's Sohaq governorate. She got sick on Apr 25 and died May 1. An investigation found that she had been exposed to sick and dead backyard poultry.

The woman's H5N1 infection is Egypt's fourth so far this year, three of which were fatal. The new case puts Egypt's overall H5N1 total at 173 cases and 63 deaths, according to the WHO's latest tally.

Cambodia's case is in a 5-year-old girl whose illness was detected during fever surveillance. She has since recovered.

The WHO said all 11 cases reported from Cambodia this year have occurred in the southern part of the country and appear to represent sporadic infections related to contact with sick poultry.

The two new cases raise the official global total to 630 cases, including 375 deaths.
Jun 4 WHO monthly update
Jun 3 WHO global H5N1 case count
May 17 WHO update on Cambodian case


NIH funds $18 million host-response study of avian flu, Ebola, West Nile

The National Institutes of Health has funded a team of US scientists, including flu researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka, DVM, PhD, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to lead an $18.1 million effort to study how humans respond to serious viruses, such as avian influenza strains, Ebola, and West Nile, the university said yesterday in a press release.

Scientists from Washington University in St. Louis and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., will also play key roles.

The study will assess, using high-throughput screening, the many molecular events that occur when the viruses infect their hosts, with hopes of gaining insight for developing new drugs.

"When an animal is infected with a virus, all kinds of things happen during the course of infection," Kawaoka said in the release, "so the host response is a very important component of the study."

Kawaoka noted that there are no antiviral agents approved for Ebola and West Nile.
Jun 6 University of Wisconsin news release

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