WHO emergency committee extends polio emergency declaration
A World Health Organization (WHO) emergency committee has extended a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) over the global polio situation and the temporary recommendations that came with it, the WHO said in a statement yesterday. The group met by teleconference on Jul 31, its first meeting since it first declared the PHEIC on May 5.
When the agency first declared the PHEIC, its first since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, MPH, asked the committee to meeting again in 3 months to reassess the situation. Since the last meeting, one more country—Equatorial Guinea—has been added to the list that are currently exporting wild poliovirus. The others are Cameroon, Pakistan, and Syria.
Based on country updates, the emergency committee said the international spread of polio continues to constitute an extraordinary event, posing a public health risk to other countries. Pakistan and Cameroon continue to report more cases, with a wider geographic expansion of the disease. Since the PHEIC was declared, new international spread of polio occurred from Pakistan to Afghanistan, and a poliovirus that originated from Equatorial Guinea was reported from a single sewage sample in Brazil.
The group said possible consequences of international spread have worsened since the PHEIC was declared, and their decision that PHEIC conditions continue to be met was unanimous, according the WHO. Application of temporary measures in the countries exporting the disease is incomplete, and more efforts are needed to declare or operationalize emergency procedures, boost vaccination coverage in international travelers, and ensure eradication efforts meet international standards.
Committee members also recommended they meet again in 3 months to reassess the situation. A separate WHO emergency committee will meet on Aug 6 and 7 to assess if West Africa's Ebola virus developments constitute a PHEIC.
Aug 3 WHO statement
May 5 CIDRAP News story "International polio spread triggers WHO emergency declaration"
CDC declares E coli outbreak tied to clover sprouts over
An outbreak of Escherichia coli O121 linked to raw clover sprouts appears to be over after sickening 19 people in six states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said late last week.
The totals represent one new case and one additional state since the CDC's previous update on Jun 27. The new case was in California, which had not previously reported a case. Other affected states are Washington, 11 cases; Idaho, 3; Montana, 2; and Michigan and Utah with 1 each.
Illness-onset dates ranged from May 1 to May 20, and patients varied in age from 11 to 52 years, with a median of 27. Among patients with available data, 7 (44%) of 16 were hospitalized. No deaths were reported.
"Epidemiologic and traceback investigations conducted by officials in local, state, and federal public health, agriculture, and regulatory agencies indicated that raw clover sprouts produced by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC of Idaho was the likely source of this outbreak," the CDC said.
Thirteen of 16 case-patients reported eating raw clover sprouts during the week before they became ill. Inspections by the Food and Drug Administration in May and June turned up unsanitary conditions at Evergreen's Moyie Springs, Idaho, facility, the CDC said.
Aug 1 CDC notice
Chinese studies support flu vaccine's worth in non-elderly
Two new studies on flu vaccines—one out of Beijing and one from Hong Kong—showed moderate to good protection overall against medically attended influenza in all but older people, according to results published in Vaccine.
The first study involved 1,998 patients 6 months old or older in Beijing who had influenza-like illness during the 2012-13 flu season. Its test-negative case-control design used lab-confirmed influenza as an endpoint. Only 71 of the patients (4%) had received the flu vaccine.
The researchers found flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) against medically attended flu of 59% (95% confidence interval [CI], 19% to 79%) in those younger than 60 but found a negative VE estimate in those 60 and over. For all ages, VE against 2009 H1N1 was 59% (95% CI, 8% to 82%), but VE against H3N2 was 43% (95% CI, −30% to 75%).
Aug 1 Vaccine study on Beijing patients
The second study also used a test-negative design. It involved 5,399 Hong Kong children who were hospitalized from Oct 1, 2009, through Sep 30, 2013, of whom 451 (8.4%) tested positive for influenza A and 211 (3.9%) for influenza B. Vaccine coverage varied by age-group from 6.9% to 12.3%.
The investigators found flu VE against hospitalization with lab-confirmed flu to be 61.7% overall (95% CI, 43.0% to 74.2%), 71.5% against 2009 H1N1 (95% CI, 39.4% to 86.6%), 36.6% against H3N2 (95% CI, −25.5% to 67.9%), and 68.8% against influenza B (95% CI, 41.6% to 83.3%).
Aug 1 Vaccine study on Hong Kong children
