Nipah outbreak report details hospital transmission patterns
A report summing up all the investigation findings in India's Nipah virus outbreak says 17 of 19 patients appear to have contracted the virus from the index patient, a 26-year-old man, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported yesterday, citing findings released by health officials from Kerala state.
The people exposed to the first patient included 3 family members, 4 people at the first hospital that treated him, and 10 at a medical college hospital where he was taken for a computed tomography scan. One patient was infected by another patient at the first hospital.
People infected at the first hospital included the man's sister, who helped care for him. Though the man was at the second hospital for only 1 day, he passed the virus to 10 people.
Health officials suspect that the first patient contracted the virus from fruit bats, and the early investigation suggested he and his brothers might have been infected after being in a bat-infested well, according to the report. The bats in the well, however, were not fruit bats.
The 19-case outbreak, India's third involving Nipah virus, killed 17. During the course of the outbreak, which was declared over on Jun 30, health officials monitored and tested about 3,000 people.
The World Health Organization considers Nipah a priority emerging infectious disease threat, given that the disease has no vaccine or cure and a case-fatality rate of more than 70%.
Jul 15 PTI report
Invasive longhorned tick found in 5th state: North Carolina
The longhorned or bush tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis)—an invasive tick from East Asia that can breed without males and cause disease—has been found in North Carolina, bringing the number of affected states to five, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDACS) said last week.
Recent tick surveys sent to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified the species on an opossum in Polk County. The tick was first found in the United States on a sheep in New Jersey last September. It has since been identified in Arkansas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
"We are working with the USDA, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, our field staff and veterinarians to help raise awareness of ticks and tick prevention," said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. "The good news is that the Longhorned ticks respond to insecticides used to control other common species of ticks on pets and livestock."
The longhorned tick is "a serious pest of livestock" the NCDACS said in a news release. "Its presence in N.C. signals the need among livestock producers and residents for greater awareness, surveillance, and tick control management. It is an aggressive biter and frequently builds intense infestations on animals causing great stress, reduced growth and production, and blood loss." It feeds on a range of hosts, including people.
The tick can reproduce without male fertilization—essentially clone itself—and a single blood-fed female tick can create an entire localized population, the agency said. It can transmit both livestock and human diseases but has yet to be associated with human disease in the United States.
Jul 11 NCDACS news release
Jun 29 ScienceNews story on longhorned ticks
