Epidemiat maailmalla

[SJ]

Jaa-a. Jotta se on noinkin vakava tapaus tällä kertaa. Ihme vaan, että ei sen enempää meteliä ole ollut asiasta, mutta sen voi varmaan katsoa olevan hyvä asia.

 

[ctg]

Bolivia's public health authorities declared the province of La Paz on epidemiological alert owing to an outbreak of bubonic plague detected in communities along the border with Peru, the government said Tuesday, 1 Jul 2014. The provincial head of epidemiology, Rene Barrientos, told the media that a boy of 14 has died of the illness and another 3 suspected cases have been found in the í, in the northern part of the region. The alert was declared to take action in the area and "avoid there being more victims and to keep the illness from leading to pneumonic plague," which, unlike bubonic plague, can be transmitted from person to person, Barrientos said.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/m/?pageid=event_details&edis_id=BH-20140706-44424-BOL

 

[nöksy]

Pienellä googlettamisella 14-v pojan ruttotapaus on uutisoitu useassa lähteessä 2010 syksyyn.

http://healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/plague-spreads-bolivia-83110

 

[ctg]

A US citizen is being tested for the Ebola virus in Ghana, which has had no confirmed cases of the virus in the current West African outbreak.

The man has been quarantined at the private Nyaho Clinic in the capital, Accra, health officials say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28192398

Every GP in the country has been ordered to look out for symptoms of the killer ebola virus in a scramble to stop the world’s deadliest outbreak taking hold in Britain.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/06/briti...dly-symptoms-as-killer-virus-hits-uk-4789186/

 

[ctg]

Border guards in Texas are on high alert after two child immigrants were confirmed to have swine flu following their interception trying to cross the border from Mexico. The minors were diagnosed with the highly-contagious H1N1 virus on Friday at two separate military detention facilities in Brownsville, Texas. Both centres, at Brownsville and nearby Fort Brown, were today on lockdown as border officials scrambled to contain a potential outbreak, placing some 120 people who came in contact with the juveniles in isolation.

http://investmentwatchblog.com/biol...2-facilities-on-lockdown/#OtDcDJHF7Y8kWEw2.99

 

[ctg]

The death toll of the victims of the latest unfortunate migrant crossing from North Africa to Italy rose to 45 on Wednesday as the navy ship carrying the corpses landed in Sicily Island.

The dead migrants had been previously estimated to be around 30, but the exact number was unclear because the corpses were lying in the narrowest part of the migrant boat, according to rescue teams.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/...th-toll-fresh-migrant-crossing-italy-rises-45

GENEVA, July 8 (Reuters) - Fifty new cases of Ebola and 25 deaths have been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since July 3, as the deadly virus continues to spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. In a statement, the United Nations agency said that the latest figures from health ministries in the three countries showed a total of 844 cases including 518 deaths in the epidemic that began in February.

http://af.reuters.com/article/liberiaNews/idAFL6N0PJ3H820140708

The American who was suspected to be carrying the Ebola virus at the Nyaho Clinic in Accra is reported dead after blood testing on him revealed signs of the disease were glaring.

The said American, name withheld, died yesterday afternoon while under surveillance at the infirmary. He arrived from Guinea on Sunday and reported at the clinic for medical attention. As a result, Ghana’s Health Ministry is currently having a crunch meeting with stakeholders on the matter.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=316003

 

[ctg]

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas health officials have confirmed Texas' first human case of a mosquito-borne virus that's been rapidly spreading through the Caribbean and parts of Latin America.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said Monday that the Williamson County resident infected with the chikungunya virus had recently returned from the Caribbean.

Health officials say infections are rarely fatal but can cause fever and severe joint pain. The virus isn't transmitted from direct person-to-person contact, but someone with the disease can be the source of the virus for mosquitoes, which can then transmit the virus to others.

The virus has spread rapidly through the Caribbean and parts of Latin America

http://www.kxxv.com/story/25965751/texas-confirms-first-case-of-mosquito-borne-virus

 

[ctg]

A Colorado man is infected with the rarest and most fatal form of plague, an airborne version that can be spread through coughing and sneezing.

It is the first case of pneumonic plague seen in the state since 2004, said Jennifer House, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The man, who hasn’t been identified, may have been exposed in Adams County near Denver, health officials said in a statement. While House said the man has been hospitalized and treated, she wouldn’t release other details about his situation.

“He’s on treatment long enough to not be transmissible,” House said in a telephone interview. He may have contracted the illness from his dog, she said, which died suddenly and has also been found to carry the disease.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-11/deadliest-rarest-form-of-plague-contracted-near-denver.html

 

[hessukessu]

http://www.kionrightnow.com/news/health/cdc-smallpox-found-in-nih-room-is-alive/26903526
CDC: Smallpox found in NIH room is alive
Laboratory used by NIH, transferred to FDA in 1972

 

[ctg]

(AP) — The same federal scientist who recently found forgotten samples of smallpox at a federal lab also uncovered over 300 additional vials, many bearing the names of highly contagious viruses and bacteria.

Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday the undocumented collection contained 327 carefully packaged vials, listing pathogens like dengue, influenza and rickettsia. Last week the government only disclosed that it had recovered six glass vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s.

The new revelations raise serious concerns about the government's ability to secure its collections of potentially deadly pathogens.

The news keeps getting worse for the West African countries that are suffering from Ebola virus outbreaks. International health officials are still experiencing trouble in halting the spread of cases and now Ivory Coast turned away 400 refugees who recently fled to Liberia.

According to the World Health Organization, the death tolls in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone reached 603 after 85 new cases and 68 deaths were documented in between July 8-12. Sierra Leone experienced the worst conditions over that five-day span, reporting 49 new cases and 52 deaths, compared to Liberia (30 new cases and 13 deaths) and Guinea (six new cases and three deaths).

Despite the lower numbers for Guinea, the West African country has experienced the worst of the situation, amassing 406 cases and 304 deaths since the outbreaks began in February. Now, Guinea’s southeastern neighbor, Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire), has closed its border to refugees in order to avoid having the Ebola virus spread into their country. This decision, according to a United Nations official, has violated domestic and international law

http://investmentwatchblog.com/ebol...loses-border-to-refugees/#weiEyWqXvzwPJeQ1.99

 

[ctg]

The Chinese city of Yumen in the northwestern province of Gansu has been sealed off and 151 people placed in quarantine after a man died of the bubonic plague — the bacterium responsible for some of the worst blights in human history.

China Central Television (CCTV) is reporting that the 30,000 people of Yumen are not being allowed to leave, and police at roadblocks on the perimeter of the city are telling motorists to find alternative routes. The China Daily newspaper says four quarantine sectors have been set up in the city.

"The city has enough rice, flour and oil to supply all its residents for up to one month," CCTV added. "Local residents and those in quarantine are all in stable condition." Thankfully, no further plague cases have been reported.

It all started last week when a 38-year-old man died after he had been in contact with a dead marmot — a small furry animal related to the squirrel.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/chinese-city-yumen-sealed-bubonic-plague-death

 

[ctg]

Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading anti-Ebola efforts in Sierra Leone—one of three western African countries that have been hit by an outbreak—has contracted the virus himself, Reuters reports. Khan, a Sierra Leonean virologist credited with treating more than 100 Ebola victims, has been transferred to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, according to the statement released late on Tuesday by the president's office. Health minister Miatta Kargbo called Khan a national hero and said she would "do anything and everything in my power to ensure he survives". "I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life," Khan said in an interview before he developed symptoms of infection. Three nurses at the facility where he worked have died in the last week.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...a_doctor_has_ebola_virus_in_sierra_leone.html

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s bioterror laboratory has resigned after dozens of government employees were potentially exposed to anthrax at the Atlanta facility last month.

http://rinf.com/alt-news/usa-news/cdc-lab-director-resigns-following-anthrax-scandal/

 

[ctg]

The WHO and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) both say the outbreak is out of control. It killed 25 out of 28 nurses in a single hospital in Sierra Leone and patients are disappearing into the forest rather than seek treatment.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/ebola-may-have-been-smoldering-years-study-says-n158641

One of Liberia's most high-profile doctors has died of Ebola, a government official said on Sunday, and a second US healthcare worker has been infected in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling the largest outbreak ever recorded of the disease.

Dr Samuel Brisbane is the first Liberian doctor to die in an outbreak, which the WHO says has killed 129 people in the west African nation. A Ugandan doctor working in the country died this month.

Brisbane, who once served as a medical adviser to the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country's largest hospital, the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/27/liberia-ebola-first-doctor-dies-brisbane-virus-outbreak

The same federal scientist who found forgotten vials of smallpox at a federal lab earlier this month also uncovered over 300 additional vials, many bearing the names of highly contagious viruses and bacteria.


Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday the undocumented collection contained 327 carefully packaged vials, listing various pathogens, including dengue, influenza and rickettsia. Last week the government only announced that it had recovered six glass vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s.

“The fact that these materials were not discovered until now is unacceptable,” said Karen Midthun, of FDA’s centre for biologics. “However, upon finding these materials our staff did the right thing — they immediately notified the appropriate authorities who secured the materials and determined there was no exposure.”

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/u-s-sc...-vials-after-smallpox-discovery-fda-1.1917098

 

[ctg]

The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, is a "threat" to the UK, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC. He said he would chair an emergency Cobra meeting on the issue later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28558783

 

[ctg]

The U.S. Peace Corps said on Wednesday it was pulling 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because of the spreading Ebola virus that has killed 672 people in the three countries since February.

An official from the Peace Corps said that two volunteers are in isolation and under observation after coming into contact with an individual who later died of the Ebola virus.

It is the worst outbreak on record of the deadly virus, according to the World Health Organization.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ebola-virus-outbreak-20140730,0,3053792.story

 

[ctg]

The fear began just after news broke Thursday that a long-range business jet with an isolation pod left the United States for Liberia, where it will evacuate two Americans infected with Ebola.

Twitter exploded with questions about the deadly virus, which according to the World Health Organization is believed to have killed hundreds in four West African nations. And with reaction to news that two infected Americans would soon be on their way back to the United States.

“Why are they doing this?” Robin Hunter asked in a post on Twitter.

While U.S. officials have remained mum on the issue, a source told CNN that a medical charter flight left from Cartersville, Georgia, on Thursday evening.

A CNN crew saw the plane depart shortly after 5 p.m. ET. The plane matched the description provided by the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately known when the two Americans — identified by the source as Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol — would arrive in the United States, or where the plane would land.

At least one of the two will be taken to a hospital at Emory University, near the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, hospital officials told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The patient will be cared for in an isolation unit at the hospital that is separate from patient areas, Gupta said.

With the return of Brantly and Writebol to the United States, it will be the first time that patients diagnosed with Ebola will be known to be in the country.

Brantly and Writebol are described as being in stable-but-grave conditions, with both reportedly taking a turn for the worse overnight, according to statements released Thursday by the faith-based charity Samaritan’s Purse.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/31/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html

A dose of “experimental serum” arrived in Liberia to be tried on a U.S. charity worker struggling for her life — but there was only enough for one of the two infected workers, so Dr. Kent Brantly asked that it be used on his colleague, the group Samaritan’s Purse said Thursday.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-ne...-dose-of-serum-be-given-to-colleague_07312014

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CBS Charlotte/AP) — A Liberian health official says the Ebola outbreak is now above the control of its government.

“Our government has declared this now as a humanitarian crisis that is above the control of the national government,” Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s assistant minister of health, told CBS News.

More than 700 people have died in four western African nations during the largest Ebola outbreak ever, with over 320 known cases in Liberia alone. One American died while contracting the virus in Liberia. Two other American medical missionary workers also contracted Ebola.

“This virus, if it is not taken care of, will be a global pandemic,” Nyenswah told CBS News, calling for more international aid to help treat the sick and stop the spreading of the disease.

http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2014/...above-the-control-of-the-national-government/

 

[hessukessu]

Minkä ihmeen takia lennätetään ihmisiä sieltä pois, tuossahan on ilmeinen tartuntariski?!? Hoitomahdollisuudet ovat kuitenkin olemattomat.

 

[kimmo.j]

Tarvitaan koepotilaita, jotta hoitoja voidaan kehittää.
Seuranta ja koemahdollisuudet ovat jenkeissä tod.näk luokkaa paremmat kuin paikallisessa sairaalassa.

Lisäksi yksittäiset potilaat on helppo eristää niin, ettei tartunta leviä. Toki riski on aina olemassa.

 

[ctg]

Dr Brantly's employer, the aid group Samaritan's Purse, said in a statement that it was evacuating 60 non-essential staff who were healthy back to the US.

An earlier statement said that Dr Brantly had been offered experimental serum - using blood from a child whose life he saved - but he had insisted that Ms Writebol should receive it instead.

Amber Brantly, his wife, said in a statement she remained "hopeful and believing that Kent" would be "healed from this dreadful disease".

"There is a little bit of worry," Jenny Kendrix, 46, told Reuters news agency when asked about having the Ebola virus patient brought to the same hospital where her husband was being treated for cancer. "There is worry about it getting out."

But Ernie Surunis, 52, at the hospital for a pharmacy conference, said he was not bothered at all.

"This is a good hospital," he said. "I'm glad [the patients] are coming. We can't leave them [in Africa] to die. They went over to help other people."

The National Institutes of Health in the US has said it will begin testing a possible Ebola vaccine in September

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28596416

 

[ctg]

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A patient at Mount Sinai Hospital was under treatment Monday afternoon, after being tested after traveling to a country where the Ebola virus is present, the hospital said in a statement.

The man arrived at the East Harlem medical center’s emergency room early Monday morning with high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms.

The man told doctors he had recently traveled to a West African country where Ebola has been reported, the hospital said. The man has been placed in “strict isolation” and is undergoing various tests to determine the cause of the symptoms, the hospital said.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08...ount-sinai-hospital-for-possible-ebola-virus/

The ZMapp vials, stored at subzero temperatures, reached the hospital in Liberia where Brantly and Writebol were being treated Thursday morning. Doctors were instructed to allow the serum to thaw naturally without any additional heat. It was expected that it would be eight to 10 hours before the medicine could be given, according to a source familiar with the process.

Brantly asked that Writebol be given the first dose because he was younger and he thought he had a better chance of fighting it, and she agreed. However, as the first vial was still thawing, Brantly's condition took a sudden turn for the worse.

Brantly began to deteriorate and developed labored breathing. He told his doctors he thought he was dying, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the situation.

Knowing his dose was still frozen, Brantly asked if he could have Writebol's now-thawed medication. It was brought to his room and administered through an IV. Within an hour of receiving the medication, Brantly's condition dramatically improved. He began breathing easier; the rash over his trunk faded away. One of his doctors described the events as "miraculous."

http://us.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?

Kummasti nämä seerumit katoaa.

A dose of “experimental serum” arrived in Liberia to be tried on a U.S. charity worker struggling for her life — but there was only enough for one of the two infected workers, so Dr. Kent Brantly asked that it be used on his colleague, the group Samaritan’s Purse said Thursday.

Dr. Brantly, a doctor with the group who was also infected, tried an alternative treatment, using blood transfused from a young survivor of the virus.

“Yesterday, an experimental serum arrived in the country, but there was only enough for one person. Dr. Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement. “However, Dr. Brantly received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived Ebola because of Dr. Brantly’s care. The young boy and his family wanted to be able to help the doctor that saved his life.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/eb...rimental-ebola-serum-used-u-s-patient-n169626

A woman has died after landing at Gatwick airport on a flight from Sierra Leone, one of the countries at the centre of the deadly Ebola outbreak.

The 72-year-old was understood to have been “vomiting and sweating” before she collapsed and was taken by ambulance to hospital.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...g-to-Gatwick-from-Ebola-hit-Sierra-Leone.html

As has long been the fear, the man who died from Ebola after flying from Liberia to Nigeria spread the deadly virus there.

Patrick Sawyer was the first American known to have contracted the strain of Ebola causing the latest, record outbreak. He died from the disease July 25, days after arriving in Lagos, Africa's most populous city.

Officials have since scrambled to track down his fellow passengers, quarantining two of them so far, but they could not stop one of the doctors who treated him from getting it, Nigerian health officials said Monday.

Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu also said test samples were pending for three other people who had shown symptoms of Ebola.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nigerian-doctor-infected-with-ebola-as-west-africa-scrambles/