10 May 2013 (11:51 UTC-07 Tango)/29 Jumada t-Tania 1434/20 Ordibehest 1392/01 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

Health officials in the city of Shanghai have terminated the Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan (Level III).  They claim there have been no new human cases of H7N9 in the past 20 days.

While there are newer cases in Shanghai hospitals, they actually got infected in neighboring provinces.  Shanghai health officials have also stopped monitoring the 458 people connected to those Shanghaians who were infected.

At this point 33 Shanghai residents got sick, 13 died and 15 have recovered.  The live poultry markets will remain closed.

Canada has decided not to take part in H7N9 vaccine studies. Officially the Public Health Agency (PHA) of Canada has decided to just sit back and watch what happens with the H7N9 trials in the United States. However, one official slipped up and revealed they already have a vaccine: “So this step of doing some early clinical trials looking at immunogenicity is really going to be critical for the U.S. go-forward process. Whereas here in Canada, we’ve already made a decision on what kind of vaccine we’re going to use.”-John Spika, PHA

According to a report in Clinical Chemistry, a new test has been developed to detect H7 viruses early on.  This would be a good thing, as recent studies showed the H7N9 is a killer because it somehow remains undetected, even by your own body’s immune system, until it overwhelms you.  Also, by that point anti-viral treatments don’t work well, so the key is early detection and treatment.