12 May 2013 (22:46 UTC-07 Tango 11 May 2013)/02 Rajab 1434/22 Ordibehest 1392/03 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711
A Texas U.S.A. TV station reporting two unexplained deaths. KHOU reporting that two teenagers, from different counties, died from unknown causes. They had symptoms similar to H7N9: Fever, cough, respiratory failure, pneumonia. At least 30 tests were conducted, all testing came back negative.
The first Texas teen to die actually got sick in February, and he died in March. A teen girl died at the end of April. The parents of the deceased teenagers are demanding answers.
At the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, a 17 years old boy is in critical condition with the above symptoms, plus his liver and spleen have enlarged.
In Shanghai, China, an 83 years old woman died from H7N9, just one day after city health officials downgraded the city’s health alert status. She had been sick for one month.
Malaysia’s Veterinary Services has reported no H7N9 in the 41882 live market poultry tested. Also, 41 shipping containers of processed chicken were tested, and were negative. However, Malaysia is imposing a ban on chicken products from other Asian countries, Mexico and South Africa.
A recent report says any H7N9 vaccine will likely not work. That’s according to three doctors commenting in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The concern is that even if an effective vaccine was created, it would be too late if a pandemic happened now, because it would take to long to mass produce.
A study by U.S. and Chinese researchers found that there is little evidence of ‘mild’ H7N9 infections. It suggests that when H7N9 compromises a persons immune system, it hits them hard. Results published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
So far, 131 confirmed human cases, 33 deaths.
