Tag Archives: virus

International

H7N9 update: Japan scrambles to create new vaccine!

05 April 2013 (04:23 UTC-07 Tango)/24 Jumada l-Ula 1434/16 Farvardin 1391/25 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases is now focusing on making a vaccine to fight the new H7N9 flu.

A sixth person has been confirmed to die from H7N9.  And a teenager has died from unexplained pneumonia, but tests have failed to find H7N9 virus.

China will send the latest virus samples to Japan.  Japanese researchers will also investigate the defectiveness of anti-virals on the new strain.

 

International

H7N9 update: 6th person dies! And a new Unexplained pneumonia death!

05 April 2013 (01:55 UTC-07 Tango)/24 Jumada l-Ula 1434/16 Farvardin 1391/25 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

A Chinese farmer has died only one day after being brought to hospital.  He’s the sixth person in China to die since the end of March.

The farmer lived in Zhejiang Province, which borders Shanghai.  Four of the six deaths were in Shanghai.

A 14 year old tourist from Thailand also died, from unexplained pneumonia.  However, Chinese health officials say the H7N9 test was negative.  The teenager was part of a group of 119 tourists who arrived in Yunnan Province.

All provincial health officials have been ordered to investigate unexplained pneumonia cases, as it seems to be the only sign of H7N9 infection.

International

H7N9 update: Japan says this H7N9 is not your typical Bird Flu, demands new vaccine be created fast! Wear a mask! Poultry culling won’t work!

04 April 2013 (12:43 UTC-07 Tango)/23 Jumada l-Ula 1434/15 Farvardin 1391/24 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases has released a statement after their quick research on the new H7N9 virus.  It’s not your typical bird flu.

H7N9 infect cells inside your nose, throat and upper part of your respiratory tract. H7N9 can rapidly multiply in your nose.  Bird flus normally don’t infect/multiply until they hit your lungs.

The Japanese researchers say because of the gene sequence it means that this new ‘bird flu’ actually has a low probability of infecting birds (which implies that the poultry culling & poultry bans taking place now are useless).

They still don’t know how the new H7N9 causes deadly pneumonia.

Yesterday the UN World Health Organization said they were testing existing vaccines in hopes of finding one that would work.  The Japanese researchers say they are wasting time, because of the unique gene sequence, they insist efforts must be focuses on a new vaccine, as the U.S. CDC announced a couple of days ago.

 

Influenza

H7N9 update: China says it will spread! Now a Class 5 Disease, influenza Command Center established! Proof that it spreads human to human!

04 April 2013 (12:29 UTC-07 Tango)/23 Jumada l-Ula 1434/15 Farvardin 1392/24 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Officials in China’s capital, Beijing, say the new H7N9 will spread, because China is an international crossroads for migratory birds.

The massive city of Shanghai has begun killing off poultry. This after pigeons tested positive for the new virus.

Also, Shanghai’s Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission reporting that one of the new human cases is a person who was in contact with another person who died from H7N9.  The new patient now quarantined.

Taiwan’s Department of Health has classified H7N9 as Category 5 Notifiable Infectious Disease.  Taiwan is the first country to do so.  This means if someone dies in Taiwan, of H7N9, they must be cremated, and this includes tourists from other countries.   The island nation is also the first country to establish a Central Epidemic Command Center for H7N9 influenza.

 

International

H7N9 update: More cases, more deaths! Attacking all age groups! Blame pigeons?

04 April 2013 (12:12 UTC-07 Tango)/23 Jumada l-Ula 1434/15 Farvardin 1391/24 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

China reporting five new cases, two more people dead!  A total of 14 cases of a new deadly H7N9 since the end of March, five deaths.

The latest cases are in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai.  One man who died worked with poultry.  Four of the five deaths took place in Shanghai.

The new flu is not picky about your age.  Most sick people are in their 20s to 40s, but one man who died was in his 80s.  One of the new cases is a four years old girl.

China’s Ministry of Agriculture say they’ve found the new strain of H7N9 in pigeons in Songjiang District of Shanghai.

 

Influenza

H7N9 update: WHO scrambling to find vaccine that works! New strain is combination of 3 old strains! Resistant to Tamiflu!

04 April 2013 (18:50 UTC-07 Tango 03 April 2013)/23 Jumada l-Ula 1434/15 Farvardin 1392/24 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

“It is not yet known how these persons became infected. The possibility of animal-to-human transmission is being investigated, as is the possibility of person-to-person transmission.”-UN World Health Organization statement

“This thing doesn’t any longer look like a poultry virus. It really looks to me like it’s adapted in a mammalian host somewhere.”-Richard Webby, UN WHO center for influenza studies at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee U.S.A.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) says the genetic make up of the new H7N9 contains genes from several different bird flus.

Those other viruses include H9N2 which seems to be specific to China and South Korea.  Others are H7N7, which is highly infectious, and the H3N2 virus that is resistant to Tamiflu treatment.

The UN World health organization held a press conference in which they tried to calm things down by saying there is no pandemic, yet.  They then went on to say they were grabbing at straws, studying whether existing vaccines could work on the new virus.

A day ago the U.S. CDC said they were scrambling to create a vaccine.

International

H7N9 update: China in official “crisis” mode! Poultry slaughtering halted!

03 April 2013/22 Jumada l-Ula 1434/14 Farvardin 1391/23 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission is ordering all health care providers, and local government officials to “foster a sense of crisis”, according to Japan’s NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai).

The H7N9 virus is not only a threat to people, but to China’s economy as well.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is ordering a halt to the use of poultry in upcoming Tomb-Sweeping Day.

Poultry are slaughtered for ritual sacrifice during the religious holiday.  The problem is that it’s now known that this new strain of H7N9 can not be detected in birds, and that infected birds have no symptoms.

 

International

H7N9 update: Hong Kong says we’re too late to stop pandemic!

03 April 2013/22 Jumada l-Ula 1434/14 Farvardin 1391/23 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

“It already may be too late, but this is the small window of opportunity that really one has to grasp, as quickly as possible.”-Malik Peiris, University of Hong Kong

Health officials around the world are praising how openly and quickly China has brought in international researchers to deal with the new H7N9.  But it might be too late.

Researchers who’ve looked at the genetics of the H7N9 that killed the first two people (three have now died, all others cases are critical) say the virus is a silent killer.  It does not reveal itself until the victim is in critical condition (apparently the only sign is unexplained pneumonia).  Also, infected poultry show no signs at all, it can not be detected in birds until after they die!

Health officials are worried that this could mean the killer bird flu, which has mutated to infect humans, has already spread around the World in infected birds that can not be detected!

Business/Economics, International

H7N9 update: International health officials say it can not be detected! Paranoia about birds gripping people in Asia!

03 April 2013/22 Jumada l-Ula 1434/14 Farvardin 1391/23 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

“We speculate that when this virus is maintained in poultry the disease will not appear, and similar in pigs, if they are infected, so nobody recognizes the infection in animals around them, then the transmission from animal to human may occur.”-Masato Tashiro, UN World Health Organization

Health researchers around the world have been given access to the H7N9 that killed the first two people in China.  It appears the virus is not detectable until the infection reaches critical stages.

A few days ago, Chinese health officials had instructed health care providers to report all unexplained pneumonia cases.

The news has people in some Asia countries so afraid of birds that poultry sales are crashing.  Some countries are banning imports of chickens and ducks from other countries.  Newspapers have published pics of people running away from ducks in parks.

Business/Economics, International

H7N9 update: Hong Kong says new flu can’t be detected in early stages!

03 April 2013/22 Jumada l-Ula 1434/14 Farvardin 1391/23 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

“This reflects that either the virus is very serious, or the minor cases cannot be recognized by the frontline healthcare staff.”-Ko Wing-man, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food & Health

Health officials in Hong Kong are scrambling to come up with a new test that can detect H7N9 in its early infection stage.   Officials point out that by the time the sick people in China were diagnosed with H7N9 they were already in critical condition, suggesting that H7N9 is not identifiable at the beginning of infection.

This also suggests that infected poultry do not show signs of H7N9 until close to death, which means potentially hundreds of thousands of imported poultry could be given a clean bill of health by inspectors.