Flu Scan for May 30, 2014

News brief

US flu activity continues to taper

US influenza activity continued its season-ending decline, with one flu-related pediatric death reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly update.

The percentage of US respiratory specimens that tested positive for flu dropped from 8.7% to 6.5% last week. The percentage of clinic visits for flu fell stayed even at 1.3%, well below the national baseline of 2.2%.

The percentage of overall deaths due to pneumonia and flu ticked up a bit, from 5.8% to 5.9%, but is still well below the epidemic threshold of 6.7%.

The CDC reported one pediatric flu death, bringing the season's total to 96. The death was related to the 2009 H1N1 virus and occurred in the first week of March. Last year's total reached 171, with only 35 the season before that.

Influenza B continued as the dominant strain late in the season, which is typical. It accounted for 667 of 1,122 viruses isolated, or 59%, the same percentage as the previous week's.
May 30 CDC FluView report

Needle-free flu vaccine produces 'non-inferior' immune response

A needle-free jet injector vaccine delivery system produced an immune response comparable to that of a flu shot, according to a study today in The Lancet by industry and other researchers.

The investigators randomly assigned 627 volunteers aged 18 to 64 in the University of Colorado health system to receive bioCSL's Afluria influenza vaccine via jet injector and 623 to receive the intramuscular version. The jet injector technology was developed by PharmaJet of Golden, Colo.

Study participants' immune response to Afluria when given by jet injector met criteria for non-inferiority for all six co-primary end points, the authors reported. They added, "The device had a clinically acceptable safety profile, but was associated with a higher frequency of local injection site reactions than was the use of needle and syringe."
May 30 Lancet abstract

News Scan for May 30, 2014

News brief

Salmonella outbreak linked to live poultry grows to 126 cases

A Salmonella outbreak linked to live poultry from a mail-order hatchery in Ohio has grown to 126 cases in 26 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. The CDC first announced the outbreak on May 8, when it involved 60 cases in 23 states.

The patients range in age from less than 1 year to 95, with a median age of 28 years, the CDC said. Of 81 case-patients with available information, 28 (35%) were hospitalized. Of 88 patients interviewed, 72 (82%) reported contact with live poultry such as chicks and ducklings before becoming ill.

The outbreak involves both Salmonella Infantis and Salmonella Newport strains.

Nineteen (90%) of 21 ill people with available information reported buying live baby poultry from five different feed or farm store companies in multiple states. "Findings of multiple traceback investigations of live baby poultry from homes of ill persons have identified Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio as the source of chicks and ducklings," the CDC said.

"This is the same mail-order hatchery that has been associated with multiple outbreaks of human Salmonella infections linked to live poultry in the past, including in 2012 and 2013," the agency added.

The 66 new cases are from 18 states: Alabama, 4 cases; Colorado, 1; Georgia, 5; Illinois, 1; Indiana, 1; Kentucky, 2; Maine, 4; Montana, 1; New Hampshire, 1; New Mexico, 1; New York, 6; North Carolina, 11; Ohio, 7; Pennsylvania, 7; South Carolina, 3; Tennessee, 5; Virginia, 5; and West Virginia, 1. Illinois, Montana, and South Carolina reported their first outbreak cases. (See CDC map below.)
May 30 CDC update
May 8 CIDRAP News scan on initial outbreak notice

Persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis or Newport, by state*

*n=126 for whom information was reported as of May 27, 2014

Chikunguyna reported in Puerto Rico, Tahiti

Chikungunya cases have now been reported for the first time in the US territory of Puerto Rico as well as an ocean away in Tahiti, according to media reports.

Health officials in Puerto Rico confirmed a chikungunya case in a 16-year-old girl who lives in the capital, San Juan, the Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday. Officials are investigating how the girl, who did not require hospitalization, contracted the mosquito-borne disease.

The Caribbean has seen more than 63,000 cases of chikungunya in an outbreak that began in December.

Meanwhile, authorities in Tahiti (French Polynesia) have detected the disease in a 60-year-old woman who had recently traveled from Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island that has reported almost 20,000 suspected or confirmed chikungunya cases. Her case is Tahiti's first.

She likewise did not receive hospital care, according to a report today by Radio New Zealand. Tahiti sits in the middle of the Pacific, more than 2,500 miles south of Hawaii.
May 29 AP story
May 30 Radio New Zealand story