Flu Scan for Jul 09, 2014

News brief

Egyptian man dies from H5N1 infection

A 34-year-old Egyptian man whose H5N1 avian flu case was announced in late June has died, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in a statement.

The man, from Minya governorate, was a construction worker who got sick on Jun 15 and was hospitalized Jun 22 after his symptoms didn't improve after several clinic visits. His H5N1 infection was confirmed by Egypt's central lab on Jun 25, which prompted an announcement the next day by the country's health ministry.

The man was transferred to a hospital in Cairo on Jun 25, where he had been listed in critical condition. He died on Jul 7, according to the WHO.

An investigation revealed that the man had contact with sick poultry at a market near his home before he became ill. Contact tracing has turned up no other people with flulike symptoms.

His illness is Egypt's third H5N1 infection and first fatality from the disease so far this year. The country's overall total is 176 cases, 64 of them fatal. The global total is 667, the WHO said at the end of June. The man's death would push the overall fatality count to 394.
Jul 8 WHO statement
Jun 26 CIDRAP News scan "H5N1 hospitalizes Egyptian man"
Jun 27 WHO influenza at the human-animal interface update

 

WHO pandemic prep program to begin in 4 European nations

Four Eurasian countries are first in line in the WHO's European Region to benefit from the agency's Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, according to a WHO announcement yesterday.

The PIP Framework, adopted by the WHO's 64th World Health Assembly in May 2011, is "a unique partnership between industry, civil society and governments to improve pandemic preparedness and access to antiviral medicines and vaccines," says the notice. Plans for implementation of the framework are being launched at a meeting in Copenhagen that began yesterday and concludes tomorrow.

The European Region countries to benefit initially are Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The first step in implementing the PIP Framework will be to strengthen surveillance systems in the countries. Representatives from the four nations are currently working with WHO staff to make specific and detailed plans to accomplish this.

Countries participating in the framework are responsible for sharing any influenza viruses considered to have pandemic potential with the WHO through national influenza centers. Among responsibilities of participating industries are yearly donations to the program.
Jul 8 WHO notice
WHO PIP Framework home page

News Scan for Jul 09, 2014

News brief

Large study finds no elevated embolism risk with HPV vaccine

Although some studies have suggested that the quadrivalent (four-strain) human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may raise the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which is a blood clot that lodges in a vein, a Danish study released today in JAMA of more than 500,000 girls and women who received the vaccine did not find an increased VTE incidence.

The population-based study included all 1,613,798 Danish girls and women aged 10 through 44 years from October 2006 through July 2013, of whom 500,345 (31%) received the HPV vaccine. The researchers identified 4,375 incident cases of VTE, 889 (20%) in vaccinated patients.

"There was no association between the quadrivalent HPV vaccine and VTE during the 42 days following vaccination (crude incidence rates, 0.126 and 0.159 events/person-year for risk and control periods, respectively; incidence ratio, 0.77)," the authors wrote.

They also found no association between the vaccine and VTE in subgroup analyses by age, including only anticoagulant-treated cases, only exposed cases, or when adjusting for oral contraceptive use.
Jul 9 JAMA research letter extract

 

Florida reports first locally acquired dengue case of 2014

The Florida Department of Health said today that a 50-year-old Miami–Dade County woman is the first person in the state with a confirmed locally acquired dengue fever case so far this year, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The woman has fully recovered from the mosquito-borne disease, health officials said. Twenty-four imported cases have been confirmed in Florida in 2014 so far, but this is the first that was acquired in the state.

Last year the state reported 23 locally acquired dengue cases, the AP said.
Jul 9 AP story

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