News Scan for May 28, 2015

News brief

Avian flu strikes farms in Minnesota and Iowa

State officials in Minnesota and Iowa today announced one new avian influenza outbreak apiece, both of them on turkey farms.

Minnesota's Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced that one more turkey flock is "presumptive positive" for avian flu. The outbreak occurred in Renville County, located in the south-central part of the state. The DPS said details on the outbreak's flock size will be released soon.

The outbreak is the fifth to hit Renville County. So far 98 Minnesota farms have been affected by the outbreaks, which involve the highly pathogenic H5N2 subtype, according to the DPS.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) today reported a probable H5 outbreak at a farm in Harrison County, which is that jurisdiction's first outbreak. Hamilton County is in central Iowa.

The event occurred at a turkey farm with about 17,000 birds that had experienced increased morality. Test results will be confirmed at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. The outbreak lifts Iowa's number of recent outbreaks to 68.

In a related development, the USDA said it is looking for contractors in several areas to help respond to the outbreak. Its needs list includes landfills, carbon sources (eg, compost and wood chips), transportation, heavy equipment, environmental disposal, and hazardous material handling.
May 28 Minnesota DPS news release
May 28 IDALS news release
May 28 USDA announcement

Feds release resources for respiratory protection of health workers

Three new resources from federal agencies and a national nursing organization aimed at protecting healthcare personnel from aerosol-transmissible diseases (ATDs) were released yesterday. They include a toolkit for hospitals, an online course for nurses, and an educational monograph with information from the field.

The "Hospital Respiratory Protection Toolkit: Resources for Respiratory Program Administrators" was adapted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) from a guide developed in 2012 by the California Department of Public Health and the Public Health Institute.

Its stated purpose is to assist hospitals in developing and implementing effective respiratory protection programs for healthcare personnel. Included are reviews of the hazards in a healthcare setting, the use of respirators and facemasks, approaches to infection control measures, and managing a protection program.

The free 10-module online learning resource is called "Respiratory Protection Education & Resource Web Kit" and was developed by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). The training runs about 90 minutes and is worth 1.5 CNE credits.

The monograph, "Implementing Hospital Respiratory Protection Programs: Strategies from the Field," is from the Joint Commission, NIOSH, and the NPPTL. It "features examples, strategies, new resources, and a variety of implementation approaches . . . solicited from the field and vetted through an eight-member Technical Expert Panel."

An Avian Flu Diary blog post yesterday about the new releases said, "This week's MERS infection of a doctor in South Korea serves as another reminder that [health workers] are at particular risk of ATDs . . . and of the importance of always taking the proper precautions around potentially contagious patients spread by contagious patients they are attending."
Hospital toolkit
Online learning module
Monograph
May 27 Avian Flu Diary thread

World Bank makes $50 million available to Haiti for cholera prevention

The World Bank yesterday approved a $50 million grant to aid in increasing access to clean water and sanitation in Haiti, which has been hard hit by cholera since an epidemic began there in 2010, according to a World Bank press release.

The monies will support the 6-year Sustainable Rural and Small Towns Water and Sanitation project, which "aims to save lives by preventing cholera and waterborne diseases in high prevalence zones, and strengthen the capacity of local agencies to deliver water and sanitation services" in those areas, says the release.

Goals of the project include providing access to improved water sources for 300,000 people through such things as new or repaired household connections and water kiosks, construction of latrines in schools and other public places, and hygiene and sanitation education and promotion.

While progress against cholera has been made, heavy rains in the first quarter of this year caused a sharp rise in disease. Cases in 2011 numbered about 11,000 per month; they dropped to a monthly average of 2,200 in 2014 but have now risen to 3,400 this year. Waterborne diseases are among the leading causes of infant death in Haiti.

The World Bank has made funds available previously for cholera prevention, to the tune of at least $35 million.
May 27 World Bank press release

Biosecurity Scan for May 28, 2015

News brief

Army lab mistakenly sends live anthrax samples to 9 states

Scientists at a biodefense lab at the Dugway Proving Ground, an Army installation in Utah, mistakenly shipped live Bacillus anthracis samples—the bacterium that causes anthrax—to labs in nine US states and South Korea, according to media reports today.

Shipments went to 18 labs in California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, USA Today reported. Labs have not been specified, but "they are mostly private and some are operated by government and public institutions," said Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Richard Ebright, PhD, a biosafety expert at Rutgers in New Jersey, called the mishap "gross negligence." Pentagon officials said there are no anthrax cases in potentially exposed lab personnel, and said the incidents pose no risk to the public, according to USA Today.

The Pentagon said 22 people in South Korea are being treated for potential B anthracis exposure at a US military lab at Osan Air Base, and at least 4 potentially exposed civilians from US commercial labs are likewise being treated, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno said investigators are reviewing biosecurity procedures to determine why the bacteria were not inactivated before shipping, but he said human error was not a factor, according to Reuters. "The best I can tell there was not human error," he said, adding that his information was based exclusively on preliminary reports.

Federal officials have been plagued by biosecurity lapses in recent months, including the transfer of Ebola virus to a lower biosafety-level CDC lab last December; the discovery of smallpox vials on the campus of the National Institutes of Health and a CDC breach involving highly pathogenic avian flu viruses, both in July; and lab workers being potentially exposed to Bacillus anthracis at a CDC lab last June.
May 28 USA Today story
May 28 LA Times article
May 28 Reuters story

Ground broken for high-security animal-disease lab in Kansas

After years of controversy and delays, officials broke ground yesterday in Manhattan, Kan., for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Laboratory (NBAF), a $1.25 billion, high-containment laboratory for studying foreign animal diseases and emerging zoonotic diseases.

Scheduled for completion in 2022, the 570,000-square-foot lab will supersede the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a press release. The facility will be the first animal biosafety level 4 (ABSL-4) lab in the United States, allowing researchers to study zoonotic diseases that affect livestock and other large animals, the agency said.

"This innovative new facility is capable of producing the research needed to protect our nation's farmers, food supply, public health and the rural economy," US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release. "It has been a national priority for USDA, DHS, and our other partners as we work to replace aging facilities."

The key functions of the NBAF space will include basic research, sample testing and diagnosis, veterinarian training, countermeasures and vaccine candidate development, and vaccine efficacy trials, the statement said. Plans for the NBAF were slowed by the recession, safety concerns, and resistance from politicians who wanted the project in their states, said a story yesterday in the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World.

The project's cost was estimated at $451 million in 2008, but the price tag more than doubled after the National Research Council released a report in 2010 that questioned the wisdom of "placing the facility in a college town in the heart of cattle country with a history of large, destructive tornadoes," the story said.

The project will employ about 1,000 workers during construction and have a staff of about 400 when fully operational, according to the story.
May 27 DHS press release
May 27 Journal-World story