News Scan for Mar 07, 2016

News brief

AP says consulting firm likely mishandled Ebola response

An Associated Press (AP) investigation into Metabiota Inc.'s role in Sierra Leone's response to Ebola found that the San Francisco-based epidemic consultant was likely responsible for errors that led to poor understanding of the situation, the AP said today.

Metabiota worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the government of Sierra Leone in 2014 to carry out diagnostic tests in a laboratory shared with Tulane University and conduct epidemic tracking and case management.

By July 2014, several WHO experts, along with US and Canadian response teams, had expressed concern with misdiagnoses, specimen mismanagement, and potential for cross-contamination at the shared lab. A representative from the Public Health Agency of Canada found discrepancies in half of the eight Ebola tests analyzed and evidence that five people had been incorrectly diagnosed with Ebola, the AP said.

Evaluation by US health officials found that diagnostic tests were wrong as often as 30% of the time, though the analysis found that Metabiota's tests were often more accurate than Tulane's. Poor safety practices were noted at the lab itself, including used needles left in the open, the lack of an ultraviolet light for decontamination, and insufficient space for safely processing blood samples.

In other misstpes in Sierra Leone, the AP said, Metabiota staff members entered the homes of suspected Ebola patients without protective gear, obstructed attempts to improve disease surveillance, misinterpreted epidemic data, and told a government Ebola task force that the epidemic had stabilized 3 days after the WHO declared it a global emergency.

Metabiota founder and Chief Executive Officer Nathan Wolfe, PhD, said there was no evidence that Metabiota mishandled the situation and that some problems were planted by the company's rivals, the AP said.

Many experts interviewed by the AP acknowledged that some errors are likely in fast-paced epidemic responses but said that Metabiota’s actions made aspects of the situation worse. Sylvia Blyden, special executive assistant to the president of Sierra Leone when the epidemic began, said, "They messed up the entire region."
Mar 7 AP story

 

PAHO reports more than 8,000 new chikungunya cases

In its Mar 4 update, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has added 3,291 new chikungunya cases to 2016's totals and has modified its 2015 report to include an additional 5,387 infections in Brazil.

The 2016 outbreak total is now 21,763 confirmed and suspected cases, and the 2015 number has risen to 731,920 confirmed and suspected cases. The outbreak total since 2012 has now reached 1,901,309 cases.

Most of the 2016 increase can be attributed to Honduras's 1,923 new cases; the country has 5,271 total for the year thus far. (Honduras had not given a chikungunya reports since 5 weeks ago.) Colombia reported 698 new cases for a 2016 total of 7,253, and Venezuela had 300 new cases, reaching 1,653 cases for the year. Mexico, the only country in North America reporting any cases of chikungunya this year, noted 60 new cases last week, bringing its 2016 total to 140.

The newest update of PAHO's 2015 report was in Brazil, which now has 23,630 suspected and confirmed cases on record for that year. Both the Mar 4 and Feb 26 update indicated that Brazil had been up-to-date for 2015; PAHO does not cite the cause of the increase.

No chikungunya-related deaths have yet been reported for 2016. The outbreak began in December 2013 on St. Martin in the Caribbean with the first recorded cases of the disease in the Americas.
March 4 PAHO update 
Latest PAHO 2015 cumulative case numbers

Avian Flu Scan for Mar 07, 2016

News brief

Weather, biosecurity cited as risk factors in Indiana H7N8 outbreak

The H7N8 outbreak in Indiana during January likely resulted from warm, wet weather and poor biosecurity practices, according to a Mar 4 report from the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

Indiana officials detected the first case of highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) H7N8 and eight cases of low-pathogenic avian flu (LPAI) H7N8 on turkey farms in Dubois County.

Genetic analysis of the viruses found that they were of a North American wild bird lineage, and that the LPAI H7N8 mutated to the HPAI strain at a single turkey farm. APHIS did not find evidence of H7N8 infection in wildlife near infected farms.

A geospatial evaluation of the affected Dubois County farms found that the weeks leading up to the outbreak were warmer than in previous years, and the county had received a substantial amount of rainfall. Other environmental factors that potentially led to the emergence and persistence of the virus included the farms' location downstream from a large reservoir and a national forest, the prevalence of open water and wetlands in the county, and the existence of nearby cropland, APHIS said.

The investigation also identified poor biosecurity practices on infected farms, including using the same personnel in different barns, failing to scrub footwear after exiting a barn, and sharing feed trucks across facilities. APHIS said that most of the poor practices have been eliminated, citing strong biosecurity as imperative for preventing the spread of viruses on poultry farms.
Full APHIS report
Mar 4 APHIS press release
Jan 15 CIDRAP News
story on outbreak

 

Avian flu outbreaks reported in Mexico, Taiwan, and Nigeria

In separate reports to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Mar 3 and 4, agriculture officials confirmed outbreaks of H7N3 avian flu in Mexican poultry, H5N2 in Taiwanese chickens, and H5N1 affecting more farms in Nigeria.

HPAI H7N3 was confirmed on two farms in Mexico's central province of Puebla and on two farms in the west-central province of Jalisco. The flocks ranged in size from 145 to 119,016 chickens.

Outbreaks in Tehaucan, Puebla, and San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, Jalisco, occurred in August and October of 2015, respectively. Outbreaks in Lagos de Morena, Jalisco, and Tochtepec, Puebla, began in January and February of this year. Of 535,347 poultry on the four farms, 4,130 became ill, 4,110 died, and 118,151 were culled to prevent outbreak spread. The outbreak in Lagos de Morena involved vaccinated chickens that showed no clinical signs of illness.

The outbreaks of LPAI H5N2 in Taiwan involved flocks in the counties of Changhua, Chiayi, and Pingtung in the southwestern and southern parts of the island. They occurred between Feb 13 and Mar 13 of 2015 in flocks that ranged in size from 22,000 to 113,090 chickens. Of the 249,490 chickens on affected farms, 3,810 died, and 211,384 were euthanized. Movement restrictions were placed on affected farms.

The OIE report from Nigeria detailed 15 outbreaks of H5N1, adding to many recent outbreaks since the virus reappeared in the country last year. Eight outbreaks occurred in the country's east-central Plateau state, and seven were reported in the north-central state of Kano. The flocks, consisting mostly of layers and pullets, ranged in size from 18 to 68,000. Outbreaks occurred between Feb 24 and Mar 1.

Of 162,683 birds on infected Nigerian farms, 3,831 died, and the remaining 158,852 were culled. The OIE report cites poor farm biosecurity as a factor in the Plateau and Kano outbreaks. Nigerian officials have implemented quarantine among other disease prevention measures.
Mar 3 OIE report on Mexican outbreaks
Mar 3 OIE
report on Taiwanese outbreaks
Mar 4 OIE
report on Nigerian outbreaks

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