News Scan for Jan 11, 2017

News brief

Officials report 1 new MERS case, 1 death in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) reported one new case of MERS today and the death of a previously reported patient.

A 59-year-old Saudi woman is in critical condition after presenting with symptoms of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection. The woman is from Riyadh, and is listed as having primary exposure to the virus, meaning she did not contract the disease from another person.

The MOH also reported the death of a 67-year-old woman from Buraydah. She is the fourth patient from the city to die from MERS complications since Jan 2.

The new cases raise Saudi Arabia's MERS-CoV total to 1,536, including 640 deaths. Nine people are still in treatment or monitoring.
Jan 11 Saudi MOH report


First baby born with congenital Ebola survives infection

A new study published today in The Journal of Infectious Diseases details how doctors working for Doctors Without Borders saved the life of a baby born with congenital Ebola virus. The baby was born in Guinea and had no symptoms of Ebola virus 20 days after her birth.  

The baby was diagnosed immediately after birth, and doctors treated her with a novel combination of three treatments: monoclonal antibodies (ZMapp), a buffy coat transfusion from an Ebola survivor, and a broad-spectrum antiviral.

Five days before her birth, that baby's mother was diagnosed with Ebola and treated with favipiravir, an antiviral. The infant was born at 35-36 weeks gestation and appeared healthy, but suffered intermittent fevers through day 10. ZMapp was infused on days 2, 5, and 8 and the baby had reduced viral loads. On day 11 the baby got a buffy coat transfusion to boost her immune response to ZMapp. On Day 19, the broad-spectrum antiviral GS-5734 was administered (the first time it was used in a pediatric patient). By day 20 blood tests were negative for Ebola, and the baby went home on day 33.

Pregnant woman and neonates suffered the highest mortality rates during the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, with 70% of pregnant women perishing from the disease and nearly 100% of Ebola-affected pregnancies ending in miscarriage of stillbirth.

The authors concluded their report by suggesting a variety of factors may have helped saved the baby's life. "Viral transmission might have occurred late in the pregnancy and been limited during the brief labor and delivery, resulting in the neonate having a low viral load at birth. It cannot be excluded that the favipiravir given to the mother had an effect on the viral replication in the fetus," they write.
Jan 11 J Infect Dis study
Jan 11 J Infect Dis commentary

Avian Flu Scan for Jan 11, 2017

News brief

China reports 4 more cases of H7N9 avian flu

China said today there were four new human cases of H7N9 avian influenza, including one in a child from Hong Kong who had recently traveled to Guangdong province.

The 10-year-old boy is the fourth imported case of H7N9 in Hong Kong this winter. Authorities report that close family contacts and healthcare workers who came in contact with the boy are being treated with Tamiflu prophylactically.

Yesterday the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission said a 50-year-old man was actively being treated for H7N9 infection, while a Chinese media report said there was a new case of the disease in a 41-year-old man from the city of Foshan in Guangdong province. Today the Jiangxi Provincial Health Family Planning Commission said a 50-year-old woman in Nanchang is in critical condition after being diagnosed as having H7N9. All reports came from Flu Trackers, an infectious disease tracking news board.

Finally, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations today released updated information about H7N9. Since 2013, there have been 931 cases and 355 deaths. Since Jan 4, there have been 106 cases reported.

The update said that poultry markets in Jiangsu province reported a high contamination rate in December, with 15.8% of environmental specimens testing positive for H7.
Jan 11 FluTrackers post
Jan 11 FluTrackers Shanghai
post
Jan 11 FluTrackers Foshan post
Jan 11 FAO update


H5N8 strikes more French farms, wild birds in Romania and Switzerland

French agriculture officials yesterday reported 21 more avian influenza outbreaks, 20 involving highly pathogenic H5N8 and one linked to low-pathogenic H5N1, according to separate reports to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)

The latest H5N8 outbreaks struck farms, mostly housing ducks but some raising chickens and turkeys, in three departments, mostly in hard-hit Gers and Landes in the southwestern part of the country. Two of the events occurred in Deux-Sevres department in west central France.

Between all of the locations the virus killed 5,195 of the 97,358 susceptible birds, and the remaining ones were culled to control the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, the investigation into H5N8 outbreaks turned up low-pathogenic H5N1 at a mixed poultry farm in Deux-Sevres department, prompting the culling of 4,670 birds.

Elsewhere in Europe, Romania and Switzerland reported more H5N8 detections in wild birds, according to new reports to the OIE.  In Romania, tests on a mute swan found on Dec 30 in a natural park in Iasi County in the eastern part of the country were positive for H5N8.  Switzerland today reported three H5N8 detections in wild birds, including a mute swan and a gull found in Zurich, and a coot and a tufted duck found on Lake Geneva.
Jan 10 OIE report on H5N8 in France
Jan 10 OIE report on
low path H5N1 in France
Jan 10 OIE report on
H5N8 in Romania
Jan 11 OIE report on
H5N8 in Switzerland

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