Flu Scan for Jan 04, 2017

News brief

H5N8 suspected in Czech Republic outbreaks

The Czech Republic today said highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza has been confirmed at two small poultry farms and in wild birds, Reuters reported today, citing the country's agriculture ministry. The outbreak is the country's first in nearly a decade.

Further tests are under way to see if the virus is the H5N8 subtype responsible for outbreaks in over a dozen European countries, as well as in Asia, India, and parts of the Middle East.

The farms are located in the southeastern part of the country, and the wild bird detection involved wild swans in the same region. All of the Czech Republic's neighbors—Austria, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia—have already reported H5N8 outbreaks.

Elsewhere in Europe, avian flu outbreaks in Bulgaria have nearly doubled since Dec 30, to at least 26 farms, according to a separate Reuters report, which cited the nation's agriculture ministry. The hardest-hit area is Plovdiv province in the south-central part of Bulgaria.

In Asian developments, Taiwan officials said today that H5N8 has been detected in an outbreak at a chicken farm in Yunlin County, according to a government statement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board. Over the past 2 years Taiwan has battled several H5N8 and H5N2 outbreaks, and even some events involving H5N3.
Jan 4 Reuters story on Czech Republic outbreaks
Jan 4 Reuters story on Bulgarian outbreaks
Jan 4 FluTrackers thread

Flu costs US vets $1.2 billion annually

A new study published in PLOS One estimates that the annual burden of disease for influenza is $1.2 billion for America's veterans. The estimate considers both healthcare costs and lives lost.

US and Canadian researchers studied five flu seasons (2010-2014) and, using data from the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calculated the burden of disease through hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) visits, and deaths.

The authors estimated there were approximately 10,674 ED visits, 2,538 hospitalizations, and 5,522 deaths attributable to influenza each year for veterans. This resulted in an annual loss of $27 million in productivity, even though the majority of patients with severe flu were over the age of 65. The annual costs for ED visits were $6.2 million, and VA hospitalizations had annual costs totaling $36 million.

"Overall, premature death was found to be the largest driver of costs, followed by hospitalization," the authors concluded.
Jan 3 PLOS One study

News Scan for Jan 04, 2017

News brief

Pakistan launches polio vaccine campaign after sewage scare

The Pakistani city of Quetta has launched a new 5-day vaccination campaign against polio targeted at children under the age of 5, Reuters reported today.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a rare vaccine-derived type 2 strain of polio was found in sewage samples taken from Quetta in November. No cases of this type 2 polio have been reported in humans so far.

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan and Nigeria, is one of three countries where polio is still endemic. Last year, there were 19 cases of the paralyzing childhood illness in Pakistan, all from wild polio virus type 1.

Approximately 400,000 children will be targeted during the campaign, and Muslim clerics have been asked to help promote the vaccination efforts. Quetta, and other cities in southwestern Pakistan, has been home to religious resistance to vaccination and even violence.
Jan 4 Reuters story
Dec 27 WHO statement

70% of Saudi healthcare workers concerned about MERS

A new survey of healthcare workers (HCWs) in three Saudi Arabian tertiary hospital shows that the vast majority (70%) are concerned about contracting MERS-CoV. The results were published yesterday in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and has been associated with several healthcare-centered outbreak clusters. HCWs can contract the disease from patients, and many have asymptomatic infections diagnosed through post-exposure surveillance measures.

In this study, HCWs in three hospitals that experienced MERS-CoV outbreaks answered a self-administered questionnaire addressing their concerns about contracting MERS. A total of 1,031 HCWs answered the survey, the majority (59.1%) were nurses. While only 7% of participants said they would consider leaving their job because of the MERS-CoV crisis, 70.4% said they felt at risk for contracting MERS-CoV at the workplace. Over half (60.9%) said they felt obliged to care for all sick patients, and 87.7% said patients with MERS-CoV should be isolated in special hospitals.

The authors concluded their study by noting that the concern displayed by the HCWs, "…[c]ould have an adverse effect on the management of suspected or confirmed cases of MERS, and on the overall effectiveness of HCWs during the outbreak."
Jan 3 BMC Infect Dis study