http://www.khou.com/news/health/cholera-crisis-hits-grim-threshold-...

 Could rare brain-eating amoeba thrive in Irma's aftermath?

 http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/09/14/could-rare-brain-eating-am...

 Sept. 11, 2017: Marie Powell surveys damage to her property at a mobile home park after Hurricane Irma in Naples, Florida.  (Reuters)

In the aftermath of a hurricane, the media’s initial focus is on property damage and search and rescue operations, but there are long-term effects that can linger for years, long after the media has lost interest in recovering areas.

Hurricanes can have unforeseen impacts on cities’ water supplies, increasing the risk of contamination with harmful bacteria from local water sources and the soil. The southern United States, which offers warm weather almost year-round, is particularly vulnerable to heat-loving microorganisms like the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri.

Viruses and bacteria cause the vast majority of infections in humans, but Naegleria fowleri has an uncommon and disturbing appetite for human brain tissue. Infection is incredibly rare but has a dismal survival rate. (Four patients have survived out of 143 documented cases in the U.S.) And experts are concerned that Hurricane Katrina may be partially to blame for the three documented cases in Louisiana since 2005.

Damage to water systems can increase the risk of contamination with bacteria from the soil, and population drops after natural disasters can give water time to stagnate in pipes. As the water sits in aged pipes in the summer heat, the chlorine used to kill microorganisms in public water evaporates, and parasites like Naegleria fowleri can thrive.

Florida is already tied with Texas for the most Naegleria fowleri cases in the country, and damage from Hurricane Irma may put the public at even greater risk. Residents should be aware of the infection process and how to stay safe.

Naegleria fowleri thrives during the warmest months of the year, and can be found in lakes, rivers, and hot springs, as well as in soil. Tap water and pool water are less commonly contaminated but cause a large proportion of human infections.

Water contaminated with Naegleria fowleri is actually perfectly safe to drink (as long as there’s nothing else in it that could make you sick), but you could become infected if the water enters your nasal passages. Children are particularly vulnerable to infection, and documented sources of infection include the use of neti pots and playing and/or swimming in contaminated water.

When the amoeba enters the nasal passage, it works its way up the olfactory nerve and into the brain. The body recognizes the invader once brain tissue is attacked and triggers an inflammatory response. This is called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Symptoms are similar to those of bacterial meningitis and can be difficult to diagnose, but accurate diagnosis is key since antibiotics aren’t an effective treatment for PAM. The disease most commonly begins with symptoms like headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting and then progresses to seizures, hallucinations, and coma.  

Better diagnostic procedures and aggressive new treatments offer some hope and have saved lives in the last few years, but the infection is still a dire diagnosis. Because of the PAM’s rarity and the difficulty in distinguishing it from other causes of meningitis, the CDC says that three out of four diagnoses are made only after an autopsy in which the patient’s brain tissue is tested for the presence of the amoeba.

If you’re not sure that your water is safe (or if you know it’s contaminated), especially after a natural disaster, there are steps you can take to avoid infection.

First, use a nose clip if you need to swim in water that you’re not sure is safe. Remember that, as far as we know, Naegleria fowleri can only harm you if it gets inside your nasal passages.

Also consider avoiding swimming in hot springs, lakes, or unchlorinated spas or swimming pools. (While contamination with Naegleria fowleri isn’t common, it’s also not the only thing out there that thrives in stagnant water and can make you sick.)

And if you’re unsure of the safety of your tap water, especially if you’re returning to your home after an evacuation, run baths shower taps, and hoses for at least five to ten minutes to flush the pipes.

This article first appeared on AskDrManny.com.

Dr. Manny Alvarez serves as Fox News Channel's senior managing health editor. He also serves as chairman of the department of obstetrics/gynecology and reproductive science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. For more information on Dr. Manny's work, visit  AskDrManny.com.

~

Issue514

Distillation, long recommended by the Zetas, will remove heavy metals and the boiling process kills and removes parasites.."

www.zetatalk.com/newsletr/issue514.htm

 

 

Aggressive Ebola-Like Virus Killing Deer In Connecticut

An invasive and usually fatal disease for white-tailed deer has been identified in Connecticut for the first time, state officials report, with more than 50 deer in Portland, Middletown and nearby communities showing symptoms of the virus.

The “Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHDV-6)” isn’t dangerous to humans, but the decomposing bodies of several deer killed by the virus have been found lying along the banks of the Connecticut River since September.

“This disease kills them pretty quickly,” Labonte said, usually within three to five days.

A better-known type of hemorrhagic fever is the Ebola virus, which can be deadly for humans.

The EHDV-6 virus is transmitted by midges, tiny biting flies, and causes extreme fevers in infected deer, which develop swollen heads, necks, tongues and eyelids, have bloody discharges from their noses, ulcers on tongues, and bleeding in the heart and lungs.

In rare instances, this type of hemorrhagic fever has been known to spread to other animals, including elk and domestic cattle. But Labonte said cattle appear to have “a greater resistance” to the virus.

Confirmation of the disease in Connecticut came on Oct. 15 when scientists reported that a deer found dead in Middletown had tested positive.

Although two other versions of the virus have been known for decades in some states in the southern U.S., the EHDV-6 subtype was first identified in 2006 in Indiana and Illinois. The virus has since spread throughout the Midwest and has been reported in the east from Florida through North Carolina and Maryland.

Prior to 2006, the disease was only found in Australia, according to Labonte. He said it’s likely the virus came to the U.S. via “human transport, one way or another.”

“Now that it’s here, it will pop up again next year without a doubt,” Labonte said.

Sick or dead deer have also been reported in Chester, Haddam and Lyme, according to state officials.

Outbreaks usually occur in late summer and early fall as the number of midges increases, experts say. The midges carrying the virus die off with the first frost.

Labonte said drought conditions in the state may have contributed to the outbreak. He said the lack of rainfall resulted in a drying out of the landscape and the exposure of mudflats where the midges lay their eggs, giving deer browsing along the edges of these muddy areas a greater chance of being bitten by midges carrying the virus.

Deer that contract the virus develop severe fevers and seek out water to ease their thirst or to cool off. Labonte said that’s why so many of the infected deer were found near or in water.

The virus may reduce Connecticut’s very large deer population. Some areas in Connecticut are believed to have more than 40 deer per square mile, although some hunters are skeptical of such estimates.

“It’s going to have some impacts,” Labonte said of Connecticut’s overall deer population, but he doubts that it will have “a major impact.”

Connecticut has for decades been dealing with an overpopulation of white-tailed deer. Wildlife experts say too many deer can damage woodland habitats and suburban shrubbery, and contribute to the spread of Lyme disease to people.

Labonte said this new type of virus “has had substantial impacts on local deer populations” in other states.

“It certainly seems to be the case here in Portland and Middletown,” he said. Labonte said residents of those towns who normally see deer on their property are now reporting that “they are seeing zero deer.”

Labonte said state officials are not encouraging hunters to shoot apparently diseased deer and say they should avoid handling or consuming the animals.

Source: http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-news-deer-disease-spotted-201710...

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/875433/Black-Death-plague-2017-...

New 'Black Death' FOUND: Deadly virus WORSE than plague and with no CURE breaks out - WHO

A DEADLY outbreak of a rare and highly fatal virus has broken out in eastern Uganda and five cases have already been identified, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed.

PUBLISHED: 11:02, Mon, Nov 6, 2017

The disease, known as Marburg virus disease (MVD), is similar to Ebola and can be lethal in up to 90 per cent of cases.

Emergency screening has begun at the Kenya-Uganda border in Turkana after three members of the same family died of the disease in Uganda.

Health workers have been asked to work with communities to stop the deadly Marburg outbreak from devastating communities in the rural region.

Dr Zabulon Yoti, Technical Coordinator for Emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, said: “Community engagement is the cornerstone of emergency response.”

He urged health officials to “work with the communities to build their capacity for success and sustainability” and develop a better understanding of the local customs and traditions.

The outbreak is thought to have started in September when a man in his 30s, who worked as a game hunter and lived near a cave with a heavy presence of bats, was admitted to a local health centre with a high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.

He did not respond to antimalarial treatment and his condition rapidly deteriorated.

He was quickly taken to another hospital in the neighbouring district, but died shortly after arriving.

His sister, in her 50s, died shortly afterwards and a third victim passed away in the treatment unit of a local health centre.

The WHO website reads: “Marburg virus disease is a rare disease with a high mortality rate for which there is no specific treatment.

“The virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected persons or wild animals (e.g. monkeys and fruit bats).”

Quote:

Marburg virus disease is a rare disease with a high mortality rate for which there is no specific treatment

World Health Organisation website

Several hundred people are believed to have been exposed to the virus, which is among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans.

Early symptoms include fever, chills, headache, and myalgia.

The news comes as Madagascar faces a deadly outbreak of plague, which has already claimed the lives of 127 people.

Cases of the plague have soared in recent days and extra funding has been released by the World Bank to provide additional resources in the face of the “worst outbreak for 50 years”.

The outbreak has been compared with the Black Death, when plague swept across Europe and Asia in the 13th century, killing more than 50 million people in what is now considered one of the worst pandemics in human history.

Two thirds of the recorded cases in Madagascar are caused by the pneumonic plague, which can be spread through coughs and sneezes and without treatment, can kill within 24 hours.

The outbreak has prompted warnings that it could spread to nine nearby countries, including UK holiday hotspots Mauritius and the Seychelles.

http://www.lfpress.com/2017/11/27/london-public-health-officials-is...

London public-health officials issue alert related to flesh-eating disease

Monday, November 27, 2017 6:29:49 EST PM

A stubborn and deadly outbreak that can cause flesh-eating disease and toxic shock has stumped local and international experts and left a trail of victims in London.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit alerted health-care providers and hospitals Monday about an outbreak of invasive Group A streptococcus (iGAS).

The bacterium has killed nine people and sent nearly 30 to an intensive-care unit in an outbreak that has continued for 18 months with no signs of abating.

About half of the more than 132 confirmed cases in the iGAS outbreak have been people whose movements are difficult to pin down because they’re injection drug users, homeless or in shelters, the Middlesex-London Health Unit says.

As to other half, public health officials have been unable to figure out what has driven the outbreak.

“We need a better understanding of what’s happening, which is why we’ve issued this alert,” Gayane Hovhannisyan, associate medical officer of health, said Monday.

Health officials understand half the challenge: The key to containing an outbreak is isolating those infected, and testing and possibly treating those with whom they came into close contact. Those tasks are exceedingly difficult when the infected are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps sharing needles for drug use.

That’s been evident since March 2016, when local health officials called in a field epidemiologist from the Public Health Agency of Canada, who made a visit to the Salvation Army Centre of Hope, where her team found open wounds among most residents.

“We’ve found about half of the cases are among injection drug users and/or those without access to stable housing,” Hovhannisyan said.

While health staff have struggled to protect those whose living conditions place them at heightened risk, staff simply don’t understand why so many other Londoners have fallen ill.

Local health officials have sought help from experts at the Centers for Disease Control in the United States and those who have combatted outbreaks in Toronto and Alaska.

But the outbreaks in those places don’t match what is happening in London.

“This (outbreak) is very unusual,” Hovhannisyan said.

Group A streptococcus are common bacteria that can cause skin and throat infections, including strep throat, but though most who develop an infection get mild illnesses such as strep throat, the bug can become deadly when the infection invades muscles, blood and other organs.

Symptoms of a more serious iGAS infection can include fever, chills, sore throat, dizziness, confusion, severe pain, and redness or swelling around a wound or injured area. The bacteria are spread by direct contact with nose and throat secretions from an infected person, or by direct contact with infected wounds or sores on the skin.

Flesh-eating disease, or necrotizing fasciitis, is most often caused by group A Streptococcus that spread from the skin into the body. Those infected with the fast-spreading disease can lose limbs or die.

Toxic shock syndrome is caused by toxins produced by group A streptococcus. Toxic shock syndrome can spread rapidly and lead to shock, kidney failure and death.

Though the risk of the more serious iGAS infection is low, health officials recommend the following protective measures:

• Wash hands regularly, especially after coughing or sneezing and before handling or eating food
• Cover the mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; using a tissue or your sleeve.
• Avoid sharing drinking glasses, cups, water bottles and eating utensils.
• Do not share drugs, needles, filters and other drug paraphernalia.
• Keep wounds clean and watch for signs of infection.
• If you’ve been in close contact with a person who has recently had iGAS disease, see your doctor immediately, as you may need preventative antibiotics.

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Mystery-deepens-...

Mystery deepens over death of 11 KUMACA students

General News of Thursday, 7 December 2017

The Kumasi Academy Senior High School (KUMACA) in the Asokore Mampong Municipality in Kumasi which has been hit by four strange student deaths in just six days – may be closed down.

The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and other stakeholders have proposed the immediate closure of the school, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Education.

However, Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, has kicked against any attempt to close down the school for fear of spreading the bacteria causing the deaths, which is said to be contagious.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, stressed the need for the school to be closed down, adding that the closure is one of the critical moves to help stop the mysterious deaths.

“The Regional Coordinating Council, the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders believe the closure of the school would contribute to stop the shocking deaths that have hit KUMACA since last week.

“This is our suggestion, but the Ministry of Education has the final say, with regards to whether the school should be closed down or not,” Mr Osei Mensah stated during an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE yesterday.

So far, about 11 deaths have been recorded in the school within the last 10 months.

This has compelled the Municipal Chief Executive of Asokore Mampong, Alhaji Alidu Seidu, to call for spiritual intervention.

“As we use scientific means to help find antidote to the strange deaths that have hit KUMACA, there is the need for us to look at the spiritual aspect too to see if we can find answers to this calamity and stop the deaths.

“These deaths, which we are struggling to find their exact cause, could be spiritually-related. So as we focus on the scientific aspects, we shall also invite the soothsayers to also help us,” the MCE said.

However, medical officers suspect viral infection, ruling out any spirituality.

As part of moves to stop the deaths, Mr Simon Osei Mensah announced that the ministry of health on Tuesday started giving doses of anti-bacteria drug to the students to protect them from infections, adding that the exercise is still ongoing.

According to him, the real cause of the four students who passed on recently had not been found, adding that “health personnel have so far ruled out meningitis and viral as the cause of the deaths; they are suspecting bacteria.”

Mr Simon Osei Mensah averred, “We also don’t know the exact bacteria causing the deaths. In this regard, the bacteria dose that is being administered to the entire student body has the potential to fight multiple bacterial infections.

“We are hoping that the students that left the school campus before the anti-bacteria dose exercise started would return to campus so that they would also be given the anti-bacteria dose. Hopefully, we will complete the exercise on Saturday.

“We are therefore proposing to the ministry of education to give the green light for the school to be closed down on Saturday so that we can thoroughly fumigate the school campus and make the place habitable once again.”

The regional minister explained that the anti-bacteria dose is necessary since it would help prevent the spread of the unknown disease or bacteria.

According to him, all the students would leave the school latest by Thursday to pave way for medical experts to thoroughly scan the school to wipe out possible viruses.

The Deputy Education Minister, Dr Osei Adutwum, rushed to the KUMACA campus Wednesday morning to find out what was really causing the students to die after a short illness.

He was accompanied by Mr Simon Osei Mensah and other lieutenants in the education and health sectors. They moved through the school to inspect dormitories and classrooms.

Briefing the media, Dr Adutwum expressed the condolences of his minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and the entire education ministry, to the bereaved families, saying that the deaths were disturbing

He gave the assurance that the ministry and other stakeholders would do everything humanly possible to help make KUMACA campus habitable once again.

MPs Angry

Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu told parliamentarians that the blood samples of the affected students and their CSF had been taken and sent to the Noguchi Memorial and Medical Research Centre for examination, adding that initial findings were negative of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever.

He added that the initial autopsy was, however, inconclusive.

“Currently, no definite laboratory confirmation has been done as to the cause of the outbreak,” he said yesterday.

The health minister’s appearance in parliament followed an urgent request by the minority chief whip and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mubarak Muntaka – in whose constituency the school is located.

The parliamentarians were not particularly happy about the way the incident, which began in March this year, had been handled by the health ministry.

Mr Agyemang Manu indicated, “We have other terms of reference as ensuring case management, protecting the population who are at risk, educating the school population, presenting report with a recommendation to prevent further occurrences, as well as technical and logistical support to the region and the affected municipality,” he said.

The minister told parliament that on Saturday, December 2, an emergency meeting was held between the school authorities and a team from the Ghana Health Service, with representation from the Ghana Health Service in Accra, Kumasi and Asokore-Mampong.

https://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/indonesia-fights-extraordinary...

Indonesia fights ‘extraordinary’ diphtheria outbreak that has killed 32

December 8 2017

JAKARTA: Indonesian health authorities will launch an immunization drive next week to contain a sharp rise in cases of diphtheria, which has killed at least 32 people, including many children, in the world’s fourth most populous country this year.

T

he health ministry said at least 591 cases had been reported since January, a 42 percent increase from last year, and called the outbreak an “extraordinary event”.

“We have seen an acceleration in cases compared to last year … We are implementing an immunization program to prevent a pandemic,” said Dr Mohamad Subuh, director general of disease prevention and control, at the ministry.

The ministry recorded 415 cases and 24 deaths last year.

Indonesia has among the world’s highest rates of diphtheria – along with India and sub-Saharan African countries – even though vaccinations have helped minimize global cases over the past 30 years.

The World Health Organisation recorded about 7,000 cases around the world last year. In 1980, the figure was 100,000.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that spreads through close physical contact or through the air and can be fatal. Symptoms include fever and a sore throat, and the airway can sometimes become blocked.

None of those affected in Indonesia had been vaccinated against the disease. The rise in cases was attributed to several reasons, including some people rejecting vaccinations and a lack of access to healthcare, Subuh said.

The Pediatric Society of Indonesia urged the public to participate in vaccination programs.

“Immunization is the best protection,” it said.

Immunizations will be carried out in the capital, Jakarta, and two neighboring provinces, which have reported the highest concentration of new cases.

The campaign would be stepped up in other regions from January.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/669448/japan-killer-fle...

Mysterious FLESH-EATING disease that can kill in hours spreads – infecting HUNDREDS

Published 26th December 2017

A HORRIFIC flesh-eating virus that can shut down internal organs and kill its victims in only a few hours is spreading, experts have warned.

More than 500 people in Japan have been infected with the disease this year – the highest since records began in 1999.

A total of 525 patients suffering from streptococcal shock syndrome (STSS) were rushed to hospital, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The figures have been rising each year since 2013 when 203 were treated for the illness.

But the cause for the increase has baffled scientists.

HORROR: The disease has infected more than 500 people this year

Symptoms include swelling and pain in the hands and feet, fever and other body parts.

Within hours the swelling spreads, causing necrosis of the tissue that surrounds muscles.

Once the disease has reached that stage it could lead to multiple organ failures within hours – with a fatality rate of 30%.

Antibiotic treatment can, however, stop the disease from spreading and save lives. 

Most patients have been 30 or older, including many elderly people.

Ken Kuchi, a professor of infectious diseases at Tokyo Women’s Medical University said: “It is conceivable that a growing number go patients with STSS are infected with bacteria other than group A streptococcus.”

Deadly flu season hits California particularly hard

"Virtually the entire country is reporting that same level of influenza activity," Watt said. "There are few states that are still reporting regional activity, but what we're seeing in California is quite similar to what's being reported across the country."

Widespread flu activity has been reported in 46 states nationwide, according to the latest flu report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 26 of those states, including California, flu activity has been classified as "high."

What explains the forceful flu season

The pervasiveness of the flu in the US appears to be similar to what was seen during peak flu season from 2014 to 2015, which was the most severe season in recent years, according to the CDC. During that season, influenza A H3N2 viruses dominated nationally.

Flu season soars in the United States, especially in the South

The World Health Organization noted in its latest influenza update that overall flu activity has continued to increase across North America with detections of predominantly influenza A H3N2 viruses this season. In past years, the effectiveness of flu vaccines in general has been lower against H3N2 viruses than against other influenza A- or B-strain flu viruses.

"The predominant virus this year has been influenza A H3N2, and that is the virus that -- because it affects elderly and young children more than the others -- tend to be the ones that are more severe, and by severe I mean they have more hospitalizations and frequently more deaths in those years," said Lynette Brammer, head of the CDC's Domestic Influenza Surveillance team.

"This season is falling in line with other H3N2 seasons," she said. "It's probably a bad year, but a lot of H3N2 years are bad years, and this is not falling outside of what we would expect in a year where H3N2 viruses are predominant."

Additionally, flu activity has increased above baseline levels in most countries in northern and southwestern Europe, according to the WHO.

Last year, Australia had a worse flu season than usual, which some experts predicted would bode ill for Northern Hemisphere nations, including the US and Canada and across Europe. As it turns out, the most common influenza virus in Australia last season was influenza A H3N2.

"In general, we get in our season what the Southern Hemisphere got in the season immediately preceding us," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the United States' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during Australia's flu season last year.

Across California and the rest of the US, the widespread flu season has led to some temporary shortages of flu medications (such as Tamiflu) in certain pharmacies, according to the CDC.

"At the start of the 2017-'18 season, manufacturers of influenza antiviral medications projected that they would have sufficient product on hand to meet even high demand for that product this season. However, it is not unusual for spot shortages to occur when flu activity is high," CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund wrote in an email.

"Patients may receive prescriptions for oseltamivir or zanamivir antiviral drugs. Oseltamivir is available in different formulations in generic and under the trade name 'Tamiflu,' and zanamivir is available under the tradename 'Relenza,' " she wrote. "I think the most important part of this is that patients can and should reach out to pharmacies to see what is available in their area."

It's important that antiviral drugs are used early to treat hospitalized patients, people with severe flu illness and people at high risk for complications from the flu, such as due to age or pregnancy, according to the CDC. Antiviral drugs work best when administered within two days of getting sick.

There is no widespread shortage of influenza vaccine or medications in California, said Dr. Gilberto Chávez, state epidemiologist and deputy director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health.

"What has happened in some instances over the last week have been just spot shortages of the medication because of increased demand in some cities and in some pharmacies," he said. "We've been in contact with CDC; we've been in contact with manufacturers, distributors; we are sure there is no shortage of antivirals."

Rather, he added, in some areas "distribution hasn't quite kept up with demand."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Flu season soars in the United States, especially in the South

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/health/flu-vaccine-mmwr-cdc-reports/i...

(CNN)After a slow start in October, flu season in the United States is gaining speed, particularly in the South.

Flu activity, which has been increasing since the start of November, is now higher than usual for this time of year, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Flu is a contagious, viral illness that causes mild to severe symptoms that, in rare cases, can lead to death. Seven children have died, and an additional 856 flu-related hospitalizations have occurred as of December 2, according to the CDC's weekly surveillance report.

"Flu is increasing. We're seeing a pretty steep increase in influenza activity across the US but especially in the South," said Brendan Flannery, a co-author of the new report and an epidemiologist in the CDC's flu division.

Michigan hit hard by deadly hepatitis A outbreak

Flu: why this year’s outbreak is one of the worst, UK

http://theconversation.com/flu-why-this-years-outbreak-is-one-of-th...

The UK is being hit with one of the worst flu seasons in recent decades. A total of 664 hospital admissions and 85 confirmed deaths have been reported since the beginning of winter 2017.

The British media have blamed “Aussie flu” for the outbreak. The truth is, there is not just one flu strain we should be worried about, and “Aussie flu” is a bit of a misnomer.

Enter ‘Aussie flu’

“Aussie flu” refers to one kind of influenza A virus strain, the H3N2 strain.

The southern hemisphere, including Australia, just experienced one of its worst influenza seasons in recent history and this is the virus that has reached British shores. But we don’t actually know where the virus originated from. All we can say is, it probably wasn’t from Australia.

One place it is more likely to have come from is the sub-tropical regions that do not have winter seasons. These regions do not suffer from the same large flu epidemics that temperate countries like the UK and Australia have (we don’t know why, but some scientists have suggested it’s to do with temperature or humidity), but have continuous lower-level circulation of flu that allows influenza viruses to persist between winters.

What’s worrying about this season is the experience Australia had last flu season. Australia was hit particularly hard by influenza virus H3N2. H3N2 is a typical seasonal flu strain – like H1N1 – but it tends to be more difficult to control.

There are three red flags this flu season, and they are that H3N2 viruses typically causes more hospitalisations and deaths in older people, there are difficulties in producing effective H3N2 vaccines (explained below), and there’s more than just H3N2 to consider, especially in the UK this year.

Although good against the other strains, this season the vaccine is about 20% protective against H3N2 viruses (not great, but better than nothing) as the virus changed unavoidably during production. This is due to a quirk of how flu vaccines are produced. They are grown in chicken eggs, and then inactivated before being used in vaccines.

Flu viruses mutate quickly and they mutate to adapt to their environment. Of course, a chicken egg is a different environment to a human body, so the end result may be a virus that’s not best suited to a flu vaccine. This appears to have been what happened with the latest H3N2 vaccine.

Seasonal flu epidemics are usually caused by a mixed bag of viruses. This year, the mix is so far mainly shared between H3N2 and influenza B.

What’s worse is that this increase in proportion of influenza B makes it more difficult to protect from because the most popular vaccine in the UK is a “trivalent” that protects against three flu viruses (H1N1, H3N2 and one of the two kinds of influenza B). This year, though, the other type of influenza B (Yamagata) is more common meaning that those with the trivalent vaccine will be protected less, although they would likely get some cross-influenza B protection.

Unusual forms of 'nightmare' antibiotic-resistant bacteria detected in 27 states

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/health/nightmare-bacteria-cdc-vital-...

"I was surprised by the numbers we found," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC.

http://www.environewsnigeria.com/flesh-eating-bacteria-epidemic-con...

Flesh-eating bacteria epidemic continues to grow in Australia

April 16 2018

Cases of an infectious flesh-eating bug are on the rise in the southern Australian state of Victoria, with scientists unable to explain how it is spreading.

Untreated, the bacteria eats through skin and capillaries. Photo credit: Microbiology Australia

The Buruli or Daintree ulcer causes an infection which results in severe destructive lesions of the skin and soft tissue, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, April 16, 2018.

The lesions can have devastating impacts on the sufferers including long-term disability, deformity, amputation and occasionally even death.

Victoria had 182 new cases in 2016, 275 in 2017 and 30 so far this year, medical researchers said in the study.

The cases are rapidly increasing in number, becoming more severe in nature and occurring in new geographic areas, the study found.

“Victoria is facing a worsening epidemic… and we don’t know how to prevent it,” said Daniel O’Brien, one of the authors and an associate professor at the University of Melbourne.

The researchers said efforts to control the disease have been severely hampered because the environmental reservoir and mode of transmission to humans remain unknown.

“It is difficult to prevent a disease when it is not known how infection is acquired,” the experts said in the journal article.

Warning, graphic content.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6216301/Nearly-40-years-de...

The monkeypox mutation: Nearly 40 years since we defeated smallpox, scientists fear a new deadly plague could strike at any moment

18:14 EDT, 27 September 2018

Public Health England have said that monkeypox does not spread easily
Third patient, a medic, is receiving care at Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle
They had treated the patient before they were diagnosed with monkeypox

One hundred years ago a third of the global population — some 500 million people — became infected with ‘Spanish flu’. Up to 50 million of them died in the 1918 pandemic.
Ever since, scientists have been alert to the possibility of another super-virulent influenza virus.
Today, with more than seven billion people on the planet, numerous densely-populated mega-cities, and the ease of modern air travel, the death toll from such a virus could be unimaginably higher.

A 40-year-old woman was rushed to hospital on Tuesday by staff wearing biohazard gear. The disease started from animals in Africa

Monkeypox has spread from wild animals in Africa to humans - three in the United Kingdom

Now, the emergence of a disease called monkeypox in Britain, has raised another scenario in which the next killer pandemic isn’t the flu virus at all. Instead, it is a highly infectious agent that has jumped the species barrier, spreading from wild animals in Africa to humans

Initially, it would infect people locally, but while spreading and evolving, intermingling its genetic material with other human viruses and even human DNA, it would become ever more contagious until it could be transmitted merely by a cough or a sneeze

Infectious disease experts have long warned of the possibility. Yesterday, the third confirmed case of monkeypox, in a female hospital healthcare assistant, heightened such fears.
The 40-year-old woman was rushed to hospital on Tuesday by staff wearing biohazard gear. She is being treated in isolation at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, 150 miles from her home in Fleetwood, Lancashire.
Family members and colleagues of the hospital worker are reportedly waiting to be vaccinated, while public health officials are tracing anyone she may have had contact with in the 24 hours before she fell ill.
So how worried should we be?
Monkeypox is caused by a close relative of the smallpox virus, but is less infectious and usually causes a mild illness, with a fever, headache and a rash that turns into chickenpox-like blisters. However, in some West

African outbreaks ten per cent of cases — an alarmingly high number for an infectious disease — have proved fatal.
Smallpox was eradicated in 1980 following a global immunisation campaign led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but some scientists are now suggesting that monkeypox virus may be mutating to fill the lethal vacancy.

The first two British cases, one in Cornwall and another in Blackpool, were diagnosed in people believed to have become infected in Nigeria where a large outbreak started last year — the first cases in the country for 40 years. It is the third case that has triggered questions about the virus’s contagious power.
The healthcare worker at Blackpool Victoria Hospital is not believed to have had any direct contact with the infected traveller from Nigeria, but may have become infected while changing the patient’s bedding. She has said she was wearing gloves that were too short to cover the skin on her arms.
According to the WHO, monkeypox is spread only by close contact with an infected person’s spit, blood or pus. But has a mutation in the virus rendered that guidance perilously out of date? Could it have already evolved into a strain that can spread more easily between humans.

Scientists at Public Health England are urgently analysing samples of the virus to determine its genetic makeup. They will then compare it with samples collected in Central and West Africa, where cases of the disease have risen 20-fold since the 1980s. Monkeypox is believed to have originated in sooty mangabey monkeys and rope squirrels, and first infected humans who consumed them as ‘bushmeat’ more than 50 years ago.
Viruses that can ‘jump’ from animals to humans are called zoonoses. The Black Death, AIDS/HIV and Spanish flu — the world’s three biggest known pandemics — are all zoonoses.
Ebola which first struck in Zaire in 1976 and killed as many as 90 per cent of those infected in the 2014 epidemic, is another zoonotic disease, carried by bats in central Africa. Could monkeypox be the next one?

Our first inkling of monkeypox’s existence came in the 1950s, when doctors in Africa noticed the emergence of a viral infection in their patients that seemed similar to smallpox but was less contagious. Since then, the virus has become steadily more infectious.
Nigeria is currently experiencing the largest documented epidemic of human monkeypox — with 152 cases reported and seven deaths so far confirmed. Certainly, the WHO is taking it seriously. They are warning that ‘the emergence of monkeypox cases is a concern for global health security’.
A leading British authority on epidemics, John Oxford, emeritus professor of virology at Queen Mary, University of London, believes that the world is currently due a very large animal-originated pandemic.

However, he’s playing down fears that monkeypox could be the one. He explains that this is because monkeypox is a DNA virus — its genetic material is made up of a chemical known as deoxyribonucleic acid. ‘These viruses don’t mutate rapidly, they are stable . . . ’ he says.
By contrast RNA viruses, which have ribonucleic acid as their genetic material, are far less stable and can mutate into more dangerous forms very quickly.
Often they do this by ‘co-opting genes’ from other human viruses present in the infected individual. This gene-swapping effectively enables viruses to ‘learn new ways to be contagious. RNA viruses include Ebola, SARS, rabies, the common cold and influenza.
That’s not to say monkeypox may not prove to be an alarming exception to this rule. One leading scientist who has studied monkeypox in Africa for 15 years disagrees with Professor Oxford.

Professor Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, warns that despite being ‘stable’ DNA virus, monkeypox is mutating into more contagious versions.
Chillingly, an investigation she co-authored in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases warns that monkeypox ‘is adapting for efficient replication in a novel ecological niche — humans’. ‘The global effects of the emergence of monkeypox strains that are highly adapted to humans could be devastating,’ the report adds.
Because of ‘the apparent rapid evolution of this virus, health authorities in presently unaffected areas should become vigilant and actively prepare to take immediate action’, it concludes

So what defensive action could we take if a mutant monkeypox virus is unleashed in Britain? Well, it seems we are at least well prepared and have Tony Blair to thank. After 9/11, the former Prime Minister ordered £80 million worth of the vaccination for use in a ‘smallpox plan’, to protect the population in the event of a terrorist attack that used the virus as a germ-warfare weapon.
At the time, the initiative was condemned as a waste of money, not least because one of Blair’s chief political donors — Lord Drayson — owned the company that manufactured the inoculations

Monkeypox, thought to have been spread by prairie dogs, was detected in the US in 2003
Now however Blair’s controversial move may prove an unwitting masterstroke of forward planning, because all the available evidence shows the smallpox vaccine may effectively protect people against infection from monkeypox, too.
Indeed, it the smallpox vaccine that will be given to contacts of the healthcare worker in Blackpool. Furthermore, the majority of Britons aged over 50 could well already be protected, as they were already vaccinated in childhood against smallpox.
By sheer chance, we appear to be well-positioned to deal with any monkeypox ‘apoxcalypse’. But it’s only a matter of time before the next virus emerges.
In his book Spillover, the award-winning American natural-history writer David Quammen warns that the human race faces a viral ‘doomsday’ if deadly infections learn the contagious trick that flu and cold microbes employ — spreading in coughs and sneezes.

‘If an infection such as HIV could be transmitted by air, you and I might already be dead,’ Quammen says. ‘If the rabies virus — another zoonosis — could be transmitted by air, it would be the most horrific pathogen on the planet.’
We have been warned.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/6-children-dead-12-sick-in-vir...

6 children dead, 12 sick in viral outbreak at New Jersey rehab center

Published: October 24, 2018

A severe viral outbreak at a New Jersey rehabilitation center for "medically fragile children" has left six youngsters dead and 12 others sick, the state Health Department said Tuesday.
There have been 18 cases of adenovirus at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of New York, the New Jersey Health Department said in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an email that it is providing technical assistance to the state. In the past 10 years, cases of severe illness and death from the type of infection found at the facility have been reported in the United States, said CDC spokeswoman Kate Fowlie in an email, though it's unclear how many deaths there have been.
The strain afflicting the children is usually associated with acute respiratory illness, according to the CDC, which on its website instructs health workers to report unusual clusters to state or local health departments.
The Health Department didn't release the ages of the victims or address the severity of the illness in the other dozen cases.
The six deaths happened this month, according to Health Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner.
The facility was instructed not to admit new patients until the outbreak ends, and the Health Department said the number of new cases appears to be decreasing.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said these kinds of fatalities are not common, but they're known to happen.
"Here I think you have this kind of nasty combination of very fragile children and this particularly aggressive virus," he said.
The strain in the New Jersey outbreak is No. 7 and is affecting "medically fragile" children with severely compromised immune systems, according to the Health Department. It has been associated with communal living and can be more severe
A scientific paper cited by the CDC reported that a 1998 outbreak of type 7 adenovirus at a pediatric chronic-care facility in Chicago claimed the lives of eight patients. The 2001 paper said civilian outbreaks of the type 7 infection had not been frequently reported because of a lack of lab resources, and that the full impact on chronic-care facilities and hospitals is likely underestimated.
In New Jersey, a team was at the center Tuesday and Sunday and found "minor handwashing deficiencies," the Health Department said.
"The Health Department is continuing to work closely with the facility on infection control issues," the department said in a statement.
The center helps educate "medically fragile children," according to its website. Messages left with the center were not returned.
Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that he was "heartbroken" about the deaths and that he had been briefed by the health commissioner, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, who told him that the department is on site and trying to prevent the virus from spreading further.
"I am confident that the steps being taken by state and local officials will minimize the impact to all those who remain at the facility, including patients and employee," Murphy said.
Adenoviruses often cause mild illness, particularly in young children, but people with weakened immune systems are at risk of getting severely sick, according to the CDC

https://abcnews4.com/news/healthandfitness/mysterious-paralyzing-il...

Mysterious paralyzing illness reported in 36 states, including South Carolina

NEW YORK (AP) — This year has seen a record number of cases of a mysterious paralyzing illness in children, U.S. health officials said Monday.

It's still not clear what's causing the kids to lose the ability to move their face, neck, back, arms or legs. The symptoms tend to occur about a week after the children had a fever and respiratory illness.

No one has died from the rare disease this year, but it was blamed for one death last year and it may have caused others in the past.

What's more, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say many children have lasting paralysis. And close to half the kids diagnosed with it this year were admitted to hospital intensive care units and hooked up to machines to help them breathe.

The condition has been likened to polio, a dreaded paralyzing illness that once struck tens of thousands of U.S. children a year. Those outbreaks ended after a polio vaccine became available in the 1950s. Investigators of the current outbreak have ruled out polio, finding no evidence of that virus in recent cases.

The current mystery can be traced to 2012, when three cases of limb weakness were seen in California. The first real wave of confirmed illnesses was seen in 2014, when 120 were reported. Another, larger wave occurred in 2016, when there were 149 confirmed cases. So far this year, there have been 158 confirmed cases.

In 2015 and 2017, the counts were far lower, and it's not clear why.

The condition is called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. Investigators have suspected it is caused by a virus called EV-D68. The 2014 wave coincided with a lot of EV-D68 infections and the virus "remains the leading hypothesis," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, a member of a 16-person AFM Task Force that the CDC established last month to offer advice to disease detectives.

But there is disagreement about how strong a suspect EV-D68 is. Waves of AFM and that virus haven't coincided in other years, and testing is not finding the virus in every case. CDC officials have been increasingly cautious about saying the virus triggered the illnesses in this outbreak.

Indeed, EV-D68 infections are not new in kids, and many Americans carry antibodies against it.

Why would the virus suddenly be causing these paralyzing illnesses?

"This is a key question that has confounded us," said the CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is overseeing the agency's outbreak investigation.

Experts also said it's not clear why cases are surging in two-year cycles.

Another mystery: More than 17 countries have reported scattered AFM cases, but none have seen cyclical surges like the U.S. has.

When there has been a wave in the U.S., cases spiked in September and tailed off significantly by November. Last week, CDC officials said the problem had peaked, but they warned that the number of cases would go up as investigators evaluated — and decided whether to count — illnesses that occurred earlier.

As of Monday, there were 311 illness reports still being evaluated.

This year's confirmed cases are spread among 36 states. The states with the most are Texas, with 21, and Colorado, 15.

But it's not clear if the state tallies truly represent where illnesses have been happening. For example, the numbers in Colorado may be high at least partly because it was in the scene of an attention-grabbing 2014 outbreak, and so doctors there may be doing a better job doing things that can lead to a diagnosis.

For an illness to be counted, the diagnosis must include an MRI scan that shows lesions in the part of the spinal cord that controls muscles.

http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/hep-a-outbreak-in-ky-nearing-4000-...

Hep A outbreak in Ky. nearing 4,000 cases with 40 deaths

Posted Monday, February 11, 2019 10:20 am

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) - Kentucky public health officials keep recommending vaccination for Hepatitis A as the outbreak nears 4,000 cases with 40 deaths across the state.
According to figures from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, through Jan. 26 the number of cases stood at 3,919, resulting in 1,905 hospitalizations and 40 deaths, since the outbreak began being tracked in November 2017. Cases have been reported in 103 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Eighty counties have reported five or more cases, meaning they meet the threshold for what is considered an outbreak of Hepatitis A virus. Boyd, Carter, Fayette, Floyd, Jefferson, Kenton, Laurel, Madison and Whitley counties report 100 or more cases associated with the outbreak.
The Department for Public Health says people who are considered high risk for exposure to the Hepatitis A virus should get vaccinated as soon as possible, to avoid contracting the virus and lessen the spread of the disease. High risk groups include individuals who use illicit drugs, close contacts of illicit drug users, and homeless people.  DPH said 80 percent of the cases have occurred in those groups.
Other priority areas of the population for vaccination include: people with direct contact with someone who has Hepatitis A (particularly during their infectious period); men who have sexual contact with men; and people who are at increased risk of complications from Hepatitis A (e.g., people with chronic liver disease).
“Immunizations can be obtained from a healthcare provider, pharmacies, and clinics throughout the state,” said DPH Commissioner Dr. Jeffrey Howard.  “Local health departments have limited vaccine supply for at-risk individuals who are uninsured.  In addition, if you live in a county experiencing an outbreak, we also urge you to be vaccinated for Hepatitis A as well as continue to practice regular and thorough hand washing, particularly if you are engaging with any of the high-risk groups.”
Health officials describe Hepatitis A as a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease of the liver, which causes inflammation of the liver and affects the organ’s ability to function. Signs and symptoms of infection include nausea, diarrhea, and loss of appetite, fever, fatigue, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes), clay-colored bowel movements, dark-colored urine, and abdominal discomfort. Signs and symptoms usually appear 2-4 weeks after exposure but may occur up to 7 weeks after exposure. Children under 6 years of age with Hepatitis A often show few signs and symptoms.
The virus is found in the stool of infected people and is usually spread person-to-person when infected people do not properly wash their hands or do not have access to proper sanitation. Transmission typically occurs when a person ingests infected fecal matter, even in microscopic amounts, from contact with contaminated objects, food, or drinks. DPH recommends frequent hand washing, particularly after using the restroom, or before eating, to prevent transmission of hepatitis A and many other common diseases.
Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all children receive the Hepatitis A vaccine series. DPH recommends children aged 1 to 18 years receive the two-dose Hepatitis A vaccine, as well as at-risk adults.
Kentucky now requires all students in kindergarten through 12^th grade to have two doses of the Hepatitis A vaccine in order to attend school or receive a provisional certificate of immunization.

http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=2...

Health: Measles Outbreak Prompts State of Emergency in NY, Kids Blocked from Schools, Jail Threatened

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-au...

The rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat: drug-resistant germs.

Bacteria are rebelling. They’re turning the tide against antibiotics by outsmarting our wonder drugs.

Ohio man contracts flesh-eating bacteria in water off Pinellas County

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (FOX 13) - 4-30-2019 The second case of flesh-eating bacteria has been reported out of the Bay Area, this time in a man who visited from Ohio last month. Doctors were able to save the man's foot following his spring break trip to Pinellas County.

Barry Briggs likely contracted the bacteria when he and his son were in the water off of Weedon Island on March 23. That night, Briggs' foot began to swell.

Less than 48 hours later, after traveling home, Briggs was in the hospital undergoing emergency surgery. He'll never forget what the surgeon told him before he went under the knife.

This is the second flesh-eating bacteria case in the Bay Area in less than a month. Not long after Briggs contracted his infection, Mike Walton ended up with one in his hand after cutting himself with a fishing hook.  Both cases happened off the coast of Pinellas County.

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/ohio-man-contracts-flesh-eating-bacteria...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cruise-ship-measles-quarantined-st-l...

Hello Starr, we appreciate your dedication through all the years. Thanks.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1122619/black-death-bubonic-pl...

BLACK DEATH PLAGUE fears: Holidaymakers die after eating marmot meat – plane QUARANTINED

A PLANE was raised by medics in anti-contamination suits after two passengers died after contracting the bubonic plague, sparking an airport lockdown.

UPDATED: 09:19, Sat, May 4, 2019

Up to 11 passengers were shepherded off the plane which had made an emergency landing in Mongolia. They were sent for hospital checks immediately, the Siberian Times reports. The husband and wife had eaten meat from a marmot, a large rat-like rodent.

The plague began in the UK and Europe in 1347 due to fleas living on rats.

A special medical facility at the airport in Ulaanbaatar examined other passengers after paramedics boarded the plane from provincial posts set up as soon as the plane landed.

and another:

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/hungary-reports-4-human-anthrax-cases-...

Hungary reports 4 human anthrax cases

May 4 2019

Hungarian health authorities have reported (computer translated) four human cutaneous anthrax cases, at least one confirmed, in two separate counties in recent weeks.

The affected individuals were reported from farms in Bács-Kiskun and Békés counties. In addition, an additional 30 people were treated prophylactically with antibiotics due to possible exposure.

Animal health officials have reported a confirmed anthrax case in a cow and an additional four suspect cases on an outbreak in Kötegyán, Bekes.

These are the first human anthrax cases in Hungary in several years.

Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be found naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world. Although it is rare, people can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products.

Cutaneous  anthrax occurs when the spore (or possibly the bacterium) enters a cut or abrasion on the skin. It starts out as a raised bump that looks like an insect bite. It then develops into a blackened lesion called an eschar that may form a scab. Lymph glands in the area may swell plus edema may be present. This form of anthrax responds well to antibiotics. If untreated, deaths can occur if the infection goes systemic. 95% of cases of anthrax are cutaneous.

and another:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/03/c_138031743.htm?fbclid=...

15 dead, over 15,000 infected by dengue virus in Sri Lanka

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6994393/Western-tourists-t...

The Western backpackers trapped in an outbreak of BUBONIC PLAGUE: Tourists face being quarantined inside their hotel for 21 days as two die in Mongolia

• Tourists from USA, Germany, Holland, Sweden and Switzerland are trapped 
• They are unable to leave hotel in Uglii, Mongolia during Black Death outbreak 
• It has already killed a husband and a pregnant wife with tourists stuck in hotel

These are the first pictures of Western tourists trapped in a city under lockdown due to a deadly outbreak of bubonic plague.

The travellers in Mongolia are shown on a video singing a song to keep up their spirits amid claims they have been prevented from leaving Uglii due to the Black Death bacterial disease which killed a husband and his pregnant wife.

Reports in Russia say American, Dutch, German, Swedish, Swiss, and South Korean tourists are marooned in the city.

The authorities in western Mongolia - close to the Russian frontier - have instituted a quarantine regime to prevent the spread of bubonic plague.

https://apnews.com/e6c4a34980c549deada4f1f981cedb80

Union: LA officer gets typhoid fever, 5 others show symptoms

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police detective has been diagnosed with typhoid fever, a rare illness typically spread through contaminated food or water, and at least five other officers who work in the same station are showing symptoms, union officials said Thursday.

The six officers work in the Central Division station, where a state investigation into unsafe and unsanitary working conditions led to penalties and more than $5,000 in fines earlier this month, documents show.

The division polices downtown Los Angeles, including the notorious Skid Row area where hundreds of homeless people camp on the streets. The police union says homeless encampments must be cleaned up following the recent diagnosis and other cases where officers contracted hepatitis A and staph infections.

“The last thing I need is my members coming to work worried about contracting an infectious disease and bringing it home to their families,” Los Angeles Police Protective League treasurer Robert Harris said.

The union also demanded better protective equipment for officers and called for the station to be regularly sanitized.

The Police Department said exposed areas of the Central Division were being disinfected and officials were reviewing the state’s “concerning” report that found health violations at the station.

The building lacked an effective extermination program and had “rats/rodents, fleas, roaches, flies, gnats, mosquitoes and grasshoppers,” according to the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s May 14 report.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says typhoid fever isn’t

common in the U.S. but affects 22 million people annually in other countries.

It is different from typhus, which can spread from infected fleas and caused an outbreak earlier this year that sickened homeless people who live near City Hall and a deputy city attorney.

Dr. Abinash Virk, an infectious disease specialist with the Mayo Clinic, said it’s likely the officers were infected through contaminated food or drinks from the same cafeteria or restaurant.

She said homeless people could have a slightly higher risk of typhoid fever than others because of limited access to clean bathrooms or being immigrants from countries where the illness is more prevalent, but she doubted that the officers got sick from their work on Skid Row.

“You’re not just going to get it from shaking hands,” she said.

Dustin DeRollo, a union spokesman, said officers who patrol Skid Row “walk through the feces, urine and trash” — conditions that “should alarm everyone and must be addressed.”

The LAPD said it only had reports of the confirmed case of typhoid fever and two other officers showing typhoid-like symptoms. The union says five officers are showing symptoms.

“Whether the issue is bad plumbing or something else, the mayor is working with the department to get to the bottom of this situation and will take every possible step to protect the health and safety of all our employees,” Alex Comisar, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti, said in a statement.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-06-06/raging-tb-epidemic-papua-new...

A raging TB epidemic in Papua New Guinea threatens to destabilize the entire Asia Pacific

June 06, 2019 · 10:30 AM EDT

Keith, in his 50s and wears a grubby T-shirt and pants and sports a long scraggly beard, is highly contagious with a rare strain of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis. 

“I’m happy I’m here,” Keith says. “I have run away [from the hospital] many times, but now I know that it is a good thing that I am here. I need to take my medication so I can get better.”

Homeless for many years, Keith doesn’t know his last name. His tattered sneakers sit neatly by the door. A poster on the wall above his sink shows a shaven Keith holding hands with Dr. Rendi Moke, the TB specialist at Port Moresby General Hospital — as if they are making a pact. It reads: “Promise: I will take my full treatment this time. So Lord, please help to do so.” 

On the opposite wall, there is a simple wooden cross.

“We have to keep him isolated, we don’t have a choice. And that’s not a great solution when you desperately need hospital beds. I’m worried there will be more like him out there, who we don’t even know about." 

Dr. Rendi Moke, tTB specialist, Port Moresby General Hospital, Moresby, Papua New Guinea

“We have to keep him isolated, we don’t have a choice," Moke said. "And that’s not a great solution when you desperately need hospital beds. I’m worried there will be more like him out there, who we don’t even know about. We’re very keen to reduce our default rates [patients who don’t finish treatment] and increase our capacity to treat others and perform more outreach work. “But,” he adds, “to do that we need resources and manpower. And we have neither.”

In Papua New Guinea, a TB epidemic threatens to turn into a disaster that could destabilize the Asia Pacific region. Situated about 90 miles from Australia in the Pacific Ocean, the island nation sees more than 100 cases of TB every day. 

Of these cases, five are drug-resistant strains, and 10 people will die, according to World Health Organization figures. Yet, in a nation where more than one-third of the population is illiterate, these figures grossly underestimate the actual number of TB cases due to underreporting. Additionally, 86% of the country’s 8 million citizens live in rural areas with little or no access to health care, further obscuring the numbers. 

The government now faces a herculean task to battle the epidemic that has plagued the country. It shares the island with the separate nation of Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, which faces a similar struggle against TB. And Australia, a close neighbor, also has cause for concern: The bacterial disease that attacks the lungs is highly contagious, expensive to treat and is rapidly developing a resistance to drugs. 

The country offers a grim textbook case of how education and infrastructure impact health care: The government has neither the finances nor the resources to tackle TB as an increasingly insurmountable health crisis. 

“This is World War III. ...We are working incredibly hard to fight this, but we need new drugs that we don’t have. We need resources that we don’t have. And whatever we don’t do now, will come back to haunt us in the future.”

Paison Dakulala, deputy secretary of the National Health Services of Papua New Guinea 

“This is World War III,” said Paison Dakulala, deputy secretary of the National Health Services of Papua New Guinea.  “We are working incredibly hard to fight this, but we need new drugs that we don’t have. We need resources that we don’t have. And whatever we don’t do now will come back to haunt us in the future.”

A report published in May by the Economist Intelligence Unit warned of the consequences of failing to act against drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), calling the current response a “global failure.”

In the same month, the United Nations issued an urgent warning about the growing peril of drug-resistant infections. The report stated at least 700,000 people die worldwide each year due to drug-resistant diseases; 230,000 of those die from multidrug-resistant TB. 

According to the WHO, 10 million new TB cases appeared globally in 2017 alone (though TB rates have fallen worldwide). That same year, it killed 1.6 million people, making TB the world’s deadliest infectious disease. And places like Papua New Guinea are seeing an uptick in infection rates — particularly in multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the even more feared drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

This grim trend is exportable to neighboring countries.

In Papua New Guinea, TB is the leading cause of hospitalization and death. It presents a unique challenge for charities — such as Doctors Without Borders — that have established services in the country to help manage the crisis. 

Paul Aia, WHO’s TB program manager, explains the difficulty in diagnosing and treating patients in a country with poor infrastructure.

“One patient received his first bout of medication, but then it took two days to track [him] down to administer the next set of drugs,” he said.

Some patients get diagnosed, and then start — but don’t finish — their drug course. That’s exactly the type of behavior that increases the likelihood of drug-resistant TB. 

Obstacles and roadblocks

Many patients can only reach their nearest makeshift hospital by boat — and children have reportedly died en route to treatment after canoes capsize in choppy seas, according to aid workers. 

Port Moresby, the capital, is not connected to other major towns by road, and many of the villages in the highlands can only be reached by foot or small aircraft, which is astronomically expensive. Frequent mobile cell service outages render communication a daily struggle. Several mountainous tribes still have little or no contact with the outside world.  

story continues...................

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/brain-disease-linked-to-lychee-toxin...

Brain disease linked to lychee toxins kills 47 children in India

June 13, 2019

(CNN) — Almost 50 children have died in northern India over the past three weeks from a brain disease that has been linked to toxins in lychees.

Health authorities in the state of Bihar said Thursday that 47 children have died of acute encephalitis syndrome, which involves inflammation of the brain. Two hospitals in the city of Muzaffarpur had registered a total of 179 cases since January, they said, but the deaths occurred only in the past few weeks.

In 2013, at least 351 people died of encephalitis in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

“This year, the number [of cases] has gone up a bit. The heat wave has been too intense, and it has gone on for too long,” said Sanjay Kumar, a senior state health official.

The state health department has blamed hypoglycemia — low blood sugar — for the children’s deaths but said that lychee fruit, which is widely grown in the region, also plays a role.

“International experts have told us that lychee has some kind of toxin that goes and deposits in the liver of these children, and when the temperatures go up, those toxins get released,” Kumar said. “The fact is that [Muzaffarpur] is a lychee-growing area. We suspect that there is some kind of role that lychee has in the case. But it is also true that once the temperature comes down and the rains come, lychee or no lychee, there are no more cases.”

According to a study about a 2014 outbreak of encephalopathy, published in The Lancet Global Health medical journal in 2017, one of the factors can be the consumption of lychee.

Encephalopathy, or brain disease or damage, can be caused by encephalitis.

The study found that parents reported that children in affected villages spent most of the day eating lychees from nearby orchards, often returning home in the evening “uninterested in eating a meal.” Children who fell ill were twice as likely to have skipped dinner, which, according to the researchers, probably resulted in “night-time hypoglycaemia.”

The Lancet study said that when the children’s blood sugar level dropped, the body would start to metabolize fatty acids to produce a boost of glucose.

However, urine samples found that two-thirds of the ill children showed evidence of exposure to toxins in lychee seeds, found in higher levels in unripe fruits. In the presence of these toxins, “glucose synthesis is severely impaired,” the study said, leading to dangerously low blood sugar and brain inflammation.

Kumar said that the affected children “are from poor families, and they do not have sugar reserves, and they are also malnourished.”

“The liver stores glycogen. When the sugar level goes down, the liver releases extra sugar to balance it out, but if there is no extra sugar and there are only toxins, then they get released,” he said.

State officials have issued warnings across the district advising parents to ensure that children stay hydrated and do not go to sleep on an empty stomach.

Acute encephalitis syndrome causes inflammation of the brain, resulting in fever, delirium and eventually coma in most cases. Heat, malnourishment and humidity are contributing factors, according to experts.

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/dengue-hemorrhagic-fever-epidemic-decl...

Dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic declared in Thailand

June 15, 2019

Thailand’s Department of Disease Control (DDC) has officially declared a dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic this year as there have been 28,785 patients, 43 of whom died, according to a Bangkok Post report Friday.

The deputy director-general of the department, said that the figures were from Jan 1 to June 11, when the number of patients doubled the five-year average.

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. There are four closely related but antigenically different serotypes of the virus that can cause dengue (DEN1, DEN 2, DEN 3, DEN 4).

• Dengue Fever (DF) – marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and pain in muscles and joints. Some may also have a rash and varying degree of bleeding from various parts of the body (including nose, mouth and gums or skin bruising).Dengue has a wide spectrum of infection outcome (asymptomatic to symptomatic). Symptomatic illness can vary from dengue fever (DF) to the more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).
• Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) – is a more severe form, seen only in a small proportion of those infected. DHF is a stereotypic illness characterized by 3 phases; febrile phase with high continuous fever usually lasting for less than 7 days; critical phase (plasma leaking) lasting 1-2 days usually apparent when fever comes down, leading to shock if not detected and treated early; convalescence phase lasting 2-5 days with improvement of appetite, bradycardia (slow heart rate), convalescent rash (white patches in red background), often accompanied by generalized itching (more intense in palms and soles), and diuresis (increase urine output).
• Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS) — Shock syndrome is a dangerous complication of dengue infection and is associated with high mortality. Severe dengue occurs as a result of secondary infection with a different virus serotype. Increased vascular permeability, together with myocardial dysfunction and dehydration, contribute to the development of shock, with resultant multiorgan failure.

https://hosted.ap.org/bendbulletin/article/5926e153e4b341b88ca10b35...

More than 100 children die in India in encephalitis outbreak

PATNA, India (AP) — More than 100 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak in India's eastern state of Bihar, authorities said Tuesday.

Bihar health secretary Sanjay Kumar said 106 children had died and more than 430 others between the ages of 4 and 10 were being treated at hospitals in Muzaffarpur district, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Patna, the state capital.

Despite the deaths, Kumar said the mortality rate among children from encephalitis, which can cause swelling of the brain, a burning fever and vomiting, had dropped to 26.5% from 34% a year ago.

Young children are particularly vulnerable to the disease.

Villagers crowded outside Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital in Muzaffarpur, where some of the sick children are being treated, to protest a visit by Bihar's chief minister, whom they accused of only coming to the area after the death toll passed 100. Left-wing political organizations also rallied in New Delhi, demanding that the Bihar government do more to prevent what has become an annual outbreak.

"This acute encephalitis syndrome has been recurring in Bihar and the government has not taken any steps. And who is dying? It is the children of the very poor," said Mariam Dhawale of the All India Democratic Women's Association.

Thousands of Indians suffer from encephalitis, malaria, typhoid and other mosquito-borne diseases each year during the summer monsoon season.

https://www.vaxbeforetravel.com/travel-alerts-burundi-issued-cdc-de...

http://outbreaknewstoday.com/mystery-disease-in-the-ivory-coast-kil...

Officials in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) are reporting on an unidentified disease that has caused many deaths in Yeretièlé.

According to the information received at the level of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, 28 people have died of this unidentified disease since July.

The Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Eugène Aka Aouélé said they mobilized medical teams to the area to investigate.

The symptoms presented include swelling of the face and lower limbs, chest pain, abdominal bloating, general fatigue, constipation and vomiting. Thus, the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene orders anyone with one of these signs to go directly to the nearest health center. Self-medication is not recommended to avoid unnecessary risk.

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/263413469/dengue-kills-120-in-s...

Dengue kills 120 in Sri Lanka, affects over 87,000 others

ANI
17th December 2019, 02:03 GMT+11

Colombo [Sri Lanka], Dec 16 (ANI): A severe dengue outbreak has claimed the lives of at least 120 people and affected over 87,000 others across 11 districts in the island country, health officials said here on Monday.

Secretary of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Haritha Aluthge told the local Daily Mirror that the GMOA had informed new Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and the Secretary to the Ministry of Health about the seriousness of the issue as over 10 districts were affected by the rapid spread of the disease.

The continuous rains in many parts of the island were considered as one of the leading reasons for the spread of the virus.

Haritha was quoted as saying that while Colombo, Gampaha, in the outskirts of the capital city, as well as Kandy, in the central hills, were the worst affected districts, with almost 50 per cent of the total cases reported.

The case of the outbreak was reported from the Jaffna district in the northern region of the country.

In Jaffna alone, 7,000 dengue cases have been reported so far this year. Medical experts said that the number of deaths recorded so far this year was "alarming," in comparison to 58 deaths reported last year.

Medical experts further urged the people to seek immediate attention if they suffered symptoms of high fever, uncontrolled vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, and reduced urinary.

"All fever patients need rest and should refrain from attending work or school," said epidemiologists, adding that dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) can be fatal.

Medical experts also urged pregnant women to seek hospital admission immediately on the first day of fever.

Last year, over 48,000 people were affected by the mosquito-borne virus in Sri Lanka, with the National Dengue Control Unit launching several programmes to eradicate mosquito's breeding grounds in several districts of the island country.

https://athensoracle.com/5895/news/outbreak-in-china/

Outbreak in China

Pneumonic Plague

http://www.thebigwobble.org/2020/01/chinese-mystery-disease-update-...

Monday, 20 January 2020

CORONAVIRUS LIVE: Violence breaks out in China as Wuhan quarantine sparks fights over food   Published On: Thu, Jan 23rd, 2020

TERRIFIED residents in the Chinese city of Wuhan have stormed shops and supermarkets and fought over food as violence flared after authorities imposed strict bans on people leaving and entering to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

https://news247online.us/coronavirus-live-violence-breaks-out-in-ch...

Dozens of previously unknown viruses discovered in 15,000-year-old glaciers 1-30-2020

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/dozens-of-previously-unkn...

Over 30 viruses have been detected in a remote ice cap that is located in Central Asia and dozens of these viruses are unknown to modern science. The remarkable findings come from a study conducted by several international researchers who travelled the Guliya ice cap to explore ancient viruses. The study was published recently in the pre-print server bioRxiv.

Glacial ice can store microscopic particles for thousands of years and scientists are continuously making discoveries by analyzing the frozen contents to expand our understanding of Earth’s history. In 2015 the researchers drilled 50 metres into ice that is over 15,000 years old and sampled two ice cores to better understand what microbes were in the atmosphere at the time they became trapped in the glacier, which reflects the climatic and environmental conditions during that period.

The two ice cores were drilled at different elevations — one at 6,200 metres and the other at 6,650 metres — and the researchers found that the environmental conditions at these two sites were very different in terms of air temperature, the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere and UV radiation. The ice cores contained 33 different viruses and the study says that only four could be assigned a formal classification, meaning that the others were completely new to science.

Analysis of the microbes indicates that three viral populations were abundant, which suggests that these viruses may be active in the ice. Many of the bacteria that were found in the samples are psychrophilic, which means that they grow and reproduce in low temperatures that range from −20°C to 10°C and are found in several regions on Earth that are permanently cold, such as the deep sea, glaciers and ice sheets. These active bacteria indicate that glacier ice could just be a temporary storage unit and that the bacteria could one day be revived and present in ecosystems if glaciers melt in the future.

Other tests in the study found that 18 of the 33 viruses were linked to a host at some point time, meaning that they were infectious either before and/or after the ice formed and likely influenced the populations of other microbes.

Very little is known about how microbes trapped in ice for thousands of years survive and reproduce. There are only two other reports of viruses found in glaciers — one came from an ice core sample of a 140,000-year-old Greenland ice core and another came from an ice core that was sampled at a depth ranging between 2,749 metres and 3,556 metres at the Vostok Station in East Antarctica.

The study warns that because glaciers around the world are rapidly shrinking, this could release microbes and viruses that have been trapped for tens to hundreds of thousands of years.

"At a minimum, [ice melt] could lead to the loss of microbial and viral archives that could be diagnostic and informative of past Earth climate regimes," the researchers wrote. The thought of ancient viruses being released from melting glaciers is terrifying, but the researchers say that this is a worst-case scenario.

The study’s conclusion emphasizes that it is crucial to understand how microbes could impact the ice that they are trapped in, their historic influence on other viruses and bacteria, and how they behave outside of frozen environments in case they are released by glacial melt.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/01/30/over-6000-people-quaran...

Over 6,000 people quarantined on cruise ship amid coronavirus scare

Some 6,000 passengers and employees have been quarantined on a Carnival-owned cruise ship at a port in Italy after one passenger allegedly exhibited symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus.
A 54-year-old Chinese woman was placed in isolation aboard the Costa Smeralda, operated by Carnival Corporation's subsidiary Costa Cruises, in the port city of Civitavecchia, located about 50 northwest of Rome, on Thursday, USA Today reports.
The vessel set sail from Savona, Italy, on Jan. 25 and made stops in two Spanish ports — Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona — and in Marseille, France, before it was halted by officials in Civitavecchia on Jan. 30 after the female passenger reportedly began experiencing a fever and difficulty breathing, two common symptoms of the virus.

An Italian Coast Guard official confirmed to Bloomberg that all passengers and crew members are now being held on the Costa Smeralda — which has a total capacity of 6,600 — while a medical team from Rome examines the patient and her travel companion.
The incident comes amid mounting global fears over the rapidly spreading coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, and has since spread in a limited capacity to over a dozen other countries, including the United States, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and Canada.

Although, if confirmed, the Costa Smeralda passenger would be the first case of coronavirus reported on a cruise ship, cruise operators are already taking precautionary measures to prevent outbreaks onboard their vessels.
Royal Caribbean International has canceled select cruises from Shanghai while Carnival Corporation has canceled four of its scheduled trips in the region, James Hardiman, the managing director of equity research for.

Wedbush Securities, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.
Hardiman estimated that each canceled voyage can cost a cruise company $3 to $4 million of revenue.
Major airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and British Airways, have also announced multiple flight cancellations both to and from China.
Although the virus continues to spread, with over 7,700 reported cases and 170 reported deaths, most of which have been recorded in mainland China, health officials assure that the risk of an outbreak in the United States remains low.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/02/04/more-than-3500-people-q...

More than 3,500 people quarantined on cruise ship in Japan after guest tests positive for coronavirus

Feb 4th 2020 11:33AM

Thousands of people are stuck on a cruise ship docked in Japan under quarantine while medical officials test guests for coronavirus.
An 80-year-old guest from Hong Kong was diagnosed with coronavirus after disembarking the ship on Jan. 25, five days after it departed from Yokohama, Japan, according to a statement from the cruise line obtained by CNN.
The man, who has not been identified, was hospitalized on Jan. 30 and is currently in stable condition.
After his diagnosis, the cruise, the Diamond Princess, has been quarantined in Yokohama, including all 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew members.

Thousands of people are stuck on a cruise ship docked in Japan under quarantine while medical officials test guests for coronavirus.
An 80-year-old guest from Hong Kong was diagnosed with coronavirus after disembarking the ship on Jan. 25, five days after it departed from Yokohama, Japan, according to a statement from the cruise line obtained by CNN.
The man, who has not been identified, was hospitalized on Jan. 30 and is currently in stable condition.
After his diagnosis, the cruise, the Diamond Princess, has been quarantined in Yokohama, including all 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew members.

Update: 

Quoted "

Princess Cruises  10 passengers test positive for new coronavirus

PUBLISHED TUE, FEB 4 20206:54 PM EST “These 10 persons, who have been notified, will be taken ashore by Japanese Coast Guard watercraft and transported to local hospitals for care by shoreside Japanese medical professionals,” the company said.

 " 

From:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/princess-cruises-quarantines-3700-a...

Current Location of Ship:

https://www.seascanner.com/ships-position-diamond-princess

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-02-dead-congo-fever-outbreak-ma...

February 5, 2020
7 dead in Congo fever outbreak in Mali

Seven people have died in an outbreak of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, also known as Congo fever, in a village in central Mali, an official said.

Yacouba Maiga, the spokesperson for the regional government of the central Mopti region, said that a shepherd "contracted the illness from an ox" in the village of Samoa in late January.
He was treated but the disease surfaced again on February 1 infecting 14 people and killing five, the official said.
Two other patients died while being transported to the town of Sevare, in central Mali, for treatment.
"It's different to coronavirus," said Maiga, referring to the deadly SARS-like virus currently sweeping China.
Congo fever is a tick-borne viral disease which causes severe haemorrhaging, according to the World Health Organization.
People are often infected after they come into contact with the blood of infected animals, often after slaughtering livestock.
Humans in very close contact with each other, however, can also transmit the disease.
"It's a rare pathology in Mali. There have been cases around 10 years ago," Health Minister Michel Sidibe told AFP.
Health officials were preparing for an "investigative mission in the area with the support of security forces," according to a health ministry report from Monday, which was seen by AFP on Wednesday.
However, an official in Mopti said the fact-finding team had not yet left on Wednesday. 

BREAKING NEWS – WARTIME STATUS (MARTIAL LAW) DECLARED FOR THE CITY OF BEIJING    February 13, 2020

Party Committee of Beijing Centers for Disease Control

In order to further discipline, compact responsibility, and ensure that all prevention and control work is carried out in an efficient and standardized manner, the Party Committee of the Beijing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a wartime state order, requiring its party members and employees to fully recognize the “critical period”, “critical moment”, and “keys” The urgency and importance of the moment, consciously established a “very conscious” and entered a “wartime state.”

The first is to insist on using “state of war” to lead the thinking.

The center not only fulfills the city’s epidemic prevention and control duties, provides professional technical support duties for government decision-making, but also implements the “unit responsibility” of the “quartet responsibility” to protect the safety and health of all employees, both of which are equally important and cannot be sidelined. Under the unified leadership of the Party Committee, it unconditionally obeys the decision-making and deployment of the Party Committee in the wartime state and serves the current prevention and control work. It resonates at the same frequency, obeys unified orders, unified commands, and acts.

The second is to insist on strengthening implementation with “wartime standards.”

All party members and cadres must take overall consideration into account and resolutely put an end to work mistakes caused by this mistake. All employees must unconditionally obey work scheduling and consciously obey management. Strengthen the work style and achieve “the end of the day and the end of the day”; adhere to the problem-oriented, responsibility-oriented, sensitive matters in the prevention and control, unexplained events and the work of leaders at all levels, to understand the situation and guide commence to work.

https://thewatchtowers.org/breaking-news-wartime-status-martial-law...

Beijing CDC Party Committee Issues Wartime Status Order

https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/f3gdsz/beijing_cdc_part...

China Ousts Senior Officials as Beijing Seeks Distance From Outbreak
Firings of the Communist Party secretaries of Hubei province and Wuhan signal Beijing’s disapproval of their handling of Covid-19 epidemic

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-ousts-top-official-in-coronaviru...

Prevention tips to protect yourself from the Coronavirus:

via GIPHY

1. Stay hydrated.

Drink lots of water, and avoid or limit drinks that will dehydrate you such as coffee, soft drinks and alcohol. Eating foods with high amounts of water, like fruits and vegetables, also helps.

2. Boost your immune system, naturally

There are plenty of foods that can help your immune system. Make sure to consult your doctor, but I personally consume large amounts of raw ginger and garlic whenever I am at risk for disease. Peppers and citrus fruits are also excellent disease fighters. Your colleagues might hate you for eating that big garlic clove, but if it keeps you from getting sick or helps you get better faster, it's worth it!

3. Get plenty of sleep

This was one of my biggest mistakes in my early twenties, and very likely compromised my immune system even further, making me especially susceptible to MERS. Whether you're a workaholic or a party animal (or both), be sure to get enough sleep or your immune system will be weakened.

4. Wash your hands

I personally carry hand sanitizer everywhere, but that doesn't catch everything, so be sure to frequently wash your hands with soap and warm water. Health professionals recommend singing "the happy birthday song" to yourself to make sure you've washed your hands thoroughly for a sufficient amount of time. I have made it a habit to immediately wash my hands whenever I return home and before every meal, and it's dramatically cut down how often I'm sick.

5. Work from home

This is actually probably one of the best ways to prevent disease. A coworker could forward you a phishing email that compromises your accounts, but they can't give you Wuhan Coronavirus over Slack or email. I've run a company with a distributed team for more than five years, and my newest software company, Endpass, continues to have a remote team across North America and Europe. Needless to say, we won't be sharing any germs unless we do a team retreat. If one positive thing came from the Coronavirus, it would be encouraging more companies to consider remote teams and work from home policies.

6 Carry tissues

Besides wearing a surgical-grade or n95 masks if you think you're sick or potentially exposed to infected people, the next best thing you can do is use tissues when you sneeze. I always carry a disposable pack in my fanny pack (since I stopped wearing purses) and travel bag.

7. Disinfect your environment

Public places are filthy, especially airports and airplanes. My cousin who works in nursing turned me on to carrying disposable disinfectant wipes in my travel bag. Now I wipe down the plane seat and other especially germy places before coming in contact with them. There's also some great hand sanitizer out there. My favorite is the lavender vanilla scented stuff at Whole Foods, but it's probably in other stores and on Amazon.

8. Think twice about sharing

I'm a big fan of "family style" meals, but when any kind of disease is likely to be spreading you should limit your exposure to possible contamination as much as possible. So don't share drinks, and definitely don't share vapes, if you smoke. (Obviously, smoking also weakens your immune system and can damage your lungs, making them easier to be infected.)

9. Don't travel while sick!

Traveling when you're sick is a terrible idea. Not only are you more likely to get even sicker if you're already feeling unwell, you're also spreading disease. I refuse to do it anymore after getting MERS. I personally fly Alaska because of their great customer service, and how easy it is for me to change my flights for free.

10. If you're sick, seek medical attention immediately!

Finally, don't wait to seek medical attention. I probably should have gone to the hospital in Dubai when I first had symptoms, but I foolishly decided to wait until I returned to go to Cairo. If my symptoms had progressed slightly faster, I could have died. If you think you have contracted the Wuhan Coronavirus, seek medical treatment early. Make sure a loved one, close friend, or colleague also knows you're feeling unwell so they can check on you in case you become even sicker.

I hope this was helpful and that it keeps you and your loved ones healthy, and protected from the Wuhan Coronavirus and other diseases.

https://www.inc.com/heather-r-morgan/how-to-prepare-for-coronavirus...

Italy to close all schools and universities amid coronavirus surge 3/4/2020
Italy announced Wednesday it will temporarily close all its schools and universities as the country continues to grapple with a surge in coronavirus infections, according to new reports.
Those closures will begin Thursday and last until mid-March, CNBC reported.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/italy-coronavirus-schools-universitie...

Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines cancel all Israel flights over virus rules  3/5/2020

Airline giant Lufthansa says it is canceling all flights to Israel until March 28, after the Jewish state barred entry to almost all non-resident arrivals from five European nations including Germany.

Flights to Tel Aviv and Eilat by Lufthansa and subsidiaries Swiss and Austrian Airlines will be canceled from Sunday, March 8, until the end of the winter timetable on March 28, the group says in a statement, while some flights will be halted on Friday and Saturday “for operational reasons.”

— AFP

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march-5-2020/

https://news4trafford.co.uk/2020/03/25/covid-19-no-longer-on-the-hi...

COVID-19 no longer on the high consequence infectious disease list
News4Trafford 25/03/2020
Coronavirus COVID-19 has been taken of the high consequence infectious diseases list as of 19 March 2020.

A statement on the UK government website clearly says:
“As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) in the UK.
The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID.
This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak.
Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria.
They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.
The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.”
The criteria for a HCID is:
acute infectious disease
typically has a high case-fatality rate
may not have effective prophylaxis or treatment
often difficult to recognise and detect rapidly
ability to spread in the community and within healthcare settings
requires an enhanced individual, population and system response to ensure it is managed effectively, efficiently and safely
The HCID has passed over COVID-19 to the UK government who have as we all know has all but locked down the country.
The official source of information can be seen https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid

COVID-19 is no longer infectious! it is off the list so where do we go from here? could this be the reason why their is so much confusion? well now with this information it is actually good news! and as we have always said “National Media and the government have only programmed fear into the UK public.”
However we still suggest to go with government guidelines as although it is off the infectious diseases list it could still cause problems with your health, for example and its real more people died of seasonal flu last year in the UK than COVID-19, if you are older or have a weakened immune system and you get the flu it could result in big problems mostly to do with lung issues.
Older people and those with a weakened immune system will have been in fear watching the big news channels in the UK and reading the utter nonsense from some newspapers, scaring people causes stress this will weaken the immune system which is unhelpful to these people.
We do not want to cause further chaos, and suggest even now for people to stick to the governments guidelines, but we cannot understand why the government continues to believe this virus is infectious when it is not according to what we have found.
The country is in a mess, people need to get back to work, everything needs to start again before it is too late, with the information above, surely now this can happen since COVID-19 is no longer infectious.

Read here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid

Guidance
High consequence infectious diseases (HCID)