WHO pinpoints origin of new SARS-like virus transmitted person-to-person

There have been deaths already from the newly-discovered virus rampant, the point of origin, or the point of emergence into public knowledge of the SARS-like virus has been the work of the World Health Organization (WHO), for which all Christians shoud thank the Lord.  The new virus seems to require person-to-person transmissionl.  But as Kate Kelland's article below tells us, we can't be sure what is in store for in the world population as such viruses mutate and produce new strains very rapidly.

— Albert Gedraitis  (yes, I'm still suffering from depression)


SunSentinel (Feb15,2k13)

New SARS-like virus shows 

person-to-person transmission

by Kate KellandReuters

2:41 p.m. EST, February 13, 2013

LONDON (Reuters) - A third patient in Britain has contracted a new SARS-like virus, becoming the second confirmed British case in a week and showing the deadly infection is being spread from person to person, health officials said on Wednesday.

The latest case, in a man from the same family as another patient, brings the worldwide number of confirmed infections with the new virus - known as novel coronavirus, or NCoV - to 11.

Of those, five have died. Most of the infected lived or had recently been in the Middle East. Three have been diagnosed in Britain.

NCoV was identified when the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued an international alert in September 2012 saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.

The virus belongs to the same family as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a coronavirus that emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide. Symptoms common to both viruses include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the latest patient, who is a UK resident and does not have any recent travel history, is in intensive care at a hospital in central England.

"Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the UK," said John Watson, the HPA's head of respiratory diseases.
He said the new case was a family member in close contact with another British case confirmed on Monday and who may have been at greater risk because of underlying health conditions.

The WHO said although this latest case shows evidence of person-to-person transmission, it still believes "the risk of sustained person-to-person transmission appears to be very low".

RISK VERY LOW, BUT VIRUSES CAN MUTATE

Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Yet since NCoV was identified in September, evidence of person-to-person transmission has been limited.

Watson said the fact it probably had taken place in the latest two cases in Britain gave no reason for increased alarm.

"If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases than we have seen since the first case was reported three months ago.

Tom Wilkinson, a senior lecturer in respiratory medicine at Britain's University of Southampton, said that if NCoV turned out to be like the previous SARS outbreak, it may prove quite slow to spread from one human to another.

"But it's early days to make any definite statements because viruses can change and mutate very rapidly, so what is right today may be wrong tomorrow," he told Reuters.

Based on the current situation, the WHO said all member states should continue surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections and investigate any unusual patterns.

"Testing for the new coronavirus should be considered in patients with unexplained pneumonias, or in patients with unexplained severe, progressive or complicated respiratory illness not responding to treatment," it said in a statement.

The WHO said on Monday that the confirmation of a new British case did not alter its risk assessment but "does indicate that the virus is persistent".

The British patient confirmed on Monday had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and is in intensive care in a separate British hospital, the HPA said.

Among the 11 laboratory confirmed cases to date, five are in Saudi Arabia, with three deaths; two are in Jordan, where both patients died; three are in Britain, where all three are receiving treatment; and one was in Germany in a patient from Qatar who had since been discharged from medical care.

The WHO said at this stage there is no need for travel or trade restrictions, or for special screening at border points.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Dengue fever is on a world rampage

I've known of dengue fever ever since I encountered in a book of stories I was editing for a friend in Sri Lanka.  The children who wrote the stories (more or less) knew all about dengue.  It was out there somewhere, but in Canada you don't worry so much about tropical diseases.  It's more frostbite, and stuff like that.  Well, there's the norovirus nowadays during this Winter flu season.  But dengue ....

— Albert Gedraitis


Toronto Star (Jan20,2k13)

Dengue fever racing around the world

says World Heath Organization

Jennifer Yang
Global Health Reporter 

13 Comments

Dengue fever is now the fastest spreading insect-borne virus in the world and has reached “epidemic potential,” the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Indeed, Dr. Scott Halstead, a leading dengue expert who has studied the virus for more than 50 years, goes even further: he believes the pandemic has already arrived.

“We’re in it. We’re in the pandemic,” said Halstead, a senior scientific adviser to the Dengue Vaccine Initiative. “We have more dengue in more countries, and in more places and involving more people, than any other time in history. It’s reached a huge geographic expanse and now we’re stuck with it.”

While Halstead and the WHO may differ on the precise definition of what constitutes a “pandemic,” they both agree dengue has reached alarming levels since “breakbone fever” began to spread just after the Second World War.

In 1955, only three countries reported dengue cases, according to the WHO, which released its second report on neglected tropical diseases Wednesday. Today, dengue fever is found in over 125 countries and nearly half the world’s population is now at risk of infection.

Currently, there are several dengue outbreaks. One on Portugal’s Madeira Island marks Europe’s first sustained transmission of the virus in nine decades. Paraguay is in the midst of a nationwide epidemic. There have been more than 6,000 confirmed cases and 70 deaths in the past three months, according to Reuters.

“In 2012, dengue ranked as the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease … registering a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past 50 years,” the UN health agency said in a news release. “The world needs to change its reactive approach and implement sustainable preventive measures.”

Dengue is transmitted by mosquitos — primarily the female Aedes aegypti, which also spreads yellow fever — and typically causes flu-like symptoms, headache and skin rash. The disease is incredibly painful and debilitating.

“I’ve met many, many adults who have had dengue, mostly in Asia, and what they say is almost the same words: ‘That is the worst disease I’ve ever had,’ ” he said.

The disease can develop in a severe form known as dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome, which can be fatal. About 2.5 per cent of people affected die, according to the WHO.

There is no treatment for severe dengue other than hospitalization and fluid management, which can make dengue an expensive disease to treat, Halstead said.

What makes finding a dengue vaccine particularly challenging is that there are four strains of the virus. An infected person will develop lifelong immunity to one particular strain, but he or she is at increased risk of getting severe dengue if infected later with one of the three other strains.

According to Dr. Raman Velayudhan, a WHO scientist specializing in neglected tropical diseases, two main factors have contributed to dengue’s rapid rise: urbanization and the spread of mosquitoes, aided by spreading transportation networks.

“The mosquitoes are spreading all over silently,” Velayudhan said. “They are there in many places and just waiting for an infected human to come by.”

Both he and Halstead agree it is unlikely that the tropical disease will ever become established in Canada — but that doesn’t mean Canadians shouldn’t worry about it.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, about 200 to 300 Canadian tourists get dengue every year. A nasty bout of breakbone fever is just a plane ride away.

“I don’t think there’s any tropical country you can visit that doesn’t have dengue,” Halstead said. “These are all global problems that have an enormous impact on the health and the financial stability and prosperity of countries in the world. Dengue is a drain.”

Terror Flu ("norovirus") has Hollywood and Sundance taking strong health precautions

This strain of flu has epedemiologists, Centers for Disease Control, and the movie-going public taking unusual measures to minimize the spread of the flu virus.

— Albert Gedraitis


Hollywood Reporter  (Jan25,2k13)

Sundance Flu Scare: Park City Medical Center to Hand Out 5,000 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer

As the flu wreaks havoc nationwide, healthcare workers will try to keep the pesky virus from crashing the party.

Consider it an uninvited Sundance guest.

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As the flu wreaks havoc nationwide, the Park City Medical Center is trying to keep the pesky virus from crashing the party by handing out 5,000 free bottles of hand sanitizer. 

PHOTOS: Sundance's Greatest Hits: The Movies That Broke Through

An estimated 50,000 people including such stars as Ashton Kutcher, Daniel Radcliffe and Jessica Biel will descend on the Utah town this week for the Sundance Film Festival, coinciding with a flu epidemic that is clogging emergency rooms coast to coast. PCMC brass say the quaint mountain burg will become a giant Petri dish -- with festival-goers shaking hands, riding public transportation and unknowingly spreading germs. The medical center also will be staffing up its emergency room to brace for the extra number of people in town during the festival.

“We know that one of the best ways to prevent the flu is frequent hand sanitizing, so we will be giving out free bottles of hand sanitizers to some of the hotels, restaurants and transportation companies," said hospital CEO Rob Allen. “If people slip these into their pockets or purses and use them to clean their hands, it really will help them to stay healthy and enjoy the film festival."

Still, demand for hand sanitizer will likely exceed supply, so festival-goers are encouraged to bring their own, as well.

PHOTOS: Sundance 2013: The Premieres

Hollywood has proved that it is not immune from the flu.

The flu has ripped through the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, with several vaccinated staffers still getting sick.

And at this week's Golden Globe Awards, a number of presenters and winners referenced the bug. Nominee Meryl Streep could not attend after coming down with the flu, while Jennifer Lawrence told Al Roker on the red carpet that she, too, was suffering from the virus (Roker noticeably backed away). And Hugh Jackman, who won the award for best actor in a comedy or musical for his role in Les Mis, joked during his acceptance speech that he was in recovery mode: "I was kicking myself for not getting a flu shot, but it appears you don't need one. I feel great."

As for Sundance, the PCMC is urging fest-goers to:

· Get a flu vaccine. (It’s not too late.)

· Avoid close contact with those who are sick.

· Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth.

· Get plenty of sleep and exercise, drink lots of water, and eat healthy foods.

(Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.)

Norovirus — infection causes severe, sometimes projectile, vomiting and diarrhea --

One coud depart from Darwin to say that this virus has an intelligence of its own, purposely improving itself to evade human detection and prevention.  It incubates only briefly, and when ready to jump out from host to human host, it likes to make you vomit like a firefighter's hose — long streams in a trajectory like a projectile.  You can also pass it on from hand to hand, but if you don't, and it doesn't find a host immediately, it can lay dormant undetected on a rug, say, rather invisible until someone stirs it up with a vacuum cleaner perhaps.  Or it sticks to your shoes, until you remove them with your hands, or someone else moves them for you. But then, your hands?  It can remain alive 12 days on fabrics and carpets.  It can last alive for up to 6 months in still water.  In reproducing itself, norovirus is in a hurry so that it makes mistakes, one coud surmise instead that it is programmed to make mistakes in copying its own genetic template into the DNA of its "offspring" cells — this mechanism contributes powerfully to its ablity to change its DNA scheme rapidly and creates obstacles to finding any permanent killer and cleaner, in the form of an anti-virus.  It also means that commercial advanced drug companies have a money-maker in just keeping up with the predatory changes somewhat effectively.  But, hey, watch out for the invisible buggie in them thar' laboratories while you're trying to keep up with the lastest wizardry of the norovirus.

— Albert Gedraitis

Norovirus examined on robot "Larry" to test the trajectile of vomiting as scientists stand by and watch simulation of disease that is taking more and more lives annually

Paramedics dressed in protective attire walk in front of the ship, Bellriva, in Wiesbaden, Germany, December 8, 2012.  The Bellriva has been quarantined after at least 30 passengers were found to be suffering from vomiting and diarrhea.  Authorities believe it was caused by the Norovirus, a virus that is spread from person-to-person and causes flu-like symptoms.

Reuters (Dec31,2k12)

by Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON | Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:53am EST

Yet their lack of concern for Larry is made up for by their intense interest in how far splashes of his vomit can fly, and how effectively they evade attempts to clean them up.

Larry is a "humanoid simulated vomiting system" designed to help scientists analyze contagion. And like millions around the world right now, he's struggling with norovirus - a disease one British expert describes as "the Ferrari of the virus world".

"Norovirus is one of the most infectious viruses of man," said Ian Goodfellow, a professor of virology at the department of pathology at Britain's University of Cambridge, who has been studying noroviruses for 10 years.

"It takes fewer than 20 virus particles to infect someone. So each droplet of vomit or gram of feces from an infected person can contain enough virus to infect more than 100,000 people."

Norovirus is hitting hard this year - and earlier too.

In Britain so far this season, more than a million people are thought to have suffered the violent vomiting and diarrhea it can bring. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said this high rate of infection relatively early in the winter mirrors trends seen in Japan and Europe.

"In Australia the norovirus season also peaks during the winter, but this season it has gone on longer than usual and they are seeing cases into their summer," it said in a statement.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say norovirus causes 21 million illnesses annually. Of those who get the virus, some 70,000 require hospitalization and around 800 die each year.

PROFUSE AND PROJECTILE

Norovirus dates back more than 40 years and takes its name from the U.S. city of Norwalk, Ohio, where there was an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in school children in November 1968.

Symptoms include a sudden onset of vomiting, which can be projectile, and diarrhea, which may be profuse and watery. Some victims also suffer fevers, headaches and stomach cramps.

John Harris, an expert on the virus at Britain's HPA, puts it simply: "Norovirus is very contagious and very unpleasant."

What makes this such a formidable enemy is its ability to evade death from cleaning and to survive long periods outside a human host. Scientists have found norovirus can remain alive and well for 12 hours on hard surfaces and up to 12 days on contaminated fabrics such as carpets and upholstery. In still water, it can survive for months, maybe even years.

At the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire, northern England, where researcher Catherine Makison developed the humanoid simulated vomiting system and nicknamed him "Vomiting Larry", scientists analyzing his reach found that small droplets of sick can spread over three meters.

"The dramatic nature of the vomiting episodes produces a lot of aerosolized vomit, much of which is invisible to the naked eye," Goodfellow told Reuters.

Larry's projections were easy to spot because he had been primed with a "vomitus substitute", scientists explain, which included a fluorescent marker to help distinguish even small splashes - but they would not be at all easily visible under standard white hospital lighting.

Add the fact that norovirus is particularly resistant to normal household disinfectants and even alcohol hand gels, and it's little wonder the sickness wreaks such havoc in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, cruise ships and hotels.

During the two weeks up to December 23, there were 70 hospital outbreaks of norovirus reported in Britain, and last week a cruise ship that sails between New York and Britain's Southampton docked in the Caribbean with about 200 people on board suffering suspected norovirus.

MOVING TARGET

The good news, for some, is that not everyone appears to be equally susceptible to norovirus infection. According to Goodfellow, around 20 percent of Europeans have a mutation in a gene called FUT2 that makes them resistant.

For the rest the only likely good news will have to wait for the results of trials of a potential norovirus vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc, or from one of several research teams around the world working on possible new antiviral drugs to treat the infection.

Early tests in 2011 indicated that around half of people vaccinated with the experimental shot, now owned by Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, were protected from symptomatic norovirus infection.

The bad news, virologists say, is that the virus changes constantly, making it a moving target for drug developers. There is also evidence that humans' immune response to infection is short-lived, so people can become re-infected by the same virus within just a year or two.

"There are many strains, and the virus changes very rapidly - it undergoes something virologists call genetic drift," Harris said in a telephone interview. "When it makes copies of itself, it makes mistakes in those copies - so each time you encounter the virus you may be encountering a slightly different one."

This means that even if a vaccine were to be fully developed - still a big 'if' - it would probably need to be tweaked and repeated in a slightly different formula each year to prevent people getting sick.

Until any effective drugs or vaccines are developed, experts reckon that like the common cold, norovirus will be an unwelcome guest for many winters to come. Their advice is to stay away from anyone with the virus, and use soap and water liberally.

"One of the reasons norovirus spreads so fast is that the majority of people don't wash their hands for long enough," said Goodfellow. "We'd suggest people count to 15 while washing their hands and ensure their hands are dried completely."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Will Waterman)