Current
events
- 28
august 2005.
Hantavirus (Bunyaviridae family, puumala type)
infections in France, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg in 2005
are larger than usual (more than 500 cases in all, ten times
more than in 2004). This may be connected to an increase of
the population of bank voles. Their population size is known
to vary according to the availability of food, and hantavirus
is carried by these animals. These viruses cause hemorrhagic
fevers with renal syndrome. The types present in Europe are
usually less dangerous than those in Asia or in the Americas.
- 26
august 2005.
For some time, backyard poultry has been dying off in
Bulgaria. The cause of the disease is not flu but Newcastle
disease, an endemic disease caused by another virus (a
paramyxovirus) which has most probably been transmitted by
wild pigeons. It is likely that,
because of the bird's flu scare, this type of fairly frequent
event will be the cause of overreactions by the public. In
Vietnam, bird flu has killed three civet-cats at a national
park, marking the first time the virus has been reported in
the species. The disease has already infected
and killed predators in the past. Eaten as delicacies in
South-East Asia, civet-cats are infamous as they were supposed
for some time to have been the vectors of the SARS virus. The
true problem about avian flu is not that a vaccine will be
difficult to invent (we know already that this will be
possible), but simply a question of infrastructures: we do not
have enough factories to make the vaccine into the required
number of doses. We could already witness the situation last
winter, when it was necessary to remove from the market a
defective batch of the vaccine: it was not possible de
vaccinate all the persons in need. We can therefore expect
that, if the disease appears within three years, a situation
of crisis where we will have to chose between the victims of
the "ordinary" flu (mostly aging people) and the general
population, to decide which vaccine should be prepared in the
factories we possess. Sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) is
gaining ground in the region of Isangi, located in the Tshopo
district, Congo-Kinshasa. This letal disease, which stays
invisible for a long time in the patients, can be cured but
the treatment has often very dangerous side effects.
- 23
august 2005.
Animal infectious diseases play a major role in the
(re)emerging diseases that affect man. Unfortunately, many
animals are subject to endemic diseases, such as
foot-and-mouth disease (there is an ongoing outbreak in
Mongolia), or, in birds Newcastle disease (active in UK at the
present time). Avian flu is developing both in Mongolia and
extending westwards in Russia, menacing Europe, where a
cacophony of reactions can be heard (the poultry industry
represents a considerable amount of agro-food industry
resources). Interestingly one appears suddenly to understand
the role of migratry birds, as well as the well known origin
of the virus. For those interested to follow our vision of the
present episode, see what we wrote about Milvus
migrans (curiously, scavengers are rarely
considered as sentries, while they live from the flesh of dead
animals), and subsequently on cranes,
of the spread
of the virus in Japan, and on the usual development of
the disease in China, where pigs
play the role of intermediate hosts.
- 17
august 2005.
The outbreak of the deadly Streptococcus
suis infection in the Sichuan
province in China has triggered systematic reporting of
related infections in China, ending up with reports from many
cities. Hong Kong found today its ninth infection in a few
weeks.
- 16
august 2005.
The H5N1 flu virus is expanding westwards in Russia (it also
reached Kazakhstan and Mongolia in the past weeks). The virus,
probably carried there by migrating
birds, was discovered mid-July in Novosibirsk and has
spread through Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan, Altai and now Chelyabinsk
in the Ural mountains, which is approximately 1,000 km west of
Novosibirsk.
- 9
august 2005.
A rare strain of cholera has infected more than 2000 people in
Uganda in the past weeks. More than 50 died of the disease. In
Guinea Bissau the toll is even heavier: 84 deaths and more
than 5000 cases. Another media-driven controversy agitates
scientists interested in China as the
outbreak of Streptococcus suis continues to kill
people and pigs in the Sichuan province. The bird's flu
epidemic is not yet contained in Siberia.
- 4
august 2005.
For some time the way the
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
entered cells was somewhat controversial. Two different cell
receptors had been proposed to be the entry port, based on
cell cultures. A new study using mice knock-out mutants, by a
collaboration between scientists in Beijing, Austria, USA and
Canada, proves unambiguously that the receptor is
angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Because this enzyme
acts in a very important hormone regulatory cascade (the
renin-angiotensin cascade) this explains why the symptoms of
the disease are often dramatic and letal. The media-driven
controversy about bird's flu between the Chinese Ministry of
Agriculture, the Department of Microbiology at the University
of Hong Kong and the private university of Shantou in the
Guangdong province is still active (see July, 8th), while in
Siberia flocks of contaminated fowls are slaughtered.
- 1
august 2005.
Poliomyelitis is far from eradicated. While it remains endemic
in Madagascar, it surfaced again in Angola, with two cases of
paralysy. The last outbreak was back in 2001.
- 31
july 2005.
A 20-year-old poultry farm workman showing bird flu symptoms
has been hospitalized in Kazakhstan's Pavlodar region, where
600 domestic geese died between July 20 and July 30 as a
result of an outbreak of the disease in the area. The patient,
from the village of Golubovka, was later diagnosed with double
pneumonia.
- 30
july 2005.
Health authorities in Siberia challenge their initial
identification of the virus responsible for bird flu there,
stating that it most probably is H5N1. As the oubreak has most
probably been transmitted by migrating birds, this raises
concern about its propagation in Northern countries, then back
to new Southern countries when the summer will end.
- 26
july 2005.
The bird flu outbreak in Siberia is fortunately caused by a
H5N2 virus, not the H5N1 dangerous type. Pigs have been found
to be H5N1 positive in Indonesia, which proceeded to slaughter
infected animals. The Indonesian government has officially
appointed Persahabatan Hospital in Rawamangun, East Jakarta,
and Sulianti Saroso Hospital in Sunter, North Jakarta, as
referral hospitals in response to the recent deaths of three
Tangerang residents from bird flu. The mysterious death of 300
egrets in a forest park in Guangzhou (Canton) triggers fear in
the population of a new bird flu outbreak in the region. The
rumor spreads that people have eaten some of the birds or sold
them on the markets.
- 25
july 2005.
A mysterious epidemic is affecting the Sichuan province in
China. Some 80 persons appear to have been affected and 20
died of the disease. No person-to-person contagion was
monitored but the outbreak seems to be on the rise. Media in
Hong Kong and Taiwan hint at a contamination by a Streptococcus
associated to pigs.
- 21
july 2005.
For the first time, Russia reports H5 bird flu on its
territory (Anatidae, in Central Siberia). This could
correspond to the Qinghai episode in China. Dengue fever is
spreading in Singapore.
- 16
july 2005.
In a first for Mainland China, scientists from Beijing unravel
the details of the recent outbreak of flu affecting Anatidae
(the family of birds comprising ducks, geese and the like) in
the Qinghai region, a controversial matter (see other details
on the july 8th entry): "Highly pathogenic H5N1
influenza virus infection in migratory birds" by Jinhua Liu,1*
Haixia Xiao,2,6* Fumin Lei,3* Qingyu
Zhu,4 Kun Qin,1 Xiaowei Zhang,5
Xinglin Zhang,1 Deming Zhao,1 Guihua
Wang,2,6 Youjun Feng,2,6 Juncai Ma,2
Wenjun Liu,2 Jian Wang,5 George F. Gao2
1College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural
University, Beijing 100094. 2Institute of
Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080. 3Institute
of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080. 4Institute
of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Academy of Military Medical
Sciences, Beijing 100071. 5Beijing Genomics
Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101300. 6Graduate
School, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. This
works shows that the virus isolated from a peregrine falcon in
Hong Kong carried markers of virulence similar to those of the
geese found at the Qinghaihu Lake. The Indonesian health
ministry says bird flu is suspected in the recent deaths of a
man and his two daughters near Jakarta.
- 14
july 2005. More
than ten new cases of patients infected by bird flu are
hospitalized in Hanoi. One died of the disease.
- 11
july 2005. Bird
flu is affecting agains Japan fowls, with a first outbreak in
the Philippines, while Thailand's poultry is infected again...
China develops a new "anti-fusion" drug to prevent entry of
the HIV in human cells. Cholera is spreading at the border
between Mali and Senegal.
- 8
july 2005. An
interesting controversy has begun between Guan Yi, at the
Universities of Hong Kong and Shantou (the latter being
supported by the famous tycoon LI Kashing) and authorities in
Mainland China, led by Jia Youling, director general of the
Veterinary Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Guan, the authorities try to prevent him to have
direct access to the samples of avian flu when outbreaks
occur, while, according to Jia, the conclusions drawn by Guan
are in error and indicate a lack of understanding of bird's
migrations...
- 6
july 2005. A
new liver cell line discovered by Takaji Wakita at the
Department of Microbiology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for
Neuroscience has been improved to allow robust cultivation of
the hepatitis C virus in cell culture. This is a considerable
improvement which will allow to better analyse the letal
hepatitis C and possibly lead to efficient treatment or
vaccine.
- 3
july 2005. The
US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) met
for the first time to discuss research on "dual use"
biotechnology derived weapons, with Craig Venter discussing
the potential use of "synthetic" bacteria.
- 26
june 2005. Chicken
are infected in Japan by the H5N2 influenza virus. This family
of viruses, less dangerous than the H5N1 strains have repeatedly
infected birds last year (in august in South Africa, and
earlier in the USA and in Taiwan. As usual, reaction to
diseases follows epidemics, rather than precede and prevent
them: SARS is the pretext for development of a variety of
vaccines, using the rather trivial "spike" protein of the
virus as the target. Tobacco transgenic plants are now
producing an efficient SARS oral vaccine candidate using this
antigen.
- 22
june 2005. The
cholera is back in Touba, Senegal, where it may have infected
as many as 250 people. As in many other places where cholera
is endemic, authorities tend to hide the fact under the
general term of "diarrhoeal disease". Flu is infecting
chickens again in Vietnam. In China authorities deny having
instructed farmers to use amantadine in fowl breeding. The
situation is complicated as rules about drug trading are not
clearly enforced in many places while many companies are
selling drugs that should be under restricted access all over
the country (the situation is often the same in Europe with
drugs used in veterinary medicine). As early as 1996, the
first patient infected with a vancomycin resistant straing of
staphylococci was already identified in a hospital in Beijing
for that very same reason.
- 19
june 2005.
The rumor is spreading that Chinese authorities have
recommended the use of amantadine, a drug potentially useful
against bird's flu as a prophylactic measure against the
disease in poultry farms all over the country. This is likely
to trigger a controversy, as in the case of large scale
vaccination of animals, as this might drive selection of new
virus variants, and they will in this case be resistant to
amantadine. The present circulating virus genotype Z appears
to be resistant to amantadine. One may wonder whether this
policy might have already selected those variants. Obtained
after random screening of many thousands of compounds by
pharmaceutical companies, two compounds, amantadine and
rimantidine, target the M2 ion channel on the virus. They are
however very difficult to use with dangerous side effects.
This means that large-scale use of the molecule would probably
have been impossible. However this practice, if confirmed,
shows that concerted action world-wide is absolutely needed to
prevent dangerous practice to jeopardize our attemps to
prevent or control the likely pandemic. More human cases are
identified in Vietnam, while it seems possible that one person
in Indonesia had been infected earlier this year by the virus,
without much adverse effects. The outcome of the SARS
meeting in Hangzhou produced a remarkable result:
cinanserin, a drug in therapeutic usage against schizophrenia
since the 1970s, was identified as a cure for the SARS
epidemic and is the only ready-to-use medicine among the total
15 possible anti-SARS remedies studied by the participants in
the meeting. Two viruses related to SARS-CoV were also
identified.
- 15
june 2005.
Six new avian flu human cases in Vietnam...
- 14
june 2005.
Anthrax is endemic in many countries in the world as the
spores of its agent Bacillus anthracis are extremely
resistant and can remain dormant in the soil for decades.
Cattle or sheep herds are often infected, and man get
contaminated when manipulating the slaughtered animals or
their skin, used as leather. Two outbreaks are active at the
moment, one in Zimbabwe (where a large outbreak occurred in
1978-1980) in Gutu district in Masvingo with five cases
reported, and one in India in the state of Tamil Nadu (two
cases). The second annual
meeting of the Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics and
Antivirals (SEPSDA) is opening in Hangzhou (China).
- 9
june 2005.
A new avian flu outbreak affecting geese is developing in the
Northwest province of Xinjiang. The authorities have ordered
the culling of 13,000 birds in farms located near the region
of the outbreak. Three persons have contracted the disease in
Vietnam during the past three weeks (from poultry). On the
front of the other recorded epidemics (not including the most
prevalent diseases, aids, malaria, cholera and diarrhoeal
diseases, dengue fever etc), Marburg fever is probably under
control in Angola, where some 423 people have probably been
infected so far, 357 fatal), no new cases of Ebola fever were
recorded in Congo, 52 persons have been hit by legionellosis
in Norway (where the cause has been identified). The same
disease outbreak near Lyon in France is no over, but the cause
has not been clearly established. A vaccine against Marburg or
Ebola fever would be easy to obtain, as trials on monkeys have
been successful, but these diseases being only contagious by
direct contact their spread should be easy to contain, at
least in conditions where basic hygiene is culturally well
understood and accepted. A remarkable study, where the gene of
the protein which can become a dangerous prion is manipulated
to control synthesis of a truncated protein, yielding a prion
without anchor in the cell membranes, shows in mice that this
creates deposits which look very much like the Alzheimer
plaques. This suggest some kind of link — this could be
convergence — between these two brain degenerative diseases.
And this makes the more important to study the spread of
prions and related spongiform encephalopathies, which,
although sporadic, seem on the rise in some places.
- 5
june 2005.
Back in february this year an
annoucement was made that a new, extremely dangerous HIV
strain emerged in a patient in New York City. Fortunately this
seems to have been an overreaction of scientists and
authorities eager to enhance their reputation. We should not,
however, lower our guard against the disease, as Japan is
witnessing now an increase in new cases at a rate similar to
that found in the developing world.
- 4
june 2005.
Background flu is a disease of Anatidae (ducks, geese and the
like); the reason why it used to spread to man is a route
centred on the standard living custom of Chinese farmers who
keep together ducks and pigs for their living (the character
for "family" is a pig under a roof). It goes from
ducks, to pigs, to man. Usually the disease is fairly
innocuous to ducks. From time to time the virus spreads to
other birds, with more severe symptoms (as it is less adapted
there). This is the case of the recent H5N1 chicken flu, which
probably started from a complex
reassortment from several bird strains in 1997. New
viruses always tend to explore new hosts. Either they are
killed rapidly by the various levels of the immune system -
and nothing is visible - or they cause havoc, often being
extremely dangerous. In such cases, because they are less
adapted, they do not propagate easily in the community of the
new hosts. This appears to be the situation of the present
avian flu outbreak. The danger will come (this seems to become
the situation in Vietnam) when virus mutants will begin to
adapt to their new human hosts. While they will be less (but
still) letal, they will begin to propagate from person to
person. This is the situation monitored by all health
authorities in the world. A consequence of these observations
is that the viruses which might become the most dangerous are
either those which will take a route from Anatidae to a mammal
and then to persons, or viruses infecting another type of
birds and attenuated directly in persons (this seems to be the
route followed at the moment by the virus). It is important to
be aware that the virus which will create the epidemic will be
present in the environment well before the epidemic starts. It
is therefore of the utmost importance to monitor the molecular
changes (analyse the virus genome) in a systematic way. The
two foci which are of most concern are therefore South-East
Asia (where attenuated forms already appear to exist), and
Indonesia (where it appears that pigs have already been
infected, most of them, fortunately, with not much symptoms).
The situation in China is intermediate, and under
investigation. The most recent outbreak, affecting geese, and
being in the remote province of Qinghai, is possibly less
dangerous. However it is likely that the virus comes from
migrating birds which might have been infected in South-East
Asia. Also, in contrast to what is often perceived in the
West, the Central Chinese government does not have the
considerable power usually thought it has. Information, often,
does not go from the place where events happen to the
authorities, and lack of information is often the nightmare of
health authorities. Furthermore local potentates decide what
is important and what is not as a function of their (supposed)
interest, not of the superior interest of the country.
Finally, rumors spread extremely fast, in particular with the
use of mobile phones (less so, fortunately, in the remote
parts of China). This situation is most dangerous as China may
become the first victim of the disease (although South-East
Asia seems perhaps more likely). The most important way to
control the epidemic would be to restrict population movements
(regions placed under quarantine). Rumors and panick are
unfortunately most likely to make people flee from affected
regions (as witnessed with the Marburg disease in Angola for
example) creating new foci. The consequence is that, rather
than pointing fingers at the deficiencies of the Chinese
authorities, we should, by all means, try to help them. In
this respect it is interesting to compare the way SARS was
controlled in the world: China was not the worse, by far.
Also, there have been three laboratory accidents with that
virus: in Singapore first, then in Taiwan, and finally in
Beijing. One should also stress the recent distribution of the
dangerous H2N2 virus which circulated at the beginning of the
1957 epidemic, was sent by accident to hundreds of
laboratories in the USA and 17 countries, demonstrating that
we are certainly not without deficiencies. We should only
follow positive and constructive voices, and organise for what
appears to be more or less inevitable. A strike resulting in
the arrest of the activity of a cleaning water station near
Goma in Congo, led the population to drink water from the
neighboring contaminated lake, causing a serious outbreak of
cholera.
- 1
june 2005. An
Italian team of scientists recently reported that resveratrol,
a polyphenol present in grapes inhibits in vitro, and
apparently in vivo in mice, the replication of viruses, in
particular the influenza virus. This looks like good news but
needs substantial confirmation. This molecule apparently
modifies the redox state of the cell. Another study at the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, with a core molecule of the
widely used curcuma spice (curcumin) also targets the redox
state, with interesting results against cancer. All this
points to a particularly important role of the sulfur
atom metabolism. While the outbreak of Legionnaire's
disease is under control near Lyon in France, an outbreak has
been identified in Norway in the two cities Sarpsborg and
Fredrikstad. It is being monitored.
- 31
may 2005. A
tenth patient died of Ebola fever in Congo (Brazzaville)
showing that the disease is still rampant. The WHO has
declared Indonesia as still endemic for bird flu: 16.2 million
birds died last year of the virus, while the toll seems to be
much lower this year (300,000 in the first quarter). The virus
was also found in some pig farms a few weeks ago: the
authorities have asked to relocate all pig farms away from
poultry farms. Marburg fever still slowly progresses in
Angola.
- 29
may 2005. The
fact that the Chinese authorities took some time to declare
the presence of active foci of foot-and-mouth disease on their
territory triggers questions about the extent of bird's flu.
Some activists take this as a pretext to assume that there has
been human cases. There is no hint however that this is the
case. In fact, at the present time, it appears that the form
affecting poultry is more prone to infect persons directly
than the form infecting Anatidae. Vietnam accepts to
discontinue its controversial program of H5N1 flu vaccine that
the WHO feared might accelerate the evolution of the virus
towards a more contagious form. A group of scientists of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposes a new printing
technique to create large number of identical DNA chips. In
this new printing method, called Supramolecular Nano-Stamping
(SuNS), single strands of DNA self-assemble upon a surface to
duplicate a nano-scale pattern made of their complementary DNA
strands. The duplicates are identical to the master. This
method, if successful, will lower considerably the cost of DNA
chips and trigger wide use for diagnostic purposes.
- 28
may 2005. Several
cases of unidentified infectious diseases have been diagnosed
in Northern Vietnam. They are neither flu, nor dengue, nor
usual encephalitis. Epidemiological analysis suggests that
they may be caused by vectors. Several foci of likely H5N1
bird's flu have been killing Anatidae (birds of the family of
ducks and geese) in the remote Qinghai province. As far as we
know no human cases have been identified. It will be important
to monitor the persons who have been in contact with the
birds. Molecular epidemiological studies are planned. They
should help to know whether the virus comes from South East
Asia, while birds were migrating, and to monitor the types of
mutations involved. Highly letal strains of the virus might be
less dangerous than milder forms, as they die with the animals
they infect. The major concern of the WHO at the moment is
precisely that the viral form in South East Asia is becoming
somewhat attenuated (and therefore can spread more easily).
Several foci of foot an mouth disease have been discovered in
Mainland China, creating havoc on the meat market.
- 22
may 2005. Beginning
early may hundreds of migratory birds have died in the western
China Qinghai province. It has now been established that these
deaths are due to a variant flu H5N1 virus. We noted several
years ago that migratory
birds should be used as sentries to monitor the spread
of bird flu. This is therefore a matter of concern. Thailand
has already witnessed more than 8000 cases of dengue fever
since the beginning of the year, and has begun a new
monitoring system.
- 16
may 2005. The
legionellosis outbreak north of Lyon is similar to that which
affected the region of Lens november
30, 2003 to february 17, 2004. The present number of
cases (34) matches that reached then after one month, at the
peak of the epidemic. While Marburg fever recedes in Angola, a
suspected oubreak of Ebola fever seems to affect the
Democratic Republic of Congo (nine deaths). This may simply be
a rumor triggered by the latter epidemic which is not yet over
(292 deaths among 336 known cases).
- 13
may 2005. The
Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture published that pigs have
been infected by the brid flu virus in the country. As the
most common route from birds to persons is through pigs,
this information is a matter of concern. France may be
witnessing a new outbreak of legionellosis as 20 cases have
been found North of the city of Lyon.
- 12
may 2005. A
news article published in the latest issue of Nature
raises concern about lack of cooperation between
scientists involved in bird flu research. Fortunately,
authorities in countries affected by the bird flu outbreak
have resumed sharing viral specimens with World Health
Organization scientists after an eight-month lack of
cooperation, public health experts said yesterday.
- 11
may 2005. Cholera,
which remained endemic in the islands of São Tomé for some
time has now reached epidemic proportion (130 cases) in these
small islands of West Africa. Dengue fever is gaining momentum
in the Philippines, while the Institut Pasteur de Ho Chi Minh
City reports 6,290 cases since the beginning of the year. A
meningitis outbreak in the capital of India (214 cases and 16
deaths) seems to be slowly spreading to adjacent states.
- 8
may 2005. The
rumor is spreading in the Guangdong province that thousands of
children are suffering flu-like symptoms at the end of the
"long week" of vacation in China. Because of the flu alert in
South East Asia, people react strongly and spread rumors
through SMSs.
- 7
may 2005. The
Scientist summarizes the lessons from SARS, and shows how
world-wide collaboration was efficient in the rapid control of
the epidemic. As emphasized in the article, one of the lessons
is that the reservoir
of the virus remains unknown. Canada has sent a third
team of scientists to Angola to help contain the Marburg fever
outbreak and is readying a fourth team to go later in the
month if needed. New cases continue to be reported, indicating
that the message about the way the disease is spread is not
understood by some of the population. Vietnam will test a
locally made bird flu vaccine on man and poultry this summer
after successful tests on mice and monkeys.
- 3
may 2005. The
vaccine for H3N2 next year flu is being prepared, but the mind
of health authorities everywhere have on their mind the H5N1
epidemic in SouthEast Asia. The circulating viruses are today
different from that which caused the 1997 outbreak in Hong
Kong. A synthetic vaccine against the hemagglutinin antigen
(the "H" in the H5N1 shorthand) is being prepared, while the
virus is slowly evolving to a less letal but more contagious
form (mortality decreased from 75% to 20%) that now affects
all age groups. Vietnam is planning to have a mass vaccination
of its poultry, but this may accelerate the mutation of the
virus, and drive it to a form that may start interhuman
contamination. The death toll of Marburg fever in Angola
reached 280 persons. It seems still difficult to prevent
people to touch infected persons, while this is the only route
of contamination. Cholera is still endemic in many places, it
just killed 117 persons in Senegal (but seems on the decline)
and probably more than 100 persons in Nigeria. In Bangladesh
the authorities usually refuse to name the disease that causes
letal diarrhoeas, but it is likely to be, as usual, cholera.
- 29
april 2005. While
SARS memory fades, scientists at the Department of
Biochemistry of the University of Hong Kong have identified a
class of chemicals (in collaboration with German colleagues)
which may be useful against viruses, SARS-CoV included. These
adamantane-derived "bananins" are potent inhibitors of the
helicase activities and replication of SARS Coronavirus. More
than 250 persons died from Marburg fever in Angola, but the
disease seems under control.
- 19
april 2005. The
death toll from the Marburg fever epidemic in Angola - the
world's worst to date - stood yesterday at 235 of a total of
257 identified cases, mostly young children. At least five
hundred persons might still be carrying the virus, as the
common practice for most Angolan families, is to prepare the
body, and kiss and embrace the deceased. Unfortunately
filoviruses rapidly cover the skin of patients, and touching
infected people is a major route for contagion.
- 15
april 2005. The
chemistry of nucleic acids is undergoing an exceptional
revolution, at least as important as the revolution that
happened when the Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR) was invented. The nucleotides, the
building blocks that make nucleic acids, are fairly unstable,
and they are costly to synthesize. Ribose in particular is a
quite reactive sugar (present in RNA, it is likely to have
predated the more stable deoxyribose). A few years ago
scientists have therefore invented new types of nucleic acids,
that were easier to make and less prone to decay. Eschenmoser
and his colleagues first replaced the correct sugars by other,
while showing that the new molecules (TNA, for tetrose nucleic
acids) retained their properties to pair in an antiparallel
way as in the double helix, as well as pair with DNA or RNA.
This was followed by simpler peptide nucleic acids (PNA) where
a peptide replace the sugar phosphate backbone. Now Meggers
and his colleagues have created glycol nucleic acids (GNA)
that are extraordinarily simple, and still retain all the
properties of nucleic acids in duplex formation and
hybridization with authentic nucleic acids. The new "glycol
nucleotides" are extremely simple and economical and it seems
likely that one will have soon automatic and cheep processes
to make all kinds of GNA, including some where the nature of
the bases will be changed. One could expect creation of
evolution in the test tube with these new molecules. Meggers
suggests that these nucleotides might have predated the ones
we find now. This is unlikely, in fact, and his construction
is typical of man-made inventions, rather than the tinkering
behaviour of life, which does not follow an intelligent
design, making use of the
very fact that it cannot make things too perfect.
- 14
april 2005. More
than 6 000 persons have been infected by the cholera vibrios
in Senegal, despite intense effort by the government to
contain the epidemic. Concern rises that the outbreak might
extend in the region of Diourbel on the occasion of the Gamou
(or Maouloud, religious ceremonies for the anniversary of the
death of the Prophet) on april 21 in several religious places.
In Uganda cholera is spreading in the Gulu district. Marburg
fever has now killed 215 in Angola.
- 13
april 2005. Adding
to the concern raised by a possible pandemic caused by the
H5N1 bird flu virus, the World Health Organisation reports
that samples of the flu H2N2 virus that caused the flu
pandemic in 1957-1958 were inadvertently sent to 3,747
laboratories in 18 countries, 61 of those outside the United
States and Canada (14 in Canada). The death toll due to
Marburg fever in Angola reached 210.
- 12
april 2005. Marburg
haemorrhagic fever, caused by a filovirus of the same family
as the Ebola virus, has killed more than 200 persons, mostly
children under 5, in Angola. The reservoir of the virus is
still unknown, but scientists think this might be a small
animal, perhaps a rodent. Curiously, perhaps as in the case of
the SARS outbreak in 2003, the hospital ward where victims are
treated seems to be the major source of contagion. The
Government of Angola is planning to close it to curb the
spread of the disease.
- 9
april 2005. The
situation has become dangerous in Angola after a team of the
WHO has been attacked by people fearing that its personnel was
spreading the deadly Marburg fever. 183 persons have died of
the disease and it is difficult to know the present situation
as the WHO personnel who attempted to trace the contacts of
patients to prevent contagion cannot work under correct
conditions.
- 8
april 2005. The
World Health Organisation has advised the neighbouring
countries around Angola to go on a Marburg fever alert after
confirmation the deadly Ebola-like virus has now claimed 173
lives. Cockroaches are not only a plague because they transmit
diseases by their ubiquitous presence in dirty places, but
they are also the source of dangerous allergies. Entomologists
have recently succeeded in identifying the chemical structure
of the strong attractant (pheromone) of Blattella
germanica, one of the commonest cockroach species. The
sex pheromone–producing gland in adult females was identified
in 1993, but thermal instability of the pheromone made
characterization difficult. The new identification will enable
the design of chemical traps that should be most useful in
controlling the populations of these bugs.
- 6
april 2005. Despite
an impressive response to control the Marburg fever outbreak
in Angola the number of casualties reached 155 (out of 175
identified cases). Cholera appears to surface in Dakar, the
capital of Senegal.
- 5
april 2005. The
bird flu outbreak that is invading North Korea seems to be of
the H7, not H1 type. This would be a first
for Asia. While that type is usually less dangerous than the
H1 type, the fact that flu virus can reassort increases the
danger of creating new mutations. Furthermore, if this
identification is confirmed, the route for the spread of the
virus, especially in such a closed country, becomes an
important enigma. After aving infected 163 persons and killed
150, Marburg fever seems to be contained in Angola.
- 3
april 2005. Dogs
may carry the dangerous Ebola virus without showing signs of
the disease. This recent observation may help to find the
elusive reservoir of the virus, which spreads through direct
contact with dead animals (often primates) or infected
persons. This is also important at the time of an epidemic of
the Marburg hemorrhagic fever that continues to spread in
Angola (up to 150 persons have be killed by the virus since
last fall). Cholera continues to spread in Senegal from the
holy city of Touba where pilgrims from the Mouride brotherhood
come to celebrate the departure into exile of their founder
Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba in 1895.
- 29
march 2005. Bird
flu has now spread to North Korea, where it killed a large
number of chicken. News from that country are scarce however,
and it is difficult to know whether there are human cases.
Still another family has been infected in Vietnam, but there
is no clear evidence of interhuman contagion. Marburg
hemorrhagic fever has killed 126 persons in Angola, including
an Italian doctor. It now appears that the epidemic, endemic
in green monkeys, lingered in the country since october.
- 23
march 2005. With
the dry season getting hot and dusty, the annual outbreak of
meningitis is developing in Sahelian West Africa. Many cases
have appeared in the region of Bouna (North East of Ivory
Coast) a region controlled by the rebels, and not easily
accessible for vaccination or treatment.
- 22
march 2005.
Prof. Chen
Zhu, already vice-president of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, has been elected as a member of the CPPCC. As
at the onset of the SARS episode, wild rumors are
spreading about a large outbreak of avian flu in the Chau Hoa
commune in central Quang Binh province, 400 kilometers south
of Hanoi, where it is said that some 200 people are affected.
While this is probably very exaggerated, the situation needs
to be monitored seriously.
- 13
march 2005.
In line with our expectations, the Special
Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong received on the
afternoon of march 12 a decree of the State Affairs Council
approving the resignation of Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief
Executive of the Hong Kong SAR. The interim Chief Exectutive,
Donald Tsang, immediately took the helm of the Hong Kong SAR.
Tung Chee Hwa, as expected, was nominated as a member of the
CCPPC with the title of vice-president.
- 12
march 2005.
HIV in its various forms uses to enter human cells (primarily,
macrophages) through a receptor, CCR5. Cells that carry the
CCR5-delta32 deletion (i.e. that have an altered receptor) are
fairly impermeable to the virus. The average frequency of this
modified gene is particularly high in European populations
(10%, and 15% in Scandinavia). Scientists from the United
Kingdom propose that this results from the selection pressure
exerted on European populations in the past, where many
diseases spread as plagues, and killed a large proportion of
inhabitants of the continent. This may explain the relatively
less contagious nature of HIV in Europe. This hypothesis is
likely to trigger an interesting controversy.
- 11
march 2005.
AIDS patient see more and more often their disease escape
treatment by antivirals (at least 5% of them according to the
most recent figures in UK. The same situation is already a
matter of concern in Africa (at least 5% of the AIDS patients
in Kenya), and it will shortly become extremely serious, if
the traffic of fake drugs, already very active, amplifies. In
the case of bird flu it seems that the parents of patients
could be infected without showing any apparent symptom. This
unexpected observation is ambiguous: if the people that are
seropositive for the virus have been infected by their kins,
this would be the mark of an interhuman contamination; in
contrast, the fact that persons could be infected without
serious consequences indicates that the disease could be less
dangerous than what has been feared until now (however, this
could correspond only to a part of the population, older
people in particular).
- 6
march 2005.
Initial reports about an outbreak of
pulmonary plague in a mine of the Democratic Republic of
Congo suggested that there might have been some 400 cases.
Fortunately, a retrospective study indicates that the outbreak
was limited to 57 suspect cases, including 16 deaths. However
the mine is likely to remain a serious source of contagion
while work there resumes.Type four dengue fever has caused
outbreaks recently in Indonesia. This is of major concern in
the Northern region of Australia where last year dengue fever
outbreak was of type two. Dengue fever, upon first infection
is rarely fatal, but anyone who acquires two different types
of dengue fever is at risk of developing dengue haemorrhagic
fever, which can be fatal in a significant number of patients.
- 3
march 2005.
While concern about the H5N1 bird flu likely pandemic is still
on everybody's mind (with at least two more human cases in
Vietnam, and the death of more than 12,000 chicken in West
Java), China's 11th five-year
plan is discussed in Beijing between March 2 and March 12 at
the National Committee of Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and National People's Congress
meetings. Many important decision will be reached, including
considerable changes in the direction of several ministries
and other structures such as the government of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative region (including changes at the head
of the government of the SAR). The present Chief Executive of
the Hong Kong SAR will most probably be elected to be one of
the 25 vice-chairmen of the CPPCC. The outbreak of pneumonic
plague in a mining district of the Democratic Republic of
Congo appears to be smaller and more geographically limited
than was originally feared.
- 27
february 2005.
After a period of relative calm on the front of avian flu, and
the end of the international bird flu conference in Ho Chi
Minh City on Friday, a local newspaper reports that
36-year-old man and probably his younger sister has been
infected with bird flu in northern Vietnam, while an older man
apparently died of the disease. Infection apparently appeared
after the man drank chicken blood, a common practice in the
region.
- 26
february 2005.
At the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference, which ended in
Boston yesterday, investigators reported discovery of two new
human retroviruses (named HTLV3 and HTLV4, for human
T-lymphotropic virus) in rural Cameroon among people who hunt
monkeys and other primates. The new viruses have not yet been
linked to any disease, but they are being monitored out of
concern that they or similar retroviruses might trigger
another epidemic. In this context it is particularly worrying
that experiments in xenotransplantation (i.e.
transplantation into persons of animal organs) is not banned,
but receive much public interest. It is most important to
recognize that danger comes from what is next to us, rather
than far to us (briefly, what is from animal origin is more
dangerous than from plant origin).
- 25
february 2005.
The Li Ka Shing Foundation of Hong Kong announced to donate 3
million Euro to support the fight against bird flu. The
donation will associate the Institute Pasteur in Paris, the
Joint Influenza Research Center of Shantou University Medical
College and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong
Kong.
- 24
february 2005.
An outbreak of pneumonic plague
has hit the mining area of Zobia, in the region of Bas-Uele in
Oriental Province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Forty three people died and 13 survived. A team from the WHO
and from the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar is investigating.
- 22
february 2005.
As reported at Promed, there is much controversy about the
recent multiresistant HIV AIDS case uncovered in New York
City. The matter is being discussed in Boston where almost
4,000 investigators meet in a conference on AIDS. For the
first time it has been possible to replicate the HCV hepatitis
virus in laboratory conditions after making an astute DNA copy
of the RNA virus genome. When transformed into liver cells
this artificial genome generated infectious viral particles.
This will permit in-depth studies of this still very
dangerous, but elusive virus, that causes liver cirrhosis at a
very high rate.
- 18
february 2005.
Cholera, which is endemic and under-reported in all regions
with bad control of the quality of water and hygiene has
killed at least 15 persons in the district of Anambra in
Nigeria. On the front of avian flu, evidence is accumulating
that the virus can sometimes change its tropism from the
respiratory tract to the brain, causing encephalitis. After
having tested it on mice and monkeys, Vietnam authorities plan
to use the vaccine used against the disease in fowl in a trial
on man.
- 12
february 2005.
A new, highly pathogenic strain of the HIV virus has been
discovered in a patient in New York city. This strain causes
rapid establishment of AIDS symptoms and is resistant to all
publicly available antivirals. Depending on the contact
promiscuity of the patient it will either die off (the most
probable) or begin to spread.
- 8
february 2005.
The spread of dengue fever is triggering red alert in
Indonesia. Serious outbreaks are affecting Malaysia and
Singapore, where the number of cases rises sharply as compared
to the situation last year.Bird flu is now present in
Cambodia. A thorough study of last year's SARS outbreak allows
investigators to better understand the virus evolution, and
suggests that there exists a reservoir different from civet
cat (probably an animal eaten up by this predator).
- 1
february 2005.
Dengue fever reappears in force in South East Asia, but it is
too early to know whether the impact will be as bad as in
2003. 4 cases have been diagnosed in Saudi Arabia. In
Netherlands an alert on tuberculosis led to screen one fourth
of the population of the small town of Zeist (60 000
inhabitants).
- 29
january 2005.
A 13-year-old girl became the latest victim to die from avian
flu in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the human toll to 11 in the
last month. This case is particularly worrying as it may
represent the second recent interhuman
transmission case. Cholera is spreading in western Kenya
where major Busia markets were yesterday closed to stem a
cholera outbreak which has claimed 10 lives.
- 21
january 2005.
Cases of contamination by HIV through blood transfusion are
reappearing in Taiwan. Vietnam announces its seventh bird flu
death in three weeks, while the disease reappears in poultry
in Thailand.
- 19
january 2005.
Kawasaki disease, the most common cause of acquired heart
disease in children in developed countries, may be caused by a
coronavirus (the family of viruses that caused SARS). Another
patient died in Vietnam from bird flu, while a new human case
(a 45-years old man) is detected.
- 18
january 2005.
A 17-year-old boy suspected of having bird flu has died in
Vietnam bringing the death toll to 36. A
small team from ICDDR,B leaves Dhaka today to join colleagues
from Nagasaki University Institute of Tropical Medicine to
assist with post-tsunami health needs assessment in Sri Lanka.
As reported by The Scientist, for the first time in man,
investigators have discovered a large chromosomal
rearrangement in chromosome 17q21.31 that bears the mark of
natural selection, as reported on line in Nature Genetics.
The rearrangement, a 900-kilobase inversion polymorphism,
appears in two distinct lineages, H1 and H2, that have
diverged for as long as 3 million years with no evidence of
having recombined. The H2 lineage—which is rare in Africans,
almost nonexistent in East Asians, but found in 20% of
Europeans—appears to undergo positive selection in Iceland,
with carrier females having 3.2% more children per generation
and higher recombination rates. The consequences of this
discoveries are considerable and already trigger an intense
debate.
- 15
january 2005.
The European Union summarizes the recent progress of human
influenza cases of bird flu. The situation expresses a
sporadic nature, concentrated in South East Asia, but clearly
on the increase. Bird flu has now reached Hanoi in Vietnam.
- 14
january 2005.
The most serious health problem in Northern Sumatra was not
expected: many cases of tetanos are showing up, usually too
late to be treated, resulting already in more than 20 deaths.
- 13
january 2005.
A 35-year-old woman from Vietnam's southern Tra Vinh province
died of bird flu, becoming the fifth fatality due to the
disease in the country in the past two weeks.
- 12
january 2005.
Tuberculosis, hepatitis B, dysentery, gonorrhea and syphilis
were the top five most common infectious diseases, during the
last fall in China. In particular the incidence rate of
tuberculosis remained the first infectious disease in terms of
incidence. It seems worth noting that three of those top five
diseases are sexually transmissible. Twenty seven infectious
diseases have to be reported, and more than 3 million people
were affected last year. Jonathan Stoye and his team of the
Division of Virology at the National Institute for Medical
Research in London report that in some monkeys a gene product
can interfere with the replication of HIV. Most interestingly
a single amino acid difference in the human counterpart
accounts for the fact that the virus is able to replicate in
human cells. A third case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE), is identified in Canada. This case is important as the
animal was born after a ban on food additives was implemented,
suggesting that food additives cannot be the cause of the
disease.
- 11
january 2005.
Fourteen new likely avian flu human cases (several said to
have been fatal) are reported in Vietnam while the 18-year-old
girl affected dies from the disease. This high level of human
cases is not linked to person-to-person contamination yet, but
this corresponds to a dangerous level of alert.
A 30-kilometre-wide "immune protection zone" has been set up
along the border between Vietnam and Yunnan Province in
Southwest China, in an effort to stop the spread of the bird
flu outbreak from Vietnam to China.
- 10
january 2005.
Vietnam reports one more human bird flu case in a 18-year-old
girl. The concentration of new human cases there becomes a
matter of concern. Promed summarizes data from GeoSentinel
sites increasingly reporting a significant number of serious
wound infections in those injured in the tsunami. As expected,
Aeromonas hydrophila and Pseudomonas sp are
found in many instances. Fortunately they are usually
sensitive to standard antibiotics treatment (when available).
- 9
january 2005.
Showing a fast reaction response, the Beijing Genomics
Institute (BGI) sent to Thailand on december 30th a Victim
Identification Program team to help identifying corpses from
the victims of the tsunamis.
- 8
january 2005.
An outbreak of yellow fever is affecting the region of Faranah
in Guinea. West Africa has reservoirs of the moquito-borne
disease in rodents. Bird flu is spreading in Vietnam, with
several human cases, and two deaths in the past few days. Far
from being eradicated poliomyelitis is on the rise in Sudan
since its reappearance last year. A small girl was showing
symptoms while arriving in Saudi Arabia from Sudan with her
family. The WHO reports endemic presence of the disease in
Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. Since
mid-2003, 13 countries have importated wild poliovirus of the
same type as the virus circulating in northern Nigeria. In
four of these countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire and
the Sudan) wild poliovirus transmission has been
re-established (i.e. continued circulation for more than 6
months).
- 7
january 2005.
Information about cholera outbreaks in the world is grossly
underestimated because goverments must notify the World Health
Organisation and fail to do so for they are afraid of
consequences on trade and tourism. Bangladesh and India are
particularly affected, and this is very important at a time
when we need to consider the consequences of the december
tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. It is possible, however, to read
between the lines at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal
Disease Research (popularly known as Cholera Hospital in
Bangladesh), Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). For example a summary of
Diarrhoea outbreaks in 2004 points indirectly to cholera as
the major cause, with two outbreaks that usually occur during
two times in a year- in the hot summer months of April-June,
and post-monsoon months of September and October. The
bibliography of the Centre is highly revealing in this
respect: how could publications refer to cholera cases in a
country where there had been no notification to the WHO? It is
extremely important, at this point, that information is spread
before a catastrophic situation builds up in Sri Lanka, India,
Indonesia and Bangladesh in the next few weeks.
- 6
january 2005.
While we are witnessing how weak we can be when facing
geophysical events, we keep on developing new techniques with
an hybris that has no limit: xenotransplantation is being
performed between pigs and baboons (heart transplantation)
using genetically modified pigs (this week in Nature
Medicine). When we know how HIV spread to humans from
butchery, we should know that mammals are full of retroviruses
that, once in a foreign host will eventually recombine with
host counterparts and generate new forms, some of which will
have a high probability of becoming new infectious agents.
Yes, new emerging diseases will be our future, and,
unfortunately, we will have caused them. A remarkable
convergence of microbiology and neurobiology is reported in
the last issue of Nature: beta-lactam antibiotics (the
paradigm of which being penicillin) have a strong effect on
the expression of the neuromediator glutamate transporter.
These antibiotics apparently are effective in delaying the
symptoms of diseases such as the fatal disease amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. Once again this emphasizes the importance
of serendipity in research, and shows that very distant fields
may have a considerable impact on each other.
- 5
january 2005.
A nine-year-old boy has died of bird flu in Vietnam (southern
Mekong province). As yet, there are no epidemics in the hard
hit regions by the recent tsunamis. The Swedish government has
however collected 200,000 doses of drinkable cholera vaccine
to send them to India and Sri Lanka, where there exists known
foci of cholera.
- 2
january 2005.
The lack of coordination of aid in the regions of South East
Asia dramatically affected by the tsunamis might result in the
propagation of epidemics (cholera and shigellosis in
particular). This is particularly true in the Northern region
of Sumatra, where a separatist conflict has been lingering for
years, since authorities might tend to use the events as a
means to control the situation.
- 30
december 2004.
A 16-year-old girl from southern Vietnam has become infected
with the bird flu strain that killed 32 people earlier this
year and is in critical condition.
- 29
december 2004.
The root and rhizome (underground stem) of Curcuma longa
are used in the make of of curries in India (curcumin). The
are also used medicinally, and many studies over the years
have suggested a strong anticancer, and gastric ulcer healing
activities. Part of its action is due to its scavenging of
Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) created by the presence of the
oxygen we live on (it is often forgotten that oxygen was the
first pollutant on the Earth, and that it is a very toxic gas
because of its high oxidizing potential). A second action
seems to be in modulating the activity of enzymes that degrade
proteins (proteases) outside the cells. Several studies have
also involved curcumin in preventing Alzheimer's disease. We
need however well designed clinical tests to investigate
whether this is really significant, which would be a major
breakthrough for aging populations. After the huge tsunamis
that affected most of the Indian Ocean and caused probably
100,000 deaths, outbreaks of cholera and other gut diseases
are expected. However, as yet, there is no sign of unusual
outbreaks (cholera is endemic in the region, as repeatedly
stressed in these updates). Avian flu does not recede (two new
outbreaks in Vietnam). The SARS virus has, as all RNA viruses,
a high mutation rate, making its genome highly variable. In
HIV, for example, this high rate of mutation contributes to
the rapid appearance of drug-resistant strains of the virus.
In SARS and related viruses, however, one segment of the RNA
genome (the so-called s2m RNA) remains virtually unchanged,
suggesting that it is essential for the virus. This triggers
research on the corresponding structure to see how drugs could
interfere with that region, a typical "upstream" research bet
to suggest new pathways to intrefere with viruses virulence
and propagation.
- 28
december 2004.
The Desert Locust situation remains extremely serious in South
Morocco, and to a lesser extent in West Africa. Swarms are
keeping arriving in Morocco and Algeria from the Sahel.
Intensive spread of insecticides is trying to contain further
extension of the swarms. There is a risk of building up of
swarms in Niger.
- 17
december 2004.
Although eating every day is more important than being
healthy, we tend to forget epidemics that affect our agro-food
supplies. Plants are often attacked by viruses, viroids, fungi
and bacteria, and this sometimes creates havoc. For example
the pear "passe-crassane" almost disappeared from our tables
because it has been destroyed by Erwinia amylovora,
the agent of fireblight disease. Today, plantations of citrus
trees have to be completely wiped out in some regions of
Australia to try and control an outbreak of citrus canker
disease, caused by Xanthomonas citri, a particularly
dangerous form of Xanthomonas campestris (which is
both a dangerous plant pathogen, and the producer of a
ubiquitous additive, xanthan gum).
- 9
december 2004.
A fever outbreak in Mombasa is investigated by health
authorities as it could be a resurgence of the O'nyong nyong
fever, caused by a rare virus, transmitted, as is malaria, by
Anopheles mosquitoes. It gets its name from a phrase in
northern Uganda meaning "very painful and weak". The first
recorded epidemic occurred in 1959-1962 in Northern Uganda
affecting an estimated two million people in Kenya, Tanzania
and Uganda. After an apparent absence of 35 years it
reappeared in 1996-1997, and, although not fatal it is a
matter of concern as its spread and reservoir are not
understood. In China, the HIV case report indicates that the
HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading into the general population. by
the end of 2003, the number of HIV cases was estimated to
reach 840,000. If the general trend is sustained, in six
years, 10 million people in China will be HIV positive. The
magazine Science, dated december 10th, will published
remarkable results on a new treatment against tuberculosis,
that interferes with the energy management of the bacteria
that cause the disease.
- 8
december 2004.
investigators at the University of New South Wales in
Australia have found that furanones isolated from the seaweed
Delisea pulchra can prevent Vibrio cholerae,
the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their
disease-causing mechanisms. Bromylated-furanones have been
known for some time to prevent bacteria from measuring their
number (the so-called "quorum-sensing" process) interfering
with the formation of biofilms. These compounds have triggered
intensive research in the domain of antibacterial agents that
would not kill bacteria, but interfere with their
pathogenicity. Polymers have been synthesized, containing the
furanones, where bacteria cannot colonize the surface.
- 5
december 2004.
The patient isolated in Nancy with respiratory disease is not
infected by avian flu. In Hong Kong a new rapid test for
diagnosing H5N1 flu will be announced this week.
- 2
december 2004.
A 69-year-old man has been hospitalised in Nancy (France) with
suspected bird flu. The patient has recently returned from a
trip to Vietnam.
- 1
december 2004.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable,
paralyzing neurodegenerative disorder that strikes 5 persons
in every 100,000. Scientists from the Flanders Interuniversity
Institute for Biotechnology, under the direction of Peter
Carmeliet (Catholic University of Leuven), have shown that
administration of the vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF) protein protects rats with a severe form of ALS,
allowing them to live longer. While this is not a cure of the
disease, this paves the way for a treatment of this infamous
disease. This discovery is another indication that there is a
link between the nervous system and the blood system.
- 29
november 2004. The
Journal of Virology reports that a candidate SARS vaccine by
Canadian scientists (one attempt among many others) triggered
severe liver inflammation when tested in ferrets. This vaccine
was producing the "spike" protein of the virus, known to be
the major target for preventing adsorption of the virus on its
host target cells. However no adverse effect, until now, has
been seen in patients tested in China with another type of
vaccine.
- 25
november 2004. The
effect of global warming on disease spreading might already be
there. Dengue fever is on the verge of becoming endemic in the
south of Taiwan. Several hundred cases have been found there,
locally doubling last year's number. If the virus rides out
the winter the disease will become perennial.
- 24
november 2004. Let
us forget for a while the spread of bird flu (new outbreaks in
Malaysia), to shift to a series of discoveries that may have
enormous consequences on the future of cancer research.
Japanese scientists working at the University of Tokyo have
uncovered a protein coded by a genome region involved in
Down's syndrome, that apparently interferes with the
development of blood vessels (essential for tumor growth, but
also for brain development). Another type of work, derived
from the studies of Marc Tessier-Lavigne at the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute at Stanford University (Tessier-Lavigne is
now at Genentech) showed that guidance of blood vessels
through the tissues is mediated by the exact same system as
the one mediating guidance of nerve cells axons by a
"repulsive" mechanism.
- 22
november 2004. As
winter approaches in the Northern hemisphere pneumopathies
reappear. In Hong Kong a sudden outbreak at a small hospital
triggered fears that SARS would be there again: this was
fortunately not the case, but simply a local outbreak of
parainfluenza caused by a paramyxovirus.
China began to produce in Henan province large quantities of a
new gene-based reagent capable of quickly diagnosing SARS. A
case of Japanese encephalitis (transmitted by mosquitoes of
the Culex genus) in the town triggered a response of
the local government, where the question was asked to see
whether one had to vaccinate pigs, which can be intermediary
hosts. Cholera is spreading at many places in sub-Saharian
Africa.
- 14
november 2004. Several
cholera outbreaks are recurrent in Africa, from East to West.
At least 50 persons died of the disease in Nigeria, where
several hundreds are in a critical state. Several cases of
dengue are confirmed in Macao. A State Key Laboratory of
Emerging Infectious Diseases has been approved for
establishment at Hong Kong University. Professor Kwok-yung
Yuen and Dr Guan Yi, will take charge of the laboratory. The
laboratory will be the only State Key Laboratory outside the
Mainland, and the only one on Emerging Infectious Diseases. As
key components of China's science and technology innovation
structure, State Key Laboratories emphasize top level basic
research, that will be followed by applications of basic
research development, assembling and nurturing outstanding
investigators, as well as scholarly exchanges for the country.
The new laboratory will embody the newly completed P3
Laboratory and the Virus, Cell and Molecular Biology
Laboratory.
- 10
november 2004. While
nothing really new happened on the front of avian flu (some
150 tigers died or were culled because of the disease in
Thailand), discussions at the WHO try to prepare the world for
a pandemic associated to the H5N1 virus. Scientists from the
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, tested
the effects of protease inhibitors normally used against HIV
on a drug-resistant line of Plasmodium falciparum, the
agent of malaria. While some did not have an effect, several
of the inhibitors blocked parasite growth in vitro at levels
routinely achieved in human patients. It will be necessary to
get in vivo results before drawing conclusions, but this might
be good news for Africa where both AIDS and malaria are
endemic at a very high level.
- 2
november 2004. More
that 400 persons have caught cholera in Senegal. A heron was
found dead, probably infected by the H5N1 bird flu virus (not
yet confirmed) at the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
- 31
october 2004. The
World Health Organisation stresses the role of domestic ducks
in the propagation of the recent bird flu outbreaks. This fits
with the observation we emphasized about the origin of flu
as a duck disease.
- 28
october 2004. Cholera
is spreading in the camp of Pabbo in
Uganda, while it is not contained in Dakar (Senegal).
- 26
october 2004. Senegal
suffers its first outbreak of cholera since eight years. This
may be correlated to the endemic situation in the region
(Guinea and Sierra Leone in particular).
- 25
october 2004. The
usual H3N2 flu is changing its type and will differ from that
of last year (A/Fujian) starting from an outbreak in New
Zeland (A/Wellington), but already spread through travel to
Norway. This would make the present vaccine less efficient
than expected. Over-reactions in the domain of epidemics are
so widely spread that we need to pick out only some relevant
information in the domain of the bird flu scare. At this point
it is essential to remember that the red line will be
trespassed when person-to-person contamination will have been
witnessed. However it is perhaps significant to emphasize
again two facts. Firstly, animal to human contamination of any
disease should always be taken seriously, because of likely
lack of immediate attenuation of the virulent form of the
pathogenic agent when it crosses a species barrier.
Unfortunately this aspect is not
well understood generally. Second, it is important as we
noticed repeatedly, in the case of avian flu, to
monitor scavenging sentinels, such as raptors
because they are the obvious end of the food chain eating sick
or even dead birds. In this context the fact that two
eagles carried last week to Belgium by a Thai man had been
proven avian flu-infected has triggered a strong reaction.
Unfortunately this kind of smuggling is part of a huge traffic
that would need to be considered seriously as belonging to
the general system of illegal activities, all ending up
in the lack of control of funds transfer over the world, with
all sorts of negative consequences, in particular in the
domain of terrorism.
- 21
october 2004. Since
our last update the
count of dengue fever cases in Vietnam has kept rising,
reaching almost 60,000 persons this year (87 fatalities). A
variety of means are used to try to contain mosquito spread
(including using small crusatcea in water supply reservoirs)
but this is only with mitigated success.
- 20
october 2004. Seven
more tigers died from the H5N1 virus at the Sri Racha Tiger
Zoo, 50 miles east of Bangkok. The authorities decided to cull
by potassium cyanide injection 40 tigers showing symptoms of
the disease, among the 400 or so living in the zoo. While this
confirms that the avian virus can infect mammals the distance
between tigers and humans does not indicate that the virus is
mutating towards a dangerous form for Man.
- 19
october 2004. The
CERN is fifty years old today. This institution that comprises
some 6500 staff is at the origin of the Hypertext Markup
Language that allowed construction of the Internet. This shows
that repercussions of academic research have world wide
implications, in a way that is utterly imprevisible. In the
domain of health care, some odd ideas might eventually lead to
important discoveries: ethologists thought to investigate how
sick monkeys behave. They discovered that they tend to eat
plants that they usually avoid. Apparently these plants may
cure some diseases, including malaria. Animal self-medication
may be an interesting trend to explore. The bird flu epidemic,
that has killed 31 people in southeast Asia this year, has
killed 23 tigers at a zoo in eastern Thailand. An elderly man
passed away from cholera in the ninth case reported in
Singapore in less than a week.
- 18
october 2004. Thirty
cases of dengue fever and 18 suspected cases have been found
since September in East China's Fujian Province. In 1999, the
fever spread in several cities of the province, and a few
outside cases were found in 2000. This shows that the disease
is probably there to stay, in particular if global warming
tends to warm up China's provinces located north of tropical
areas, where the disease is endemic. An attempt to create a
birds flu vaccine in Australia has failed to protect fowls.
- 16
october 2004. The
Third Joint Meeting of Senior Health Officials of the
Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao has reached consensus on the
measures for preventing avian influenza and SARS (including
quarantine), as colder season increases the risk of revival of
these diseases. Thailand, and probably Vietnam, are still
witnessing recurring episodes of bird flu. In
northern Uganda cholera is re-emerging in the displaced
persons' camp of Pabbo.
- 15
october 2004. Results
from the second phase of a trial, coordinated by Professor
Pedro Alonso of the University of Barcelona and involving more
than 2,000 children in Mozambique, showed that a candidate
vaccine against malaria protected 30 per cent of them against
the disease for at least six months. Despite this evident
message of hope published in The Lancet, there is
still a long way towards a vaccine, because parasites have
evolved many ways to evade immune defenses of their host, so
that one would need positive results staying on during a much
longer period of time to be confident that we are on the right
track.
- 7
october 2004. A
team of scientists from the USA and Japan report in today's
issue of Nature that they succeeded in reconstructing letal
components of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic in an attempt to
understand the reason for the extraordinary virulence of the
corresponding virus (HspNsp). While interesting and important
these experiments raise some concern about the possible
unethical use of the corresponding approach.
- 6
october 2004. Scientists
have imagination. One has, for some time, used giant rats
(pouched rats, Cricetomys gambianus) to smell
landmines. And because this approach appeared to be successful
(these rats are easily tamed) the idea came that they might be
used to smell... tuberculosis. This would allow doctors to
identify foci of the disease and help control it more rapidly.
The World Bank is financing the study in Tanzania.
- 4
october 2004. Bird
flu is re-emerging in Indonesia, while it makes its 11th
victim in Thailand. A dog has also been infected there,
further indicating that the virus is increasing its
adaptability to mammal hosts. After having reached northern
America in 1999, the West Nile virus is now present in Hawai.
Nobody knows how it got there but it is most likely that this
was through a contaminated mosquito that flied from the USA to
Hawai across the Pacific. Almost 1,800 persons (46 deaths)
have already been infected in the USA this year.
- 28
september 2004. Thai
health authorities are concerned by the death of a patient, a
mother who died from bird flu after caring for her daughther,
who died a short while ago from a disease that has not been
identified accurately. The sister of that woman was also
infected, but is fortunately recovering. If this were the case
this would represent the first known case of human-to-human
contamination of the deadly disease, indicating that we are on
the verge of a dangerous epidemic. However the situation is
very similar to that witnessed in Hong Kong in 1997, where
limited human-to-human transmission occurred, with no further
contamination.
WHO:
Phases of pandemic response
Phase 0 |
|
Interpandemic period |
Phase 0 |
Level 1 |
New influenza virus in human case |
Phase 0 |
Level 2 |
Human infection confirmed in two or more
cases |
Phase 0 |
Level 3 |
Human-to-human transmission confirmed |
Phase 1 |
|
Confirmation of onset of pandemic |
Phase 2 |
|
Regional and multiregional epidemics |
Phase 3 |
|
End of first pandemic wave |
Phase 4 |
|
Second or later wave of pandemic |
Phase 5 |
|
End of pandemic |
- 25
september 2004. Armed
conflicts lead to resurgence of contained epidemics. One
observes a severe epidemics of hepatitis in the Darfour region
of Sudan, and hepatitis E kills pregnant women and their
babies in Iraq. The World Health Organisation says it suspects
bird flu has passed from human-to-human in northern Thailand,
marking what could be the first such transmission of the
dangerous H5N1 virus.
- 9
september 2004. Avian
flu is now clearly endemic in East Asia. An infant, who did
not come from a region known to be infected, died from the
disease in Hanoi, while several countries in the region are
witnessing new outbreaks. A Thai man who raised fighting cocks
has died of the disease that just had contaminated his stock.
- 3
september 2004.
Bird flu again: the saga continues (should we still stress
events happening almost on a daily basis?). Early this year we
reported that it
had been found in a zoo that a leopard got
infected by having eaten infected chicken. Now scientists have
shown the same with cats, and, worse, they found that cats
could transmit the disease to cats. This shows that we are
certainly not far from an outbreak within human communities.
Reseach in the domain should be developed in order perhaps not
to cure the disease, but to make it less letal. The outbreak
of cholera that affects Chad since the beginning of the rain
season has infected 3,000 people and 120 passed away. The
epidemic in Sierra Leone is still lingering there.
Facts:
september 2003 - august 2004
The
SARS 2003 outbreak
Previous
years
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A
short description of relevant microbes
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