Bird Flu, MonkeyPox or the next Potential Pandemic Thread

[China]

Child Pneumonia Cases Surge in Europe — As Fears Rise Over Outbreak in China

 

The Netherlands is experiencing a bizarre uptick in pneumonia cases among children, marking the second country to report an outbreak of this type this week.

 

The Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), a research institute in Utrecht, around 25 miles south of Amsterdam, reports that 80 of every 100,000 children between ages 5 and 14 came down with pneumonia last week. 

 

This is the largest outbreak of pneumonia NIVEL has recorded in recent years. At the peak of the 2022 flu season, when pneumonia cases were most common, there were 60 recorded cases for every 100,000 children in the age group.

 

 

A news outlet in the Netherlands said neither NIVEL nor the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Dutch equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), could give an explanation as to why pneumonia cases were increasing.

Mysterious pneumonia cases in China have also begun to raise alarms. First reports emerged last week that children’s hospitals in Beijing and the province of Liaoning were overrun by children coming in with pneumonia. 

 

Chinese officials told the World Health Organization that no new pathogens were detected in the outbreak, and instead the illnesses were caused by known seasonal viruses such as the flu and RSV, along with the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

Looks like that child pneumonia has made its way to the US:

 

Mystery wave of pneumonia hits AMERICA: Ohio county records 142 child cases of 'white lung syndrome' which it says 'meets the definition of an outbreak' - as China and Europe grapple with crises

 

An 'extremely high' number of children are being diagnosed with pneumonia in Ohio — which is now the first US state to report an outbreak like the one in China.

 

Health officials in Warren County, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, said there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition — dubbed 'white lung syndrome' — since August.

 

'Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak,' the county's health department said Wednesday.

 

An 'extremely high' number of children are being diagnosed with pneumonia in Ohio — which is now the first US state to report an outbreak like the one in China.

 

Health officials in Warren County, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, said there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition — dubbed 'white lung syndrome' — since August.

 

'Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak,' the county's health department said Wednesday.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Republicans Warn Lockdowns Coming as China Pneumonia Spreads

 

Republican lawmakers sent an urgent plea to President Joe Biden on Friday as a concerning rise in pneumonia cases continues across China.

 

Many parts of China have been hit by a surge in the illness, which has particularly affected children. Northern provinces in China experienced a jump in cases for five consecutives since mid-October. The news triggered global concern following China's lack of transparency regarding the origins of COVID-19, the spread of which prompted strict public health restrictions and quarantine measures.

 

Several states in the U.S. reported an uptick in child pneumonia cases this week, further raising alarm about the illness, although health officials alleged there is "zero evidence" that the increase is connected to China.

 

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has since urged Biden to ban U.S. travel to and from China to stop the spread of any contagions. The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested more information from China about the illness, but Rubio advised that Biden shouldn't wait any longer before implementing the travel restrictions.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

The U.S. is unprepared for the growing threat of mosquito- and tick-borne viruses

 

In the 1970's and '80's, Aedes albopictus mosquitoes came to the U.S. through the used tire trade. These stowaway insects, also known as Asian tiger mosquitoes, can carry viruses like dengue, Zika and chikungunya. They quickly adapted to city life in the southern, eastern and western U.S.

 

Since then, due to globalization and climate change, insects and the diseases they carry are spreading more widely around the world.

 

At a two-day workshop this week at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, D.C., global public health experts warned that countries like the U.S. are not ready for this looming threat.

 

"If we don't do anything, which is basically what we're doing right now, it's going to get worse," Tom Scott, a medical entomologist and professor emeritus at UC Davis, said during the workshop. "The damage from inaction is enormous, it's unacceptable. It's unethical."

 

The workshop focused on arboviral threats, which are mosquito- and tick-borne viruses that can cause harm to humans.

 

Tropical diseases that were once considered far away from the U.S. are becoming a presence. This year, the U.S. saw locally transmitted cases of malaria and a skin disease from tropical parasites. A Zika outbreak occurred in Florida and Texas in 2016-2017 and dengue has spread locally in the U.S. every year for over a decade.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Kenai Peninsula man is the first person to die of Alaskapox virus

 

A man from the Kenai Peninsula died in late January from the Alaskapox virus, according to the state health department. He was immunocompromised and is the first known person to die from the Alaskapox virus, or AKPV. 

 

The health department reported the death in a bulletin Friday.

 

Alaskapox was discovered in the state in 2015 and is related to other orthopox viruses like smallpox, cowpox, and monkeypox. Epidemiologist Dr. Julia Rogers, who works for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is assigned to the Alaska Division of Public Health, said the virus primarily infects animals. 

 

“Orthopox viruses are zoonotic viruses, meaning that they circulate primarily within animal populations with spillover into humans occasionally,” Rogers said. 

 

Rogers said she expects any AKPV infections to remain rare and it’s unlikely someone who is not immunocompromised would die from the virus. She said there’s no evidence of person-to-person transmission. 

 

Only six other people have had confirmed Alaskapox cases and they were all in the Fairbanks area. All of the previous infections have been from contact with animals. The state has tested small mammals for the virus and found it mostly in red voles and squirrels. Because there are so few cases, epidemiologists don’t know exactly how people can get the virus but Rogers said it’s likely transmitted by direct contact with an infected animal. 

 

The man who died from the virus lived alone in a forested area of the Kenai Peninsula and was feeding and interacting with a stray cat who he said scratched him regularly and hunted small mammals. The cat was tested for AKPV and was negative. Rogers said Alaskans should be cautious when handling small mammals. People should wear gloves when retrieving small mammals from traps and wash their hands afterwards. 

 

“If you’re trapping or hunting, make sure that you’re trying to avoid having any of your pets interact or make contact with these small mammals,” Rogers said. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Bang]

My first thought was "oh, here's one of those viruses they tell us have been inert in permafrost for so long no one has an antibody against it."

 

Man, i'm getting quite conditioned to the "worst possible thing" being a "quite possible thing".

 

~Bang

[FrFan]

13 hours ago, Bang said:

My first thought was "oh, here's one of those viruses they tell us have been inert in permafrost for so long no one has an antibody against it."

 

Man, i'm getting quite conditioned to the "worst possible thing" being a "quite possible thing".

 

~Bang

 

Edited February 12 by FrFan

[China]

With a million cases of dengue so far this year, Brazil is in a state of emergency

 

At least six Brazilian states in addition to the Federal District are facing dengue epidemics and 17 cities have declared a state of emergency as the country has already registered 1 million cases of dengue in the first two months of 2024, more than half the 1.6 million cases confirmed last year — which was already almost 18% higher than in 2022. The fatality count in those same two months was 214.

 

As a result, Brazil's public health-care system, known as SUS, has been grappling to keep up, resorting to field hospitals like the one in Brasília and tents in strategic points around its cities to triage patients with suspected cases of dengue.

 

Brazil's not the only place where dengue is running rampant. Nearby Peru is in the throes of an epidemic. Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have also seen dengue spike dramatically. Niger, a subtropical country, reported its first case of the disease in 2022. And in the last year, high-heat states like Texas, Florida and California have seen a smattering of unexpected cases of dengue.

 

The mosquito-borne viral disease — which causes symptoms like fever, rash, muscle and joint pain in mild cases and can lead to persistent vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose, difficulty breathing and death when it becomes hemorrhagic — had only occurred in seven countries before 1970. But over the last 20 years, the World Health Organization reports the number of yearly dengue cases has increased by eight times with 100 to 400 million registered worldwide every year. Now, roughly half the world's population is at risk of infection.

 

Why is dengue making such unprecedented strides?

 

The answer lies in the method of transmission – and the changing environment of Earth.

 

Dengue is transmitted to humans in tropical and subtropical climates through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The species prefers to live and breed in urban and semi-urban areas because of its need for human blood in the egg-production process. Those eggs, laid on the surface of stagnant water, can be found in construction sites, tire shops, cemeteries, abandoned swimming pools, plant pots and anyplace else where water collects.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

Bird flu is decimating seal colonies. Scientists don't know how to stop it

 

Avian influenza is killing tens of thousands of seals and sea lions in different corners of the world, disrupting ecosystems and flummoxing scientists who don't see a clear way to slow the devastating virus.

 

The worldwide bird flu outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths of millions of domesticated birds and spread to wildlife all over the globe. This virus isn't thought to be a major threat to humans, but its spread in farming operations and wild ecosystems has caused widespread economic turmoil and environmental disruptions.

 

Seals and sea lions, in places as far apart as Maine and Chile, appear to be especially vulnerable to the disease, scientists said. The virus has been detected in seals on the east and west coasts of the U.S., leading to deaths of more than 300 seals in New England and a handful more in Puget Sound in Washington. The situation is even more dire in South America, where more than 20,000 sea lions have died in Chile and Peru and thousands of elephant seals have died in Argentina.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Why the mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is worrying disease docs

 

"It's just a matter of time, if nothing is done, that the transmission crosses the border in the African region and, again, globally," says Dr. Jean Nachega, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Nachega is one of a number of public health experts expressing alarm over a major outbreak of mpox – formerly called monkeypox – in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

They say the current situation represents a triple threat.

 

First, the DRC is seeing record numbers. About 400 suspect cases are reported each week – the majority in children. Second, the strain of the virus that's circulating is especially deadly, with up to 1 in every 10 people who get the virus dying. And third, the virus is behaving differently. Scientists say it is not only surfacing in new areas and new populations (including sex workers), but it's also spreading in new ways – including sexually – and evading diagnostic tests.

 

Together these issues have made it more urgent – and also more complicated – for the global health community to respond, say mpox specialists.

 

"For measles, we know what to do. For cholera, we know what to do. For polio, we know what to do. These are things that have been around for a long time. For mpox, a lot of the elements are new," says Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the World Health Organization's technical lead and emergency manager for mpox. "And we don't yet have all the countermeasures in place that we need in place."

 

Last year, the DRC recorded more than 14,500 suspected cases of mpox, and more than 650 deaths. Those figures dwarf previous years – and the numbers continue to rise. In the first two months of this year, there have been more than 3,500 suspected mpox cases and more than 250 deaths.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Bird flu has spread to more farm animals. Here’s what to know about food safety

 

A bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows has grown to affect more than two dozen herds in eight states, just weeks after the nation’s largest egg producer found the virus in its chickens.

 

Health officials stress that the risk to the public is low and that the U.S. food supply remains safe and stable.

 

“At this time, there continues to be no concern that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health, or that it affects the safety of the interstate commercial milk supply,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

 

As of Friday, the strain of bird flu that has killed millions of wild birds in recent years has been found in at least 26 dairy herds in eight U.S. states: Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and South Dakota.

 

The virus, known as Type A H5N1, has been detected in a range of mammals over the last few years, but this is the first time it has been found in cattle, according to federal health and animal agencies. Genetic analysis of the virus does not show that it has changed to spread more easily in people, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Skins24]

My Memories reminded me that 15 years ago swine flu started to gain major traction around this time

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_pandemic

 

So glad we learned so many lessons from that 🙂