Tag Archives: Virus

Brazil Man Tested for Ebola; Others Under Observation

A Brazilian man who visited Guinea is being tested for Ebola, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Castro said on Wednesday.

The 46-year-old man arrived in Brazil on Nov. 6 and developed high fever with muscle pains and headaches two days later, he said. Officials declined to provide the man’s name.

After going to the emergency health clinic in Minas Gerais he was transferred to an infectious disease hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The Unit at Minas Gerais was shut down as a preventive measure.  

According to Reuters, Guinea is one of three impoverished West African countries, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, that have suffered with the most deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in recent years.

As a precaution and medical workers or other patients who had contact with the man are being monitored by health officials.  Brazil immediately informed international health authorities of the suspected case.

Ebola Can Persist in Survivors

Science has discovered a new and scary fact about ebola: it can survive in body parts such as eyes, breasts, and testicles long after leaving the blood stream, making scientists wonder if the disease can even be beaten.

People who contract and supposedly beat the disease can suffer from complications that lead to “post-Ebola syndrome.” This is the case with the recent reported incident with a Scottish nurse, Pauline Cafferkey. Cafferkey recovered from Ebola last year, but is now in “serious condition.” She has been admitted to an isolation unit in London.

Dr. Ben Neuman, a virologist from the University of Reading, told the BBC that the outlook for Cafferkey is good.

“The odds are that she has actually inherited a lucky set of genes and these are probably what protected her the first time and probably what will keep her safe the second time regardless of any treatment. The outlook’s good,” Neuman said.

Post-Ebola syndrome can cause serious health problems, particularly to eyes and joints, according to Neuman.

“The newly discovered twist on this post-Ebola syndrome is that in some cases the health problems – often including damage to the eyes and joints – are caused by live Ebola virus growing in fluids in some of the less accessible compartments of the body,” he added.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, ten people have been quarantined after coming into contact with a person who showed Ebola-like symptoms, a year after the country declared it was Ebola free. Local media states the patient has since died, but no official confirmation has been given.

Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known to humans. It infected 28,000 people and killed more than 11,300 people in the unprecedented outbreak in West Africa that was declared in March 2014.

Chicken and Turkey Farmers Prepare for Return of Bird Flu This Fall

Another round of bird flu could be on the way due to the annual fall migration of wild birds.

The avian flu affected 48.8 million poultry in 21 states this spring. Iowa and Minnesota were hit the hardest by the outbreak. Minnesota alone saw $600 million in losses as the virus spread to over 100 farms in the state.

Many believe that migrating ducks and geese are what carried the bird flu into the United States, but thousands of droppings have been tested and so far, the results have come up negative. Others blame lapses in biosecurity and other farmers blame the wind.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated that the situation could have been handled better.

“We understand there are issues involving biosecurity, there are issues involving depopulation, there are issues involving disposal, there are issues involving indemnification, and the time for repopulation,” Vilsack said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has since issued a 57-page plan for this fall that reportedly can handle twice as many infections. The USDA is also hoping to stockpile the vaccine that will reduce the amount of virus created from an outbreak, but it won’t fully protect the birds.

The scare of another bird flu outbreak has also started a controversy on how to dispose of birds who are infected with the virus. U.S. agriculture officials have approved a new method that would entail trapping infected poultry in a sealed atmosphere, turning up the heat, and shutting off all ventilation. Animals rights groups immediately responded, stating that this method was cruel.

“We shouldn’t compound the problems for birds by subjecting them to a particularly miserable and protracted means of euthanasia,” said Michael Blackwell, the Humane Society’s chief veterinary officer.

U.S. agriculture officials state that this method isn’t the first choice as it can take 30 to 40 minutes for the birds to die of heat stress.

CDC: Bird Flu to Human Transmission a “Concern”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is admitting they have “concern” that the bird flu which killed 48 million birds this year could jump to humans.

While the virus has not infected any humans thus far, Dr. Michael Jhung, head of the CDC’s Influenza Division, says they are watching to see if the virus begins to mutate.

“These are the first of these types of viruses that we’re seeing,” Dr. Jhung told CNBC.  “Because [the viruses are] new, we’re a little concerned because we don’t know how dangerous they could be.”

The CDC says the risk to the public is low but issued an advisory that anyone near sick or dead birds wear coveralls, face masks and eye protection.

“This bird flu outbreak in the United States is not the start of a pandemic,” Dr. Jhung said.  However, the CDC is “preparing for human cases of infection with this bird flu virus, even though there have been none.”

“We don’t want to see any, but we are getting ready in case there are cases of human infection,” he added.

Officials with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) say they believe the bird flu that struck this year has been eradicated but are preparing for another wave of the virus this fall.

The deaths of birds and their impact on domestic egg production has caused a massive spike in egg prices.  The average price for a dozen eggs has jumped 135% this year because of the shortage in eggs.  Some experts say eggs could be as much as $6 a dozen before the market begins to recover.

Head of CDC Heads to Sierra Leone

Concerns about the new Ebola scare in Sierra Leone has the head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) flying to that nation.

The report of the trip comes on the heels of Sierra Leone officials admitting they have two more new cases of the virus connected to the first victim who died last week.

“We now know where the virus is and we are tracking its movement, by surrounding, containing and eradicating its last remaining chain of transmission,” ational Ebola Response Centre’s OB Sisay said.

CDC Head Dr. Tom Frieden reportedly will help assess the situation and provide advice on steps needed to control the new outbreak.

Officials say the problem with controlling the virus early is that the initial symptom of fever is similar to that of other diseases such as malaria and typhoid.  That would lead some folks who have Ebola to not seek treatment or isolate themselves because they don’t know they have the deadly virus.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 11,200 people worldwide although the overwhelming number of deaths were in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Liberia Confirms New Ebola Death

Liberian officials confirmed today a woman has died in Monrovia from the Ebola virus.

The death makes the sixth confirmed case of the virus since it re-emerged last month following a seven week period without any new cases.

“There is one new case. This time, the response area is Montserrado county. The person died in Monrovia,” Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Ketteh told Reuters.

A report on the case stated the woman died just hours after being admitted to the hospital and showed a failure in the government’s process of surveillance of those who had contacts with other Ebola patients is not effective.

Doctors are speculating the virus was lying dormant during the seven week period with no infections and that it passed from a disease survivor to another person through sexual contact.

Ebola has killed over 11,200 people since the beginning of the outbreak in December 2013.  Liberia had been declared “Ebola free” by the World Health Organization on May 9th.

Three Men Die From Squirrel Virus

A new report on the deaths of three German men who worked as squirrel breeders has found that they all died from a new strain of virus that jumped from the squirrels to the men.

“A new bornavirus that can be transmitted to humans and cause severe disease has been detected in variegated squirrels. The study shows that exotic animal species can have the risk of transmitting novel zoonotic viruses to humans from close contact,” said Dr. Martin Beer, head of virus diagnostics at Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler Institute.

The men developed encephaltits, or brain inflammation, and died within two to four months after showing symptoms

The breed of squirrel involved live in southern Mexico and Central America.  That’s one of the reasons Dr. Marc Siegel of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York told HealthDay the general public shouldn’t be concerned at this time.

“It’s likely that bornavirus, commonly found in horses and sheep and capable of causing neurological symptoms, was present in the squirrels that scratched these men, causing the neurological and behavioral symptoms,” he said.  “It is possible that this virus could spread to squirrels here in the U.S. and occasionally to humans, but we wouldn’t see sustained spread, as there is no evidence of spread from human to human.”

All the men who died from the virus were in their 60s or older and had other health conditions that doctors say could have contributed to the virus being able to impact them.

New Polio-Like Virus Linked to Paralysis of Children

A new strain of a polio-like virus has been suggested as the cause of paralysis of more than 100 children 34 states in the last year.

LiveScience reported on a study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) focused on a 6-year-old girl at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital that showed “acute onset of progressive right upper extremity weakness.”

“Within the 2 weeks before the patient’s presentation to the hospital, she and her family members had been ill with a mild cough and rhinorrhea; 4 days before presentation, the patient had experienced low-grade fever (100.4° F), frontal headache, fatigue, and intermittent pain in the right ear and right axilla. The fever lasted only 1 day; the cough, fatigue, and headache improved over the next 2 days, but the patient continued to report right arm pain. On the day before seeking care, her parents observed that she had a right shoulder droop and difficulty using her right hand. No associated visual or mental status changes; difficulty with speech, swallowing, or respiration; or bowel/bladder disturbance were noted,” the study reads.

Enterovirus C105 was found to have caused the girl’s condition. The virus was first detected in 2010 in Peru and the Republic of Congo.

Previously, children showing paralysis had been infected with Enterovirus D68.

“We probably shouldn’t be quite so fast to jump to enterovirus D68 as the [only] cause of these cases,” Professor Ronald Turner, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine told LiveScience.

Ebola Re-Emerges in Liberia

Liberian officials confirmed a third case of Ebola on Thursday, two months after the country had declared itself Ebola free.

A case management leader for the country’s Ebola Task Force says that the three villagers with the disease “have a history of having had dog meat together.”  Dog meat is common in the diet of Liberians.

The first confirmed case, a 17-year-old boy, died Sunday about 30 miles from the capital city of Monrovia.  The other two cases are in the same village as the dead teen.

“The two (latest) live cases are 24 years old and 27 years old. They are stable,” Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said on Thursday.

Scientists say that there is no proof yet that dogs can carry the Ebola virus.  Humans have been infected in past outbreaks by eating contaminated monkey meat.

“There is no need to panic. Our health team is on top of it. It will be contained,” Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters.

At least 175 people are being monitored because of contact with the three confirmed cases.

Troops To Return From Ebola Areas

President Obama announced the progress against the Ebola outbreak in West Africa allows U.S. troops to come home.

“We have risen to the challenge,” he said at the White House. “Our focus now is getting to zero.”

Around 1,500 troops have already returned and 2,700 more will return by April 30th.  Only 100 military officials will stay in Liberia after that date to provide advice on containment.

The President said the way Ebola has been brought under control shows that calls for travel restrictions and harsh measures were not necessary.

“People were understandably afraid,” Obama said. “Some stoked those fears.”

The President praised charitable groups that took the initiative to go and help the victims of the outbreak.