Posted on 05/31/2005 12:09:14 PM PDT by Judith Anne
I'd like to see this on the Avian Flu Surveillance Thread. Would you please do the honors? Thank you, I really like these multiple-country updates.
I agree, many more questions are raised than answered by the "news" reports. Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever know the answers...
OOOPPPS!!!!! Sorry Judith Anne.
NewScientist: ‘Pig disease’ may be spreading between humans
18:44 01 August 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Gaia Vince
Andrew Rycroft, Royal Veterinary College
Jill Thompson, Veterinary Investigation Centre, Edinburgh
Samson Wong, University of Hong Kong
Vaccines to combat a deadly pig-borne disease were flown to south-western China on Sunday, where the spread of the rare illness has already killed 36 people and infected 198. The unusually high numbers of people infected by the swine disease has led scientists to speculate that it may be being spread from human-to-human - or that another disease entirely is to blame.
Streptococcus suis type II, although relatively common in swine, spreads to humans extremely rarely, and the size and virulence of this current outbreak, in the province of Sichuan, has taken the World Health Organization by surprise.
The Chinese government responded on Sunday by airlifting the first batch of a vaccine for the infection – enough to treat 360,000 pigs – from the southern city of Guangzhou to the affected towns. The vaccine’s manufacturers say they will be producing enough vaccine to treat 10 million pigs in the coming days – but vaccines take three weeks to produce immunity in the pigs.
Health authorities in the province have distributed two million notices to educate poor, often illiterate farmers and their children not to slaughter pigs or eat their meat. Thirty-nine temporary roadside quarantine stations have been set up to prevent dead pigs reaching markets – they will be burned instead.
China’s state-controlled media says the government has brought the disease under control, and that no human-to-human transmission of infection has been found. But there has been widespread criticism of the way the situation has been handled - with parallels being drawn to China’s handling of the SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - and bird flu outbreaks. The authorities knew of the first human cases on 24 June, but it only allowed the news out on 25 July. And China has banned local and foreign reporters from entering the region.
Another disease
The secrecy has bred suspicion elsewhere. The WHO has said that it was baffled because S. suis has never affected so many people in an outbreak before – it usually just infected one or two people at a time. And where people have been infected previously, mortality rates have been below 10% and different symptoms have been exhibited.
“It could be another disease altogether, it need not be Streptococcus suis because the presentation is so atypical,” Samson Wong, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, told Reuters. “In past literature, there have been one or two cases when people died within 36 hours, but those were exceptions rather than the rule. The deaths in China are very unusual.”
Wong also says many patients in Sichuan were bleeding under the skin, a symptom that has been cited in only two or three cases in medical literature on the infection – and that deafness, which is commonly found with the disease has been little mentioned in the outbreak. Experts quoted in other news reports have also said that the swine bacterium is an unlikely cause, with the symptoms, widespread geography of those affected and the speed of infection pointing to a viral infection.
Other experts question China’s denial of human-to-human spread. “The organism is carried on the pig’s tonsils and is spread pig-to-pig through nose rubbing or coughing. But it’s only found in small concentration on the pigs’ tonsils, so it’s difficult for a human to catch it that way,” says Jill Thompson from the UK’s Veterinary Investigation Centre in Edinburgh.
Acquiring virulence
“When the infection spreads to the brain, causing meningitis, it’s in far greater concentration and so it can be transmitted to humans who eat raw infected pork or handle the dead animal with open cuts,” she told New Scientist.
“It is so rare for humans to become infected; most farm workers develop some immunity from the endemic disease. What might have happened is that the bacteria have acquired virulence factors from another organism – a bacterium or virus that might be harmless – and the combined virulence factors have turned it into a superbug, which could be transmitted human-to-human through coughing,” she suggests.
Andrew Rycroft, a microbiologist from the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire, UK, agrees. “The likelihood is that once it gets established in the human respiratory tract, it can be transmitted by the respiratory tract between humans very much more quickly,” he says, citing an analogy between the bubonic plague, which soon became the far more virulent pneumonic plague when it was transmitted by the human respiratory system.
ROFL! I've almost done the same thing twice today, going between threads....
Seriously, those multicountry updates are excellent.
This whole strep suis thing has me bumfuzzled. I'm not at all sure what we're seeing here.
On one hand, I suppose it could be. But it seems to me that a lot of people who farm pigs could have been exposed WITHOUT DISEASE to the bacteria, and have acquired natural immunity. And the pigs, too.
Frankly, I think this is Avian Flu. No way do I know of that strep suis, a bacteria, can recombine with Avian flu. Totally different bugs, but I guess anything is possible, and I could certainly be wrong.
This is, to me, an Avian Flu diathesis moved into swine, with accompanying DIC (thus explaining the bleeding) in human cases. The fact that strep suis bugs are also around means diddly to me, they've been around and not been killers, for decades, in this area.
And when Avian Flu moves into the swine, then it's just one step to humans.
Again, I could be wrong. But I don't think this has anything to do with Ebola or strep suis. JUST MY OPINION.
Just my opinion.
What outbreaks? Lab contamination? Bio weapons blow back? Mad monkeys storming north? Or maybe a sailor from Africa with a case of Marburg?
While the Streptococcus suis has been known to infect and kill man, its impact has never been known to be so drastic. While it may does a role in this outbreak, it isn’t the main cause of the outbreak
Talked with my Dad about this last night. He does remember people getting sick with Suis, but it was that severe. More like a bad cold. He saw the article on Fox also and wondered just what was going on.
Streptococcus is a fungus
No, strep is not a fungus. Probably didn't make it through the translation right.
We definitely cannot accept their assistance. With the participation of the WHO, our national secrets would be revealed. And it would severely tarnish the international reputation of China. And this is not just a medical issue. The region’s poor healthcare facilities, living conditions, the chemical pollution, corruption etc will be laid bare for the word to see
Clincher for me. We have been hearing more and more about China's problems with farmers and others lately. Inviting in aid would lay bar the real cost of China's economic expansion. They are not willing to do that.
Either way, if this is genuine, then we (as in the world at large) have a HUGE problem brewing up in China's back country.
Great, now I won't get much sleep tonight.
That is what my father said. Because he is an EMT tech for work, he has to be tested and vaccinated all the time. The doctor likes to joke that some of his past exposers as a hog farmer probably better inoculated then the vaccine will! It is amazing what close contact with domestic animals exposes you too. If this was really strep, then most of the outbreak would be in town, not in the farms. I know that the dividing line between the two is blurry in China, but that would seem to argue more that what ever this is, it isn't the type of strep they keep talking about.
Once again, we have a disease that is not acting like it should. I wish we had more information, but I strongly suspect that it isn't strep suies.
I read this dialogue between Dr. Wang and the interviewer with my canister of salt handy and I'm putting my 2 cents in among the quotes but Dr. Wang's reference to strep as fungi (instead of bacteria) really has me wondering if that isn't a clue to the third mystery germ as it's such a blatancy(Cindy, read post 707!):
"Re-combination has been detected. Most prominently at the portion which determines its effect on humans (very technical description, I can’t describe it. sorry.). Also, abrupt breaks in the sequencing were detected, leading to changes in the incubation period. (Or possibly “changes in the incubation period were detected”)"
Certainly makes me think this is a bioengineered bug and not something mother nature cooked up.
" Some samples even tested positive for the A3231, the bubonic plague and the Streptococcus. In the same sample.”
Again, bioengineered either in a lab or using this population as the guinea pigs.
"I believe that this is basically a bloodborne virus with the Ebola and bubonic plague as its main constituents"
This brings to my mind the wahabist translations about a "dog disease" and how the marburg/ebola variant in Angola was initially being spread among goats, cows and dogs. This does seem like it's cooked to order for the wahabists especially with the pig angle (and yes I realize I'm way out on the limb with this possibilty but if it is biowarfare then having the wahabists take the initial blame would be a good smoke screen.)
" Pigs are vectors, as are men."
Again plays into the wahabist smoke screen connection.
"Medical / laboratory analysis reports / results can be easily organized and tampered with or falsified. That is
extremely normal. This has to do with the economic issues. Also we must remember that the lead agency in this investigation is the Sichuan provincial authorities and not the Chinese Ministry of Health. The MOH is playing a supporting role. Hence, we must follow the wishes of the provincial authorities. As to why the MOH is playing a
supporting role, I cannot offer a reasonable explanation.”
This reads right out of Animal Farm. Again the idea of the provincial authorities taking the surface lead on this is part of the cover...it isn't a national problem, just a provincial one so they don't have to answer any "national" political/economic questions. It's a way of keeping the info under wraps.
When you read this in the contect of the Chinese missle tests and recent verbal parrying it does appear that we are at war not only with Al Quada. It is very important to realize that this has been released for a reason. Dr. Niman is playing with fire.
Thanks DC.
That is interesting.
I am not sure what to think...the whole situation is confusing. I am scared if this report is accurate. With all the practice the gov. is doing toward bioterror I am certainly concerned and will continue to watch this closely.
It was Marburg. They are just claiming it was menegitis.
China still on pig disease alert
By Bao Daozu (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-03 05:45
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/03/content_465769.htm
In one of the strongest measures yet taken to combat the streptococcus suis disease, authorities in Beijing impounded at least 4,000 tons of pork from areas affected by the outbreak.
But the country's steps to tackle the infection appear to be paying off with no new cases reported for the second day running.
In the 24 hours from noon Monday to yesterday, no new human cases of the disease were found in Sichuan, the Ministry of Health reported.
Health workers did, however, identify eight previously undiagnosed patients in the province where 10 cities, including Ziyang and Chengdu, have reported outbreaks.
By noon yesterday, Sichuan had identified 159 confirmed and 46 suspected human cases.
One more patient died yesterday, bringing the death toll from the disease in the province to 37.
In Guangdong, about 8.5 tons of pork from cities affected by the outbreak have entered the market in Guangzhou, capital of the province, according to the Guangzhou Industry and Commerce Bureau.
"Guangzhou has impounded 209.8 tons of pork which were imported from Ziyang and Neijiang from July 30 to August 1," Yu Yeming, director of Guangdong Animal Epidemic Prevention Station, told China Daily yesterday.
The 8.5 tons of pork that entered the market were imported by a local food trade company in June.
When the bureau discovered the pork on July 30, only 525 kilograms of the meat was left.
According to the bureau, nobody has yet been found ill from eating pork imported from Sichuan.
In Chao'an County where the only human case of the disease in Guangdong was found, no ill pigs or other human cases have been reported, Yu said.
The man, who caught the disease, was believed to have contracted the bacteria through a wound on his hand while he was slaughtering pigs. He was discharged from hospital last week.
Experts are still confused about the cause of his illness because they failed to find any infected pigs in the area where he had been working.
Experts and officials from several departments under the State Council, including the ministries of health, agriculture and commerce, will share information and work together on disease control, according to a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture.
In serious outbreak situations, there should be strict controls on animal movements and slaughtering, said the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday in a fact sheet on streptococcus suis.
The second line of defence relies on increasing awareness of the disease amongst those at highest risk.
Those with open wounds should wear gloves when handling raw or uncooked pork, and all those who prepare pork should wash their hands and clean their utensils thoroughly before and after preparation.
WHO also recommends pork be cooked to reach an internal temperature of 70 C, or until the juices run clear rather than pink.
LOL! xvier just pinged me to the same article!
Alerting humanitarians to emergencies
Russian region culls birds after flu outbreak
02 Aug 2005 11:16:49 GMT
Source: Reuters
MOSCOW, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Russia's Siberian region of Novosibirsk said on Tuesday it will slaughter 65,000 birds in 13 locations as more cases were confirmed on Tuesday of a strain of bird flu dangerous to humans.
"It has been decided to slaughter all hens, ducks, geese and turkeys at farms where the virus had been detected. The farms' owners will be paid compensation for all the birds that are killed and provided with safe poultry meat and eggs at a discount price," a Novosibirsk administration spokeswoman said.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu which can spread to humans has so far been officially confirmed in three Siberian regions -- Novosibirsk, Altai and Tyumen, and is thought to have been brought to Russia by migrant birds from China.
The first cases were confirmed in Novosibirsk on Friday, followed by Altai on Monday. An outbreak of the virus was also confirmed in a village in the south of Tyumen, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
So far no cases of humans being infected with bird flu had been registered.
The Altai Region, located between Novosibirsk and Kazakhstan, also announced a cull of all birds at private farms where the virus had been found, the regional administration said in a statement without giving details.
It also said Russia's veterinary service is considering a ban on wild bird hunting in Siberia, the Urals and the country's Far East this year because of the bird flu outbreak.
The hunting season in these territories, which cover most of Russia, normally starts at the end of August.
Bird flu comes in different strains, such as H5 and H7, which have nine different subtypes. The H5N1 subtype is very harmful and can be passed from birds to humans, although there have been no cases of human to human transmission.
VIRUS SEEN SPREADING
More than 50 people have died in Asia from H5N1 since late 2003, raising fears it could mutate and trigger a global epidemic.
A senior Russian veterinary official said on Monday that chances were "very high" that the virus could spread to other parts of the country and even to the European Union.
He said that wild birds could also have carried the virus to Kazakhstan, where last month death of poultry was reported in the northern Pavlodar region bordering Russia. The presence of the virus there has not yet been officially confirmed.
Russian media said on Tuesday that many large poultry farms in the regions close to Novosibirsk were taking extraordinary measures against bird flu. Veterinary experts were investigating unexplained deaths of birds in various Siberian regions.
Russia's growing bird flu crisis could drive up imports of poultry. Russia, which annually consumes more than 2 million tonnes of poultry meat, already imports more than half its needs. The main suppliers are the United States, Brazil and the European Union.
You're very welcome, and welcome back.
Your ideas are pretty interesting, but I'm thinking the presence of so many diseases is related more to the horrific squalor that these people live in and less with biowarfare. Who is this Dr. Wang anyway? I can't believe that the Chinese gov't would let him say anything like this if it were true. I think it's more smoke and mirrors to divert attention from the true culprit, H5N1.
What's going on in China matches up with everything we heard would happen if Bird Flu broke out. The other diseases are stuff people had already. They might even be outright lies. What better way to put people off track then to have some doctor talk like he's outside the gov't when he isn't. He had to put some talk in about the squalor/contamination/etc. or it wouldn't have sounded like legitimate opposition. It they let out what was really going on (and what's been done to stop it), people would panic. Worst of all (for the gov't), they'd lose the 2008 olympics.
http://www.thepigsite.com/
Friday, August 05, 2005:
Vietnam bans pig, pork import from neighborhood as epidemic rages
VIETNAM - The Vietnamese government ordered Friday an immediate halt to import of pork and live pigs from countries in the region which are being ravaged by a fatal swine disease.
An emergency communication from the Prime Minister has instructed federal government agencies to work with provinces bordering the affected countries, including China, to crack down on smuggling of pork and pigs.
Animal health and market management agencies have been ordered to tightly screen the trade of pig and pork.
“If live pigs and pork products are found originating from those countries, they must be confiscated and destroyed immediately," the communication said. Besides, the importers involved would have to pay for destroying them.
Source: thanhniennews.com
From: ProMED, 5 Aug 2005
12 miners have died and 34 others are ill from what appears to be a hemorrhagic fever. The exact disease has not yet been identified.
The outbreak is among diamond miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Maniema Province.
We'll have to keep an eye out to see how this goes. Diamond miners are know to eat bush meat and work in caves too (/sarcasm). Those poor souls. Let's see if this stays contained and I would anticipate it should.
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