Commentary
Ukraine Dead Increase to 354 - Fatal H1N1 Cases Have D225G
Recombinomics Commentary 14:05
November 20, 2009
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11200901/Ukraine_354.html
1,540,514 Influenza/ARI
88,744 Hospitalized
354 Dead
The above numbers represent the latest figures from the Ukraine Ministry of Health. The increase in deaths is 10, which is lower than recent increases and more Oblasts have fallen below the epidemic threshold, but Live still leads in daily increases in cases (from 114,211 to 118,256) suggesting the outbreak has moved east (see map). Similarly, Kiev recorded the largest increase in fatalities (14 to 18 ).
Recently, Mill Hill in London released sequences from 10 patients in Ukraine and most were in the areas hit hard at the beginning of the outbreak, Ternopil and Lviv. Four of the ten were sequences from deceased patients and all four had D225G, which was not present in the six HA sequences from patients who survived.
This correlation between the receptor binding domain change, D225G and fatal cases is cause for concern, and recent reports describe large increases in cases and fatalities in Poland, raising concerns that this change has significantly spread to the west of western Ukraine also.
D225G in Fatal H1N1 Cases in Norway?
Recombinomics Commentary 14:05
November 20, 2009
Laboratory tests from 70 patients are examined, of which eight patients have died. Total is the mutation found in five of the patients. Two of them are dead, while the other three have been hospitalized with serious illness in intensive care units.
The new mutated virus thrives further down the respiratory system than the original. It shuts down the lungs of patients, which means more severe disease than the original virus, which first affects the throat and upper respiratory tract.
Since the new virus in the lungs and is only detected in patients who have been admitted to hospital, experts expect that it is less contagious than has affected most who are infected so far.
Both the vaccine and Tamiflu as a treatment will work also for this variant of the virus, “says director Geir Stene-Larsen at the NIPH.
The above translation suggests that D225G has been found in the lungs of dead and dying patients in Norway. An investigation into the excessive H1N1 deaths in Norway had been ordered and a news conference has been called to discuss the “mutation”. The description sounds like the D225G found in fatal cases in Ukraine.
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11200902/Norway_225.html