ZKEA

Biological Warfare : Biological Terrorism : Emerging Diseases

Archived News
Week ending May 22nd, 2005

The WHO is to announce new research showing that the pattern of avian flu in northern Vietnam is consistent with human-to-human infection. BBC News has obtained an advance copy of the study, which urges governments to bolster public health measures. The new methods will be needed to protect against a new influenza pandemic, the WHO paper says.

It is thought that at least 92 people have caught the avian influenza virus from handling poultry since late 2003. But in a handful of cases, there is the suspicion that the virus has mutated and spread from person to person. Scientists fear this new infection could form the basis of a new world-wide flu pandemic.

In the first detailed assessment of this possibility, a WHO team says that the infection pattern in northern Vietnam may indicate that the infection is passing from one person to another.

When the infection spreads from poultry, it usually infects a small number of shoppers or meat handlers and is quickly eradicated.

Instead, in northern Vietnam, researchers say they have discovered a higher number of infection clusters, the period of infection is longer and the age range of those infected is much wider. The scientists have also found that the virus in northern Vietnam is genetically more different to a bird virus than other strains...

Amid growing fears that an outbreak of avian flu could spark the next flu pandemic, wealth has become more of a factor than need in determining who will get an essential drug.

Richer countries facing little immediate avian-flu danger have moved in recent months to stockpile large amounts of the drug, called Tamiflu. The poorer Asian nations at the epicenter of the threat -- the key staging area for fighting the current outbreak and possibly forestalling the pandemic -- have only small-scale donations of the drug at present and scant resources for ordering large amounts.

Tamiflu has shown strong results in lab tests, has the backing of the World Health Organization, and was successfully used to quell a bird-flu outbreak in which Dutch farmers were infected in 2003. The drug is made by Roche Holding AG of Switzerland, which took a gamble in boosting production last year and may enjoy a substantial payoff.

But Roche is the only significant manufacturer; a rival flu drug made by Britain's GlaxoSmithKline PLC is harder to use because it must be inhaled, and it enjoys far lower sales. The Tamiflu production process takes 12 months ...

Two and a half years after a mysterious respiratory illness from southern China infected thousands of people around the world and brought dire predictions of recurring and deadly plague, the virus known as SARS has again provided a surprise.

It has disappeared, at least for the moment.

Not a single case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported this year or in late 2004. It is the first winter without a case since the initial outbreak in late 2002.

In addition, the epidemic strain of SARS that caused at least 774 deaths worldwide by June of 2003 has not been seen outside a laboratory since then. SARS is not even the nastiest bug in its neighborhood, as health officials warn that avian influenza in Southeast Asia poses a far greater threat.

In cities like Guangzhou and Beijing, once under a state of alert because of SARS, public hysteria about the disease has long since given way to public nonchalance. "Very few people talk about it anymore," said Cheng De, 22, as he walked through a subway tunnel last month in Guangzhou, the city at the center of the first two SARS outbreaks. "People think it is in the past."

Health officials in China are also less alarmed, but they warn that SARS could still pose a threat. This caution partly reflects the lack of knowledge about the virus: What caused it to become so virulent in the initial outbreak? Where has it gone? Will it come back...

Nine people have died in the Congo Republic since late April from what appears to be an outbreak of the Ebola virus, the second episode of a deadly hemorrhagic fever to strike the region this year, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said Friday.

The latest outbreak is taking place as the Congo Republic's southern neighbor, Angola, battles an epidemic of Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever closely related to Ebola. So far, 280 people have died in that epidemic, which has yet to be contained eight weeks after the virus was first identified.

Health officials in two Congolese cities already have mobilized to battle the suspected outbreak of Ebola, which has repeatedly surfaced in central Africa in the past five years. Epidemiologists are tracking 52 people who had contact with those who died, the officials said.

"We don't have lab confirmation yet," Dick Thompson, the medical officer for the World Health Organization, said Friday in a telephone interview from Geneva. "But it has all the features of an Ebola outbreak."

Ebola and Marburg are considered to be two of the world's deadliest viral diseases. Victims suffer high fevers, diarrhea, vomiting and often severe internal bleeding that can lead to a catastrophic drop in blood pressure. While both diseases can be treated, about 50 to 90 percent of the victims in Africa die...

On this day a year ago, a young woman lay dying in a cold and spartan house, in a village in South Africa's remote Eastern Cape province. Aids had eaten into her body. She weighed less than four-and-a-half stone. Her limbs ached so much that she could barely leave her bed. Her mouth was infected with the thrush that makes it agonising to swallow food. Her name was Prudence Radebe and she was resigned to her fate. Today, Prudence is still alive. In fact, she is so full of life that it is hard to believe just how sick she was.

Her weight has shot back up, to nine-and-a-half stone. Her skin is smooth and shiny. She carries buckets of water from the well up the hill with no difficulty...

A pastor in Lesotho urges his congregation to get tested for HIV infection. A Nigerian activist has counseled Roman Catholic priests with AIDS. An Anglican minister who is HIV positive speaks of how the pandemic in Africa may help reclaim Christianity's spirit of compassion.

Stories emerging at a global conference on Christian mission highlight a critical intersection of faith and crisis: the ravages of AIDS in Africa and how it may reshape religious views and practices on the continent where Christianity is growing fastest.

The relentless spread of AIDS in Africa already has forced many churches to grapple with sensitive subjects of sexuality and death among the young and put Roman Catholics at odds with officials over the Vaticans opposition to condoms. But some pastors and scholars believe the coming decades could push churches in Africa to reorder basic theology placing social assistance and health care ahead of traditional preaching and evangelism...

Early tests of a vaccine for West Nile virus are promising, a Cambridge biotech company said Wednesday.

Dr. Thomas Monath, chief scientist at vaccine developer Acambis, said the new vaccine produced enough antibodies to fight off the sometimes deadly disease in all but one of the 60 people who were vaccinated.

It's far too early to know if the vaccine will ultimately work, but a federal health official said these first results were a good sign.

The mosquito-borne West Nile virus has infected more than 16,000 people and killed 684 since its arrival in the United States in 1999. Most West Nile infections are mild and don't cause any symptoms, but the most severe cases can involve paralysis or swelling of the brain and death.

Prevention efforts have focused largely on insecticide spraying, and health officials have been hopeful a vaccine could be developed.

The Acambis test sample was small and was only the first phase, designed to determine the vaccine's safety...

The South African government -- often criticized for its ambivalent response to the AIDS epidemic -- faces increasing pressure to clamp down on a U.S.-based vitamin distributor accused of hyping the risks of anti-AIDS medication in order to push its own nutritional supplements.

The United Nations added its voice Thursday to the wave of criticism against Dr. Matthias Rath, who has placed advertisements in international media touting his company's vitamin supplements and claiming that antiretroviral medicines are totoxic.

These advertisements are wrong and misleading,said a statement issued by the World Health Organization, the U.N. Children's Fund and UNAIDS. It said claims by Rath that the U.N. agencies supported his nutritional approach were âœdangerous and unhelpful.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S. also condemned Rath last week, saying he twisted the findings of their research to advocate his position.

Studies have demonstrated that while good nutrition is an important component of care for HIV patients and boosts their overall health and strength, they have found it is no substitute for anti-AIDS drugs. Studies on the value of micronutrient supplements have been inconclusive, the U.N. agencies said...