UNCLASSIFIED
Avian Influenza Daily Digest
October 7, 2008 14:00 GMT
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Article Summaries ...
Announcement
Well-known Canberra scientist Graeme Laver has died in London at the age of 79
William Graeme Laver (Graeme Laver) the Australian scientist who established the molecular basis of antigenic variation in influenza viruses died recently in London enroute to a meting in Portugal. Graeme played a major role in the development of the first anti-influenza drug-Relenza. It is his contention that both Relenza and Tamiflu should be made available over the counter. He forecasted that many will die in an influenza pandemic before stockpiles could be distributed. He argues that the emergence of resistance will not be augmented by having anti-influenza drugs available in everyone?s medicine cabinet. -Rob Webster Canberra scientist Graeme Laver dead at 79 [link to photo] [link to news video] Well-known Canberra scientist Graeme Laver has died in London at the age of 79. Dr Laver researched the influenza virus for more than 30 years and helped develop the anti-flu drug Relenza. In 1996, Dr Laver was awarded the Australia Prize for excellence in the field of pharmaceutical design. Professor Adrian Gibbs worked with Dr Laver at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. "With the two vital discoveries that Graeme made, [he] really worked out the major foundation of influenza biology in that period of 20 years, and how to control it," he said.
Announcement
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
OIE: South Korea LPAI
Low pathogenic avian influenza (poultry), Korea (Rep. of) Information received on 06/10/2008 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, CVO & Director , Animal Health Team, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry (MIFAFF), Gwacheon-city, Korea (Rep. of)
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
UK: Bird cull ruling disappointment
10/7/08 BBC--The RSPCA has voiced its disappointment after the High Court upheld the legality of new rules allowing chickens to be killed by slow suffocation.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
China steps up health monitoring in flu season
10/7/08 Xinhua--China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked the country's monitoring hospitals to report influenza cases on a weekly basis in the six months from October as the flu season begins.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
Other Emerging Infectious Diseases
South Africa: Visitors to Zambia Warned of Infectious Disease
10/7/08 All Africa--The Gauteng Department of Health has issued a warning to people who have recently travelled to Zambia and have come down with flu-like symptoms. These patients have been requested to report to the nearest health facility for a medical examination or contact Dr Chika Asomugha on 082 330 1490.
Other Emerging Infectious Diseases
'Deadly dozen' reports diseases worsened by climate change
10/7/08 WCS--Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies. Called The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, the new report provides examples of diseases that could spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels. The best defense, according to the report's authors, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.
Other Emerging Infectious Diseases
Science and Technology
Flu vaccine delivered into lungs gives better results
10/7/08 Reuters--Delivering flu vaccines straight into the lungs instead of through routine injections could trigger a far stronger immune response, a study has found.
Science and Technology
GAO urges HHS to speed antiviral, prepandemic vaccine plans
10/6/08 CIDRAP--In a recent progress report to Congress on federal influenza pandemic response planning, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized a host of obstacles but cited two areas that officials could make headway on: finalizing guidance on allocating antivirals and developing guidance on how to prioritize groups to receive prepandemic vaccine in the early stages of a pandemic.
Science and Technology, Vaccines
Influenza scientists, WHO face off in virus row
10/7/08 AP--It's a David and Goliath battle that could affect the world's ability to monitor diseases and develop lifesaving vaccines. The key issue: Should Indonesia and other developing nations have a say over crucial genetic data about their own deadly viruses?
Science and Technology
Full Text of Articles follow ...
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
OIE: South Korea LPAI
Low pathogenic avian influenza (poultry),
Korea (Rep. of)
Information received on 06/10/2008 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, CVO & Director , Animal Health Team, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry (MIFAFF), Gwacheon-city, Korea (Rep. of)
Summary
Report type Immediate notification (Final report)
Start date 03/10/2008
Date of first confirmation of the event 04/10/2008
Report date 06/10/2008
Date submitted to OIE 06/10/2008
Date event resolved 04/10/2008
Reason for notification Reoccurrence of a listed disease
Date of previous occurrence 23/11/2007
Causal agent Low pathogenic avian influenza virus
Serotype H5N2
Nature of diagnosis Laboratory (basic), Laboratory (advanced)
This event pertains to a defined zone within the country
New outbreaks
Outbreak 1 YeSan-gun, Oga-myun, CH'UNGCH'ONG-NAMDO
Date of start of the outbreak 03/10/2008
Outbreak status Resolved (04/10/2008)
Epidemiological unit Farm
Affected animals
Species Susceptible Cases Deaths Destroyed Slaughtered
Birds 5000 0 5000 0
Affected population a parent stock duck farm
Summary of outbreaks Total outbreaks: 1
Outbreak statistics
Species Apparent morbidity rate Apparent mortality rate Apparent case fatality rate Proportion susceptible animals lost*
Birds ** 0.00% ** 100.00%
* Removed from the susceptible population through death, destruction and/or slaughter
** Not calculated because of missing information
Epidemiology
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection
* Unknown or inconclusive
Epidemiological comments As part of the on-going control measures for avian influenza in the Republic of Korea, surveillance has been conducted since September in all parent stock duck farms.
On 3 October, faecal samples from a parent stock duck farm proved positive to avian influenza antigen. But antibody test results of samples from blood and eggs were negative. The virus was identified as low pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N2 by haemagglutination test (HA), neuraminidase gene typing and gene sequencing of cleavage site of the HA gene on 4 October 2008.
As a preventive measure, ducks in the farm were stamped out and the farm was disinfected.
Control measures
Measures applied
* Stamping out
* Screening
* Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
* Vaccination prohibited
* No treatment of affected animals
Measures to be applied
* No other measures
Diagnostic test results
Laboratory name and type National Veterinary Research Quarantine Service (NVRQS) (National laboratory)
Tests and results
Species Test Test date Result
Birds gene sequencing 04/10/2008 Positive
Future Reporting
The event is resolved. No more reports will be submitted.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
UK: Bird cull ruling disappointment
10/7/08 BBC--The RSPCA has voiced its disappointment after the High Court upheld the legality of new rules allowing chickens to be killed by slow suffocation.
An amendment to regulations allows the air supply to infected poultry houses to be cut off in a bird flu outbreak.
Lord Justice Auld rejected a claim from the animal charity that ventilation shutdown was "disproportionate".
After the ruling, the RSPCA said it still opposed the method which caused "substantial suffering and distress".
Last resort
Ventilation shutdown was allowed under an amendment in April 2006 to the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter and Killing) regulations 1995 in "exceptional circumstances".
The RSPCA argued the new rules were incompatible with a 1993 European directive designed to protect animals from excessive suffering "at the time of slaughter or killing".
Lord Justice Auld, sitting at the High Court in London, said the directive was aimed at sparing animals "avoidable excitement, pain and suffering".
The government has removed the urgency to plan and prepare resources to use humane methods
David Bowles
RSPCA
However, it could not "guarantee absence of all such discomfort" if the slaughter was being carried out as a last resort.
The judge said: "The practical difficulties of providing an all-purpose method - or variety of methods - of ventilation shutdown, so as to provide a guarantee of no distress, pain or suffering when meeting an emergency in all circumstances and countrywide are so obvious as to demonstrate the unreality and imbalance of the RSPCA's case."
Global guidelines
Reacting to the decision, RSPCA head of external affairs David Bowles said: "The RSPCA is disappointed with the outcome of the review, and continues to strongly oppose the use of ventilation shutdown, on the basis that it would cause substantial suffering and distress to birds.
"By listing ventilation shutdown as a lawful method of killing, the government has removed the urgency to plan and prepare resources to use humane methods."
At the time the rules were changed, animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming said ventilation shutdown was not among the disease control methods recognised by World Animal Health Organisation guidelines.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the technique would be used only if no other method was possible.
Science and Technology
Flu vaccine delivered into lungs gives better results
10/7/08 Reuters--Delivering flu vaccines straight into the lungs instead of through routine injections could trigger a far stronger immune response, a study has found.
The world is expected to be extremely short of vaccines in the event of a flu pandemic, so the search for the best way to deliver vaccines is important because it would economize on the quantity of each dose.
The Australian study, published in Mucosal Immunology, showed that lower doses of a seasonal flu vaccine delivered into the lungs of sheep gave better protection against flu than a higher standard dose that was injected into another group of sheep.
"Our results suggest that delivery by the lung may allow a much lower ... dose to be used in the influenza vaccine, while inducing equivalent or perhaps even improved protection. This would mean more people would quickly be able to receive the vaccine," associate professor Philip Sutton of the Center for Animal Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne wrote in an email to Reuters.
The scientists delivered three different doses of flu vaccines (15, 5 and 1 micrograms) into the lungs of three groups of sheep using a bronchoscope, or tube. A fourth group of sheep was injected with standard 15-microgram flu vaccines.
"Lung delivery produced superior levels of antibodies in the lung (approximately 1,000 times more), where the influenza virus infects, than the injected vaccine. The antibodies produced in the blood and lung were able to block the ability of the virus to stick to the receptor it uses to infect cells, demonstrating they would be effective against infection," Sutton said.
The generation of such huge amounts of antibodies in the lungs was especially important in the case of influenza, because flu is spread from person to person mainly through sneezing and coughing.
"The generation of functional antibodies in the lung could potentially help reduce the spread of the infection by neutralizing the virus before it can be breathed out by an infected person," Sutton said.
He noted, however, that they would need to find better ways to deliver vaccine directly into the lungs.
Other Emerging Infectious Diseases
South Africa: Visitors to Zambia Warned of Infectious Disease
10/7/08 All Africa--The Gauteng Department of Health has issued a warning to people who have recently travelled to Zambia and have come down with flu-like symptoms. These patients have been requested to report to the nearest health facility for a medical examination or contact Dr Chika Asomugha on 082 330 1490.
The department is on high alert following the confirmation of four cases of an unknown highly infectious disease.
Speaking to BuaNews on Monday, departmental health spokesperson Zanele Mngadi said the department was busy investigating the "unknown highly infectious" disease which caused flu-like symptoms.
The department confirmed that three people had died and a fourth, a cleaner at the Morningside Medi-Clinic, died on Sunday night.
The first victim was a 36-year-old woman from Zambia who was brought to South Africa for treatment on 12 September after being critically ill for weeks. She was taken to the Morningside Medi-Clinic where she was treated for tick-bite fever and other potential infections, but died two days later.
"Blood samples were taken and the results were not conclusive of any particular disease including the Viral Hemorrhagic fevers," the department said.
A 33-year-old paramedic, who had accompanied the patient, was then admitted to the Morningside Medi-Clinic with the same flu-like symptoms. He later died in hospital.
The department said the third patient, who was a nurse at the clinic, was in contact with the first patient and became ill with the same symptoms and subsequently was admitted at the Sir Albert Robinson Hospital where she passed away on Sunday.
Morningside Medi-Clinic spokesperson Melinda Pelser confirmed that a fourth victim, a cleaner, died on Sunday night and said hospital staff who had been in contact with the deceased patients were being monitored.
"All the staff who had anything to do with the patients have been followed up. They are aware that they should notify us if there is any change in their temperature or if they have any flu-like symptoms," Ms Pelser told BuaNews.
She said the hospital was taking all the necessary precautions to fight the unknown disease and there was no need of panic from the public.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
Health and Medicine
South Africa
Zambia
The department also said systems were in place to follow up with all those who had had contact with the victims. Health care workers and family members will be monitored for raised temperature and flu-like symptoms for a period of 21 days.
Science and Technology > Vaccines
GAO urges HHS to speed antiviral, prepandemic vaccine plans
10/6/08 CIDRAP--In a recent progress report to Congress on federal influenza pandemic response planning, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized a host of obstacles but cited two areas that officials could make headway on: finalizing guidance on allocating antivirals and developing guidance on how to prioritize groups to receive prepandemic vaccine in the early stages of a pandemic.
The 72-page report, focusing on the US Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') pandemic response plans, was published on the GAO's Web site on Sep 30.
Investigators looked at three response components that the GAO and outside experts have said need improvements?pharmaceutical intervention, healthcare surge capacity, and public communications. Though the GAO gave detailed status reports for all three of the areas, it made recommendations only about pharmaceutical interventions.
"We believe that finalizing guidance on the use of pharmaceutical interventions will be crucial for responding to a pandemic outbreak and that the necessary guidance documents should be finalized as soon as possible," the GAO wrote.
In June HHS released draft guidance on the use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic. The agency's goal is to place 75 million treatment courses in the Strategic National Stockpile, and draft guidance proposes that the private sector stockpile 110 million additional treatment courses.
The proposed guidance, developed by an interagency task force, advised that antivirals in government stockpiles be used to treat people who are ill, especially when supplies are scarce, and that antivirals for preventive use be mainly drawn from private stockpiles. The draft document did not attempt to prioritize groups.
In a letter responding to the GAO report, Vincent Ventimiglia, Jr, assistant secretary for legislation at HHS, wrote that the agency is in the process of updating the proposed guidance on antiviral use during a pandemic, on the basis of feedback it received during the public comment period. The comment period was set to end on Jul 3, according to a May 23 Federal Register notice.
In its other recommendation, the GAO advised HHS to release guidance for using and prioritizing prepandemic vaccine designed to protect against a pandemic virus before a vaccine closely matched to the actual pandemic strain is available. Federal officials are already stockpiling a prepandemic vaccine based on the H5N1 virus.
In June HHS released its official guidance on allocating pandemic vaccine, which would be developed after the start of a pandemic and designed to match the circulating strain. HHS officials project that it would take 20 to 23 weeks after the start of a pandemic to start producing the first doses.
As for prepandemic vaccine stockpiles, the GAO report says HHS will oversee the distribution and administration to workers who are needed to keep society functioning until a pandemic vaccine becomes widely available. According to the report, the National Infrastructure Advisory Council has estimated that the critical workforce numbers about 20 million people, and HHS' goal is to stockpile enough to cover that number.
However, HHS has not yet released draft guidance on prioritizing target groups for prepandemic vaccines. HHS officials told GAO investigators that target groups for the prepandemic vaccine would likely resemble those for the pandemic vaccine, but would have more of a critical workforce focus. They also said that a tiered approach like that used for the pandemic vaccine would be needed only if a pandemic occurs before HHS reaches its goal of stockpiling enough for 20 million people.
The GAO said establishing target groups in advance is a key component of pandemic planning and warned that HHS could encounter problems if it doesn't issue graft guidance for prepandemic vaccines in a more timely manner. "This lack of essential information could slow the initial response at the state and local levels and complicate the general public's understanding of the necessity for rationing these interventions," the GAO wrote.
Investigators also said a public comment period after the draft prepandemic vaccine allocation plan is announced is a useful step. "Public participation is an essential component for acceptance of tough decisions that will be required unless and until greater capacity or a universal vaccine can be developed," the report said.
In his response accompanying the GAO report, Ventimiglia wrote that HHS will release its proposed prepandemic vaccine allocation guidance "in the near future."
Bill Hall, an HHS spokesman in Washington, DC, told CIDRAP News that the agency has been working on the draft allocation plan, but that it isn't finished and the agency can't yet say when it will be.
Other Emerging Infectious Diseases
'Deadly dozen' reports diseases worsened by climate change
10/7/08 WCS--Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies. Called The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, the new report provides examples of diseases that could spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels. The best defense, according to the report's authors, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.
The report was released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain.
"The term 'climate change' conjures images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations, but just as important is how increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels will change the distribution of dangerous pathogens," said Dr. Steven E. Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "The health of wild animals is tightly linked to the ecosystems in which they live and influenced by the environment surrounding them, and even minor disturbances can have far reaching consequences on what diseases they might encounter and transmit as climate changes. Monitoring wildlife health will help us predict where those trouble spots will occur and plan how to prepare."
The "Deadly Dozen" list?including such diseases as avian influenza, Ebola, cholera, and tuberculosis?is illustrative only of the broad range of infectious diseases that threaten humans and animals. It builds upon the recommendations included in a recently published paper titled "Wildlife Health as an Indicator of Climate Change," which appears in a newly released book, Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Contributions to Infectious Disease Emergence, published by the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine. The study examines the nuts and bolts of deleterious impacts of climate change on the health of wild animals and the cascading effects on human populations.
In addition to the health threats that diseases pose to human and wildlife populations, the pathogens that originate from or move through wildlife populations have already destabilized trade to a large extent and caused significant economic damage. For instance, several livestock diseases that have reemerged since the mid-1990s (including avian influenza) have caused an estimated $100 billion in losses to the global economy.
WCS's Global Health Programs currently leads an international consortium that helps to monitor the movements of avian influenza through wild bird populations around the world. The GAINS program (Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance) was created in 2006 with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and now involves dozens of private and public partners that monitor wild bird populations for avian influenza around the world.
"Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to the health and economic stability of the world," said Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT3), a champion for the GAINS Program "What we've learned from WCS and the GAINS Program is that monitoring wildlife populations for potential health threats is essential in our preparedness and prevention strategy and expanding monitoring beyond bird flu to other deadly diseases must be our immediate next step."
"The monitoring of wildlife health provides us with a sensitive and quantitative means of detecting changes in the environment," said Dr. William Karesh, Vice President and Director of WCS's Global Health Programs. Wildlife health monitoring provides a new lens to see what is changing around us and will help governments, agencies, and communities detect and mitigate threats before they become disasters."
THE DEADLY DOZEN
Many wildlife pathogens have been the focus of monitoring efforts, but few data exist on how diseases will spread in response to climate change. The following list includes those pathogens that may spread as a result of changing temperatures and precipitation levels. Monitoring efforts for these diseases need to be examined in tandem with meteorological data to uncover climate-related trends. The list is not a comprehensive one, and subsequent studies may eliminate pathogens from the list of those enabled by climatic factors.
* Avian influenza: Like human influenza, avian influenza viruses occur naturally in wild birds, though often with no dire consequences. The virus is shed by infected birds via secretions and feces. Poultry may contract the virus from other domestic birds or wild birds. A highly pathogenic strain of the disease?H5N1?is currently a major concern for the world's governments and health organizations, specifically because it has proven deadly to domestic and wild birds, as well as humans, and has the potential to evolve into a strain that can spread from human to human. Current data indicate that the movement of H5N1 from region to region is largely driven by the trade in poultry, but changes in climate such as severe winter storms and droughts can disrupt normal movements of wild birds and can bring both wild and domestic bird populations into greater contact at remaining water sources.
* Babesiosis: Babesia species are examples of tick-borne diseases that affect domestic animals and wildlife, and Babesiosis is an emerging disease in humans. In some instances, Babesia may not always cause severe problems by themselves but when infections are severe due to large numbers of ticks, the host becomes more susceptible to other infectious diseases. This has been seen in large die-offs of lions in East Africa due to canine distemper. Climate factors fostered heavy infestations of ticks on wild buffalo and subsequent spill-over infection of lions. The lions then became more susceptible to infections with the distemper virus. In Europe and North America, the disease is becoming more common in humans, also linked with tick distributions. Diseases that have previously been thought to have limited impact, such as babesiosis, must be watched closely in a changing climate to assess how environmental conditions may tip the scale and cause more significant impacts on ecosystems, animals, and people.
* Cholera: Cholera is a water-borne diarrheal disease affecting humans mainly in the developing world. It is caused by a bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, which survives in small organisms in contaminated water sources and may also be present in raw shellfish such as oysters. Once contracted, cholera quickly becomes deadly. It is highly temperature dependent, and increases in water temperature are directly correlated with occurrence of the disease. Rising global temperatures due to climate change are expected to increase incidence of this disease.
* Ebola: Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus and its closely related cousin?the Marburg fever virus?easily kill humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, and there is currently no known cure. Scientists continue to work on finding the source of the disease and to develop vaccines for protection. There is significant evidence that outbreaks of both diseases are related to unusual variations in rainfall/dry season patterns. As climate change disrupts and exaggerates seasonal patterns, we may expect to see outbreaks of these deadly diseases occurring in new locations and with more frequency. WCS's work on Ebola in Central Africa has been supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
* Intestinal and external parasites: Parasites are widespread throughout terrestrial and aquatic environments. As temperatures and precipitation levels shift, survival of parasites in the environment will increase in many places, infecting an increasing number of humans and animals. Many species of parasites are zoonotic, spread between wildlife and humans. The nematode, Baylisascaris procyonis, is spread by the common raccoon and is deadly to many other species of wildlife and humans. A close relative, Baylisascaris schroederi, causes death in its natural host?the critically endangered giant panda. Monitoring of parasite species and loads in wildlife and livestock help us identify transmission of these infections between domestic and wild animals and humans.
* Lyme disease: This disease is caused by a bacterium and is transmitted to humans through tick bites. Tick distributions will shift as a result of climate change, bringing Lyme disease into new regions to infect more animals and people. Although effects of the disease on wildlife have not been documented, human-induced changes in the environment and on population patterns of species such as white-tailed deer that can carry infective ticks greatly affect the distribution of this disease. Monitoring of tick distributions will be necessary to assess the impacts of climate change on this disease.
* Plague: Plague, Yersinia pestis?one of the oldest infectious diseases known?still causes significant death rates in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans in certain locations. Plague is spread by rodents and their fleas. Alterations in temperatures and rainfall are expected to change the distribution of rodent populations around the globe, which would impact the range of rodent-born diseases such as plague.
* "Red tides": Harmful algal blooms off global coasts create toxins that are deadly to both humans and wildlife. These occurrences?commonly called "red tides"?cause mass fish kills, marine mammal strandings, penguin and seabird mortality, and human illness and death from brevetoxins, domoic acid, and saxitoxins (the cause of "paralytic shellfish poisoning"). Similar events in freshwater are caused by a species of Cyanobacteria and have resulted in animal die-offs in Africa. Altered temperatures or food-web dynamics resulting from climate change will have unpredictable impacts on the occurrences of this worldwide phenomenon. Effects of harmful algal blooms on sea life are often the first indicators that such an event is taking place.
* Rift Valley Fever: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an emerging zoonotic disease of significant public health, food security, and overall economic importance, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. In infected livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats and camels, abortions and high death rates are common. In people (who can get the virus from butchering infected animals), the disease can be fatal. Given the role of mosquitoes in transmission of the virus, changes in climate continue to be associated with concerns over the spread of RVFV.
* Sleeping sickness: Also known as trypanosomiasis, this disease affects people and animals. It is caused by the protozoan, Trypanosoma brucei, and transmitted by the tsetse fly. The disease is endemic in certain regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, affecting 36 countries, with estimates of 300,000 new cases every year and more than 40,000 human deaths each year in eastern Africa. Domestic cattle are a major source of the disease, but wildlife can be infected and maintain the disease in an area. Direct and indirect effects (such as human land-use patterns) of climate change on tsetse fly distributions could play a role in the distribution of this deadly disease.
* Tuberculosis: As humans have moved cattle around the world, bovine tuberculosis has also spread. It now has a global distribution and is especially problematic in Africa, where it was introduced by European livestock in the 1800s. The disease infects vital wildlife populations, such as buffalo and lions in Kruger National Park in South Africa, where tourism is an integral part of local economies. The disease also infects humans in southern Africa through the consumption of un-pasteurized milk. Human forms of tuberculosis can also infect wild animals. Climate change impacts on water availability due to drought are likely to increase the contact of wildlife and livestock at limited water sources, resulting in increased transmission of the disease between livestock and wildlife and livestock and humans.
* Yellow fever: Found in the tropical regions of Africa and parts of Central and South America, this virus is carried by mosquitoes, which will spread into new areas as changes in temperatures and precipitation levels permit. One type of the virus?jungle yellow fever?can be spread from primates to humans and vice-versa via mosquitoes that feed on both hosts. Recent outbreaks in Brazil and Argentina have had devastating impacts on wild primate populations. In some countries in South America, monitoring of wild primates has resulted in early detection of disease activity and allowed vaccination programs to be rapidly implemented to protect humans.
Regional Reporting and Surveillance
China steps up health monitoring in flu season
10/7/08 Xinhua--China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked the country's monitoring hospitals to report influenza cases on a weekly basis in the six months from October as the flu season begins.
Hospitals should input all flu cases to the state influenza monitoring information network every Monday, according to a notice issued by the center.
The network consists of 198 hospitals and 63 laboratories. The notice said hospitals should collected virus samples and deliver them to appointed laboratories on a regular basis.
"Our focus is on the number of flu cases, the species of virus strains and the antigenicity, gene features and drug resistance of the virus strains," Yu Hongjie, a researcher with the Chinese CDC, said.
Influenza is an infectious disease in birds and mammals. In serious cases, it can lead to pneumonia, which can be fatal, particularly in young children and the elderly.
Three major international pandemic flu outbreaks occurred last century: from 1918 to 1919; 1957 to 1958; and 1968 to 1969. They caused huge economic losses and killed millions of people.
A deadly avian strain named H5N1 has posed the greatest risk for a new flu pandemic since it first killed humans in Asia in the1990s. Fortunately, this virus has not mutated to a form that spreads easily between people.
Yu said the virus strains most widely spread around globe since1997 were influenza virus A (H1N1), virus A (H3N2) and virus B.
The researcher said flu epidemics in China in recent years remained generally stable and the most common virus strain in China last spring was influenza virus B.
Science and Technology
Influenza scientists, WHO face off in virus row
10/7/08 AP--It's a David and Goliath battle that could affect the world's ability to monitor diseases and develop lifesaving vaccines. The key issue: Should Indonesia and other developing nations have a say over crucial genetic data about their own deadly viruses?
An international network of top influenza scientists says yes, arguing that is the best way to speed development and research, but they are running into resistance from within the World Health Organization, which opposes letting countries keep intellectual property rights to virus samples they provide for research.
The intensifying standoff was triggered in part by revelations that the WHO, for years looked upon as the protector of the poor, had been keeping coveted information about bird flu and other viruses in a private database in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and making it available to just 15 laboratories.
Some foreign governments called for a boycott of the global body's 55-year-old virus-sharing system, which had obliged them to freely hand over samples and data.
The problem with that system, they say, is that developing countries give up intellectual property rights to their virus samples when they provide them to the WHO. The virus samples are then used by private pharmaceutical companies to make vaccines that are awarded patents — and sold at a profit at prices many poor nations can't afford.
Acknowledging a need for change, the WHO agreed to work with developing nations to make sure they had better access to lifesaving medicine, an intensely bureaucratic process that is about to enter its second year with no clear end in site.
In the meantime, leading influenza scientists and health experts came up with their own solution to alleviate the basic concerns of transparency for developing nations, one that appears to be making some at the WHO nervous.
The scientists' nonprofit organization, which goes by the name of GISAID, launched a publicly accessible online database that — for the first time ever — offers basic intellectual property rights to those who submit genetic information.
That has encouraged many countries including Indonesia, China, Russia and others to again start sharing information about their viruses, turning GISAID into the world's largest and most comprehensive influenza database in just four months.
"I'm in favor of what works. If nothing is working, we have to come up with something new," said Bruce Lehman, who served as Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks under U.S. President Bill Clinton.
"And if you have a mechanism that is going to encourage the dissemination of scientific data, of research, well, then that is going to be positive in terms of coming up with new treatments for disease."
However, the WHO appears to be going to extreme lengths to stand in GISAID's way, including withholding funding that has been pledged for the database.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, is seeking US$10 million for its own database and virus tracking system, even though its own scientists are already using GISAID's free-of-charge site almost exclusively, including for last month's virus strain selection for the annual flu shot, said Masato Tashiro, director of WHO's collaborating center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Because many scientists played a key role in helping design the system to meet their needs, they are befuddled at the WHO Secretariat's refusal to embrace them.
David Heymann, the global body's top flu official, said the reason was simple.
For the first time in decades, developing countries are looking at the global body with mistrust, and officials cannot afford to be partial to any group, he said, adding this was a direct order from WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.
Heymann supports keeping viruses in the public domain — something that effectively strips countries of ownership rights — and, until recently, other top officials in Geneva maintained it was important some genetic data remained behind closed doors.
In the most recent dispute over GISAID's free database, the WHO has refused to hand over US$450,000 provided by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control for the database's development well over a year ago.
That is a lot of money for the feisty group of influenza scientists, given that their director, Peter Bogner, a former television broadcaster who rallied to their cause two years ago, has largely financed the initiative on his own.
"We are working with WHO to get these funds mobilized for their intended purposes," said Bill Hall, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also frustrated after receiving conflicting reasons for the delay.
The WHO's Heymann said CDC money had been earmarked for a specific project — a database — but not a particular organization.
"We have to go through a competitive bidding process," he told AP — a process in which GISAID would be ineligible to compete because it is a nonprofit organization.
Developing nations, which have a key stake in the project, meanwhile alleged that a WHO-commissioned report comparing five databanks, from GenBank to Los Alamos, carried out by the global body's four collaborating centers was deliberately kept secret.
Scientists ranked GISAID superior on almost all levels, from the amount and type of information included to functionality, but several member states said, when requesting an update, they were told no assessment had been carried out.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Friday if the goal was to force members states to use an expensive and substandard database and tracking system created by WHO, it wouldn't work.
"It would certainly add the lingering mistrust many feel toward WHO," she said.
Announcement
Well-known Canberra scientist Graeme Laver has died in London at the age of 79
William Graeme Laver (Graeme Laver) the Australian scientist who established the molecular basis of antigenic variation in influenza viruses died recently in London enroute to a meting in Portugal. Graeme played a major role in the development of the first anti-influenza drug-Relenza. It is his contention that both Relenza and Tamiflu should be made available over the counter. He forecasted that many will die in an influenza pandemic before stockpiles could be distributed. He argues that the emergence of resistance will not be augmented by having anti-influenza drugs available in everyone?s medicine cabinet.
-Rob Webster
Canberra scientist Graeme Laver dead at 79
ABC/Australia [link to photo] [link to news video]
Well-known Canberra scientist Graeme Laver has died in London at the age of 79.
Dr Laver researched the influenza virus for more than 30 years and helped develop the anti-flu drug Relenza. In 1996, Dr Laver was awarded the Australia Prize for excellence in the field of pharmaceutical design. Professor Adrian Gibbs worked with Dr Laver at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.
"With the two vital discoveries that Graeme made, [he] really worked out the major foundation of influenza biology in that period of 20 years, and how to control it," he said.
