H5N1

India: 11 more AES deaths reported, toll 85

Via Zeenews.com: Bihar: 11 more AES death reported, toll 85.

Patna: Eleven more children died of the Acute Encephalopathy Syndrome (AES) in Bihar taking the toll to 85, official sources said on Saturday. 

Nine children died due to the AES in the Sri Krishna Memorial College and Hospital (SKMCH) and the private Kejriwal hospital in Muzaffarpur since yesterday taking the toll in the two hospitals to 40, the sources said. 

The disease claimed the life of one more child in Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital, where the toll rose to 10. 

Another death was reported from the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in the state capital. The disease has so far claimed 35 lives in the PMCH. 

The AES deaths have been reported in the state since May this year, the sources said. 

Altogether 197 cases of the AES have been reported from various parts of the state, two of which have been confirmed as the Japanese Encephalitis, the source said. 

The AES comprised of symptoms of 17 diseases like heat stroke, cerebral malaria, meningitis, TB meningitis and neurocysticercosis.

Dominican Republic: Some encouraging cholera numbers

The Dominican Republic's Ministerio de Salud Pública y Asistencia Social [Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance] has a regular weekly bulletin (Boletín Semanal), and the most recent is for Week 21. Looking at the cholera numbers, I'm glad to see that they're down this year compared to 2011.

In Week 21 of 2011, for example, there were 19 deaths, making a total of 79 for the year so far. This year there were no deaths in Week 21 and 26 deaths altogether.

Cholera is still a big problem, with 1,531 hospitalizations this year and 174 in Week 21. But it's better than it was.

India: Cholera claimed 79 lives in Pune in 2011

Via DNA: Cholera claimed 79 lives in Pune in 2011. Excerpt:

Last year, 79 people died due to cholera and 28 due to malnutrition in Pune. These shocking facts came to light through a right to information (RTI) query. 

What's worse, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that reaped accolades for its 'zero malaria deaths' model may have lied about figures as the RTI reply by the civic body's birth and death registration section shows that 42 people died due to the deadly disease in the last two years. 

RTI activist Vihar Durve filed the query and received its reply from incharge of PMC's birth and death registration section, stating that a total of 25,049 people died within PMC limits in 2011. 0f these, 10 people succumbed to malaria, while 14 died due to dengue. Cholera, an infectious disease that is notifiable, claimed 79 lives, according to the RTI reply. 

These trends are seen in previous years too. The 2010 records show 26 deaths due to malnutrition, 24 due to cholera, while the 2009 records peg cholera deaths alone at a whopping 468. 

As the RTI reply raises serious concerns over the reporting of diseases by the civic administration, PMC's health department officials vehemently denied the authenticity of the data. 

Dr ST Pardeshi, chief medical officer, called the data 'incorrect' and based on improper reporting by hospitals and private doctors. 

"The reply that has been given under RTI is based on cause of death as stated by doctors or hospitals. However, we have a system of coding where deaths are investigated and each is assigned a code after determining cause of death. A person having malaria may not die of it, but of other associated problems. We are going to carry out an audit of all these deaths, do the proper coding and only then will we know the actual numbers," said Pardeshi.

Russia: B2B avian flu is H9, not H5N1

Post in haste, repent at leisure: Two days I posted this item from Global Meat News.com: Russia: B2B H5N1 in the Far East? And since then I've looked around for a follow-up to the story, without success. But I just saw it reappear on ProMED-mail, and this time I read it more carefully. Excerpt, with my bolding:

The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has identified a strain of low-pathogenic avian influenza type A, subtype H9, after studying pathological material from poultry at one of the facilities of Amurski Broiler, one of the largest poultry farms in the Primorsk Territory.  

According to the deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor Nikolai Vlasov, this H9 subtype of influenza is not harmful to humans and usually does not lead to significant health problems or the death of birds. However, when the virus is in contact with poultry that has no immunity to it, the infection can spread and cause high mortality, resulting in serious economic losses for poultry producers. 

This is what can happen when I post an excerpt without reading it carefully (and I usually try to). Apologies, and I'll try to do better in future.

Vietnam: Dioxin suspected as possible cause of bizarre skin disease

Thanks to FluTrackers for picking this new report from Saigon Giai Phong: Dioxin suspected as possible cause of bizarre skin disease. The whole report and then some comments:

Doctors in the Children Hospital No.2 in Ho Chi Minh City are now suspecting exposure to dioxin as a possible cause of the bizarre skin disease in patients arriving from Ba To District in the central province of Quang Ngai. 

More than a week back, the hospital had received three patients suffering from the unidentified skin disease, from Reu Village of Ba Dien Commune in Ba To District. Doctors took a biopsy of skin lesions from all the three patients, Pham Thi Tren, 14, Pham Dinh Hieu, 6, and Pham Quoc Bao, 5. 

According to the doctors, the skin disease may be reoccurring due to   exposure to toxic and harmful substances like dioxin, which can penetrate air, soil, sediments, food and water. 

Dr. Ho Thi Kim Thoa, who is directly treating the above cases, said the children all suffered from severe damage to liver, kidney, heart and hearing, and their condition had not improved, despite blood filtering many times. 

The hospital said it had not yet identified the cause of the disease but thinks a possible cause to be dioxin or arsenic poisoning, as hair samples taken from a boy who died at Children Hospital No.1 in HCMC showed high levels of arsenic content.  One hair sample contained arsenic levels more than 100 times above normal. 

Parents of Pham Dinh Hieu and Pham Quoc Bao said they live in a mountainous region where most of the residents collect stream water for daily use and for growing agricultural produce. Hence, the stream water might be polluted with dangerous toxic substances. 

The ministry has announced that up till now at least 214 people from Ba To District have been infected and suffering from the bizarre and  unknown skin disease, with 23 having already succumbed to it.

Dioxins make me think of Agent Orange, and Google led me to this site, which states that spraying of Agent Orange was "especially heavy" in Quang Ngai. It also says 15,000 residents are classified by the Vietnamese government as dioxin victims.

The question, however, is whether any of those victims displayed symptoms similar to those among the H're people. If so, the medical authorities wouldn't have had so much trouble identifying the cause of the current outbreak; they would have seen hundreds of similar cases.

Still, it's disturbing to think that Vietnamese born long after the war ended might be among its casualties.

Cholera outbreak in Ghana begins to subside

Via Vaccine News Daily: Cholera outbreak in Ghana begins to subside. Excerpt:

After more than 4,000 cholera cases and 64 deaths in Ghana this year following a first quarter cholera outbreak, health officials in Accra have announced a significant decline in the number of cases. 

Accra, the capital of Ghana, is leading the outbreak with 2,756 cases and 31 deaths. Simpson Anim Boateng, the public health director of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, said that while figures are decreasing, the fatality rates are not acceptable, DailyGuideGhana.com reports. 

Boateng called for the tidying up of public places and a rapid response to cases that have been reported. The onset of the rainy season may lead to fresh outbreaks unless residents adhere strictly to environmental and personal hygienic practices. If residents of Accra fail to maintain such standards, a massive outbreak of cholera and other diseases could occur.

India: Four dead in Assam cholera outbreak

Via The Assam Tribune, an IANS report: Cholera alert after four deaths in Assam. Excerpt:

Assam health authorities have sounded an alert after cholera, which has claimed four lives, took seven districts in its grip, officials said on Friday. 

More than 500 people have fallen sick in the State. 

Sources in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) said Sivsagar, Darrang and Cachar districts have been identified as the worst affected.

"We have formed Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) in each district to control the spread of the disease," said an official. 

While two people died in Sivsagar, the other two deaths took place in Darrang and Cachar districts.

India: 74 children dead due to AES in Bihar

The deaths in Bihar are being noticed in India's national media. Via Hindustan Times: 74 children dead due to AES in Bihar. And they're naming the cause, though with a pretty broad term:

Altogether 74 children have died due to the Acute Encephalopathy Syndrome (AES) out of the 197 such cases reported in hospitals in Bihar since May this year, a health official said today. 

Stating that AES comprising symptoms of 17 diseases like cerebral malaria, meningitis and TB meningitis, Principal Secretary (Health) Amarjeet Sinha said 34 children died at the Patna Medical College and Hospital and 30 others at the  Sri Krishna Memorial College and Hospital and the private Kejriwal hospital in Muzaffarpur. 

Sinha said that medical infrastructure has been put in place at government and private hospitals for treatment of AES cases and medical and para-medic personnel alerted to the situation.

Coston on Legionnaire's disease in Scotland

Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary has a Legionella Update From NHS Lothian. As always, it's detailed and informative. 

At any given moment, Flublogia tries to follow several running stories. Currently, those stories include nodding disease in Uganda and other African countries; the mysterious skin disease in central Vietnam; cholera in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo; and what is probably encephalitis in India's Bihar state. The Legionella outbreak is an intriguing one.

Tsunami dock in U.S. stripped to remove invasive species

Via The Japan Times Online, an AFP-Jiji report: Tsunami dock in U.S. stripped to remove invasive species. Excerpt:

Environmental protection workers have stripped seaweed and barnacles Thursday from a tsunami-wrecked dock that washed up in Oregon to guard against invasive species from Japan. 

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife ordered the action after the 20-meter-long concrete and metal structure, the biggest piece of debris to reach the west coast of North America since the March 11, 2011, Tohoku tsunami, arrived at the state's shoreline. 

A dozen or so workers and volunteers used shovels, rakes and other tools to scrape the wreck clean, then briefly applied low-pressure flame torches to sterilize the dock, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department said. 

A spokesman for the department, Chris Havel, said Japanese marine life clinging to the dock could harm the local environment. 

"A species that evolves in an ecosystem evolves with natural checks and balance," Havel said. "When you take an organism out of the environment and put it in a new one, the balance is lost. It can outcompete native species and animals. 

"You end up with the native ecosystem being kicked out and an unbalanced ecosystem taking its place." 

The wrecked dock appeared off Oregon's coast Monday and washed ashore early Tuesday on Agate Beach near the town of Newport, some 160 km southwest of Portland. 

Local officials contacted Japanese diplomats, who confirmed the dock is debris that was swept away by last year's tsunami and drifted more than 8,800 km across the Pacific Ocean.

Japanese officials confirmed the dock, which measures 20 meters long, 5.8 meters wide and 2.1 meters high, originated in the port of Misawa, Aomori Prefecture. It is fitted with a metal plaque in Japanese dated June 2008. 

Checks confirmed it is not contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, spokesman Havel said, but the marine life still represented an environmental threat. 

"One of the organisms they identified is 'wakame' (seaweed). It looks like kelp. It's native to Japan, it's invaded Southern California (but) it's not currently present in Oregon," he said. 

"Because of that and the possibility of other species that don't belong here, we've cleaned the entire surface of the dock. After they scraped it down, they hit it with a short burst of fire to sterilize it."