H5N1

US: Massachusetts plans stricter control of compounding pharmacies

Via The New York Times: Massachusetts Plans Stricter Control of Compounding Pharmacies. Excerpt:

BOSTON — New laws to strengthen state control of compounding pharmacies were proposed on Friday by Gov. Deval Patrick, in hopes of preventing another public health disaster like the current outbreak of meningitis caused by a contaminated drug made in Massachusetts. 

The laws will be among the strongest in the country, said Kevin Outterson, a law professor at Boston University and a member of the expert panel that advised the state on how to curb abuses by companies like the New England Compounding Center, the Framingham pharmacy that made the tainted drug responsible for the nationwide meningitis outbreak. 

The legislation would establish strict licensing requirements for compounding sterile drugs; let the state assess fines against pharmacies that break its rules; protect whistle-blowers who work in compounding pharmacies; and reorganize the state pharmacy board to include more members who are independent of the industry and fewer who are part of it.

Canada: Three more Vancouver hospital wards hit by norovirus

Via the Vancouver Sun: Three more hospital wards hit by norovirus. And one of them is in Lions Gate Hospital, here in North Vancouver. Excerpt:

The norovirus outbreak has forced containment protocol procedures at two more Vancouver General Hospital wards and one at Lions Gate Hospital. 

Vancouver Coastal Health spokesman Anna Marie D'Angelo said Friday that wards on the ninth and 10th floors of the VGH Centennial Pavilion and the sixth floor of LGH have been added to the areas where patients appear to have contracted the virus.

Saudi Arabia: Makkawis complain of dengue misdiagnoses

Via the Saudi Gazette: Makkawis complain of dengue misdiagnoses. Excerpt:

MAKKAH — As dengue fever cases have increased lately in some Makkah neighborhoods, some citizens complain that hospitals are misdiagnosing the cases and are forced to visit other hospitals for the correct diagnosis and medical treatment, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Saturday. 

 People should watch out for two symptoms that could indicate that there is a possibility of dengue. Patients experience high temperatures and a blood test should indicate low platelets and white blood cells. 

Director of Al-Noor Specialist Hospital in Makkah Dr. Abdulsalam Noor Wali said the hospital receives about 10 suspected cases of dengue fever daily. 

A special medical team and additional specialist clinics were readied to deal with the cases. 

He added that patients with high temperatures and low platelets are admitted to the hospital for observations for five to seven days. 

He said that dengue fever cases have been on the rise for more than one month. 

Most of the patients come from the neighborhoods of Al-Shawqiyah and Al-Awali. 

He called upon the concerned authorities to increase their efforts to combat dengue. He urged people to be more aware, adding that hospitals can focus only on medical treatment. 

Forty-seven confirmed and suspected dengue fever cases have recently been reported in Makkah’s Bat’ha neighborhood, health sources told Al-Madinah in a previous statement. 

Residents say the neighborhood has been infested with mosquitoes and accused the Makkah municipality of not doing enough to fight mosquito infestations in the area.

Pakistan: Three-day polio drive in Peshawar postponed for ‘technical’ reasons

Via Dawn.com: Three-day polio drive in Peshawar postponed for ‘technical’ reasons. Excerpt:

PESHAWAR: The three-day polio vaccination drive which was due to start on Saturday in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was postponed until Jan 14. The office of the district administration cited technical reasons for the postponement. 

However, some sources said the vaccination drive was postponed because lady health workers refused to participate in it owing to security reasons in the wake of the recent attacks on polio workers and other non-governmental organisations. 

On the other hand, the government has promised to provide security to polio teams but the teams have remained reluctant to participate. 

Polio vaccination drives have however continued in many districts of KP and in the Bajaur tribal region for the past three days. 

Polio teams were attacked continually in several parts of Pakistan during December 2012.

Paraguay: 24-year-old woman first dengue victim of 2013

Via Español UPI.com: Paraguaya de 24 años primera víctima fatal del dengue en 2013. [Paraguayan woman, 24, first dengue death in 2013] Excerpt, with my translation:

Jessica Romina Rojas de 24 años sería la primera víctima fatal de 2013 de dengue hemorrágico. Falleció el viernes en el Hospital de Clínicas, consignó un reporte del portal de la Información Pública IP. 

Jessica Romina Rojas, 24, was the first fatal case of hemorrhagic dengue of 2013. She died on Friday in the Clinics Hospital, according to a report on the Public Information portal.

Sus padres denunciaron negligencia médica en el Hospital Regional de Villa Elisa y desidia de las autoridades comunales. Jessica había consultado el pasado sábado ante los primeros síntomas de dengue, pero no fue internada, según el testimonio de su tía, Liz Leguizamón, a Telefuturo y de acuerdo al reporte de IP.

Her parents denounced medical negligence in the Villa Elisa Regional Hospital and the inaction of community authorities. Jessica had gone to the hospital last Saturday with the first symptoms of dengue, but was not admitted, according to the testimony of her aunt, Liz Leguizamón, to Telefuturo and the Public Information report.

Another Paraguayan report says 182 confirmed or suspected dengue cases have been recorded in the first week of 2013, all in the capital, Asunción, and the adjacent Central department.

Two Pakistan charity workers shot dead

Via ReliefWeb, an AFP report: Two Pakistan charity workers shot dead: police. Excerpt:

Unknown gunmen Saturday shot dead two Pakistani charity workers involved in an education project in the northwestern city of Charsadda, 80 miles (130 kilometres) from Islamabad, police said. 

Zakir Hussain, head of the education wing of the Al-Khidmat Foundation in Charsadda, was attacked with his driver as they were on the way to visit one of the schools being run by the charity. 

"Two gunmen fired at them in Utmanzai town, seven kilometres (four miles) north of Charsadda, and escaped on a motorcycle after the attack," senior police official Nisar Khan Marwat told AFP. 

An official for the Al-Khidmat charity also confirmed the attack. 

A representative for an alliance of non-governmental organisations in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province demanded the attackers be arrested. 

"We strongly condemn the attack on Al-Khidmat Foundation vehicle and killing of its workers and demand arrest of the attackers," Idrees Kamal, the coordinator of Pakhtunkhwa Civil Society Network (PCSN), said in a statement. 

On Tuesday, seven charity workers including six women and a man working for a Pakistani health and education charity involved in vaccinations were shot dead on their way home from a community centre in the northwestern Swabi district.

Canada: BC quake update from Kitimat

Via Kitimat Daily Online, an update on the quake. Kitimat is a port and industrial centre on the central coast of BC. Excerpt:

A 7.5 magnitude Earthquake hit off the Alaska Panhandle and shook up Kitimat this morning, Saturday, January 5th. The event took place at 11:58 pm at the epicentre, 12:58 am in Kitimat. It was followed by several aftershocks starting at 12:27 am at the epicentre (1:27 Am in Kitimat). 

A Tsunami Warning was called. We were informed several areas around the lower elevations of the Area B (The Kitimat / Prince Rupert coast) were evacuating / preparing for evacuation. As of 3:16 this morning, the Tsunami Warning was cancelled. 

According to Fire Chief Trent Bossence, In Kitimat, it took the Emergency Workers, half an hour to get their Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) opened. While it was busy, Bossence told us it was not as busy as during the last Earthquake, probably because it was not close to home. 

“The initial stages of EOC Centre are always busy, just guys coming in, trying to get information, all the information we can gather,” said Bossence. 

The Fire Chief told us getting information out of the EOC went much smoother this time. The phones were still ringing from people wondering what was going on in the community, whether or not Kitimat was being evacuated. 

They were in communications with the Fire Department at Kitamaat Village, as well as with Rio Tinto Alcan.

USGS on the 7.5 quake off Alaska

Via the USGS, a report published shortly after the quake early this morning: M7.5 - 106km WSW of Craig, Alaska 2013-01-05 08:58:16 UTC. The summary:

The January 5, 2013 M 7.5 earthquake off the west coast of southeastern Alaska occurred as a result of shallow strike-slip faulting on or near the plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates.  At the location of this earthquake, the Pacific plate is moving approximately northwestward with respect to the North America plate at a velocity of 51 mm/yr. 

This earthquake is likely associated with relative motion across the Queen Charlotte fault system offshore of British Columbia, Canada, which forms the major expression of the Pacific:North America plate boundary in this region. 

The surrounding area of the plate boundary has hosted 8 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater over the past 40 years; In 1949, a M 8.1 earthquake occurred close to the Pacific:North America plate boundary approximately 230 km to the south east of the January 5th earthquake,  as a result of strike-slip faulting. 

In October of 2012, a M 7.8 earthquake occurred approximately 330 km to the south east of the January 5th event, slightly inboard of the plate boundary, and was associated with oblique-thrust faulting. The latter earthquake was likely an expression of the oblique component of deformation along this plate boundary system. 

The January 5th, 2013 earthquake is related to that Haida Gwai earthquake three months previously, and is an expression of deformation along the same plate boundary system.

Meanwhile, CBC Radio is telling me they're picking up about a dozen aftershocks an hour--"more than a hundred so far." All are relatively small so far.

Canada: BC tsunami warning cancelled

Via CBC News: B.C. tsunami warning cancelled. Excerpt:

A powerful earthquake sparked a tsunami warning along the coastlines of southern Alaska and British Columbia, but the alert was cancelled when no damaging waves were generated. 

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary reading of 7.5 and struck at 12:50 a.m. PT (11:50 p.m. local time Friday), about 102 kilometres west of Craig, Alaska and some 300 kilometres west-northwest of Prince Rupert, B.C. 

The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center had issued a tsunami warning for the southern coast of Alaska, stretching for 765 kilometres to the northern tip of Vancouver Island — but the centre cancelled the warning a few hours later. 

CBC meteorologist Joanna Wagstaffe said a small tsunami wave was generated off Port Alexander, Alaska. In addition, at least two strong aftershocks measuring 4.5 and 4.7 were reported after the initial quake. 

The earthquake happened along the same fault line as the one that struck off B.C.'s Haida Gwaii last October, but in a section that has not seen this kind of strong seismic activity for a few hundred years, says CBC meteorologist and seismologist Johanna Wagstaffe. 

"But there are dozens of smaller aftershocks occurring," Wagstaffe said. 

"Woke me up from a dead sleep," said one woman describing the initial quake on her Twitter feed from Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlottetown Islands in B.C., which was hit by a 7.7-magnitude quake last October. 

The quake also woke Carol Kulesha, mayor of Queen Charlotte City. 

"I was asleep and I heard a clattering sound and the house was shaking, so I definitely felt this one, although it was nothing like the previous one that was 7.7," she said.

Here in Vancouver we felt nothing, but CBC Radio is doing a good job of covering the quake and its response. The weekend morning show started an hour early, just after 5:00 a.m., and host Sheryl MacKay is interviewing people like Mayor Kulesha and others up the coast. It sounds as if the October quake put people in the right frame of mind; people got up and headed for high ground with their grab-and-go bags.

US: Dengue fever no longer a threat in Seminole and Osceola counties

Via the Orlando Sentinel: Dengue fever no longer a threat in Seminole and Osceola counties, health departments say. Excerpt:

Health officials in Seminole and Osceola counties lifted illness advisories for dengue fever on Friday, saying the risk of residents becoming infected with the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes, has significantly decreased because of the colder weather. 

"We're still recommending that people take precautions against mosquitoes, but cold temperatures — and when we get freezes — really helps kill off the bugs," said Dain Weister, spokesman for the Seminole County Health Department. 

Both counties issued the illness advisories in October after a 19-year-old Seminole man and a 41-year-old Osceola woman were diagnosed with dengue fever. The two were thought to be the first cases of locally acquired dengue fever in Central Florida in nearly 50 years.