H5N1

Indonesia: Teenager a suspected H5N1 case

Via Ida's Bird Flu Information Corner, a translation from Riau Mandiri: Tembilahan, Riau ::: Possible bird flu suspect. Excerpt:

A 17-year-old girl, named Intan, a resident of Jalan Kayu Jati, Kecamatan Tembilahan Hulu, had been treated in Puri Husada hospital, Tembilahan, Riau Province. 

Patient was suspected of having bird flu infection according to laboratory examination done by a doctor in Puri Husada hospital, confirmed the director of the hospital, Rasul Alim.

The story goes on to say the girl is now back home.

Friday morning in Malaysia

It's almost bedtime here in Vancouver, but in Malaysia it's Friday and Arkanoid Legent is doing a great job covering the news, including flu in Hong Kong and Taiwan, a suspected dengue death in Australia, and 96 new dengue cases in Delhi.

'BP crud' afflicts Gulf Coast residents

Via The Tyee, a Hook item I posted a few minutes ago: 'BP crud' afflicts Gulf Coast residents. It's not an infectious disease, but given a choice between it and dengue, I'd go for dengue every time. Excerpt:

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may have caused serious health consequences for coastal residents, according to a recent report. If the cases are confirmed, a spill on the B.C. coast could be a major health hazard as well as an environmental disaster. 

In Covering Health, a blog for medical journalists, Andrew Van Dam posts on the work of Glynn Wilson, who interviewed Gulf Coast residents this summer. Wilson had published a long report on September 7 in The Locust Fork News-Journal, an Alabama online journal. 

The report asserted: "Now, along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, there is the BP Crud, afflicting workers and the general population from Louisiana to Florida."

Note to Mike Coston: Don't get too close to the surf on your working holiday!

India: A dubious distinction for Kolkata

Via The Times of India: Cholera incidence second highest in Kolkata: Study. Excerpt:

A recent collaborative study on prevalence of cholera in cities of seven developing countries has found Kolkata with the second highest incidence of the disease. Epidemiologists say most diarrhoea cases in the city are triggered by cholera. 

The study mapping improvised regions of the world concluded that Beira in Mozambique ranks first in the Cholera chart ahead of Kolkata and Jakarta in Indonesia. National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata, was a partner in the study that was conducted with International Vaccine Institute, Seoul. 

"A good number of diarrhoea cases in Kolkata are due to cholera. Children living in the city slums are the worst-affected. Contaminated water, poor sanitation and hygiene are responsible for this problem," said deputy director in NICED's division of epidemiology, Dipika Sur. 

According to the findings, among all cholera-prone cities, the lowest overall incidence rate is in Jakarta with 0.5 cases per 1,000 population a year. In Kolkata the incidence is more than three times higher with a prevalence rate of 1.6 cases and eight times higher in Beira with 4 cases. 

The study is expected to serve as an important data bank for intervention programme. The cholera map traces Topsia, parts of Manicktala, Beliaghata and Phoolbagan as the worst-affected areas with the prevalence rate being 25 to 30%. In Tiljala, it is 20 to 25% and in Tangra and Beniapukur, 15 to 20%. 

The recurrence of O-139 strain (severe form) has been detected in Patuli area. This strain was first detected in Kolkata in early 1990s and, hence, it's also known as the Bengal strain. It has resurfaced after more than a decade. 

NICED zeroed down on ward numbers 29, 30 and 31 for cholera vaccination trials. Phase II of the trial by NICED under the Indian Council Medical Research has been completed. The next phase is on to test the efficacy of the vaccine.

I keep thinking that cholera is a 19th-century disease, so these reports surprise me more than they should.

McKenna: Disease + mosquitoes + climate change = Uh-oh

On Superbug, Maryn McKenna writes: Disease + mosquitoes + climate change = Uh-oh. Excerpt:

A few days ago, health authorities in southern France announced that they’d found two cases of the mosquito-borne disease chikungunya in the Var, in Provence. Chikungunya is a nasty disease; it causes high fevers and severe joint pain, and its name comes from words in a Mozambiquan dialect that describe victims being “bent over” in spasms. 

Chikungunya perks along steadily in the tropics — Africa, Asia, India — and every year, a few travelers arrive back in the temperate zones suffering from infections they picked up on holiday (e.g., into Europe from the Maldives and from Thailand, both in 2009). 

There was something unusual about the cases in the Var, though. Neither of the victims, 12-year-old girls who are friends and live in the town of Frejus, had been outside France. They were the first locally acquired cases of chikungunya that France has ever recorded. 

And they happened to follow, by two weeks, the discovery of France’s first locally acquired cases of dengue, which is, after malaria, the most serious mosquito-borne disease in the world. 

So, on the one hand: Few cases, everyone treated, nobody died. 

On the other hand: An early warning signal worth listening to.

Canada: British Columbians among least likely to get H1N1 shot: StatsCan

I've posted an item on The Hook, British Columbians among least likely to get H1N1 shot: StatsCan. The Statistics Canada study has some interesting data on who got the shot and who didn't.

H1N1 shots skipped by 60% of Canadians

Via CBC News: H1N1 shots skipped by 60% of Canadians. Excerpt:

About four in 10 Canadians rolled up their sleeves for the H1N1 shot last flu season, Statistics Canada says. 

Based on self-reported data, nearly six out of 10 Canadians, or 16.5 million people aged 12 and over, did not get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus, the agency said Thursday. 

The new influenza strain emerged in April 2009 and most people had no natural immunity to it. Vaccination clinics across Canada started offering the vaccine in the fall of 2009. 

Of those who did not get the shot, the most common reason, given by 74 per cent, was that they "did not think it was necessary." 

The second most common reason, reported by 13 per cent, was that they "had not gotten around to it yet." The third most common reason, reported by seven per cent, was fear, but the nature of the fear was not given. 

Priority groups 

Rates of vaccination were higher for specific risk populations, especially among groups given priority for early immunization. 

For example, 66 per cent of health-care workers said they had an H1N1 shot, compared with 35 per cent of the rest of the population. 

Similarly, 55 per cent of Canadians with chronic conditions, which placed them at increased risk for complications, received the vaccine. The chronic conditions included in the report were heart disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer's disease or dementia, and obesity. 

In comparison, 38 per cent of those without chronic conditions were vaccinated. 

Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest vaccination rate at 69 per cent and Ontario had the lowest at 32 per cent. The territories were excluded. 

The percentage of Canadians vaccinated for H1N1 exceeded the percentage who typically get a seasonal flu shot: 32 per cent.

Indonesia: A little more about South Sulawesi

Buried in the "Archipelago" section of The Jakarta Post, a September 29 report: Bird flu outbreak revives in South Sulawesi, 4 hospitalized. Excerpt:

Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar is treating four people from Pinrang and Soppeng regencies for displaying symptoms of avian flu virus infection. 

The patients, three of them are children, were admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night after complaining about high fever, suffocation and coughs. They were immediately taken to the infection center in accordance with the standard operating procedure for avian flu treatment, the hospital’s director, Kalsum Patonangi, said Wednesday. 

“We are waiting for the laboratory examination to confirm the status of the patients,” Kalsum said. 

Head of the Pinrang health agency for disease control, Dyah Puspita Dewi, said the agency had monitored 30 people who suffered from fever. She added three of them were admitted to the hospital as their health condition worsened. 

“We suspect the three people were infected with the bird flu virus as their fever reaches 38 degree Celsius and complain of suffocation, sore throats and coughs, which are symptoms of the disease,” she said. 

She added the three patients caught a fever after dozens of chickens nearby their homes suddenly died.

Indonesia: H5N1 increasing in West Sulawesi

Via Ida at Bird Flu Information Corner, a report translated from Media Indonesia: West Sulawesi ::: Bird flu uprises in 2010. Excerpt:

Avian influenza or bird flu H5N1 prevalence in West Sulawesi province is uprising in September 2010. 

Bird flu first emerged in West Sulawesi 2005 and had been spreading during 2006 to 2007, said the Head of Agriculture and Livestock Service (Distanak) of West Sulawesi province. For control purpose, West Sulawesi has been assisted by 39 members of Participatory Disease and Surveillance (PSDR), a collaboration work between Indonesia Ministry of Agriculture with FAO Australia. 

Even though the number of personnel is inadequate, but generally they have been able to control bird disease spreading in 2008 to 2009. 

However, the disease spreading has been increasing in September 2010. From 2009 until now, according to PDSR data, there have been 43 cases reported in Polman.

New cause suggested for high African HIV rates

Via allAfrica.com, a SciDev.Net report: Africa: New Cause Suggested for High African HIV Rates. Excerpt:

Malaria, and other common African infections, may make women more susceptible to HIV/AIDS than they are in the developed world, according to a study that may help solve the mystery of the vastly different infection rates around the globe. 

Researchers who compared immune cells in the genital tracts of women in Kenya and the United States, found that Kenyan women had more "activated" cells, which are more vulnerable to attack by HIV. Cells can become activated as a reaction to infection. 

It is the first time that scientists have shown that immune cells in the genital tract are more activated in African women, though higher activation elsewhere in the body has already been demonstrated. 

The activation may be an "important additional contributor" to the high infection rates in African women, according to the scientists, led by Craig Cohen, of the University of California, San Francisco, in the United States. 

"We believe that these findings should also start to dispel some of the preconceptions and stigma surrounding HIV acquisition among young women in Sub-Saharan Africa," said the authors, writing in the journal AIDS.