H5N1

Puerto Rico emergency director fired after residents discover warehouse full of Hurricane Maria supplies

Thanks to Mary Marshall for sending the link to this CNN.com report: Puerto Rico emergency director fired after residents discover warehouse full of Hurricane Maria supplies. Excerpt:

Ponce, Puerto Rico (CNN)Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced fired the island's emergency manager, hours after a warehouse filled with supplies was discovered.  

The emergency aid is believed to be from when Hurricane Maria hit the island two years ago, the governor said.

Carlos Acevedo, director of Puerto Rico's Office of Emergency Management, was dismissed Saturday. The governor appointed Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes, the adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, to replace him. 

Earlier on Saturday, numerous pallets of water and other boxes with emergency supplies were found at a warehouse in the earthquake ravaged city of Ponce.

Several residents were seen opening the rolling metal doors of the building and calling for authorities to distribute the supplies. Families began lining up Saturday afternoon outside the warehouse, hoping to get bottled water, food and emergency radios, CNN affiliate WAPA reported. 

Acevedo has denied allegations of mishandling, saying the agency has been actively distributing supplies, according to a statement released through the office of emergency management. No residents have been denied any supplies in the warehouse, including food, diapers, baby formula and cots, Acevedo said. 

He said about 600 pallets of water were distributed when Hurricane Dorian and Hurricane Karen threatened Puerto Rico and during a drought that affected the island last year. Nearly 80 of those pallets remain in the warehouse because they expired, he said.

"There have not been orders to seize or destroy those items at any point," Acevedo said in a statement. 

Vázquez Garced has directed Secretary of State Elmer Roman to investigate the allegations and share his findings within 48 hours.

"There are thousands of people who made sacrifices to bring aid to the south and it's unforgivable that resources have been kept in a warehouse," the governor said in a statement. 

Three US airports to check passengers for a deadly Chinese coronavirus

Via The New York Times: Three U.S. Airports to Check Passengers for a Deadly Chinese Coronavirus. Excerpt and then a comment:

Airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, for infection with a mysterious respiratory virus that has killed two people and sickened at least 45 overseas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday. 

Most people with the infection are believed to have contracted it through exposure to animals at a market that sells seafood and meat in Wuhan. It is not certain that the virus spreads from person to person.  

But a few cases have not been linked to animals, and researchers say some human-to-human transmission may be possible. Related viruses, called SARS and MERS, have led to enormous, deadly outbreaks in recent years. 

“This is a serious situation,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a news briefing. “We know it is crucial to be proactive and prepared.”  

But while there will probably be cases in the United States at some point, “we believe the current risk from the virus to the general public is low,” she added. 

The C.D.C. is also developing a diagnostic test that will be sent to hospitals and state health departments to determine whether people are infected. 

About 100 experts from the C.D.C. are being deployed to the three airports. The first flight to be screened will arrive at New York’s Kennedy International Airport on Friday night, Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the C.D.C.’s division of global migration and quarantine, said at a news briefing.  

J.F.K. is the only airport in New York where the screening will take place. Screenings at San Francisco International and Los Angeles International will begin on Saturday.  

About 60,000 to 65,000 people a year travel to the United States from Wuhan. Over the next few weeks, some 5,000 passengers are likely to be checked for signs of the new infection, Dr. Cetron said.

For almost 30 years, from 1949 to the late 1970s, "Red China" lurked behind a Bamboo Curtain, which few westerners ever penetrated. I can still recall the shock, sometime circa 1972, when I picked up a can of green beans in a Canadian grocery store and saw they were a product of the People's Republic. If I bought them, I would be trading with the enemy (well, if I'd been in the US).

So almost 50 years later, it's another shock to realize that Wuhan, just one Chinese city, sends 60,000-65,000 people a year to the US.

Canada's Ebola vaccine almost didn't happen, new study reveals

Via CBC News: Canada's Ebola vaccine almost didn't happen, new study reveals. Excerpt:

A new study published this week tells a darker story about one of Canada's key scientific discoveries — the development of the world's first approved Ebola vaccine.  

Dalhousie University law professor Matthew Herder used Canada's Access to Information Act to obtain hundreds of documents to track the development of the vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV) from the first experiments at Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory in the early 2000s through to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. 

The documents reveal Canadian government scientists struggling against federal funding cuts and industry indifference to push the discovery forward.

After spending five years piecing the story together, Herder said Canada's Ebola vaccine experience challenges the dogma that drug companies are the only way to commercialize academic drug discoveries.   

Herder's analysis suggests that Canada's scientists did most of the technical development work — even generating hundreds of doses of manufactured vaccine — while the private sector allowed the discovery to languish.

In the paper, published in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, Herder concludes "the private sector was not only unnecessary to its development, but also likely slowed it down." 

"We have this dogmatic reliance upon the private sector," Herder said. "That is not always warranted. Our case study of this Ebola vaccine shows the public sector can and in fact does do far more in important instances."

DRC Ebola: CMRE update, January 18

CMRE has published Situation épidémiologique du 18 Janvier 2020. Excerpt from the Google translation:

EVOLUTION OF THE EPIDEMIC IN THE PROVINCES OF NORTH KIVU AND ITURI ON JANUARY 17, 2020   

Saturday, January 18, 2020   

• Since the start of the epidemic, the cumulative number of cases has been 3,411, of which 3,292 have been confirmed and 119 are probable. In total, there were 2,237 deaths (2,119 confirmed and 119 probable) and 1,134 people healed; 

• 489 suspected cases under investigation; 

• No new confirmed cases; 

• No new deaths among the confirmed cases, of which: 

o No community death was recorded; 

o No death among the confirmed cases of CTE; 

• 1 healed person left the CTE in North Kivu in Butembo;  

• No health worker is among the new confirmed cases. The cumulative number of confirmed / probable cases among health workers is 165 (approximately 5% of all confirmed / probable cases), including 41 deaths.

 

The data presented in this table are likely to change later, after in-depth investigations and after redistribution of cases and deaths in their respective health zones.

NEWS  

NOTHING TO REPORT 

VACCINATION  

• Massive membership of vaccination participants in Butembo and Katwa with an average of 300 people vaccinated per day;  

• Low participation in vaccination around confirmed cases from December 26, 2019 to January 15, 2020 in the Aloya and Bingo health areas in Mabalako in North Kivu, where with 6 local teams, only 97 people were vaccinated; 

• 6,317 people were vaccinated with the 2nd vaccine Ad26.ZEBOV / MVA-BN-Filo (Johnson & Johnson) in the two health areas from Karisimbi to Goma; 

• Since the start of vaccination on August 8, 2018 with the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine 268,861 people have been vaccinated; 

• Approved on October 22, 2019 by the Ethics Committee of the School of Public Health at the University of Kinshasa and on October 23, 2019 by the National Ethics Committee, the second vaccine, called Ad26.ZEBOV / MVA-BN -Filo, is produced by Janssen Pharmaceuticals for Johnson & Johnson; 

• This new vaccine complements the first, rVSV-ZEBOV, a vaccine used until then (since August 08, 2018) in this epidemic manufactured by the pharmaceutical group Merck, after approval by the Ethics Committee on May 20, 2018. It was recently pre-qualified for certification. 

ENTRY POINT SURVEILLANCE  

• Temporary disruption of health control activities at the OPRP Control Point in Goma in the province of North Kivu; 

• Since the start of the epidemic, the total number of travelers checked (temperature measurement ) at health checkpoints has been 140,180,258 ;  

• To date, a total of 109 entry points (PoE) and health control points (PoC) have been set up in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in order to protect the country's major cities and avoid the spread of the epidemic in neighboring countries.

Wuhan Municipal Health Committee: nCoV2019 update, January 18

Published just after midnight January 19, local time: Wuhan Municipal Health and Health Committee's report on pneumonia of new coronavirus infection. The Google translation:

At 04:00 on January 17, 2020, 4 patients were cured and discharged, with 17 new cases and no deaths. 

Analysis of the epidemiological data of the previously released cases of pneumonitis infected by the new coronavirus found that some cases had no history of contact with the South China Seafood Wholesale Market. On the basis of standardizing pre-screening triage and fever diagnosis, optimized test kits were used to sample and monitor unidentified pneumonia cases for fever diagnosis and isolation in the city, and 17 new types of coronavirus positive were detected. 

After comprehensive research and judgment by clinical experts, 17 cases were confirmed as confirmed cases , and all were treated in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and related designated hospitals . Of the 17 newly diagnosed cases, 3 were severe cases. The next step will continue to carry out the detection of suspected cases in the city.  

As of 24:00 on January 17, 62 cases of pneumonitis with new coronavirus infection have been reported in our city, 19 cases have been cured and discharged, 8 cases are being treated in severe cases, and 2 cases have died. The remaining patients are in stable condition. Institution receives isolation treatment. A total of 763 close contacts have been tracked, 681 medical observations have been lifted, and 82 people are still receiving medical observations. Among the close contacts, no related cases were found. 

Epidemiological investigations of new cases and follow-up investigations of close contacts are ongoing.

Flu News Europe, week 2

Via Flu News Europe, an excerpt from the week 2 update:

Week 02/2020 (6-12 January 2020) 

• Activity increased compared to week 01/2020, particularly in the southern part of the Region, with two Member States reporting high intensity and six reporting medium intensity. The remainder reported baseline or low intensity levels. 

• The percentage of samples from sentinel ILI surveillance patients that tested positive for influenza virus increased from 27% in the previous week to 40% this week. 

• The majority of reported influenza virus detections from sentinel ILI surveillance across the Region for week 02/2020 were type A (67%): this percentage has decreased from a high of 78% in week 49. The distribution of viruses detected varied between Member States and areas and within sub-regions. 

• Data from the 22 countries or regions reporting to the EuroMOMO project indicated that all-cause mortality was at expected levels for this time of the year. 

• ECDC published an Influenza virus characterization report, summarizing surveillance data in Europe through December 2019 

2019/20 season overview  

• For the Region as a whole, influenza activity commenced earlier than previous years. 

• Influenza activity in the European Region, based on sentinel sampling, first exceeded a positivity rate of 10% in week 47/2019 and has remained over 10% for 8 weeks. There has been an overall increasing trend in the weekly positivity rate for influenza virus detections among sentinel ILI surveillance patients, following a dip in week 52. 

• Type A viruses have dominated across the European Region, though several Member States and areas have reported influenza type B virus dominance or co-dominance of types A and B viruses. 

• In sentinel sources, both influenza A subtypes, A(H3N2) and A(H1N1)pdm09, are co-circulating and of the influenza B viruses, the vast majority (98%) have been B/Victoria lineage. 

• Influenzanet, which uses self-reported symptoms for ILI surveillance in the general population of European countries, is included in the bulletin as a pilot for the 2019/2020 season. 

• ECDC and WHO Regional Office published a joint Regional Situation Assessment for the 2019–2020 influenza season up to week 49/2019, which focused on disease severity and impact on healthcare systems to assist forward planning in Member States.

DRC Congo: Who's minding the Ministry of Health?

While trying to learn more about the undiagnosed outbreak in Mai-Ndombe this morning, I checked the DRC Ministry of Health website for the first time in months. It was a discouraging experience.

The site seems abandoned. Major stories are a year old, or older. Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga is still listed as minister of health in a May 2018 post about the start of the Equateur Ebola outbreak, but the post is just one sentence long.

Meanwhile the ministry's Twitter account hasn't been updated since last September.

This seems to be the unwelcome result of the ouster of the former health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalunga. He objected to the government's decision to go ahead with a second Ebola vaccine, and the result was a whole new Ebola agency, CMRE, led by Dr. Jean-Jacques Mutembe Tamfum. Ilunga soon found himself being interrogated by the police over charges of misusing Ebola response funds, but I haven't seen anything about him in months. He too has vanished from Twitter.

The new minister of health, whose name I can't recall, does turn up in occasional news reports about Ebola, always as second fiddle to Dr. Mutembe. Meanwhile, the DRC has also been battling the worst measles outbreak in the world, cholera, and a host of other ills. Not a word of these outbreaks on the ministry website.

The MoH hasn't disappeared; it's certainly engaged on the measles response and other health campaigns. But it's alarming when the ministry of health of a very large country effectively vanishes from online communication with the rest of the world.

Wuhan: 17 new nCoV2019 cases confirmed

Thanks to Craig Wilson and FluTrackers for alerting me to this new report from the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee: About the new cases of pneumonia of new coronavirus infection in Wuhan. The Google translation, with my bolding:

On January 17, 2020, national and provincial experts screened some cases of unexplained pneumonia that were screened by community health service centers in the city, and found and treated in various hospitals, based on their clinical manifestations, epidemiological history, and optimization. The positive results of the novel coronavirus nucleic acid detected by the subsequent detection kit were comprehensively judged, and 17 cases of pneumonia cases with new coronavirus infection were newly identified.  

Of the 17 patients, 12 were males and 5 were females; 9 were under 60 years of age, 8 were 60 years of age and older, the youngest was 30 years old and the oldest was 79 years old; the onset date was before January 13, 2020; first symptoms fever, cough, or fever with cough; 3 cases were severe, and the rest were stable. Except for 2 cases of severe illness, which were temporarily unsuitable for transfer, the remaining 15 cases had been transferred to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital for centralized treatment.  

The epidemiological investigation of 17 new cases is in-depth, and close contacts are also being tracked. In the next step, the city will continue to expand the search scope, identify suspected cases, and conduct sampling tests.

Wuhan Municipal Health Committee: nCoV2019 update, January 17

The Wuhan Municipal Health Committee has published its update for January 17. The Google translation, with my bolding:

At 04:00 on January 16, 2020, 3 patients were discharged and no new deaths were reported. After comprehensive research and judgment on the clinical manifestations, epidemiological history, and laboratory test results of the national, provincial and municipal expert groups, four new cases of pneumonitis with new coronavirus infection have been added to our city. 

At present, the new cases have been arranged for transfer to Wuhan. All cases were treated at Jinyintan Hospital. All the patients were in stable condition without critical illness. The onset time of the cases was concentrated from January 5th to 8th. Related epidemiological investigations and close contacts search were being carried out. 

In addition, Thailand and Japan each reported a case of pneumonia with a new coronavirus infection from Wuhan. Currently, Thai diagnosed cases are being hospitalized; Japanese diagnosed cases have recovered and been discharged. Close contacts in the country are conducting follow-up and medical observations. 

Up to now, 45 cases of pneumonitis with new-type coronavirus infection have been reported in our city, 15 cases have been cured and discharged, 5 cases are being treated in severe cases, and 2 cases have died. A total of 763 close contacts have been tracked, 665 medical observations have been lifted, and 98 people are still receiving medical observations. Among the close contacts, no related cases were found.

Mai-Ndombe: Unidentified disease kills three in Ibunu village

Via Radio Okapi, more on the undiagnosed outbreak: Mai-Ndombe: unidentified disease kills three in Ibunu village. The Google translation:

The village Ibunu in the Kiri territory in Mai-Ndombe has been affected for a week by an abnormal pathological phenomenon, which has killed three people, said Thursday, January 16, the provincial minister of health. 

It is a disease that causes fever, rashes and vomiting. It is not Ebola virus disease, but another pathology not yet identified, assured the provincial minister of health in Mai-Ndombe, Dr Bola Mbomba Nteko. 

According to local sources, the symptoms of this disease are: fever, rash and vomiting mixed with blood and pus. 

So far, three people have died and three patients are being treated.  When this disease first appeared, people believed it was Ebola virus disease. This allegation created panic in this country.  

Immediately alerted, Bola Mbomba Nteko went to Ibunu on Sunday to inquire about the situation. The samples were taken and sent to the INRB in Kinshasa, and the results indicate that it is not Ebola virus disease. 

The provincial health minister calls on the local population to calm down, adding that the relevant services are working to control the situation.