H5N1

Japan says 23 passengers mistakenly left COVID-19 ship before testing

Via Inquirer News in the Philippines, an AFP report: Japan says 23 passengers mistakenly left virus ship before testing. The Japanese certainly seemed to have failed every challenge the virus has offered them. Well, in fairness they didn't quarantine the passengers in the long-abandoned houses around the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Excerpt:

TOKYO, Japan — Around 100 more passengers were allowed to disembark from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship on Saturday as Japan’s health minister apologised after 23 others were allowed to leave without being properly tested.  

The news came as a Japanese woman who left the ship on Wednesday tested positive for the virus after returning home to Tochigi Prefecture, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the prefectural government.  

She is the first person to have tested positive for the virus among the group of approximately 970 passengers who disembarked earlier this week, it said.  

The 100 passengers who left on Saturday had been in close contact with infected people on board, local media said.  

They included the last group of Japanese passengers to leave the ship, while some foreign passengers were still waiting on board for their governments to send chartered aircraft.  

Television footage showed a driver in a white protective suit at the wheel of a bus with the curtains drawn so that passengers could not be identified. 

They will be quarantined for two weeks near Tokyo, officials said. 

An official apology 

At a news conference on Saturday, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato apologised for 23 passengers having been allowed to leave the ship without undergoing all the required tests.  

“We deeply regret that our operational mistake caused the situation,” Kato said, adding that the passengers would be tested again. 

With the latest disembarkation, a 14-day quarantine is expected to start for more than 1,000 crew still on board.  

Many of them were not placed in isolation as they were needed to keep the ship running — preparing food and delivering meals to cabins. Critics have charged that they were inadvertently spreading the virus throughout the ship, which has seen more than 600 cases of the potentially deadly COVID-19 disease.  

Kato defended Japan’s on-board quarantine, telling a TV programme Saturday there was no medical facility large enough to admit more than 3,000 people at once.  

Speaking at the news conference, Kato said six Australian passengers tested positive after leaving Japan. 

Meanwhile, 18 repatriated Americans and one Israeli who returned home from the ship have tested positive, authorities from the two countries announced Friday.

World Health Organisation division tackling coronavirus underfunded and facing internal corruption allegations, audits reveal

Via Australia's ABC News, a major (and alarming) report: World Health Organisation division tackling coronavirus underfunded and facing internal corruption allegations, audits reveal. Take some time to read and reflect on the whole article. Excerpt:

The World Health Organisation division leading the global response to the coronavirus outbreak is so chronically underfunded it has repeatedly been found to pose a "severe" level of hazard to the organisation, deemed "unacceptable" by its internal risk policy, recent audits reveal.  

                                                                    

Key points: 

• WHO is still struggling to implement reforms in the fallout of its response to a deadly Ebola outbreak six years ago 

• There has been a surge in internal corruption allegations across the whole of the organisation 

• Critics say the initial response to coronavirus was far too slow 

The WHO Health Emergencies Program, established in 2016, scored the highest-level risk rating in 2018 and 2019 because the "failure to adequately finance the program and emergency operations [risks] inadequate delivery of results at country level".  

                                                                   

The ABC can also reveal the WHO is still struggling to implement vital reforms in the fallout of its widely criticised response to a deadly Ebola outbreak six years ago.  

As of May last year, 59 of the 90 recommendations made by its internal auditors were yet to be completed, including 38 "high-significance" reforms, some of which had suffered from "low implementation effort".  

There has also been a surge in internal corruption allegations across the whole of the organisation, with the detection of multiple schemes aimed at defrauding large sums of money from the international body. 

An external committee has warned the WHO it is facing "decreasing internal control compliance".

A separate "principal risks" assessment of March 2019 says deficient funding of the WHO Health Emergencies Program means it risks the "failure to adequately manage multiple, simultaneous or consecutive [high level] emergencies, resulting in poor performance and results at a country level".  

According to the WHO's internal risk management policy, this means the program poses the highest level of danger, and states: "The risk is unacceptable and is escalated to the highest approval authority, i.e. reported to the DG [Director General]."  

A WHO spokeswoman said: "We have made strides in improved raising of finance and the fact that we have managed multiple grade-three emergencies simultaneously suggests that while a risk, we have managed it."  

But the emergency program is "in a constant state of crisis," according to Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global health security expert with Sydney University.

"When WHE was set up in 2016 they already had three or four level-three category crises they were dealing with," Dr Kamradt-Scott said. 

"They had a series of emergency health crises to deal with from day one … [and yet] they have consistently been forced to hold donor meetings to get more money into the fund."  

David Heymann, who worked at WHO for 22 years, told the ABC the emergency arm of the WHO was underfunded. 

"It's not prioritised properly," Professor Heymann said. 

The WHO's own inspectors last year found the Geneva headquarters of the organisation needed to do more to ensure it could fulfil its mandate during health emergencies.  

"There is a need to further strengthen operational support by headquarters and regional offices to country operations, particularly in the context of emergency operations," their report said.

Coronavirus: Chinese military takes control of medical supplies in Wuhan

Via the South China Morning Post: Coronavirus: Chinese military takes control of medical supplies in Wuhan. Excerpt:

China has deployed hundreds of military officers to control the flow of medical and essential supplies in Wuhan, ground zero of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, state media and sources said. 

A People’s Liberation Army logistics team of 260 officers, with 130 military trucks, started delivering basic supplies on Sunday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. 

It said they delivered 200 tonnes of supplies to supermarkets in the Hubei province city of 11 million people on the first day. 

The team is made up of officers from the PLA’s airborne troops and air force stationed at the Wuhan garrison, and ground force troops from local military academies. 

The logistics operation began the same day as 1,400 medical personnel from the PLA were sent to staff the first completed temporary hospital in Wuhan. The Huoshenshan hospital, which was built from scratch in eight days in response to the crisis and will be controlled by the military, was due to open on Monday. A defence ministry statement said the medical staff deployment had been personally approved by President Xi Jinping.

A source close to the PLA, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the logistics team was there to make sure donations to charity organisations like the Red Cross Society reached their intended recipients. 

“The Beijing leadership realised that almost all the donation points in Hubei and Wuhan have had delivery problems, that there are some opportunists using this crisis to make money,” the military source said.

He gave the example of donors in Shandong province who claimed the 350 tonnes of cabbage they sent to Hubei had not been delivered to families in need, but had instead been found on sale in local supermarkets. 

“Mobilising the military is always the most efficient way to maintain public order at critical moments in mainland China,” the source said. “The [Central Military Commission] also sent PLA troops to deliver basic supplies during the Sars outbreak,” he said, referring to the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2002-03.

'Pricejacking' masks in Vancouver for Wuhan's 2019nCoV

Here in North Vancouver, my local pharmacy has a big sign posted saying it's all out of masks and doesn't know when it will get more. But it's not because my neighbours are freaking out at the prospect of a pandemic in BC. 

Via the South China Morning Post: The dentist, the donor, the dude in the van: Canadian coronavirus profiteers run rampant as Vancouver donates thousands of N95 medical masks to Wuhan. Richmond, BC is a suburb of Vancouver with a large Chinese population. Excerpt:

The deal took place at 9.30pm at a strip mall in Richmond, outside Vancouver, where “a Russian dude in a van” gave Anthony Tsui a sample of his merchandise. 

The street price was steep – triple the normal rate – but the goods checked out, so Tsui soon came back for more. 

But there was nothing illegal about the transaction, and Tsui, at least, was operating from the purest of motives. 

He was buying N95 surgical-grade face masks to donate to doctors and other frontline workers in Wuhan, battling the outbreak of deadly coronavirus.  

On Tuesday, he handed over 400 masks, bought at C$4.50 apiece (US$3.45), to a Vancouver network for donors started by dentist Chen Jianghao and organised via WeChat. 

But the difficulty of sourcing masks points to local profiteering that has helped run supplies to almost zero at storefront retailers in this British Columbia city. 

The campaign is sending about 5,000 masks and other supplies to Wuhan that are expected to arrive within a few days, with thousands more masks on the way. 

Chinese hospitals have been urgently requesting millions of N95 masks, along with other medical supplies. Mainland mask manufacturers cancelled Lunar New Year leave for workers to boost production. 

Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines are providing free transport for the Canadian donations, which Chen’s group is sending directly to the Red Cross Society of Hubei and Wuhan Central Hospital. Future donations will go to hospitals elsewhere in China – if Chen can secure supplies.  

He is refusing gifts of cash, because converting it into N95 masks is no simple matter in Vancouver. 

“The only way people can find them is on Craigslist,” said Chen, whose professional training allows him to authenticate donated masks as suitable for medical use in Wuhan. 

Chen said watching the situation unfold in Wuhan had made him “sad and nervous. I know some people aren’t getting good protection … but I can do something to help.” 

He said he was aware the shortage of masks in Vancouver was worrying some Canadians, so he was giving about 5 per cent of the donations to local users, prioritising the elderly. But the need for N95s was more pressing in Wuhan, he said.

Expert: Coronavirus 'is less lethal than SARS'

Via Shanghai Daily: Expert: Virus 'is less lethal than SARS'.

The new coronavirus which leads to pneumonia is no less infectious but much less lethal than SARS, Lu Hongzhou, a professor at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said on Tuesday.  

"Early diagnosis and treatment have proved to be very beneficial to the patients if the patients are not put on respirators once diagnosed," he said, adding that the use of ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is also more developed today than it was when SARS broke out. 

Lu said the key is to take preventive measures against the virus in residential communities and prevent communities from becoming a source of virus.  

Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai Health Commission, said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has been rising in Shanghai because the government had started to take proactive measures to discover suspicious cases at residential communities and also at entrances to Shanghai besides the effort of hospitals to be more efficient in screening such cases. 

Also, over 4,000 drugstores in Shanghai have been required to register information on people buying medicines to combat fever.

Pakistan accused of cover-up over fresh polio outbreak

Via The Guardian, an appalling report: Pakistan accused of cover-up over fresh polio outbreak. Excerpt:

Officials in Pakistan have been accused of covering up an outbreak of the most dangerous strain of polio and planning a covert vaccination programme to contain the disease. 

According to a source in Pakistan’s polio eradication programme and documentation seen by the Guardian, a dozen children have been infected with the P2 strain of polio, which causes paralysis and primarily effects those under five. The P2 strain had previously been eliminated from the country. 

However, the new cases were allegedly kept hidden from the government and from international donors, including the UK’s Department for International Development, under direct instruction from Babar Bin Atta, the prime minister’s focal representative on polio eradication, who was last month forced to resign after he was accused of corruption. DfID has donated millions to Pakistan’s polio eradication programme.  

The alleged cases, which have all resulted in paralysis, have been discovered mainly in Diamer district, with one in the capital, Islamabad. 

Under Pakistani law, every new case of polio in the country has to be officially registered with the government, which then alerts international health bodies. “But to hide their negligence and their poor performance, Babar Bin Atta decided not disclose the cases to anyone,” said the source.  

The re-emergence of P2 would not only be a dramatic step back in Pakistan’s fight against the polio, it would also be symptomatic of what those in the programme have described as “terrible mismanagement” under Bin Atta.  

Alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world that has not entirely eradicated polio. It was a key milestone in 2014, when Pakistan officially declared it had entirely eradicated P2 polio.  

Polio exists in three different strands, P1, P2, and P3, with P2 notorious as the most contagious and most vicious in its impact on those infected. 

According to the source within the programme, the renewed outbreak of the P2 strand came from a mismanagement of vaccines, which carry a live strain of the disease to create immunity.  

After the strand was eliminated from Pakistan five years ago, all P2 vaccines should have been collected from hospitals and clinics and not used. However, it appears a P2 vaccine was administered accidentally and a child became a carrier for the disease. Tests on the new cases allegedly show the children are all carrying a form of the disease that originates in vaccine form.

Attacks on Ebola response 1 - 15 October 2019 - DR Congo

Via ReliefWeb, a report from Insecurity Insight: Attacks on Ebola Response 1 - 15 October 2019 - Democratic Republic of the Congo. Excerpt:

29-30 September 2019: In Biakato, Mambasa territory, Ituri province, a group of around thirty armed men identified as Mai Mai militants attacked a group of Ebola responders at their residence during the night. The assailants – who were reportedly looking to avenge the death by Ebola of a nurse who they believe was willfully killed by the responders – fled the scene after the rapid intervention of local police officers. No injuries were reported. Source: Anadolu Agency 

01 October 2019: In Kamesi Mbonzo village, Butembo town, North Kivu province, men armed with knives attacked the Ikala health post, and set fire to Ebola-related equipment. Source: Kivu Security 

02 October 2019: In Mangina town, near Beni city, North Kivu province, a group of armed men attempted to attack an Ebola treatment centre but were successfully pushed back by local police officers. No injuries were reported. Source: Radio Moto  

06 October 2019: In Mambasa, Ituri province, Mai Mai militants attempted to blackmail Ebola health responders, demanding money while threatening to launch an imminent attack on an Ebola treatment centre should the request be declined. The militants claimed that the requested funds were intended to cover the burial costs of someone who died from Ebola. Source: Radio Okapi 

08 October 2019: In Lwemba, Mambasa territory, Ituri province, the Ebola health response resumed its activities on a limited basis after having been suspended in midSeptember in the aftermath of attacks on health facilities and residences belonging to responders. Sources: CIDRAP and CMRA 

09 October 2019: In Pinga, North Kivu province, a group of youths protested in front of an office of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), demanding the release of an Ebola medic who was reportedly taken to the office to have his documents checked. Source: ACLED1 

Around 13 October 2019: In Lomami province, the chief medical officers responsible for the medical zones of East Kalonda, Ngandajika, Kamana, Kalambayi, and Tshofa were suspended and charged with the embezzlement of international funds. Source: Media Congo

DRC Ebola: Placed in custody, Oly Ilunga promises to defend himself with 'the most extreme energy for his honor'

Via Actualite.cd: DRC: Placed in custody, Oly Ilunga promises to defend himself with "the most extreme energy for his honor". The Google translation:

Placed in custody on Saturday, September 14, the former health minister, Oly Ilunga, promises "to defend himself with the utmost energy for his honor," his lawyers said. Arrested in Kinshasa around 11 am, he is accused by the judicial police the alleged embezzlement of a sum of about 4.3 million US dollars made available to the Ministry of Health by the public treasury for the fight against my disease Ebola virus.

According to his lawyers, "the US $ 2.4 million placed at the disposal of the Minister's office in 11 months through the authorized public accountant, the accounting documents that are in the file sufficiently attest that this sum was exclusively used for the purpose of combating EBOLA virus disease. He therefore firmly reaffirms his innocence in this affair and promises to defend himself with the utmost energy for his honor."  

According to them, "at this stage more than US $ 1.9 million of this sum has been disbursed in one month after the resignation of Dr ILUNGA so that he can not answer at all".  

According to the Police, the former minister will have to be referred Monday, September 16 to the Prosecutor General Near the Court of Cassation.

DRC Ebola: Oly Ilunga placed in police custody

Via Actualite.cd: RDC: Oly Ilunga placed in police custody. The Google translation:

Former Minister of Health Oly Ilunga has been detained since Saturday 14 September 2019 at the National Coordination of the Judicial Police. Police sources say that the former minister wanted to leave the country illegally in order to escape justice, told NEWS.CD Colmonel Pierrot Mwanamputu, spokesman of the Congolese National Police (PNC).

Dr. Oly Ilunga was heard in early September by the judiciary in a survey on the use of public funds allocated to the response to the Ebola outbreak. In 13 months, the outbreak has killed more than 2,000 people.

Appointed in December 2016, the doctor resigned on 22 July, after the coordination of the Ebola response was withdrawn by President Felix Tshisekedi.

While minister, Oly Ilunga also opposed the introduction of a second vaccine manufactured "by actors who showed a manifest lack of ethics", according to his words. The rejected vaccine is a manufacture of the Belgian laboratory Janssen, a subsidiary of the American Johnson & Johnson.

DR Congo police detain former health minister in Ebola probe

Via Thomson Reuters: Congo police detain former health minister in Ebola probe.

KINSHASA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - A former Congolese health minister was taken into custody on Saturday over alleged mismanagement of funds for the country's response to the Ebola epidemic, police said. 

Oly Ilunga oversaw Democratic Republic of Congo's handling of the outbreak, the second deadliest in history, for nearly a year. He was stripped by the presidency of that responsibility in July and resigned from the government days later. 

Earlier in September, his lawyers said he had been questioned by police about his role managing the Ebola response. They denied any wrongdoing by Ilunga.  

In a statement, the national police said Ilunga was detained because they believed he planned to evade legal proceedings by leaving the country.  

"Unfortunately, police received information about his disappearance with a view to reaching Congo-Brazzaville," the police's press service said, referring to neighbouring Congo Republic. 

It said Ilunga was in police custody and would come before a prosecutor on Sept. 16.  

His lawyers declined immediate comment. 

Foreign donors have provided more than $150 million in funding to the Ebola response over the past year, but the United Nations has said hundreds of millions of dollars more are needed. 

The outbreak has so far killed over 2,000 people and infected 1,000 more. Only the 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300, was deadlier.