New Chinese Respiratory Virus Outbreak Update

China will step up efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays as a rise in confirmed cases fanned fears the virus could spread to other countries.

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Wuhan’s health authority confirmed earlier on Sunday 17 more cases of the virus in the city, bringing the total number of known patients there to 62.

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Japan has confirmed its first case of infection from a newly-identified coronavirus that has killed one person and infected at least 40 more in China, as well as prompting a travel alert from the U.S. State Department.

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An outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has spread to more cities, Chinese authorities said on Monday, as the number of patients tripled and a third person died, stoking concerns about the containment of the virus.

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Nature states the new virus needs China to cooperate internationally.

Science notes folks are alarmed.

China has a new Respiratory Virus Outbreak...and it's not SARS

Chinese health authorities have not been able to identify a mysterious strain of pneumonia that has infected dozens of people and put the rest of Asia on alert -- although they have ruled out a return of the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus.

A total of 59 cases of unknown viral pneumonia have been reported in the city of Wuhan, central China, with seven patients in critical condition, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday. All patients are being treated in quarantine and no deaths have been reported.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), symptoms of the pneumonia are mainly fever, with a number of patients having difficulty breathing, and chest radiographs showing invasive lesions of both lungs.

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Copper Age Mummy Ötzi was Infected With Ulcer Causing Bacterium, Helicobacter pylori

Scientists are continually unearthing new facts about Homo sapiens from the mummified remains of Ötzi, the Copper Age man, who was discovered in a glacier in 1991. Five years ago, after Ötzi's genome was completely deciphered, it seemed that the wellspring of spectacular discoveries about the past would soon dry up. An international team of scientists working with paleopathologist Albert Zink and microbiologist Frank Maixner from the European Academy (EURAC) in Bozen/Bolzano have now succeeded in demonstrating the presence of Helicobacter pylori in Ötzi's stomach contents, a bacterium found in half of all humans today. The theory that humans were already infected with this stomach bacterium at the very beginning of their history could well be true. The scientists succeeded in decoding the complete genome of the bacterium.

When EURAC's Zink and Maixner first placed samples from the Iceman's stomach under the microscope in their ancient DNA Lab at EURAC, almost three years ago, they were initially sceptical.

"Evidence for the presence of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is found in the stomach tissue of patients today, so we thought it was extremely unlikely that we would find anything because Ötzi's stomach mucosa is no longer there," explains Zink. Together with colleagues from the Universities of Kiel, Vienna and Venda in South Africa as well as the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, the scientists tried to find a new way to proceed. "We were able to solve the problem once we hit upon the idea of extracting the entire DNA of the stomach contents," reports Maixner. "After this was successfully done, we were able to tease out the individual Helicobacter sequences and reconstruct a 5,300 year old Helicobacter pylori genome."

The scientists found a potentially virulent strain of bacteria, to which Ötzi's immune system had already reacted. "We showed the presence of marker proteins which we see today in patients infected with Helicobacter," said the microbiologist.

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Plague Samples Discovered from 2800 BC

Plague infections were common in humans 3,300 years earlier than the historical record suggests, reports a study published October 22 in Cell. By sequencing the DNA of tooth samples from Bronze Age individuals from Europe and Asia, the researchers discovered evidence of plague infections roughly 4,800 years ago. But it was at least another thousand years until the bacterium that causes the disease, Yersinia pestis, acquired key changes in virulence genes, allowing it to spread via fleas and evade the host immune system.

"We found that the Y. pestis lineage originated and was widespread much earlier than previously thought, and we narrowed the time window as to when it developed," says senior study author Eske Willerslev of the Center for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen. "This study changes our view of when and how plague influenced human populations and opens new avenues for studying the evolution of diseases."

Y. pestis was the notorious culprit behind the sixth century's Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, which killed 30%-50% of the European population in the mid-1300s, and the Third Pandemic, which emerged in China in the 1850s. Earlier putative plagues, such as the Plague of Athens nearly 2,500 years ago and the second century's Antonine Plague, have been linked to the decline of Classical Greece and the undermining of the Roman army. However, it has been unclear whether Y. pestis could have been responsible for these early epidemics because direct molecular evidence for this bacterium has not been obtained from skeletal material older than 1,500 years.

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The New Technique That Finds All Known Human Viruses in Your Blood

Ian Lipkin, a virus hunter from Columbia University, recently received a blood sample from colleagues at the National Institutes of Health. They came from a man who had received a bone-marrow transplant and had fallen mysteriously ill, with evidence of severely inflamed blood vessels. In analyzing a similar case a few years back, Lipkin had discovered a new polyomavirus, part of a family that can cause disease in people with compromised immune systems. Perhaps this new case would yield another new virus.

It didn't. Instead, when Lipkin's team ran the sample through a system that they had devised to detect human viruses, they found that the man was infected with dengue virus. In hindsight, that made sense—he had recently returned from Vietnam, where dengue is prevalent. But the thing is: The team wasn't looking for dengue virus.

“It wasn't what we anticipated, but we didn't have to make a priori decisions about what we planned to find,” Lipkin says. “When people analyze samples from people who are ill, they have some idea in mind. This is probably an enterovirus, or maybe it's a herpesvirues. They then do a specific assay for that particular agent. They don't usually have the capacity to look broadly.”

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Climate Change may Unleash Viruses Frozen in Arctic Tundra

Scientists said they will reanimate a 30,000-year-old giant virus unearthed in the frozen wastelands of Siberia, and warned climate change may awaken dangerous microscopic pathogens.

Reporting this week in the flagship journal of the US National Academy of Sciences, French researchers announced the discovery of Mollivirus sibericum, the fourth type of pre-historic virus found since 2003 -- and the second by this team.

Before waking it up, researchers will have to verify that the bug cannot cause animal or human disease.

To qualify as a "giant", a virus has to be longer than half a micron, a thousandth of a millimetre (0.00002 of an inch).

Mollivirus sibericum -- "soft virus from Siberia" -- comes in at 0.6 microns, and was found in the permafrost of northeastern Russia.

Climate change is warming the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions at more than twice the global average, which means that permafrost is not so permanent any more.

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MERS is *FAR* From Gone: 19 Dead in Saudi Arabia This Week

Deaths from the MERS coronavirus have surged in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, with 19 fatalities recorded in a week, according to health ministry statistics.

A total of 502 people have died in the kingdom since the virus first appeared in 2012, according to updated figures posted on the ministry's website, including 19, all Saudis, since last Thursday.

The number of MERS infections has also surged to 1,171 cases, the website said.

A surge in infections forced health authorities to shut the emergency ward at a main hospital in Riyadh last week, after at least 46 people, including medical staff, contracted the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

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South Korea Reports Sixth Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Virus Death, 87 Infections, 2300 Quarantined

South Korea recorded its sixth death and biggest single day jump in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infections on Monday, with 23 new cases in the largest outbreak of the potentially deadly virus outside Saudi Arabia.

From just four cases two weeks ago, the total number of infections now stands at 87, including six people who have died.

The latest fatality was a man in his 80s who had been diagnosed in Daejeon, 140 kilometres south of Seoul, and died in hospital on Monday morning, local officials said.

The outbreak has triggered widespread public concern in South Korea, with 2,300 people placed under quarantine orders and nearly 1,900 schools -- mostly in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province -- closed down.

Among the 23 new cases, 17 were infected at the Samsung Medical Centre in southern Seoul, the health ministry said.

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MERS Outbreak in Korea Climbs to 35 Infected, 2 Deaths

Hundreds more schools closed on Thursday in South Korea as officials struggled to ease growing panic over an outbreak of the MERS virus that has infected 35 people, killed two and caused thousands to cancel travel plans.

More than 700 schools -- from kindergartens to colleges -- have now shut their gates in response to public fears over what has become the largest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outside Saudi Arabia.

Five more cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total number of known infections to 35, the health ministry said.

The first case -- reported on May 20 -- was of a 68-year-old man diagnosed after a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Since then, more than 1,300 people who may have been exposed directly or indirectly to the virus have been placed under varying levels of quarantine.

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Bill Gates Worries About the Next Epidemic

The American West Saved From Zombie Apocolypse by Great American Desert

I started my zombie infection in NYC (Sorry Carlos) and let it run for a considerable time (77 days simulated).  The infection rate dropped to the point where the sim stopped.  I tried adding a couple more zombies in the edge cities which ought to go next and the infection still stopped.

Its a fun little sim you can leave running in a tab in your web browser.

For the edge effects, I imagine the Mexicans and Canadians (mostly the latter) sat there with BFGs shooting any Yanqi which came within 100 ft of the border.  Alive or undead.

So, World War Z, the book version, actually has some epidemiological support for the US rallying from California.  And the American West was saved by the Great American Desert.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is Back

Infectious disease watchers are again wondering what is going on in Saudi Arabia. Since the beginning of February the Saudis have reported 52 cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome—better known as MERS; 40 have come to light in the past week or so alone. Since the disease first hit the world’s radar in September 2012 only two months have racked up more cases than this one has. They were April and May 2014, when Saudi Arabia had rampant MERS outbreaks in several hospitals.

An expert delegation from the United Nation’s human and animal health agencies began a three-day mission to the Arabian Peninsula’s geographically largest country Wednesday, trying to get to the bottom of why MERS cases are soaring.

This is the time of year in which the number of MERS cases has climbed in the past, although not enough time has elapsed to make clear whether that pattern will continue. In the past two springs large hospital outbreaks in Saudi Arabia have certainly created the appearance of a high season for MERS transmission, which some scientists believe exists and is linked to the birth and weaning of young camels. The animals are known to be susceptible to the virus and can transmit it to people. Like young children who infect the adults around them with colds and flu, juvenile camels are thought to drive the spread of this virus among camel herds and out into the human population. Then someone becomes sick enough to require hospitalization and the infection spreads.

But even if there is a seasonal component to MERS, a spring surge has never before started this early in the year. By comparison, in the past two Februaries fewer than 10 cases were reported. "Of course we don't have 10, 20 years’ history to be able to predict any seasonal patterns,’’ says Peter Ben Embarek, a food safety expert who is the World Health Organization’s point person for MERS. “But just based on the last couple of years, the couple of seasons we've come through, it's not a good start."

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Chagas in the PreColumbian Pecos Canyonlands

Prehistoric Earth Oven Facilities and the Pathoecology of Chagas Disease in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

Authors:

Reinhard et al

Abstract:

Understanding the endemic region of a disease is part of developing a concept of the disease’s natural history and its threat to human health in both ancient and modern times. Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and has recently been identified as an emergent disease in North America. Ancient endemicity and reemergence has been demonstrated by an examination of a mummy found on the border between Coahuila, Mexico and Texas, USA. This mummified man, who died over 1,000 years ago, exhibits the gross pathology of megacolon, which is consistent with Chagas disease. We are now exploring the human behavior that resulted in this parasitic infection. Trypanosoma cruzi infection exists in a sylvatic cycle involving woodrats (Neotoma spp.) and triatomine insects (Triatoma spp.) in the lower Lower Pecos Canyonlands. The Archaic subsistence strategy may have impacted this life cycle directly through predation on wood rats and through the construction of baking pits. This would have expanded the habitat suitable for both woodrats and triatomine insects. We are proposing that archaeologists develop field methods to test this hypothesis.

Could Ebola Reaching Central America or Caribbean Trigger a Mass Emigration?

The head of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) warned an Ebola outbreak in Central America or the Caribbean could trigger a mass migration to the U.S. of people fleeing the disease and implied established Central American illegal trafficking networks could introduce the infected into the U.S., during remarks at a Tuesday panel on security issue in the Western Hemisphere at the National Defense University.

“If it comes to the Western Hemisphere, the countries that we’re talking about have almost no ability to deal with it — particularly in Haiti and Central America,” SOUTHCOM Commander, Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, said in response to a question of his near term concerns in the region.
“It will make the 68,000 unaccompanied minors look like a small problem.”

An Ebola outbreak could encourage the poor and increasingly desperate populations in Central American countries — like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — to leave in droves.

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Ebola has Reached the United States

The United States has one confirmed case of Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, marking the first domestic appearance of the deadly virus that has ravaged swaths of continental Africa.

The as-yet unidentified patient is located in Dallas, officials say, effectively confirming a statement issued on Monday by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. The organization said that an unnamed patient was being tested for Ebola and had been placed in "strict isolation" due to the patient's symptoms and recent travel history.

In a press conference, CDC Director Tom Frieden said the patient in question had been traveling in Liberia, where he may have contracted the disease. He returned to the United States on the 20th of September, after which he sought care. Frieden attempted to assuage concerns about Ebola's contagious effect, saying that the virus was only spread through direct contact, and was not airborne. He vowed that officials would contain a potential spread.

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Ebola Outbreak Crosses 1900 Deaths, Worsening

More than 1,900 people have died in the world's worst outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, marking a major acceleration in fatalities from just over 1,500 last week.

Margaret Chan told a news conference in Washington that 3,500 confirmed or probable cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as of this week. The death toll from this outbreak is now higher than in all the previous epidemics since the disease was first detected in 1976.

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Vaccine Resistant Polio Virus has Emerged in Africa

The poliovirus strain that caused an outbreak in the Republic of the Congo in 2010 is able to resist the immune responses generated by a commonly used vaccine. The finding could explain why the outbreak, which killed nearly half of the 445 people infected, was so severe.

Christian Drosten at the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany and his colleagues analysed the virus strain responsible for the outbreak. They found a combination of two mutations, both in the proteins of the strain's 'coat', which make it harder for certain antibodies to stick to the virus. People who died in this outbreak had been vaccinated in the past, but people who were freshly re-vaccinated could fight off the virus.

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Tuberculosis was in PreColumbian Americas

Grade school history lessons often have it that American Indians largely were wiped out by diseases such as whooping cough, chicken pox, influenza and tuberculosis brought to the New World by European explorers.

One report says, while estimates vary, about 20 million people lived in the Americas shortly before Europeans arrived, and roughly 95 percent of them were killed by European diseases.

But new research led by anthropological geneticists Anne Stone of Arizona State University and Johannes Krause of the University of Tubingen in Germany indicates the diagnosis of what devastated American Indian populations is a little more complicated, particularly when it comes to tuberculosis.

Their study of pre-Columbian Mycobacterial tuberculosis genomes published today in the journal Nature reveals that tuberculosis may have had a hand in American Indian deaths prior to the influx of European diseases. The research concludes seals and sea lions likely brought the disease to South America and spread it to people there long before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.

"What we found was really surprising," said Stone, referring to her team's examination of tuberculosis DNA from roughly 1,000-year-old human skeletons found in Peru that produced the discovery.

The results, the researchers write, provide unequivocal evidence that a member of the M. tuberculosis complex caused human disease in the pre-contact New World.

"Skeletal evidence of tuberculosis is present in the archaeological records in both the Old World and New World," said Elizabeth Tran, Biological Anthropology program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.

"The source of tuberculosis in the New World long has been a question for researchers. This paper provides strong evidence that marine mammals may have been the likely culprits, bringing tuberculosis to South America long before Europeans arrived there."

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Ebola Case in Canada?

A Canadian hospital put a patient in isolation after he arrived in the country from Nigeria with symptoms of fever and flu -- possible signs he is infected with Ebola -- local media said.

Nigeria is one of several countries in West Africa that has had confirmed cases of Ebola, in the world's largest ever outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has seen nearly 1,000 deaths and more than 1,700 people infected since the beginning of the year.

A doctor at the Brampton, Ontario hospital, near Toronto, said on Friday the patient had a fever and other symptoms similar to those seen in Ebola cases, the news channel CP24 said.

Authorities decided to place him in isolation as a precaution, though there has been no official diagnosis and there are multiple diseases that could have caused his symptoms, stressed Eileen de Villa, an official with the region's Public Health office, according to CTV news.

In addition to quarantining the patient, the hospital also enacted other strict precautionary measures, she said.

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CDC Reassures Ebola Outbreak 'not in th Cards' for USA

International health experts are preparing to “surge” into West Africa to fight the raging outbreak of Ebola virus, and say they are confident they can keep it from spreading to countries like the United States and eventually stamp it out.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped up a travel alert for West Africa Thursday, saying nonessential people should put off travel there for now. But CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said that was more to keep people out of the way of emergency work than to prevent the spread of Ebola.

“It is not a potential of Ebola spreading widely in the U.S. That is not in the cards,” Frieden told reporters on a conference call. “We are not telling people who are essential to leave.”

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