1. A short thread about the newly announced case of #Ebola in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).
The diagnosis was confirmed by the Institut Pasteur in Cote d'Ivoire. This does not have the feel of a suspect case — the announcement sounds like @WHOAFRO is confident this is Ebola.
2. A critical point made by @MoetiTshidi, regional director of @WHOAFRO, is that this is the first time since 2014 that an #Ebola cases has been diagnosed in a major city. (I need to refresh my memory about the North Kivu outbreak.) Abidjan population: +4M.
Urban Ebola = not good
3. The @WHOAFRO statement says there's no indication this case, a man who traveled from Guinea, was linked to the Guinean #Ebola outbreak from earlier this year. Work is underway to determine the source of infection.
4. The @WHOAFRO press release says the species of #Ebola has not yet been determined. I was told by a source I trust that it is Ebola Zaire. And vaccine doses are being shipped from Guinea to Cote d'Ivoire. The Merck vaccine would not be expected to work if this isn't Zaire.
5. The only other time Cote d'Ivoire has reported a case of #Ebola was in 1994. That person was infected with the rarely seen Taï Forest strain of Ebola. But this case originated in Guinea, which is suggestive of Zaire ebolavirus.
6. I'll slip in a #Marburg update and then end this for now. No additional Marburg cases have been reported among the contacts of the man in Guinea who died on Aug. 2.
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1. FluView for the week ending 2/8 is out; let's take a look.
This has been a very full-on flu season — the worst since well before the #Covid pandemic. @CDCgov says 2024-25 is now classified as a severe season, the first since the very bad 2017-18 season. Red arrow this year, blue arrow 2017-18.
2. In the week ending Feb 8, 46 states reported "very high" or "high" #flu activity. Someone needs to explain Montana to me. It has seemingly completely avoided a flu season that has raged elsewhere.
3. This #flu season marked a first since #Covid19 entered our world. Since late January, flu deaths have exceeded Covid deaths. @CDCgov estimates that so far this year there've been at least 29M flu illnesses, 370K hospitalizations & 16K deaths.
1. @CDCgov posted FluView today after holding it back on Friday because of the incoming folks' communications pause. At some point I'd love for someone to try to make sense for me the strategic relevance of withholding flu season data.
Anyway, it's out. A 🧵 cdc.gov/fluview/survei…
2. #Flu activity had started to decline in the 2nd week of January, but it was climbing again in the week ending 1/18. 15 jurisdictions had very high flu activity; 24 had high. Montana seems to be having a very light flu season; not sure why that would be.
3. Four more pediatric #flu deaths were reported to @CDCgov, bringing this year's total to 31 so far. Far below last year's gruesome tally, but the season isn't over yet. And 31 families are going through a whole lot of heartache.
(Data CDC's; chart mine)
1. A #flu & other respiratory bugs update:
This year's flu season was pretty much exquisitely timed to coincide with the holidays, a great way to spread respiratory illness across the various age groups. Right now there's lots of flu, lots of #RSV & #Covid is on the rise again.
2. Check out the difference 1 month made. The map on the left shows #flu activity at the end of November, just after Thanksgiving. The map on the right shows the situation as of Dec. 28. The darker the color, the more flu-like illness making the rounds.
3. For the week ending 12/28, the percentage of outpatient visits for #influenza like illness (red arrow) was near the peak of activity in 2019-20, though that season (dark blue line) had 3 peaks. We're still below the peaks of 2022-23 (pink) & 2017-18. Will we have a 2nd peak? Maybe.
1. Some thoughts on #H5N1 #birdflu in cows. A 🧵
A bunch of new herds were announced by a couple of states today — Colorado and Iowa. The former reported +5 & looks like it may have another pending; It now has 18 in total, maybe 19. Iowa reported 2 more, taking it to 10.
2. To the best of my ability to keep up — and that's being challenged — I think there have been 125 herds reported in 12 states since the end of March. This graph combines @USDA's numbers from yesterday with the newly reported herds from Colorado & Iowa.
3. But @USDA threw a wrench into the works today. It updated its exceedingly wonky #H5N1 #birdflu in cows landing site. Some things work better, but the cumulative number of herds was lowered by 4 (from yday) with no explanation. USDA now says 112 herds in 12 states.
1. @USDA posted an FAQ today about the federal order restricting movement of dairy cattle infected with
#H5N1 #birdflu. Interesting information therein.
A 🧵
New to me: USDA says 8 poultry operations in 5 states have had poultry outbreaks with the virus detected in cows.
2. Minnesota hasn't reported #H5N1 #birdflu in cattle, but it has had at least 1 poultry outbreak with the cattle virus, @USDA reveals. More evidence, probably, that the virus is far more widely spread than has been realized. The FAQ is here: aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/…
3. The federal order on the movement of dairy cows goes into effect 4/29. @USDA is setting what looks like an ambitious timeline for processing of tests, especially "non-negative" tests that must then go for confirmatory testing at the USDA lab in Ames, Iowa. #H5N1 #birdflu
1. Listening to an @ASTHO - @IDSAInfo - @CSTEnews webinar on #H5N1 #birdflu in cows.
Of interest so far:
— @USDA is monitoring feral swine; no detections of H5 so far.
— in the "small number" of samples tested to date, doesn't look like cows are shedding virus thru feces.
2. @USDA Rosemary Sifford said the infections are "mostly" being seen in lactating herds.
1 herd was found to be positive despite the fact there were no clinical signs among the cows.
Sifford said USDA doesn't yet know how long infected cows shed virus.
#H5N1 #birdflu
@USDA 3. Sonja Olsen from @CDC says there've been 6 infections detected in cats on dairy farms. Not sure I've seen the exact number. #H5N1 #BirdFlu