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Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
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Apr 26 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
1. @UKHSA published a technical brief today on the unusual #hepatitis cases in young children. It contains a bunch of interesting information. You can find it here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
2. So far the UK has found 114 of these unusual #hepatitis cases in kids. (111 in the screenshot is out of date.) Most of the kids are under 5. 10 required liver transplants. The UK is reporting the largest number of these cases so far.
3. The unusual #hepatitis cases date back to the beginning of this year in the UK (to October in Alabama) but the preponderance of them have been seen in March & April. The UK is also seeing a lot of adenovirus activity. Adenovirus is the main suspect here.
4. But there are a lot of hypotheses on the table about what might be causing these unusual #Hepatitis cases.
5. How is #UKHSA going about trying to figure out what is responsible for the unusual #hepatitis cases? It is conducting a lot of studies.
6. @UKHSA is already in a position where it can say some things aren't very likely. There's no travel link. It doesn't appear to be diet or water source related, or linked to exposure to animals.
7. At this point, the main suspect is an adenovirus, type 41. Subtyping done on viruses from 11 of the kids showed adenovirus 41 was present. (Alabama found it in 9 of 9 cases.) But other adenoviruses were found too.
Watch this space.

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More from @HelenBranswell

Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 26
1. It's rare to have a single #Ebola case. How big will the current outbreak in #DRC get? Anyone's guess at this point. But authorities have confirmed a 2nd person has died at Mbandaka, the sister-in-law of the first identified case.
2. The woman died yesterday; she started experiencing symptoms 12 days earlier, ie about a week after her now dead brother-in-law. No word yet if she was treated in hospital & if so, if the hospital realized she had #Ebola & staff took appropriate precautions.
3. @WHOAFRO says that 145 contacts of these two people have been identified and are being monitored to see if they develop symptoms of #Ebola and need to be isolated.
No word yet if the 2nd case had been previously vaccinated; the 1st case was.
Read 5 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 25
1. This was fast! Genetic sequencing of #Ebola viruses collected from a man in NW #DRC who died on April 21 reveals that this is a new spillover event, not resurgence of activity from earlier outbreaks in this part of DRC.
The sequencing was done at @inrb_kinshasa.
Short 🧵
2. In the past getting an answer to this would have taken a lot more time. Impressive to see how quickly this question was answered.
The sequencing information was contained in a report that discloses important details about this new #Ebola case. virological.org/t/april-2022-e…
3. The man who died of #Ebola on April 21 in Mbandaka was vaccinated against Ebola in 2020 during an earlier outbreak there.
The main purpose of the Merck Ebola vaccine is to extinguish outbreaks. Questions remain about how long it protects. This is n=1, but 😟.
Read 6 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 23
1. #Ebola thread.
#DRC has declared a new #Ebola outbreak after diagnosing the disease in a 31 yo man who died in Mbandaka in NW DRC. This is across the country from the terrible North Kivu-Ituri outbreak that raged from 2018-2020.
afro.who.int/countries/demo…
2. The man began experiencing symptoms on April 5 but only ended up in an #Ebola treatment unit on April 21. That means there were probably unsafe exposures during that time. Or as @MoetiTshidi put it: "The disease has had a two-week head start and we are now playing catch-up."
3. On the positive side: at the #Ebola treatment unit, staff recognized what they were dealing with & were protected. The man was given a safe burial.
And there are a lot of people in Mbandaka & surrounding region who have been vaccinated with the Merck Ebola vaccine. #DRC
Read 7 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 22
1. A short #flu thread.
@CDCgov's latest flu report, for the week ending April 16, shows flu chugging along pretty much at levels seen over the past number of weeks. A bit surprising it isn't dropping off by now, but flu in the time of Covid is even more unpredictable than usual.
2. Three more pediatric #flu deaths were reported to @CDCgov last week. They occurred in late Jan., late Feb., and mid-March. (There's often a reporting delay.) This season 22 children have died from flu in the US.
3. The Covid pandemic has really disrupted #flu transmission; there was almost no flu in the winter of 2020-21 and very low rates this year.
In the US, virtually the only type of flu to have made it through the Covid bottleneck was H3N2.
Read 4 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 20
1. #ACIP, @CDCgov's vaccine advisory group, is meeting today to discuss Covid boosters. I'll be live tweeting.
I don't believe there are going to be any votes today, so no changes in current policy. This meeting will shed light, though, on how the committee sees 4th doses.
2. If there are no votes at today's #ACIP meeting, that will mean the current US position on 4th doses — people 50 and older & people who are immunocompromised "may" get a 4th dose if they wish — will remain in place. It will not transition to a "should" recommendation.
3. @CDCgov's Ruth Link Gelles is racing through a presentation on vaccine effectiveness. I'm not going to be able to tweet all of this. Too fast. Her slides are here.
cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/…
Read 35 tweets
Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Apr 15
1. It's Friday & @CDCgov has issued its latest FluView report, for the week ending April 9. A short thread.
There've been 3 more pediatric #flu deaths reported to CDC, bringing the season's total so far to 16. Far fewer than most years but still.... Image
2. #Flu activity increased nationally last week, as it has in several of the last recent weeks. Let's put that in perspective, though.
It's true there is more #influenza-like illness now (left) than in mid-February. (right) ImageImage
3. But there was more #flu-like illness in the last week of 2021. As it stands, the peak of flu activity in this very mild flu season was in the week between Christmas and New Years. Image
Read 4 tweets

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