According to a new update from @WHO, the #Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea is now up to 15 confirmed cases plus 23 probable cases.
All of the probable and at least 11 of the 15 confirmed cases have died (3 recovered, fate of one is unknown)
Of the last 5 cases, 4 were reported in Bata district.
„The presence of confirmed cases in Bata increases the risk of disease spread, as it is the most populated city and economic hub of Equatorial Guinea, with an international airport and port.“
Of the four Bata cases, three have an epidemiological link through a family cluster or through health care setting.
„The fourth and most recent case was reported on 7 April; an investigation of this case is ongoing to establish transmission chains…“
It all still sounds pretty bad and there are clearly a lot of things that need to be improved in the response.
As the report notes:
„Equatorial Guinea is facing an outbreak of MVD for the first time and the country's capacity to manage the outbreak needs to be strengthened.“
„Implemented infection prevention and control measures are insufficient…“
„The diagnostic capacity for Marburg virus in the country is limited in terms of the number of samples that can be analyzed per day (a maximum of around 50 a day)“
„The community's perception of risk is estimated to be very low. There are frequent population movements between the different districts of the mainland region, as well as with the island region, despite the quarantine measures implemented in several of the affected areas.„
„Frequent population movements and very porous land borders are also reported in the districts bordering Cameroon and Gabon, with surveillance at land entry points being suboptimal, and countless uncontrolled paths or trails along the border with Cameroon and Gabon.“
„Also, surveillance at the entry points of the international Bata airport or international seaport, is not optimal.“
So sad to hear that Paul Alexander passed yesterday at age 78 from Covid-19. Paul contracted polio in 1952, when he was just six years old. He ended up in an iron lung and while he could live outside it for extended periods of time he never really left it.
Two years ago my colleagues and I talked to Paul for a few polio episodes of our @pandemiapodcast.
Paul told us about the full life he lived, about the horror of the disease, about studying law and practicing as a lawyer, writing a book and much more.
@pandemiapodcast At the time we put out a special episode just with the interview. (There is a German intro til about 8:00. then you can hear the full interview in English though he can be hard to understand over the sound of the iron lung) files.podcaster.de/podcasthosting…
The two papers on the #H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in cats in Poland make for really interesting reading. The first describes the outbreak and the second investigates the emergence and transmission.
(I'm on a train again so a brief thread).
"Information about a highly fatal disease in cats with respiratory and nervous system signs began to circulate in social media and among cat lovers in mid-June 2023." Cases were mostly from cities but across the map...
https://t.co/R5vrPnMs0ieurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…
Symptoms were similar in all cases: "loss of appetite, apathy, hypersalivation, fever ... followed by nervous symptoms such as epileptic seizures, increased muscle tension and sometimes stiffness of the limbs." Most cats were euthanized, the others died a natural death.
A paper just out in @Eurosurveillanc describes the large and ongoing #H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in fur farms in western Finland with infections in foxes, American minks and raccoon dogs. (Paper mentions 20 farms though 2 more have been affected since): eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…
@Eurosurveillanc I wrote about an earlier outbreak on a fur farm in Spain last year and why these are concerning:
Here again it looks likely that the virus was transmitted from mammal to mammal and even between different species:science.org/content/articl…
@Eurosurveillanc “Transmission between fur animals is also supported by the general epidemiological pattern of several hundreds of sick and dead animals on the 20 farms. The exact mechanism of the transmission within and between farms is, however, not yet known.”
I spoke to @WHO's new chief scientist @JeremyFarrar about why he decided to take the job, what new technologies the world needs to prepare for and how dangerous #SARSCoV2 remains.
Q&A is here (and short thread coming in a bit): science.org/content/articl…
@WHO @JeremyFarrar Farrar is only the second person to hold this post. @doctorsoumya, who was the first, had to pivot to #covid19 after a few months in the position and so, Farrar told me, "it’s fair to say that the role of chief scientist is still to be fully framed".
@WHO @JeremyFarrar @doctorsoumya He wants to bring "a sense of tomorrow" into WHO, Farrar told me, anticipating new technologies:
"What is coming down the track? What do we need to prepare for now, to ensure that inequality and health disparities are not exaggerated by those new technologies?"
The @WHO has just declared an end to the #COVID19 public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
"I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency", says @DrTedros at press conference going on now.
@WHO@DrTedros "That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat", says @DrTedros.
"Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes and that's just the deaths we know about."
@WHO@DrTedros "As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of post-COVID19 condition", says @DrTedros.
There is finally an update on the #Marburg situation in Equatorial Guinea:
Total now stands at 9 confirmed and 20 probable cases. A month ago there was only one confirmed case.
27 of these cases have died (including all probable and 7 out of 9 lab confirmed cases)
13 March: two positive tests from Kié-Ntem province
15 March: a case from Litoral province tests positive
„The two provinces (Kié-Ntem and Litoral) are located in different parts of the country, about 150 kilometers apart“
18 and 20 March: 3 more cases confirmed from Litoral province.
20 March: 2 more laboratory confirmed cases reported from Centre Sur province.