And it would seem that the current outbreak as a whole is largely over as well. Without specific details its hard to place when the 1 new case and 4 deaths (among existing positives) occurred that were announced earlier this week in the official update from China. My own weekly numbering is from the 31st when the WHO was notified, which is slightly off kilter with the weekly report dates from China....
First ever horse infection with Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV).
Having killed the 3 humans its infected since it was first isolated in 1996, the first recorded case of ABLV in a horse in the state of Queensland, Australia has been quickly acted upon.Humans in contact with a horse that was put down last Saturday (11.05.13)have been offered treatment after test results on Friday 17.05.13 identified ABLV. There are 20 other horses on the property. This was the second...
Haemagglutinin cleavage site graphic.
I've added a new graphic to the H7N9 page that compares the important cleavage site in the immature HA protein among influenza A viruses, including H7N9. This shows that H7N9 is more similar to seasonal influenza viruses in this area-low-pathogenic viruses rather than high pathogenic viruses. The latter have a multiple basic amino acids at the cleavage site making them a target for proteases...
Media MER muttering more than murmurs.
Ouch. Anyway, before you finish typing or reading that coronavirus outbreak story make sure it doesn't use the names human betacoronavirus 2c EMC, human betacoronavirus 2c England-Qatar, human betacoronavirus 2C Jordan-N3, betacoronavirus England 1 or (especially the short-sighted) novel coronavirus (NCoV)-they are so, like, yesterday's name. Prof Raoul J. de Groot and a host of coronavirus...
41 HCoV-EMC Cases.
The numbers rise again and "foreign specialists" have been hired (?perhaps invited) to help the Kingdom contain the spread of MERS-CoV. While human-to-human transmission is very likely occurring, sustained transmission that is, infection going beyond the immediate close contact, to their contacts and...
Editor's Note #5.
I thought I might add a new bit to this bloggy thing I'm doing (6 weeks old and I'm changing it already). So, see below for the first "Stuff from the Literature" comment. I'll try and find a paper or two and break it into manageable chunks. As always, this is firstly an effort by me to learn something new, and secondly to try and communicate that to others. It won't be definably regul...
Stuff from the literature: Dabbling ducks respond to flu viruses.
Yes, ducks do mount an immune response even to "low path" influenza virus infections. Dabbling ducks (those that feed near the surface rather than diving underwater) are the natural reservoir for Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza (LPAI).LPAI viruses circulate among wild birds, especially Mallards, all the time. As Jourdain and colleagues pointed out in 2010, mallards are not obviously affected by experimental...
MERS - clear as mud.
Reports suggest 19-20 deaths now with 2 new cases, both healthcare workers, reported by the Saudi Ministry of Health. They release notes that "citizens, journalists and interested" can get information from the MOH website which is updated "first hand". Unfortunately the translator can't translate fixed graphics written in Arabic and used liberally through out the site, so look to click on...
H7N9: the stealth bomber virus.
As described by EpiVax Inc. previously and now described in a scientific paper in Human Vaccine and Immunotherapeutics, the H7N9 virus is not just stealthy in poultry, its also hard to find in humans. There is concern over whether it will be possible to produce a vaccine that will be effective against a virus with such low predicted immunogenic potential. An H7N9 vaccine, without the right concoction...
1 new H7N9 case and 4 deaths.
This weeks case report (May 6 to May 13) describes the discharge of 15 new existing H7N9 cases, four deaths and a new case in Jiangxi. No further details to be had in the Ministry of Health relea...
Welcome to Week 7 of the H7N9 outbreak.
Week 6 was relatively quiet although more fatalities occurred than in Week 5 (3 vs. 2). No new H7N9 cases with a date of onset in Week 6 occurred, and there were only 3 in Week 5 so confirmed case reports have dropped right back. Tomorrow is "tell-all Tuesday" (well, I'd like some more date data...
Matrix-targeted real-time PCR for H7N9.
A belated congratulations to my fellow Group Leader here at the Qpid lab, A.Prof David Whiley on the implementation and media coverage of his sensitive real-time RT-PCR to detect H7N9 for implementation by Pathology Queensland's microbiology laboratory. It targets the matrix gene segment, which as far as we know, is unique among the H7N9 assays in use to da...
Off the air.
VDU has had some FTP issues with its server so no updates across the weekend. The University of Queensland quickly fixed the problem tod...
