Edited by Dr. Katherine E. ArdenThis is not the first newly identified virus that researchers at Erasmus, or elsewhere, have patented.They did the same for human metapneumovirus (HMPV; an endemic respiratory virus and kin to respiratory syncytial virus) after describing its discovery and characterization in 2001.Another broad-ranging patent also listed on Google is for the human coronavirus (HCoV)...
Flu season isn't the only season.
Its worth noting that when we talk about flu season we are talking about that time of year when flu cases peak. Its not flu season in the US now but there are still cases of influenzavirus spreading among humans. Its just not at epidemic levels (case numbers significantly above the norm).We are entering normal flu season in other parts of the world though, like down here in Aus, although cases are...
Just normal viruses folks.
It seems that the cluster is a collection of normal respiratory virus infections. Its worth remembering that it is very hard to distinguish between the 200+ different respiratory viruses using signs and symptoms alone. What is usually a common cold virus has been found to trigger asthma attacks and been associated with middle ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, influenza-like illness...its a game...
"Mystery" respiratory illness in Alabama, US.
The past couple of days has seen many reports on a growing number of cases of cluster of acute respiratory illness. The Alabama Dept of Public Health (ADPH) issued an alert yesterday requesting that care providers to be on the lookout for unexplained case of pneumonia.Cases of interest present with fever, cough, shortness of breath and "something" on their chest x-rays. Upper airway swabs or...
Making antibodies cross-react with H7N9.
Prof Peter Palese's group has been busy publishing several papers in the Journal of Virology. One report describes the creation of cross-reactive antibodies to H7N9 by making Newcastle disease virus (NDV; a very contagious bird virus that has already been established as a poultry vaccine backbone) produce the H7 haemagglutinin from North American birds (H7N1-3).They did this by inserting a representative...
Editor's Note #6.
I've finally started to rebuild the rhinovirus (HRV) page. For someone whose main interest is these little dudes...well, it was in a pretty woeful state. How embarrassment. Expect to see it take shape over the coming wee...
H7N9 antibody in Vietnam.
A study by MF Boni and colleagues describe the presence of either specific, or cross-reactive antibodies (which can arise after infection by a different influenza virus, but react with the H7N9 test) to the avian influenza A(H7N9) virus. These antibodies were detected in the sera of a cross-section of people from south Vietnam and were found at higher titres (levels) than antibodies to H5 but below...
H7N9 comments from ASM 2013.
Prof Albert (Ab) Osterhaus noted during a panel at the American Society of Microbiology 2013 meeting in Denver, that an H7N9 virus capable of spreading efficiently from human-to-human might result in an enormous outbreak.Prof Osterhaus pointed out that although H5N1 has been around for over a decade (and our research still has not answered all the questions we've raised) it still has not developed...
Imported MERS death and 2 possible family cases in Tunisia.
It seems that up to 3 news cases of the MERS-CoV have appeared in Tunisia (see updated map).ProMED (Archive# 20130520.1725864) crofsblog(multiple stories) and FluTrackers have more details and specifics.According to a translated report, a 66M Tunisian citizen died after returning from the Saudi...
Weekly H7N9 update from China: May 13-20.
No new H7N9 case reported in China! 1 new death of an existing case and 15 more discharges. 130 cases (132 if including the Taiwan import and asymptomatic case), 36 deaths and 72 recovered and discharged patients. No details on the death or discharges unfortunate...
All Australian bat species, including 1 of the 50 species of microbats (order Chiroptera [bats], suborder Microchiroptera) common in Australia, are considered susceptible to ABLV.
Chief Biosecurity Queensland officer Dr Thompson noted that a dead bat had been found on the property housing the Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV) infected horse, but were not closely associated with any colonies.All 6 human contacts of the horse have been given preventative treatment including rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin, both of which cross-protect against serious disease caused by...
Is this what you think of when you think severe disease?
One of the treasures I've found while tinkering around the edges of H7N9 blogging for just a few weeks - Crawford Kilian's crofsblogs - the flu one in particular. I highly recommend this article from 19.05 highlighting the issue of taking MERS the virus and MERS the disease, serious...
New MERS-CoV Page takes shape.
VDU is a "work-in-progress" kinda site. The latest work is to develop a new coronavirus page dedicated to the exploits of the latest of the betacoronavirus to infect humans. It has a way to go and will probably never have the colourful charts of the H7N9 page - data from the Arabian Peninsula has...
Sunny summer or birds on the wing?
I'm no ornithologist. Week 7 had much to say about the approaching summer scaring away the H7N9 virus and the closure of live bird markets having stunted or stopped entirely the outbreak. I'm still not convinced - as I said yesterday. A continuation of that line of thinking, posed as question for today then; could the spread of H7N9 have peaked and fallen in relation to the travels of wild...
Denominator example from WHO.
Thanks to Mike Coston for the heads up on the WHO report resulting form the Influenza-A-team's Joint Mission to parts of China (18/24 April, 2013). They have a nice graphic on pg17 outlining the denominator issue. I've adapted for the H7N9 pa...
