As the dust settles from several days of new cases, and deaths and retrospective case identifications, I sit waiting for some caped crusader (no capes!) to step from the shadows and announce "I have the numbers you seek!" Okay, I'm a sucker for a caped crusader.Alas, there are no such wonderful heroes to help fill the data gaps we lack among the MERS-CoV case data. There are plenty trying though....
Isothermal DNA MERS-CoV test
Laurie Garret noted this article about a new, relatively easy to use bedside test to be described at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Medical Congress.The key piece of information here, as it sometimes is with bedside (Point of Care or POC) testing, is how its real-world (using clinical samples) sensitivity ranks against other testing methods. False negatives provide a sense of false security that can be disastrous...
Hanni Stoklosa, Bangkok, Thailand, Post-Natural Disaster Human Trafficking Prevention in Thailand
Blog Entry #2: Hanni Stoklosa, Bangkok, Thailand, Post-Natural Disaster Human Trafficking Prevention in Thailand?????????Conducting interview With our strong team of researchers, we were able to interview a number of UN agencies, local Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international NGOs,...
Hanni Stoklosa, Bangkok, Thailand, Post-Natural Disaster Human Trafficking Prevention in Thailand
Blog Entry #1: Hanni Stoklosa, Bangkok, Thailand, Post-Natural Disaster Human Trafficking Prevention in Thailand The United Nations de?nes traf?cking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,...
Stuff from the literature: Don't judge a virus by its worst case [UPDATE].
This article, a Letter in the Journal of Clinical Virology (2013 Sep; 58(1):338-9) is one from our own keyboard. It is entitled Avian influenza A (H7N9) virus: Can it help us more objectively judge all respiratory viruses? Unfortunately it s behind a paywall, but I do not have the funds (they all go into the research) to pay for open access publication.We try and make the point that every respiratory...
Cumulative MERS-CoV Cases by area.
This is the latest chart (a cumulative epidemic curve) for my MERS-CoV pageIts a lacking some cases (57 of approx 64 cases are depicted below) - you may have head, data are sometimes hard to come by for the MERS-CoV outbreak. Still, it gives one a clear idea of where most of the cases have been occurring...
MERS-CoV cases and deaths rising.
FluTrackers report on 3 new cases of infection and 4 deaths among existing MERS-CoV cases.The numbers are changing rapidly (cases being released in several batches of 3 doesn't help).Currently there are at least 64 total cases and 34 deaths among people with MERS-CoV. Most cases are in people with underlying chronic medical conditions. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) regularly accounts...
MERS-CoV infection control: the French connection.
A Eurosurveillance article by Mailles and colleagues describes the procedures used to lock down spread of MERS-CoV once confirmed.Confirmed cases were isolated in negative pressure rooms (they suck air in, instead of pushing air out of a room as usually occurs in an air-conditioned room, ensuring virus-laden particles cannot escape) with dedicated staff using contact and aerosol precautions (e.g....
