I saw this at the movies Thursday night. I really enjoyed the movie - really delivers on its zombie promise and adds the story of a father trying to look after his family.It struck me though that it's also a great story of what would happen if, instead of anthropomorphising viruses into beings that wish to do things...you gave them a pair of legs and let them decide what to do...which it turns out...
Two new MERS-CoV cases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I'll have to update the numbers and graphs again as a second announcement from KSA today identifies a 41M from Riyadh and 59F from Al-Ahsa governate, both in intensive care units.This brings the total to 90 cases, 78.9% from KSA (also claims 86% of deaths, of those with identifying data) 7.8% from UAE, 61.9% with data are male and the PFC falls further to 50...
MERS-CoV proportion of fatal case chart.
Finally got around to this graph, one of my favourites from those I made for H7N9.It shows the change in "Case Fatality Rate" (or PFC as I've taken to calling it here) over time. You will be able to see the graph more clearly on the MERS-CoVpage later today. It shows the very changeable PFC. Currently...
Latest article from CIDRAP: new H7N9 animal studies & comment from VDU EiC.
Shameless self-promotion - but very cool when someone asks for your opinion about something you are interested in.The CIDRAP article by Lisa Schnirring covers the newly released paper by Zhang and colleagues of the Prof Hualen Chen's uber-group at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, China.To quote myself...to myself.... The study reinforces that even 'lowly' or inefficient transmission-only...
MERS-CoV count reaches 88 [UPDATED].
The addition of 2 new cases in the KSA and 4 in the UAE (2 asymptomatic and 2 mild illness) lowering thePFC to 51.1%.[UPDATE] According to Crawford Kilian's latest info, the four UAE cases are all Doctors caring for the recent 82M case (FluTracker's Case #82 coincidentally). Does this qualify as a super-spreader,...
MERS-CoV cases #82 and #83 are mildly ill outpatients.
Hat tip to Crawford Kilian.Two new MERS-CoV cases reported on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health website.Both cases are from Asir (Southwestern KSA), the 42F (F=female) is possibly a healthcare worker and the other, a 26M, had contact with another MERS case. No dates. No details of which case.The KSA has now hosted 86% of known MERS-CoV cases. 64% of all cases with data being male. The...
The first MERS-CoV novel is almost written!
And Crawford Kilian, in releasing his inner editor, has the complete framework.All that's missing is one monkey with a disproportionately amount of blood from which we can purify vast quantities of antibodies to cure new and existing cases...and reverse any existing tissue damage, and remove the likelihood of any sequelae. Okay. So this is why I'm not a writer. Expository dialogue indeed.Now go read...
(formerly pandemic) H1N1 is a seasonal influenza virus these days.
Some people look aghast when I suggest a pandemic virus could now be "just" a seasonal virus...but here is the word from the H�rtl's mouth... .@pandemie6 #h1n1 is no longer a pandemic but a seasonal virus. it is to be expected that it returns in winter.� Gregory H�rtl (@HaertlG) July 17, 2013 Printed words from the mouths of others, including some good points, can be found he...
WHO declares no eMERSgency?
Hat tip to Master Corin Mackay for title help.The 2nd meeting of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee concerning MERS-CoV, convened by the WHO Director General with a new special advisor added (Ms Karen Tan, Senior Director, Public Communication Division, Ministry of Communications and Information, Singapore) and several affected State Parties (France, Germany, Italy, Jordan,...
A drug to stop rhinovirus (HRV) infections in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?
For those who don't know, the HRVs are the most frequent infecting agents (that we know of) of the human upper (and perhaps lower but that work is not done) respiratory tract (URT).The first HRV was isolated in 1953 in the UK and the viruses were soon burdened by the label "common cold viruses". This was largely because early studies were conducted in adults who generally have milder outcomes.There...
Crack commando epidemiologists, swab shipping and bat bums.
I'll leave you to read the content that this derives form on Crawford Kilian's, ever entertaining bl...
What threat of an eMERSgency: its all in the language.
A thought-provoking piece from the keyboard of Helen Branswell on the language the WHO are lumbered with, to describe something that currently accounts for 0.000001% of the world's populati...
MERS-CoV numbers by area - UPDATE.
Let me preface this release with the statement "I hate doing this!" "This" being the use of data that are the best I can find, but not the best we could have. I've been spoilt by H7N9 which, at least initially, but not lately, was filled with dates. Seems like the only dates being publicly discussed...
ProMED in need...
Many of us get important early, validated global information about emerging infectious diseases, disease outbreaks or novel cases from the Program for Monitoring Emerging infectious Diseases (ProMED) email alerts.ProMED mail lies between those sites which never seem to close down and constantly update us about infectious diseases (I'm looking at you awesome FluTrackers) and those more heavily-moderated...
Resp virus causing gastro but little respiratory symptoms...
Hat tip to Secret Squirrel D for this.To add to my first two post's today,this paper by de Jong and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine details a 4-year old male (4M) who presented with a 2-day history of fever, headache and diarrhoea which after admission progressed; cough, then to coma and death.4M was found to have systemic influenza A(H5N1) virus infection (viable virus was isolated...
India's Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AcEnSy).
Hat tip to Crawford Kilian for the idea from his earlier postAccording to an excellent article at the New York Times and from regular articles on PubMED and Crawford Kilian , there is an annual epidemic of encephalitis of undefined origin that sweeps through India peaking around mid-May, each year.It is not clear what is being routinely tested for ("known causes of brain swelling" is not very informative)...
A great way to spread gastrointestinal viruses?
Readers of this blog will have read my comments about those occasions when we get virus infections that do not make us sick - so-called "asymptomatic" infections.It won't take a great leap of understanding then to see the potential for contact, droplet and aerosolized spread of such infections from a person who is suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea due to another cause.In this instance, read the...
