From the Don't Kiss The Chickens department....

Via ProMED-mail: the CDC has revised their bird flu travel warning again.

Avoid all direct contact with poultry, including touching well-appearing, sick, or dead chickens and ducks. Avoid places such as poultry farms and bird markets where live poultry are raised or kept, and avoid handling surfaces contaminated with poultry feces or excretions.

Record Red Tide in Maine

The AP reports that Maine has joined Massachusetts with record red tide levels:

Toxin levels in some shellfish tested in Maine have reached record highs as the red tide maintains its grip.
The red tide outbreak is also reaching into waters where it has never appeared before.
Marine experts say a number of gulls and ducks have been dying along the Maine coast -- possibly from eating tainted clams and mussels.

Boston TB Scare

Via ProMED-mail: Channel 5 reports on a tuberculosis scare involving a surgical intern and possibly 1600 exposed patients at four local hospitals. State health officials are investigating.

Anyone who thinks they may have been exposed should contact their physician, the hospital or the Boston Public Health Commission at 617-534-5611.

Mad Cow News

Via ProMED-mail: Portugal reports its first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, not surprising for the country ranked third in mad cows. The United States thinks about reporting its second mad cow.

Elephant Ebola

ProMED-mail has some interesting speculation about elephants being the unknown natural reservoir of Ebola, Marburg, and other filoviruses.

The WHO has the lastest numbers on the Marburg epidemic:

As of 5 June, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 423 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 357 were fatal. The vast majority of cases have occurred in Uige Province, where 412 cases and 346 deaths have been reported.

Ebola and Marburg Vaccine

Thanks to Veronica for this breaking news: vaccines have been developed for Ebola and Marburg.

New vaccines against two killer viruses, Ebola and Marburg, have been proven 100 percent effective in monkey tests, scientists reported on Monday.

Red Tide

On the disaster watch, ProMED-mail reports red tides in both Florida and Massachusetts. The record red tide recently spread from Cape Cod to Martha's Vineyard.

The toxic algae bloom already has forced officials to shut down shellfish beds from Maine to Cape Cod so that people do not eat infected clams, mussels and oysters.
The closures off Edgartown meant the outbreak, possibly caused by an unusually cold and wet winter and spring, was continuing south, scientists said.
"It's an unprecedented closure," said Shelley Dawicki, spokeswoman at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "We don't know how far it's going to spread." [AP]

Bird Flu Blog

Via ProMED-mail: Avian Flu, a blog devoted to the coming bird flu pandemic, joins Fludemic on the flu-blogging beat.