Marburg Update

Agence France-Presse reports the latest Marburg numbers: 235 dead out of 257 known cases.

An additional 513 people are under surveillance, it added.
WHO experts said last week that there was no end in sight for the epidemic, the worst outbreak ever of the virus first detected in 1967 when German laboratory workers in Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.

From the Yes This IS Your Grandfather's Influenza department...

CNN reports on the unwise distribution of 1957's Asian flu (A, H2N2) to 4,000 laboratories worldwide for testing.

The samples, part of a package of pathogens sent to laboratories to test their ability to identify them, were last seen in nature in the United States in 1968, Gerberding said. Anyone born since then would presumably have no immunity to the virus, she said.
Gerberding said authorities were still trying to determine how many laboratories got the samples of the virus, called Influenza A H2N2.

Thanks to an unnamed source, who also mentioned The Unsung Vaccinologist:

Joining Merck in 1957, he mobilized the production of 20 million doses of flu vaccine, protecting the country from one of the last great flu pandemics.

Marburg Tops 200

ISN Security Watch reports 203 Marburg deaths in Angola as of yesterday, and also describes some of the negative reactions of the populace to foreigners in space suits who are only trying to help.

Health workers also said local residents lacked sufficient information about the disease and that hospitals were failing to observe basic rules of hygiene that could help stem the epidemic.

Asthma and Genetic Damage

Via GNXP: a study suggests that smoking can permanently damage the DNA of your offspring and future generations. See Maternal and Grandmaternal Smoking Patterns Are Associated With Early Childhood Asthma* by Yu-Fen Li, PhD, MPH; Bryan Langholz, PhD; Muhammad T. Salam, MBBS, MS; and Frank D. Gilliland, MD, PhD.

From the don't-eat-the-downers files

Via ProMED-mail: several NY sources report on at least 5 deer infected with Chronic Wasting Disease, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. One of the deer was served at a Verona Fire Department annual dinner (apparently while the brain was languishing at a lab someplace). This means that the state department of health has a few CWD exposures to track, to see whether CWD really poses no threat to humans.

The Gene for FASPS

National Geographic News reports that scientists have found the mutation that causes familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS).

The researchers are not yet certain how the gene mutation works to shift people's sleep time. But laboratory experiments suggest mutation slows the activity of a protein called casein kinase I delta (CKIdelta). "The next step is to figure out why," Fu said.

More Marburg

The WHO reports a new death toll of 173 out of 200 Marburg cases in Angola.

Disease Roundup

Several new and/or interesting outbreaks via ProMED-mail:

• Agence France-Presse reports that the Marburg death toll in Angola has hit 155, not counting the suspected Marburg death of a South African who left Luanda about a week ago. The virus continues to rage uncontrolled.
• Reuters reports on two more suspected cases of bird flu (not counting the woman who drank duck blood from earlier this week) as well as a doctor who died of apparent SARS, all in Vietnam.
• Folha de S.Paulo reports [in Portuguese] on a Brazilian outbreak of the parasite Diphyllobothrium latum in patients who ate raw, smoked, or undercooked fish. Patients consumed their sushi and sashimi at several establishments across Sao Paulo.
• UPI reports on a French woman who may have had variant CJD 20 years before the mad cow epidemic began.
• The AP reports that North Korean birds are sick with a different strain of bird flu (H7) than the highly fatal one which has spread to humans in other parts of Southeast Asia (H5).
• Agence France-Presse reports on the continuing spread of the rare Chlamydia infection lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) among homosexual European males.
• NYNewsday reports on a rash of E. coli infections acquired from petting-zoo animals. PlagueBlog recommends avoiding contact with animals before their internal temperature has reached 160°F. Use a meat thermometer if necessary.

And don't travel to Angola.

Marburg Marches On

The current Marburg death toll is 146. Rumor has it that the disease was spread to so many victims under 5 by hypodermic needles reused for vaccinations. It's not the kind of news the WHO will be spreading far and wide, if it turns out to be true.

Marburg in Italy?

Although the two suspected Marburg cases in Portugal have been ruled out, AFP reports on nine patients quarantined in Italy and two suspected cases in the Congo.

Malwarlaria

Slashdot reports on the spread of a PC-to-human virus, Malwarlaria.B.:

First discovered in the Far East in early 2004 Malwarlaria.A spread in cats and other whiskered creatures as they walked across the keyboards of infected PCs. Infected animals showed flu-like symptoms, slight hair-loss and the appearance of some darkened patches of skin, giving rise to Malwarlaria's other name, the 'Gorbachev virus.'
The mutated version, Malwarlaria.B, causes a similar reaction in humans.

Record Marburg Outbreak

The WHO reports 132 cases of Marburg virus in Angola (127 of them fatal) breaking the previous record outbreak in the Congo. As this is an extremely high death rate (96%) even for Marburg, it seems likely that some survivors are going unrecorded.

Marburg Outbreak Nears Record Death Toll

Approximately 121 persons have died of Marburg virus in Angola since the current outbreak began, rivaling the record outbreak in the Congo between 1998 and 2000, in which 123 people died. A Portuguese national is currently hospitalized in Luanda and another died in Portugal on Saturday, soon after returning from Angola.

Marburg Virus Confirmed in Angola

Reuters reports that the mysterious Angolan hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed to be Marburg virus, a relative of Ebola.

Angola's Mystery Hemorrhagic Fever

Ebola has been ruled out as the hemorrhagic fever that has killed at least 77 people in Northern Angola since first appearing in November. A post on the ProMED-mail list suggested plague, but the geography of the outbreak makes plague spread from the Congo unlikely. Some reports claim that the victims have mainly been children under 5.

Consumption consumption

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene warns against consumption of some Mexican cheeses--namely, those contaminated with Mycobacterium bovis (bovine tuberculosis), which can cause illness and (rarely) death in humans.

The Health Department has identified 35 cases of tuberculosis caused by M. bovis in city residents between 2001 and 2004. In one of those cases, a 15-month-old child who died in March 2004 was later determined to have died from complications due to M. bovis infection.

Anthrax Scares

The CDC has the latest on recent anthrax incidents.

On March 10th, routine samples from an air sampling device at the Pentagon Remote Delivery Facility were collected and preliminary tests, reported to the Department of Defense (DoD) on March 14, indicated the possibility of the presence of Bacillus anthracis. Also, on March 14th, an alarm at a separate Defense office in the Skyline complex indicated the possibility of the presence of a biohazard. As a result, employees in close proximity to the mail handling at these two facilities and the United States Postal Service (USPS) V-Street feeder facility were placed on a 3-day course of prophylactic antibiotics.

Unidentified Hemorrhagic Fever in Angola

Via ProMED-mail: Prensa Latina reports that at least 56 Angolans, including 2 nurses, have died of an as-yet-unidentified hemorrhagic fever:

A medical source from Huige hospital told journalists they have termed this illness gastric hemorrhage. It begins with fever symptoms for two days and then the patient begins to cough up blood, falls into a coma, and dies within four days, he explained.

Typhoid Tran

The AP reports that a second nurse is showing symptoms of bird flu after treating a bird-flu patient in Vietnam:

The 21-year-old man is at the center of a cluster of bird flu cases that include his 14-year-old sister and 80-year-old grandfather, who has the virus without showing any symptoms.

Reuters reports on other asymptomatic cases.

Flesh-Eating Disease in Flagstaff

Via ProMED-mail: the Arizona Republic reports on two related cases of necrotizing fasciitis:

A patient with flesh-eating bacterium spread the infection to a health care worker at Flagstaff Medical Center, leaving both people hospitalized in serious condition.
The state Department of Health Services has asked doctors at the hospital to monitor other workers for symptoms, even though they don't think it has spread.
The DHS said the Flagstaff case represents the first documented case in Arizona of invasive Group A streptococcus spreading from a patient to a health care worker.
Officials at the medical center don't know how the disease was spread.