- (Reuters) -- Anthrax has killed one person and infected
12 in northeast China, state media reported on Sunday [7 Aug 2005], in
the latest outbreak of animal-borne disease to hit the country in recent
weeks. Anthrax, a disease caused by spore-forming bacteria normally contracted
through contact with infected livestock, struck on 29 Jul 2005 outside
Shenyang, in Liaoning province, Xinhua news agency said on its Web site
http://www.xinhuanet.com.
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- By Friday (5 Aug 2005), no new cases had been reported
in the town of Damintun for 5 consecutive days, and the lives and work
of people in the area have returned to normal, Xinhua said. 11 victims
had been treated in the hospital and were recovering, it said.
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- Livestock in the affected areas had been inoculated with
anti-anthrax vaccine or culled and safely buried, it said. Local officials
had carefully checked all local meat sales points and banned people from
bringing sick animals to markets. Echoing an ongoing outbreak of a pig
disease that has killed at least 39 people in southwestern China, all the
victims in Damintun were infected through slaughtering, handling or eating
infected cows.
-
- One new death and 2 more infections of the swine-borne
bacteria Streptococcus suis were reported on Saturday [6 Aug 2005] in Sichuan
province, Xinhua said. China has repeatedly insisted the disease is under
control.
-
-
- Experts Question Cause Of Chinese Outbreak
-
- By Steve Mitchell
- United Press International
- 8-8-5
-
- Chinese officials maintain that a mysterious disease
in pigs that has also infected and killed humans is an outbreak of swine
flu, but the World Health Organization has recommended that further testing
be conducted to identify the pathogen more precisely, and at least one
U.S. scientist thinks it is possible a strain of Ebola virus could be involved.
-
- The disease, which has occurred predominately in
China's Sichuan province, has infected 206 people, of which 38 have died
and another 18 are critically ill.
-
- The Chinese Ministry of Health has said the disease
is swine flu, which is not actually a flu but an illness caused by the
bacteria Streptococcus suis. This disease, however, generally does not
cause more than a few cases of human illness and it usually does not cause
death in people.
-
- "I don't think it's the bacteria," Henry
Niman, a molecular biologist, told United Press International. "The
bacteria usually doesn't infect humans and when it does it usually isn't
fatal," said Niman, who is president of Recombonomics, a firm in Pittsburgh,
Pa., that studies molecular evolution and the emergence of new diseases.
-
- Niman thinks it is likely the outbreak is due to
a virulent form of the avian flu strain H5N1 that has struck southeast
Asia and killed more than 50 people.
-
- "It's hard to tell what it is without further
testing," Niman said.
-
- So far, Chinese authorities have been reluctant
to allow outside parties access to samples from patients.
-
- Another possibility is Ebola, a deadly virus that
kills 50 percent to 90 percent of those it infects, Niman said. He bases
this on a report put out by a Chinese Web site Boxun.com, which claimed
to be an interview with a Chinese physician who helped investigate the
Sichuan outbreak.
-
- The physician, identified only as Dr. Wang, said
a strain of Ebola virus had been detected in samples from several patients
in the Sichuan outbreak. This would be unusual, because Ebola has not been
reported outside of Africa, but Wang said Chinese officials had attempted
to prevent any information getting out about Ebola and the fact that the
disease has occurred in China is a national secret.
-
- On Monday, the Epoch Times reported, "The Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) has prohibited news coverage, and has forbidden the
use of the words 'Ebola virus' in reports, instead requiring the use of
alternate wording."
-
- Chinese officials previously denied rumors in late
March that an Ebola outbreak had occurred in Guangdong Province. The pig
disease outbreak did not begin until June.
-
- The first human case associated with the pig disease
occurred June 24, but Chinese officials did not make this known until late
July, and reporters have been prohibited from entering the Sichuan region.
-
- Wang said in the interview with the publication
that swine flu may play a role in the Sichuan situation, but "it isn't
the main cause of the outbreak." The doctor also said bubonic plague
had been detected in some samples while others tested positive for three
diseases: Ebola, plague and swine flu.
-
- "I believe that this is basically a bloodborne
virus with the Ebola and bubonic plague as its main constituents,"
Wang said.
-
- Whether China may have been developing Ebola as
a biological weapon is uncertain, but the U.S. State Department said as
recently as 2002 it was possible China was maintaining a biological-weapons
program.
-
- In addition, Ken Alibek, the former deputy chief
of the Soviet biological-weapons program who now resides in the United
States, previously said Soviet officials had detected a biological-weapons
facility in China. Alibek also said two epidemics of hemorrhagic fever
--a class that includes Ebola-- occurred in that area in the late 1980's
that Soviet analysts presumed to be due to an accidental release from a
lab where Chinese scientists were weaponizing viral diseases.
-
- The WHO issued a summary of its analysis of the
pig-disease outbreak Wednesday, but the possibility of Ebola was not cited.
WHO officials noted the symptoms reported in humans are "unusual"
and recommended "diagnostic testing to further characterize the causative
agent."
-
- Most cases have occurred in adult male farmers who
had close contact with diseases or dead pigs, and symptoms have included
high fever, fatigue and vomiting. This is followed by meningitis, bleeding
under the skin and coma in some cases.
-
- Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta said the agency had not been privy to any samples
from China and did not know if Ebola could be involved.
-
- CDC spokesman Dave Daigle told UPI the agency has
not participated in investigating the pig disease because it has not been
invited to do so by China or the WHO.
-
- "We don't know" if Ebola is involved,
Daigle said. "We haven't had anything to test and we don't have anybody
there on the ground so it's difficult to comment on."
-
- Daigle noted that some CDC scientists "are
wondering whether it might be (Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever)."
This is a viral disease that can have a fatality rate as high as 30 percent.
-
- If the outbreak is due to a strain of bird flu,
its still vital to get samples for testing, Niman said. This is because
those will be needed to manufacture a vaccine in case this flu strain spreads.
-
- Researchers at the National Institutes of Health
are investigating a vaccine that might prevent infection with the avian
flu that is based on a 2004 sample from Vietnam.
-
- "The problem is if this is H5N1 in China, that's
probably a bigger threat than the strain out of Vietnam, because it's moving
so rapidly and its more fatal," Niman said. The NIH vaccine might
not work against the China strain, he added.
-
- Daigle said the flu strain does not appear to have
changed much since 2004, but he acknowledged the CDC has not obtained samples
from China yet and the samples scientists have tested so far have been
from Vietnam and Thailand.
-
- http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20050805-050919-5093r.htm
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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