Bad oysters causing gastroenteritis in Austalia

Archive Number: 20130404.1619875

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org

Date: Wed 3 Apr 2013

Source: Sydney Morning Herald [edited]
http://www.smh.com.au/national/gastro-outbreak-fears-for-melbourne-sydney-20130403-2h6t8.html


There are fears a gastroenteritis outbreak caused by contaminated oysters in Tasmania over the Easter weekend has spread interstate.

Tasmania's Director of Public Health, Dr Roscoe Taylor, confirmed on Wed 3 Apr 2013 that Victoria's health department was "investigating cases of gastro that may be related to eating Barilla Bay oysters supplied on 25 Mar 2013."

The announcement comes hours after Tasmania's Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that more than 60 Tasmanians had contracted gastroenteritis after eating oysters traced to Barilla Bay Seafoods and grown at Dunalley in the state's south. A spokesman for the department confirmed that the contaminated oysters were also sold in Melbourne and Sydney. It is believed that up to 20 people in Melbourne have reported the illness; however, tests have not yet confirmed whether they are linked to the Barilla Bay oysters.

"There are reports of Victorian people having gastro," the spokesman said. "There is a smoking gun, but as yet, there is no direct link proved by testing at this stage."

Barilla Bay Seafoods halted the sale of its oysters on Sun 31 Mar 2013 pending investigations, and all potentially contaminated shellfish have been withdrawn across Australia. The department said it did not yet know what caused the contamination. It is not believed to be related to a sewage spill at nearby Pitt Water and Island Inlet which forced the closure of several leases last week. However, it is still investigating how a lease owned by Barilla Bay in a separate growing area came to be contaminated.

The department said the batches of oysters that caused the gastro outbreak were harvested on 27-29 Mar 2013 and may have been sold up to and including Easter Sunday [31 Mar 2013].

Barilla Bay Seafoods was not available for comment; however, the executive officer for Oysters Tasmania, Tom Lewis, said he believed the contamination was isolated. "All evidence at the moment is pointing towards just oysters from one lease that were harvested between Monday and Friday of last week. So, it's a really small, isolated incident from everything we know at the moment," he said. "My feeling is if it was broader than that, we would be seeing evidence of that already, and we're not."

"Victorian consumers should contact Victoria Health for more information about gastro symptoms," Dr Taylor said in a statement.

YELLOW FEVER Vaccination campaign in PERU

Archive Number: 20130405.1625144

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.orgDate: Thu 4 Apr 2013

Source: Pachamama Radio [in Spanish, transl. Mod.TY, edited]
http://www.pachamamaradio.org/04-04-2013/5-mil-vacunas-contra-la-fiebre-amarilla-se-distribuiran-en-melgar.html


The Melgar provincial Health Network has about 5 million doses of yellow fever vaccine to carry out a health campaign, according to a press conference by the Director of the Institute Julio Cesar Quiroz Abarca.

The doses will be distributed to the different health centers and posts within the province's jurisdiction and the Phara, Crucero and Limbani areas, he said. This [the vaccination campaign] is due to the detection of a yellow fever case in the province.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail from HealthMap Alerts


[This campaign is in response to the 27 Mar 2013 case reported in the ProMED-mail post of 28 Mar 2013 (archive number 20130328.1608650). It is gratifying to see this rapid response to the fatal case. As mentioned by the moderator in the previous report, the Puno region is in the Peruvian Amazon basin, where yellow fever (YF) virus is endemic. All people living in this region are at risk of yellow fever virus infection transmitted from non-human primates to humans by forest mosquitoes and thus should be vaccinated, and soon will be. 

Since there are _Aedes aegypti_ that are efficient YF virus vectors present in the general lowlands of the eastern Peru area abundant enough to transmit dengue viruses, there is risk of spill-over of the sylvan transmission cycle into the urban one. That makes YF vaccination of people living in these areas an important preventive measure. 

WEST NILE VIRUS - USA: (MISSISSIPPI)

Archive Number: 20130409.1633975

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org

Date: Mon 8 Apr 2013
Source: dJournal [edited]
http://djournal.com/view/full_story/22187796/article-First-case-of-West-Nile-virus-reported-in-Mississippi-for-2013


Today [8 Apr 2013] the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) reports the state's 1st human case of West Nile virus (WNV) for 2013. The reported case is in Madison County. The MSDH only reports laboratory-confirmed cases to the public. In 2012, Mississippi had 247 WNV cases and 5 deaths.

"This is actually not the 1st time we have had cases reported this early in Mississippi. We have had cases in March before and as early as January in previous years. This serves as a reminder that WNV [transmission] can occur year-round, even if we are not in the peak summer months of July, August, and September," said MSDH Deputy State Epidemiologist Dr Paul Byers. "Also, the timeframe of when the 1st case is reported has no effect on the type of WNV activity we'll see in a particular season. The 1st cases of the 2012 were reported in June, and we went on to set a record for the highest number of human cases in one season."

Mississippians should take appropriate precautions to reduce the risk of contracting WNV [infections] and other mosquito-borne illnesses year-round: remove sources of standing water, especially after rainfall; if you will be in mosquito-prone areas, wear protective clothing (such as long-sleeved shirts and pants) during peak times from dusk until dawn; and use a recommended mosquito repellent according to manufacturer's directions.

Symptoms of WNV infection are often mild and may include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, a rash, muscle weakness, or swollen lymph nodes. In a small number of cases, infection can result in encephalitis or meningitis, which can lead to paralysis, coma, and possibly death.

China Detains 10 for H7N9 bird Flu Rumors, Death Toll at 9

Apr 10, 2013
Reuters Health Information
Source

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) Apr 10 - Chinese police detained at least 10 people for spreading rumors about the H7N9 bird flu virus, state media said on Wednesday, as the death toll from the new strain rose to nine.

Authorities detained the people in six provinces - Shaanxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian - some of whom had posted "fake information" online about new cases of the virus in their areas, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The death toll and number of infections in China from the strain of bird flu first found in humans last month has ticked up daily.

Nine people have died out of 33 confirmed cases of the virus, all in eastern China, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission. State media quoted authorities as saying a vaccine should be ready within months.

Until Wednesday, the source of the virus was not known but Chinese researchers said they had traced it to wild birds and chickens, Xinhua reported.

One man detained in Anhui province was given seven days of administrative detention for fabricating posts on microblogs about infections, Xinhua said.

The Xi'an city public security bureau in Shaanxi province is investigating another man's posts, "to prevent untrue information from causing public panic", Xinhua said.

Scientists around the world have praised China for its handling of the deadly outbreak, but many Chinese people are skeptical of the government's pronouncements about the H7N9 virus, given a history of public health scandals and cover-ups.

The government initially tried to conceal an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Chinese Internet users have questioned why the government waited weeks to announce cases of the bird flu strain, but health officials said it took time to identify the virus, which was previously unknown in humans.

China's Communist Party is very keen to maintain social stability, but it has struggled to clamp down on rumors, which often spread quickly on the Internet.

Authorities have detained people in the past for rumors, including 93 people accused of circulating information about the apocalypse last December.

Still, some commentators have noted that reports of a flu-like condition killing one person near Shanghai had been circulating on Chinese microblogs weeks before the government confirmed it was a case of H7N9.

"From this you can see if the government tried to cover up like in 2003, but more and more of these posts surfaced, there would be no way to conceal it," social media watcher and journalist Wu Heng told Reuters.

"CAN BE CONTROLLED"

The latest H7N9 victim was from Anhui province, Xinhua reported. Among the new cases are several from Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, at least one of whom is dangerously ill, the news agency said.

"The outbreak overall is in a state that can be controlled," the State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement issued online after a meeting overseen by Premier Li Keqiang.

The China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday that a vaccine for H7N9 has been authorized by China Food and Drug Administration and is expected to be introduced to the market in the first half of this year.

The source was "traceable to wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China", Xinhua reported, citing the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been investigating two "family clusters" of people suspected of having been infected with the H7N9 virus to see it its being spread between people.

The virus was found not to have infected anyone in the first cluster. The second cluster is still under investigation, the WHO said, though tests have been inconclusive and experts say the poor quality samples may make it impossible to determine.

The virus is severe in most humans, leading to fears that if it becomes easily transmissible, it could cause a deadly pandemic.

However, a WHO spokesman told a news briefing in Geneva there was no firm evidence of human-to-human transmission occurring which could spark a pandemic. Chinese health authorities have said the same thing.